December 15, 2003
Dougherty County- The majority of the horses at the Fleming Road stables are healthy and strong, but because they are on the same farm with sick ones, there are being quarantined, too.
"We're talking five or six horse that are sick, and normally it's a disease that a young horse or an older horse will get," says Cleve Council.
Council helps run the boarding farm with his brother. He says the majority of the horses aren't even on the same part of the farms as the infected few.
Humans can't contract strangles but can pass it on to other horses, one of the reasons Council says his horses shouldn't be the only ones singled out.
"We're keeping them at home now and we're going to do everything we can. We just wanted people to know that if their horse happens to come down with this it didn't have to come from here. It's pretty wide spread."
Strangles is a bacterial disease veterinarians say is very similar to strep throat in humans. It is marked by a nasal discharge, cough, fever, and lethargy. A horse that has strangles will also have swelling of the lymph nodes under or around the jaw area.
Most horses fully recover and the disease is rarely fatal. Council says he expects all sick horses on his farm to get well soon.
The vaccination for strangles is not 100% effective. Some of the infected horses were vaccinated.
Posted at 5:45 PM by elaine.armstrong@walb.com
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