subject: A Reminder To Vaccinate Your Horse [print this page] We can all get a bit careless with vaccinating our horses. So this is simply a reminder that horses must be inoculated annually for strangles. We recommend vaccinating for tetanus at the same time as strangles. Inoculating your horse is essential to look after horse health and prevention is much better and cheaper than cure!
Not only can these diseases be serious, weakening and in some cases deadly, however their economic costs to the owner of the horse can be substantial.
The most important feature to recognize is that along with appropriate animal husbandry, these diseases could be controlled if not eliminated through the execution of a thorough inoculation protocol.
TETANUS
When a wound becomes contaminated with the spores of the bacterium, Clostridium tetani, tetanus takes place. The bacterial spores sprout, multiply and emit a toxin, that affects the nerves, resulting in muscle spasm.
Medical signs of tetanus can include prolapsed third eyelids, muscle rigidity resulting in a stiff-legged gait, pricked ears, convulsions and spasms resulting in collapse, and paralysis of the respiratory (breathing) muscles progressing to death.
STRANGLES
Strangles is a highly contagious disease of horses. Outbreaks typically occur when a number of vulnerable horses are grouped together. Foals and young horses are often severely affected throughout an outbreak.
Strangles can manifest as fever, depression, loss of appetite, discharge from the nose and swollen glands around the throat and lower jaw region that may form abscesses that might burst. Other complications of infection might include pneumonia, airway obstructions and abscesses within the gut, and occasionally death.
At Horse Supplies Online we are happy to help with all your horse products for your horses health.
Horse Supplies Online contains a wide range of veterinary supplies and horse health products. Tetanus and Strangles vaccines are currently available from Horse Supplies Online.
