My mare is 341 days today, and the farm I have her at has had an outbreak of strangels. When I checked on her last night I noticed some slight discharge from her nose, and she coughed 2-3 times when I was with her (from 6:30pm until 11pm). I checked her again before work this morning and noticed she's gotten worse. She was coughing more, and has more snot coming out of her nose. It's not thick and yellow/green yet, but I'm still very concerned. She's been vaccinated for the past 2 years for it, so I didn't think she would get it, but now I know she has. Does anyone know if this will hurt the baby? I'm afraid she'll be too weak when she goes into labor and it might make the delivery difficult (plus she is a maiden). I'm also very worried that she'll give it to the little guy after he's born. I don't know if the anti-bodies in her colostrum will be enough or not. If anyone can please help, I'm getting myself very worried.
Kerri- we recently ( this past spring ) had quite a few horses in the barn that came down with strangles. We did have a couple of mares that had it but none as close to their foaling/due dates as what your mare is now. If your mare is not swollen in her glands, I would think it would be a good idea to get her started on some PCN right away. If the mare is already swollen, we would not treat her till she breaks open and starts to drain. I'm not sure of the repercussions of treating with banamine at this stage of the pregnancy but if the mare is running a fever, I cannot think it would be good for the foal. We did not have any mares abort from being ill, we did however have one foal that appeared to have neurological damage, whether it was from the illness of the mare or something that happened at birth I can't speculate. Also, THUS FAR, none of our foals or weanlings have come down with strangles and it seems to have run it's course through our barn. Good luck, I hope your mare gets through this quickly and your foal is born safe and healthy. Ev.
Thank you for responding. I'm just so worried, and I can't get a hold of my vet. She didn't appear to be swollen at all this morning, just very depressed, but her symptoms did just start yesterday. I'm hoping she gets a mild case (b/c she has been vaccinated) and all, but I'm still concerned about the possibilty of her passing it on to the newborn foal. Will it even be safe for her baby to drink her colosturm, or do I need to look into purchasing some from a bank or somewhere? I don't think she'll have it for at least another week as her bag still goes down during the day when she's out, and her milk is still yellowish (although it has gone completely bland tasting). Thanks again for your help
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