Horse Driving Trials Club Inc.

EFA NSW RECOMMENDED EQUINE INFLUENZA GUIDELINES

 

Dr. Vince Roche and others have prepared a guide for horse owners to help prevent the spread of horse flu. Please read this carefully and follow the instructions.

 

1.       Keep your horse(s) at home or wherever they are currently situated. Do not take your horse out on trails or on the road. Even if your horses are well and you do not think they could have horse flu, do not attempt to move them even if you think there is a safer, a better or a more convenient place to keep them.

2.       Look after your own horse(s) but avoid visiting horses at other places, even if they belong to friends and even if you think the other horses are well and not at risk of having horse flu. The greatest risk of spread is horse people visiting other horse people and / or horses!

3.       Likewise, until the epidemic is over, don’t allow other people to visit your horses.

4.       If you have absolutely no alternative to visiting other horses venues or horses (eg you work there or need to feed someone else’s horses) please shower and wash carefully and put on a completely fresh set of clothes (including shoes) after contact with your own horses and before you go to the other horses. Please repeat the process when you leave the other horses before you come home to your own horses. Do not put discarded clothes on again before washing them. Wash your clothes in a full wash cycle and scrub your shoes with a disinfectant for 5 minutes.

5.       Horse equipment (saddles, bridles, rugs, feed bins, farrier tools, horse dentist equipment, vet equipment etc) are very difficult to disinfect and should only be used within one horse establishment / farm.

6.       Horse flu is so infectious that you can safely assume that if one horse in your stables / farm has the disease, all the horses will get it. Precautions within your stables / farm are not necessary – but it is crucial that we cease the contact between horses in different stables / farms until the epidemic dies down.

7.       If you suspect that your horse has horse flu (a deep hacking cough is the main symptom, but horses may have a temperature [normal horse temperature is 37.5 degrees to 38.5 degrees], a runny nose or be unwell) please contact your local vet. It is possible that your vet may be unable to attend your horses due to the scale of the epidemic – if so please ring the Disease Hotline on 1800 675 888.

8.       Stay up to date on the epidemic by regularly (each day at least) visiting your horse organisation website www.efansw.com.au or the Australian Horse Industry Council Website www.horsecouncil.org.au.

9.       Please note that horses may become very ill if they contract horse flu, but usually recover well over time. Please do not give your horse any strenuous exercise before you are absolutely sure it has not contracted horse flu. Please seek veterinary advice before resuming exercise after horse flu.

Footnote: It has been advised by the consulting vet at the Warwick event that the temperature of horses should be taken before any exercise is commenced. If the horse demonstrates a temperature over 38 degrees under no circumstances should the horse be exercised or stressed. Doing so will exacerbate the severity of the infection.

Another point to consider is that it would be advisable to ensure that any dogs on your property are well contained. While not formally recognised as a carrier of the disease, as with humans they could be a passive carrier and expose other horses. Common sense should prevail in this instance. Dogs themselves as with humans cannot contract EI.

 

Using “Bute” ? – Try Using a Herbal

Anti-inflammatory Instead

 

We have all had to administer Phenylbutazone (bute) to our horses at some time or another to relieve pain and inflammation from injuries, laminitis, allergies etc.  But long term use of bute or use in sensitive horses can cause irritation to the lining of the gut which will lead to other health problems.  In an acute situation, the application of bute in the short term is often beneficial, but if your horse needs longer term treatment, it is always worthwhile considering a herbal option.  

 

Pain and inflammation are a natural part of the immune system and healing process.  Swelling will bring fluid to cushion the damaged area and pain is needed to stop the horse from further injuring itself.  Herbal combinations are effective, have no side effects and can be used long term.  They also do not mask the pain to the extent that the horse will continue to work which will often cause further damage.  Consider using herbs for those suffering arthritis, tendon and bone injuries, muscle soreness and stiffness, laminitis and allergies.

 

Some of the anti-inflammatory herbs to consider:

 

Devils Claw has a particular affinity with the musculo-skeletal system so it often used for arthritis and rheumatism.   It has anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties.

 

White Willow Bark is the herb from which aspirin was derived.  It can be used to relieve pain, inflammation and fever.  It is a very useful herb to treat rheumatic and arthritic pain and inflammation resulting from stress and injury. 

 

Ginger is useful in conjunction with other herbs as an anti-inflammatory.  It is very effective in increasing peripheral circulation, is warming and will also stimulate digestion - increasing appetite and increasing nutrient absorption in the gut.  Great for warming up joints in older arthritic horses. 

 

There are many other herbs which are useful such as Boswellia, Turmeric, Yucca, Guaiacum, Yarrow, California Poppy and Jamaican Dogwood.  Remember, a herbal prescription is based on each individual case addressing symptom relief as well as supporting the healing process so contact a trained herbalist for advice to avoid adverse reactions.

 

Don’t forget that there are many instances where external application of herbal creams, ointments and poultices are needed in the healing process.  Consider using Yarrow, Arnica and Comfrey in these situations.

 

Herbs can be administered to horses as dried herbs in their feed or in liquid form added to feed or direct via the mouth.

 

For further information and advice, please call me – 02 4829 0178.

 

Catherine McCoy, Naturopath

Equine Influenza – where to from here?

It is 10 days since we knew that flu was in the general population, how are we doing?

We have 300 properties in NSW expected to get EI in the near future - not bad considering there were 250 horses at the first event where EI was spread and before the lockdown occurred.  Most of these cases are in areas where there is a high density of horses and properties are small.  We are expecting and identifying spread from property to property over fences and by airborne movement because the disease is highly infectious.  It may be that all horses become infected in high density areas.  This will impose a huge workload on the NSW Control Centres - they are under pressure but responding well.

The disease will burn itself out if movements are controlled.  The disease came in at the worst possible time.  Spread is best under winter conditions.  There will be less property to property spread in summer due to temperature and UV effects.

There are calls to let the disease run.  All horse owners need to resist this and to support the State DPI’s to continue the control effort.  We are not in a similar position to overseas countries.

We have no pool of vaccinated horses - all ours are naive and highly susceptible.  If we let it go now we will have deaths of 10 - 40% of young foals - there are thousands out there at this time.  It will not be just the TB's - all will get it.  There will not be 300 infected properties, there will be more like 30,000.

NSW and Queensland are suffering now.  If flu gets away and there is no stand still, it will be in Melbourne this week and we can kiss the spring carnival and Melbourne Cup goodbye.  All horse events will be cancelled nationally.  If the positions were reversed, would NSW horse people want the Victorians to do that to us?

Some people are saying vaccinate.  With what?  It will be weeks before we can get supplies of the right vaccine.  Vaccination is far from 100% - otherwise EI would not have got here in the first place.  If we vaccinate we will still be subject to a standstill until all horses are vaccinated and become immune.  Do you think governments are going to pay for the vaccination of all horses every 6 months?  Who is going to pay for that? 

Those that have been overseas know that living with flu means issuing horses with passports at a cost of at least $200 each and then vaccinating every 6 months.  The vaccine costs about $30 plus vet costs.  Then at every event you have to show paperwork proving current vaccination status.  People running events will have to find extra people to check the paperwork.  Vaccination might not prove a huge disadvantage to wealthy TB breeders or owners but it will have a huge effect on the battlers.  It will change horse ownership as we know it in Australia.

Authorities are amazed at the level of support shown by horse owners.  This needs to continue at 100%.  A small vocal group complaining about something could quickly evaporate the support shown by the state governments.  The Feds are ducking for cover.  The truth will come out but probably after the election.  Keep the faith.

If you are not a member, please join the AHIC.  Membership has not been a prerequisite for registering on the Horse Emergency Contact Database but we need more support to cover our costs.  Emails are free but running the website costs real dollars.  If we send out an emergency SMS to 5000 people it will cost $1250 of our limited funds.  We will need over 60 new individual members just to pay for that.

Many thanks.