Strangles found at Redwings Horse Sanctuary

Two horses at Redwings Horse Sanctuary have contracted strangles.

Good progress

On Thursday night (19 February) a horse at the Redwing’s Piggots site in South Norfolk was confirmed to have the illness. The six-year-old gelding was put into isolation at the charity’s quarantine centre and all movements between sites suspended.

Another horse at the same site was then found to have strangles symptoms the next day, and has also been put into quarantine.

Both horses are being treated and said to be making good progress. The Redwings veterinary team are running tests on any horses who may have been in contact with the infected equines to ensure they are isolated and treated if necessary.

Stringent quarantine

Nic de Brauwere,Redwings’ head of welfare and senior vet, said the charity follows “stringent quarantine procedures”, with every horse screened for the illness.

“It just shows that no system or test is 100 percent effective,” he said. “We are very proud of, and invest a lot of time, care and resources into our quarantine systems and so if we can get an unexpected case amongst our residents at Redwings, I believe that it shows that anyone can.”

According to Redwings chief executive Lynn Cutress theirteam of vets and care staff were fully prepared, as they deal with cases of strangles all the time.

Speak out

“With a resident herd of 1,500 horses and so many new arrivals and unavoidable movements between our sites, a strangles outbreak is one of the biggest risks for our organisation,” she said. “Unfortunately, even taking into account all the robust controls and systems we have in place to prevent it we can never fully eliminate that risk.”

Staff at Redwings are calling for any horse owners who discover the disease to speak out.

“It’s not a notifiable disease but it’s so prevalent and contagious that we believe anyone finding themselves suffering an outbreak should, for the sake of the wider horse population, do the responsible thing and be up front and open about the situation so the proper steps get taken to bring cases and the spread to a halt,” said vet Nic.

All Redwings visitor centres are open as normal, although any rehoming has been temporarily suspended.