Equine Pediatric Medicine (AAEP Convention 2001)

“While many outbreaks of respiratory disease in foals are infectious in nature, this is not always the case,” she began. “Environmental factors can have a profound effect.”
Share
Favorite
Close

No account yet? Register

ADVERTISEMENT

Investigating Respiratory Disease

Debra Sellon, DVM, PhD, of Washington State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, presented guidelines for systematically investigating and treating foal respiratory disease outbreaks. "While many outbreaks of respiratory disease in foals are infectious in nature, this is not always the case," she began. "Environmental factors can have a profound effect."

Sellon suggested six steps for investigating/controlling outbreaks:

  1. Evaluate farm and individual history. Look into prior infections on the farm, deworming status, parasite surveillance, vaccination status, exposure to transient horses, and ages of affected foals.
  2. Inspection of premises. Check barn ventilation, hay and straw storage, bedding, hygiene practices, sanitation, pasture access, pasture condition (vegetation, soil, population density), and population characteristics (ages, group sizes, transient vs. permanent horses, etc.).
  3. Examination of individuals. Do a complete physical examination, rebreathing exam, and laboratory exam, and examine other foals (which might have subclinical disease that you can stop early).
  4. Figure out which organism is responsible for infectious disease. The veterinarian should now be able to develop a list of differential diagnoses ranked in order of likelihood for that farm. Ancillary diagnostic tests such as transtracheal wash or nasopharyngeal swabbing might help identify the responsible pathogen(s).
  5. Separate sick foals from exposed but not sick foals, and separate unexposed, healthy horses from both groups. Control of human and animal traffic through the quarantine area is essential.
  6. Treat affected foals. Use appropriate antimicrobials for the diagnosed cause and suggest any environmental changes that might help (cleaning stalls  when horses are outside so they are not exposed to all that dust, improving ventilation, etc.).

Sellon added that corticosteroids might help stop the cycle of inflammation in selected difficult, chronic cases (if active bacterial infection is no longer thought to be the cause)

Create a free account with TheHorse.com to view this content.

TheHorse.com is home to thousands of free articles about horse health care. In order to access some of our exclusive free content, you must be signed into TheHorse.com.

Start your free account today!

Already have an account?
and continue reading.

Share

Written by:

The Horse: Your Guide To Equine Health Care is an equine publication providing the latest news and information on the health, care, welfare, and management of all equids.

Related Articles

Stay on top of the most recent Horse Health news with

FREE weekly newsletters from TheHorse.com

Sponsored Content

Weekly Poll

sponsored by:

How much time do you usually spend grooming your horse?
439 votes · 439 answers

Readers’ Most Popular

Sign In

Don’t have an account? Register for a FREE account here.

Need to update your account?

You need to be logged in to fill out this form

Create a free account with TheHorse.com!