Please educate me on the strangles vaccination

[cayuse]

I know there is another thread right now on the topic of strangles vaccinations. I do not want to hijack it so I am starting my own. Let it be known that I have a call in to my vet on this (I know someone will ask about that) but I wanted to hear what other’s opinions are on vaccinating older horses for strangles specifically, as it might help me decide what to do.
So here is the problem. There seems to be an issue with strangles in my area and I was planning on showing my minis and pony this year. I do not know my horses vaccination historys for strangles before they came to my barn and I have not given them the vaccination as it was my understanding that it is not very effective and not without risks for older horses. My three are 11, 16, and 20.

Can anyone give me info on how effective it is and what the risks might be? One mini has vaccination reactions randomly, this year to both the EWT,WN and Rabies so he is a specific concern. He spikes a temp, gets sore all over, off his feed etc.
As I type this I am leaning towards not vaccinating and skipping show season as I do not want to risk either the vaccination or chancing an exposure.
Thanks in advance.

[Scribbler]

I believe general practice has been to move from an injection to intranasal, basically the horse btreathes in the injection for strangles.

This has eliminated the risk of the vaccine causing abscesses.

However you want to do this intranasal when you aren’t doing any other procedure so the organisms can’t migrate into another inoculation site or open wound, even an abrasion from tooth float.

Strangles isn’t a routine vaccine where I live so I haven’t researched the side effects if any of the intranasal inoculation.

[AKB]

My understanding is that if the horse is not already immune to strangles, the risk of a severe reaction after the intranasal vaccine is minimal. If the horse has a strong immunity to strangles, the vaccine may cause a reaction. This is the rationale behind checking a titer and only giving the vaccine if needed. Most people don’t bother with the titer as it is one more vet visit. Having had a friend have strangles cost her thousands of dollars in vet fees, I like to have the titers done.

[cayuse]

Thank.you both!
The vet did say it was a IN vaccine. And I was wondering if titers were available and accurate for this. Sounds like a reasonable way to proceed. My worry is that they do have some immunity and they will get a reaction, titers would solve that.

[AKB]

FYI, I think IDEXX labs is where our titers are sent.

[walktrot]

No vaccine is 100% effective, and they all cause a reaction in a few horses. Strangles went through our barn almost 15 years ago. The BO had strangles on the vaccination list so all the horses had it except the youngsters. They got it IN, but it was when they were using the tube, which seems to have disappeared. The vet confirmed the outbreak but also said it was milder than you usually see. A few of the younger horses had some abscesses but they weren’t really nasty. A few, like mine, showed no signs. BO held the quarantine and we’ve never seen it since. We know who brought it in. He must have been a carrier shedding the bug because he looked fine. After that the vet asked every owner about exposure for years so they weren’t vaccinated.

[splitrockfarmnc]

From what I understand, a strangles outbreak on a farm can be devastating. When I was a teenager I was attending schooling shows at a facility that had experienced an outbreak some years prior. As a precaution, we opted to vaccinate my horse for strangles. That turned out to be a terrible decision. My horse became very sick and stayed that way for 3 or 4 weeks at least. She was absolutely pitiful and I felt guilty about it because it was all for a stupid horse show. I swore I would never do that to her again. Now we just practice good sanitation techniques (disinfecting brushes, equipment, trailer, etc) and I generally don’t allow my horses to graze, drink from a shared trough, or eat anything off the ground while we are away from home, except on a case by case basis.

[Simkie]

I think the IN strangles vax is fabulous. My story:

Boarding barn owners had their own horse at trainers barn when strangles broke out. They waited 30 days for last horse to be symptom free and brought their horse home. Strangles promptly broke out, sigh.

I had one mare who had the IN vaccine yearly for several years, but was a few years lapsed, and one that had never been vaccinated.

The non vaccinated horse broke with an awful, gooey, gross abscess. Everything you hate about strangles.

The vaccinated but lapsed mare got a bit of a fever and a runny nose for two days. I have no doubt she would have had zero symptoms if I’d kept up on her vaccine.

The IN vaccine works. Maybe not 100% of the time, but it’s effective. And as long as you’re careful about when you give it, there is so little risk. It’s either the last vax given, or a whole separate visit.

My vet also said he’d not had a cold since he started using the IN strangles :lol:

[StormyDay]

The IN vaccine is pretty good IMO. It doesn’t cause a reaction in my sensitive horse. the IM one is horrendous and used to give all my horses huge welts for weeks.
I would do it on the 11 and 16 year old and talk to your vet about pros/cons on the 20 year old. Sometimes older horses have developed an immunity that you can test for as others have said.

[Horsecare101]

I worked at a pack station with 120+ head when strangles broke out. We vaccinated all horses and all ages. We were able to get the outbreak under control and limited to less than a dozen horses (this is amazing considering all horses were in only three large pastures at the time it broke out. The vaccine was difficult to give and hard to not get all over the place, but seemed to be effective. We had no adverse reactions out of the whole bunch. Good luck!

[WildLittleWren]

I always do the IN vaccine for strangles. We had a horse (not vaccinated) come down with strangles. No horse had been on or off the farm in over 4 months. The husband of the lady’s horse who presented with strangles was a farrier. We imagine more than likely, it was picked up from another farm. All the other horses were vaccinated regularly and were all current, and despite being in a large herd for the first 3 days of her fever (that the owner didn’t feel was necessary to share), on the 4th day she finally had the vet out and she tested positive for strangles. She was quarantined, in fact the whole farm was quarantined for 60 days (30 days past the last day of the mare’s fever). No other horse got it. We also practiced very strict biosecurity measures.

I consider the vaccine non negotiable. Mine gets it done on time, every time.

[Hilary]

I also consider vaccinating for strangles a must. My vets have always recommended it - it is a nasty, and very inconvenient disease. You can lose a season if your barn is quarantined. Your horse can die.

I did own a horse who came with the warning 'Do not vaccinate him for strangles, he has had it". He had a sketchy past, and when he was brought into the previous owner’s barn she vaccinated him and he developed a severe case of lymphangitis as a reaction. She still kicks herself for not doing a titre on him.

The “public good” argument is that vaccinated horses keep the disease from spreading should a contagious horse (or person) show up in the area.

Strangles used to be more prevalent around here 40 years ago. Then the vaccine became more widely used and you stopped hearing about outbreaks. Which led to people thinking it wasn’t an issue, so vaccination levels went down. And now there have been outbreaks every year for the past 5 years in this area. I think this year’s 6 has gotten people’s attention. Let’s hope next year is a healthier year!