strangles? how is it passed on?

[nat17]

Hi,
I spent a day looking for stolen horses the other day and someone said that they had a outbreak of strangles there recently. How do humans pass it on? I am only concerned as i know hardly anything about it and i got myself pretty mudded up and fell in a stream and lost both my trainers in the bog and looked like a bog monster when i got home! I showered when i got home nd all my clothes went in the washer including my trainers but my worry is i still might pass it on!!!!!

Is this possible if i wear my trainers again down the field??? I might sound very blonde (i am so i do have an excuse!)but dont want to put anyone at risk.

Please be kind if this sounds so stupid to you.!

[galadriel]

Strangles is passed along by the nasty germs in moisture. This is why it can live in woodwork for months; it gets in the wood, the wood holds moisture, and it lives on and on...

If you suspect you may have picked up strangles germs, it's a good idea to wash everything includig yourself, but also disinfect thoroughly--say, throw some Lysol in the wash with the clothes & shoes :)

[Wally]

Icelandics have NO immunity to Strangles at all (imported ones anyway) The have never come across it, they do not have strangles in Iceland.

My friend, who has a lot of Icelandics went to a competition where one horse had Strangles and gave it to a lot of others. She took 3 infected and ill horses home. She has 20 horses in her herd.

She kept it confined to her 3 horses and not spread to any others simply by having one set of clothes to work with the sick animals and washing boot, hands and clothes between handling healthy horses.

Washing machine on the hottest wash for boiler suits and clothes, a minisrty approved disinfectant on boots and brooms and the like.

Direct contact from horse to horse or human to horse is how it's spread.

The horses were kept in a field maybe half a mile from the infected ones.

It is possible to nurse infected horses and work with healthy ones without spreading it.

[nat17]

so i am not being silly then. I will be extra careful and not even wear the same shoes or clothes down to my horses ever again. I would rather be safe than sorry. Minnie does not need anythng else to worry me with.:)

thanks for your speedy and good advice.:)