Sadie's Story

Sadie is ‘Mummy’s Girl’ most of the time she is sweet and obedient but every now and again that ‘mare thing’ rears its head and she can be just plain impossible. I have to say though that she has been a little star through this whole ordeal and if we really had to go through it I am glad it was her and not Dainty (whom has a dislike for the vet that borders on pure hatred!).

Just after we had moved to our new yard there was a case of strangles and all six mares were quarantined. Sadie had the swellings and a few choking attacks and was blood tested positive for strangles bacteria. A few weeks later vet came out to do the guttoral pouch swab when we thought we were all clear (two weeks after last symptom) and the next day what appeared to be her lymph nodes were huge and so was her throat – initial reaction was vet had disturbed some strangles puscles in the pouch and so back into isolation. 

Submandibular Gland swelling

There was a problem getting the results back from the lab and so a week later we thought we were still dealing with strangles. Once the abscess had burst you could actually see that it was more on her cheek bone than the lymph nodes. 

Burst abscess on horses cheek

Eventually nearly 10 days later we got the result back that Sadie did not in fact have strangles but some sort of tissue infection! Another swab was taken and found to contain bacteria that is usually only found in humans! Sadie has never been ill but trust her to get something weird when she does. In fact the bacteria is called ‘Burkholderia Cepacia’ – I wont even try and explain it – this is what wikipedia has to say 

“Burkholderia cepacia complex (BCC), or simply Burkholderia cepacia is a group of catalase-producing, non-lactose-fermenting Gram-negative bacteria composed of at least seventeen different species, including B. cepacia, B. multivorans, B. cenocepacia, B. vietnamiensis, B. stabilis, B. ambifaria, B. dolosa, B. anthina, and B. pyrrocinia.[1] B. cepacia is an important human pathogen which most often causes pneumonia in immunocompromised individuals with underlying lung disease (such as cystic fibrosis or chronic granulomatous disease)."

So strange as we were pedantic about cleanliness and hygiene and no one on the yard except Lewis and I dealt with her and neither of us were sick. The strange thing was that during all this Lewis did feel a little ill and he never gets sick and at the time we had to reassure him that he could not get strangles from a horse! Turns out that perhaps he and Sadie did share something after all. 

Treating the abscess after suspected strangles

The good news is she is now fine – a bit of tissue swelling but clear of all infection and in fact has been given the go ahead to start being ridden again so a few gentle hacks lined up for her. We were told she is probably a bit run down but all things considering I think she looks rather well. 

The wound is now the size of about a fifty pence coin. We still need to keep it covered which has actually been the hardest part. She has been a little star in having it treated morning and night which included scraping off all yucky tissue – irrigating the wound, putting gel on and then covering it up. We used the fly mask with a clean pad taped in each time. I think she is fed up of wearing the mask for the past 2 months 24/7. At least its all over now though. 

Update 4th August 2011 - this is what is looks like now :