What is the suggested amount of time to quarantine a horse that was in a kill pen/auction situation? Let’s assume the horse was properly and fully vaccinated within the last 12 months. Location is mid-atlantic. (For any friends reading: Don’t panic, just asking!)
I’ve seen anything from a week to a month depending on various factors ranging from known or unknown vaccination schedule, probability of parasites, both internal and on the skin and general condition . How do you know it was vaccinated if you pulled it out of a kill pen?
Anyway, last two places I’ve been familiar with quarantined horses coming from unknown circumstances for 3 weeks. Longer if they were not healthy or severely malnourished.
this is a question to ask your vet.
There are set quarantine times for things like strangles if you fear there was exposure. If there are no symptoms you are clear. But if there are any symptoms obviously quarantine is longer.
On the other hand if the horse has an active respiratory bug, for instance, you might want to keep him separate from the herd until that clears up.
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I’d say 45 days, if you can.
And I say that because I had a barn owner bring a horse home from the trainers after they’d had a strangles outbreak. Vet said she’d be fine to move after 30 days with no horses in the barn showing symptoms (she was not ill.) They brought her home and she promptly broke with a rip roaring case, spreading it to a large number of others on the property.
So sometimes 30 days isn’t enough :-/
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My vet advised 45-60 days when bringing a horse from the auction pipeline. He is also uber cautious with that kinda stuff.
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We generally do 4 weeks.
One mare came home slightly sick from auction and immediately went to the vet - diagnosed and treated for respiratory infection that cleared up quickly. We reevaluated at 4 weeks and she was given the all clear. I wouldn’t be opposed to a longer quarantine time - but I definitely would not do less.
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I’ve pulled four from auctions and have always done at least 30 days. Definitely longer if they are exhibiting signs of potential illness (runny nose, fever, lethargy, not enthusiastic to eat, etc) and in those cases I quarantine until two weeks pst sign of illness. I’ve also kept them quarantined longer “just because” if the quarantine pasture was not being used, just to be safe. Knock on wood all of mine have come without any illness or contagious diseases.
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30 days if there are zero indications of illness is my rule. If there are signs I wait 30 days post symptoms clearing up.
I did a little over 60 days I think with my boy. He had a snotty nose and bad cough when he arrived. His eating and drinking were fine. I waited for the vet’s return visit to say OK.
however long it takes for strangles and EHV to present.
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Regardless of how long, the vet should clear them and it’s a good idea to take a daily temp throughout the quarantine period and run a blood panel,especially from the crap level auctions and even some rescues. They don’t join the others until vet clears them.
Thanks everyone! I of course am going to consult my vet, but always like to get as much input and info as possible.
If you’ve got a horse coming from an unknown background, being mixed in an auction barn with lots of other horses from unknown backgrounds, it seems to me that longer vice shorter quarantine time would be appropriate. Until some time passes and all the meds work their way out of the horse’s system you really don’t KNOW what you have. Using some Tincture of Time as a prophylactic makes complete sense.
G.
30 days if no symptoms
30 days and we were temping daily when the pony got a snotty nose and cough. Temps stayed normal but we still quarantined for 30 days. I did have one horse in the barn develop a cough at the same time. Quarantine pony was in a set of empty stalls in another barn, with 15 feet of space between the other horses and we washed hands plus used separate buckets. Only possible contact was when the pony was turned out in the indoor arena at night. I have no idea what I did wrong and it’s stopped me from rescuing again.
