11/07/2025
Strangles Update -
We are reaching the end of our quarantine over here. While no other horses developed any symptoms, we did have 14 that tested positive on PCR. The spread was inevitable with the layout of our pastures. By the time we knew, the majority of horses had been exposed due to sharing fence lines. Every horse on the farm had its guttoral pouches scoped to ensure that we do not have any carriers. I’m very grateful to all my clients who followed my lead, at great expense, to make sure we had a full and clear understanding of what was going on. Starting early next week we will roll out repeat testing on our entire herd. When we have confirmed everyone is negative we will resume normal operations.
This has been a trying few weeks and the more I have learned about strangles the less it feels we know about it. The only thing we learned to expect was the opposite of what made sense logically. We did not identify any pattern between those that tested positive vs negative in terms of vaccination status. We had some field mates where one was positive and one negative. We had a horse that had previously had it get it again which is highly unusual. We only had two positive cultures out of the 14 positive PCR’s, and one of those had a negative PCR! It really all defied explanation.
Our team of vets at Piedmont have been wonderful as always, helping us navigate this complicated and frustrating situation. I also appreciate the community support and words of encouragement. I knew I wanted to be transparent about what was happening but didn’t know what to expect in response. We need to work together to prevent the spread of diseases and I hope that my experience will help others going through it in the future. I’m happy to share more of it privately if people are interested in discussing it further.
I do not know how we were exposed but given that ours was essentially a silent strain, with only one immune compromised horse showing mild signs, it is not surprising that we were. I don’t think that we have people being cavalier about contagious diseases in our inner circle, but I do think this is a good reminder for all about the importance of biosecurity.
We look forward to getting back to doing what we love soon, and are very grateful to have healthy horses that have enjoyed a few quiet weeks in this beautiful fall weather.
