Hi y’all!
I’ve noticed from my own experience and seeing on some Facebook groups that there are still a decent number of boarding barns that require all boarders/trailer-ins to be vaccinated against strangles. Why is it that so many people are so adamant about it, despite the high risks/lack of true effectiveness? I know (off the top of my head) three vets who don’t even offer it. Just curious about others’ thoughts and practices 
The IN strangles vaccine is pretty low risk with high effectiveness. Perhaps your vets are still in the injectible strangles vaccine era?
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As to why the boarding facilities requiring the Strangles vaccine on haul-ins?
That can be explained by the time, and money being quarantined wastes, and all the extra work it creates. Not to mention the suffering of the horses that get sick, and the distress of their owners.
The Strangles Vaccine is not perfect, but it is better than no vaccine.
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I had flash backs of a strangles outbreak at farm I boarded my two horses at many years ago…what a nightmare!
Thankfully, due to a total barn lockdown and appropriate quarantine that lasted what felt like forever, my two managed to not get infected but my understanding was that for horses that WERE vaccinated, the severity of infection should they still get it, was less as well as a reduced risk of fatality. I’m not a vet though and out of the number of horses on our farm that were infected, they were mostly vaccinated and they pulled through okay. Two that were not racked up quite the impressive vet bills due to hospitalizations. Not a fun infection to deal with 
Strangles is nasty but curable. Reactions have reduced to the IM strangles, but after working in the vet field and seeing how violent most horses are when someone goes to give them the IN vaccine, I would rather not. I refuse to vaccinate my guy against it. At 12, he’s probably been exposed already and has built up a healthy resistance.
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That’s what I was hoping for also. But at 22 when strangles went through my barn he got it.
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I do not work in the vet field and my reference set of horses is probably quite a bit smaller than yours but my experience is that though do they do not like having something squirted up their nose none of the horses I have owned or that I have seen given the IN strangles have reacted in a way that I would even come close to calling violent.
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We give IN strangles vaccine to the two horses we take off the farm on a regular basis to competitions, trail rides, shows, etc. At home we are essentially a “closed herd.” On the road, not so much.
We do this with full knowledge that there is a risk for adverse reaction (which we’ve never had in the many years we’ve followed this practice) and that the vaccine, itself, is less than 100% effective. Still, given the dramatic consequences of an outbreak to barn management practices as well as the risk to infected horses we choose to give the medication.
G.
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My barn has been requiring the IN vaccine for quite some time and I often help out with holding horses/ponies for the vet…I have never seen a horse react violently to it. Often times they will throw their head up in response, but I would hardly call it violent.
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I’ve known my BO since about 1999, before I became a horse owner (bought my 1st in 2001), and I know that she required strangles and gave it to her own horses. We had outbreak at our barn, probably around 2005 from a horse that came in from outside. He showed no signs. The vet confirmed that it would have been a lot worse without the vaccine. At the time there were probably about 40+ horses on the property. My gelding showed no signs at all. Most of them had a relatively mild case. A few had some abscesses, but they were the youngsters under 2 years old. We quarantined until 3-4 weeks after the last horse showed symptoms. My horse does not get the vaccine anymore since he was there for the outbreak. Fortunately our vet has a tech who is a wiz at giving the IN vaccine. While it may not be as effective as many other vaccines, it is worth it because while almost all strangles cases are cured without problems, it can become bastard strangles, which is a whole different can of worms.
Because ts their belief that if there are a large number of horses shipping in and out the risk of strangles and assorted other bugs hitching a ride in goes up and an outbreak will have a negative impact on their finances is probably why they require it on their property. They’ve learned with boarders it’s either all or nothing as exceptions from rules turn into a swamp of discontent.
Do I agree with that? Not necessarily and I think we over vaccinate but I’m not running a larger boarding barn. But have been quarantined when a new assistant trainer brought in a home bred 4yo who developed strangles 5 days after arriving and shut down the barn and the show string for 6 weeks, Nothing else got sick, whether immunity from vaccinations or they were older and had mild cases in their youth? Who knows. But if it had been vaccinated maybe it would not have gotten so sick and cost everybody a chunk of their show season,
Anyway, I refused to pay for anymore annual strangles vaccines when the horse turned 15. But if I was a new and unknown boarder? I would have complied. Once. Not year after year after year.
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Do I routinely give it? No. But anytime I buy a young horse, especially one that hasn’t done a lot of showing or was in a smaller closed barn I’ll give it.
I respect a barn that has proper vaccination and quarantine protocols.
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I check a titer every year or two. If they are negative, they get the intranasal vaccine. If they are positive, they don’t get the vaccine.
FWIW, strangles ran through my boarding barn in … 2012, I think it was?
Dove, then five, had never had the vaccine and was disgusting. Abscess burst and drained. She felt miserable for awhile.
Blush, then 14, was vaccinated with the IN vax consistently from about 5 - 12 but had missed the previous couple years, and she had a VERY mild case with a slight snotty nose.
I’d also help with the vaccine clinic at a previous boarding facility that required the IN vax. A considerable number of horses received it and I wouldn’t call ANY reaction to it “violent” in the least. Getting it done does require some skill, though, and a quick motion–no lingering. Get in, get out!
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Strangles has a nasty habit of lurking in a barn or several years after an outbreak. The vaccine is not that difficult to give, and the aggravation of an outbreak is avoidable.
So that’s why some barn owners are adamant.
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You also have to be aware that even a mild case from exposure can cause a horse with a latent issue to go south fast.
Melly had been exposed to EHV-1, as many/most horses are, sometime in his life.
When he got a mystery illness it caused the EHV-1 to flare, he went neuro and I got to spend all my $$ over 4 days and watch him die in front of my eyes before the Vet could get there over two horrific hours.
Any measure you can take to prevent them getting ill is money well spent.
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Not saying they all do, but the majority that we work with fall into that category. They know what is coming and will start throwing heads in the air, some have struck out, many have reared, and several try to run the doctor (and everyone else in the stall) over or shove them into a wall. These vets are extremely patient, kind, and gentle and don’t take their sweet time, they try to give it as safely and quickly as possible. All of them, even the ones who don’t react this way, HATE having it in their nose/throat.
The IM strep vaccine is greatly preferred for safety reasons. The only reactions we have seen are when it was given in a less-than-ideal muscle at the owner’s request or given to horses with a known vaccine reaction history.
I am aware of the risks, and I refuse to vaccinate for it.
This is the smartest way to go about it. Look at how the vaccine protocol has changed for dogs over the past couple of years. Unfortunately nobody wants to put money into researching equine vaccines, so instead of testing titers and seeing how long vaccines are really working, they are given every year.
I started vaccinating after my experience with a very sick horse that got strangles from a pony coming onto the property. The subsequent bill from the vet school, multiple procedures, scopes, later neurological complications (head shaking? yeah, strangles causes that sometimes), etc convinced me that even partial protection is worth it. Strangles is not always benign and self-limited.
I imagine that boarding barns are thinking that at some level, although the potential quarantine is probably foremost in their mind.
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How strange. I have seen probably 100s of horses given IN vaccine, either strangles or flu, many of them year over year, without any of what you’re describing at all.
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