Newsdate: May 7, 2025 11:30 am
Location: GUELPH, Ontario

Strangles Awareness Week (SAW) is a collaborative campaign that aims to bring our most common infectious equine disease into the spotlight and raise awareness of how we can prevent or manage outbreaks.

Two horses with nasal discharges touching noses.

While Strangles is rarely fatal, it is a respiratory disease that can make your horse miserable for a few weeks, and recovering horses can shed the bacteria for four weeks or longer.
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SAW takes place in the first week of May each year and is the perfect way to join a fast-growing network of horse-owners, riders and equestrian professionals who all want to protect horses and businesses from the misery of Strangles.

Strangles FAQ’s

What is Strangles? Strangles is a highly contagious infection caused by the bacterium, Streptococcus equi (S. equi). It is NOT an airborne virus. The bacteria spreads through contact. This could be nose-to-nose between horses or via contaminated surfaces or equipment such as: shared halters, lead shanks, cross ties, feed tubs, stall walls, fencing, clothing, hands, the hair coat from other barn pets, grooming tools, water buckets, communal troughs.

It typically takes 3 - 14 days from the time of infection to the manifestation of clinical signs. While Strangles is rarely fatal, it is a respiratory disease that can make your horse miserable for a few weeks. Recovering horses can shed the bacteria for four weeks or longer. Swift control measures will help minimize transmission, reduce associated medical expenses, and decrease the duration of facility ‘lock down’.

Signs of Strangles?

Classic signs of Strangles are severe inflammation of the mucosa of the head and throat, often with extensive swelling and rupture of the lymph nodes below and behind the jaw, which can produce large amounts of thick, creamy pus.

However, not all horses will develop enlarged and abscessed lymph nodes; some will only present with slight nasal discharge. Others may be lethargic, lose their appetite and have difficulty breathing and swallowing due to lymph node enlargement around the throat area. In very rare circumstances Strangles’ may develop with abscesses in the abdomen, chest or brain; others may develop immune-mediated diseases of skin or muscle.

Fever is an initial sign of Strangles. There is a brief window (1-2 days) after the fever begins and before the horse starts shedding the bacteria from the nose, contaminating the environment, and infecting other horses. Swift isolation and control measures are important.

Prevention

Separating or quarantining a horse at the earliest signs of the disease is important because the disease is highly contagious and may be passed from one horse to another via nasal secretions and pus from ruptured abscesses in the lymph nodes. Horses remain contagious for approximately a month after having the disease.

Good horse management techniques are necessary to prevent the spread of the disease through contaminated water buckets, brushes, stalls, fences, or any other surface in the stable or pasture area. Bleach or other disinfectant should be used to wash down stalls including walls and floors, all equipment and tack, and any other surfaces that may have become contaminated by a horse with the disease. Fortunately, the bacteria die fairly quickly in the environment.

Treatment

Treatment of strangles depends on the general health of the horse and the severity and stage of the particular horse's case. Penicillin has been effective, but should be administered during the initial stages of the disease or after any abscesses have ruptured. Once abscesses form, penicillin has been reported to delay the opening and draining of the abscesses, which can lead to complications.

In mild cases, some veterinarians prefer to let the disease work its course because the disease is self-limiting and can be fought off by the immune system of most healthy horses without medication. Many veterinarians claim that antibiotics may do more harm than good by killing off beneficial bacteria the horse needs to fight the strangles infection.

The main complications that can occur include extreme swelling of lymph nodes to the point that airways are compressed and the horse's ability to breathe becomes restricted. In this case, a tracheotomy will be necessary to create an open airway. .

Another complication occurs when pus from the ruptured lymph nodes drains into the horse's lungs, causing a secondary infection of pneumonia. Treatment of the secondary infection becomes necessary and may include a round of antibiotics.

Click HERE for important biosecurity measures for dealing with Strangles

Press release by Equine Guelph Horse Portal