How bad is it REALLY in the Forest this year??

have had a conversation today and was told that i "must be mad " to buy from the Beaulieu Road sales in August as it's Rampant down there??


can you shed any light, Forest Dwellers??

Thanks...

Not sure if it's worse this year than any other or more talked about,there is always strangles about,i guess it just depends on where it is as to how noticeable it is, its about on longslade at present which is a highly popular area so therefore becomes common knowledge very quickly. There will always be a risk when buying from a sales, i would say if strangles was rampant the drifts would be postponed, might be wrong though.

i would say if you buy from the sales have it blood tested for strangles before turning out with your others, after being stung quite badly by strangles in the past (losing about £2000 in total including a nice youngster to it) i'll definately be testing the new foal i plan on getting this autumn and any new one for that matter

Being not far from Longslade myself, if it was as "rampant" as you have been led to believe, then surely lots and lots of forest ponies would be standing around looking absolutely miserable suffering from strangles. I can assure you this is far from being the case. Life round here is carrying on as normal, apart from the heat of course!

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Grossly exagerated as usual,the slightest nasal discharge is mistakenly taken for strangles.There are always reports of it being around but these are rarely confirmed,the advantage iff a pony does have it they are then immune at least from a very bad case.You could buy a pony from anywhere in the country and not know of any illness it had been near forest ponies are amongst the healthiest you will get anywhere.

A pony thay showed signs of strangles would not be allowed to go through b. road anyway!

yes but the incubation period is up to about three weeks (before they show any signs), im sure i will be corrected if wrong but arent a lot of horses rounded up at once in the drift bringing a lot of horses into contact with one another, you wouldnt see snotty noses for a week probably i.e. a few days after new owners get them home, then without realising it has spread to their other horses.

sorry if im anoying people but if i can save another yard going down with strangles it will be worth it, believe me its not fun

my oscar is just recovering from strangles,but he came to me from a dealer.
as far as im aware the only way to tell if they have it are by having 3 swabbs taken from the back of the throat,i had to have this done on one of mine a few years back before he was let out of quarentine.
its exspensive ,but it will tell you if they are clear.
about ten of the horses on my old yard got it,
some just had a snotty nose,no ther symtoms, some just developed an abcess,some developed both but most of the hardy ponies ones who lived out no rugs no hard feed shook it off so much quicker than the stabled kept ones,
yes strangles is a nasty ,but i think alot of people do panick sometimes xxx

lisalouise, nasopharyngeal swabs (x3) used to be the only way, but you can also endoscope (which we did testing for carriers) or blood test (detects any horse thats been infected with it)

i bought a newforest yearling colt about 3 months ago he had a thick discharge from his nose everyone told me it was strangles so called the vet and he checked him over and gave him the all clear and said he was run down x

I dont think there is any more strangles about this year than there has been any other year. I have bought a few from the sales and never had any problems. One foal had a snotty nose but like the other poster it was just a little run down. I dont think you would be 'mad' to buy one from the sales at all. People who live here will still buy and if there was any real problem with strangles then we wouldnt be!