Among bacterial diseases of artiodactyls, farmers especially distinguished scab streptococcus. This disease affects the mucous membrane of the nasopharynx and causes fever in animals. The washing of horses usually proceeds in an acute form and causes a lot of trouble to the owners of the stallions.
Horse wash
Infected horses are isolated from the herd and for a long time are not able to perform work functions. The pathology of the disease causes great damage to agriculture because of the speed of spread, however, in our time, washing in horses is treatable and rarely ends in death.
Description of the disease
The first mention of washing in horses was recorded in the XVII century, although for a long time, specialists could not distinguish this infection from glanders. Exciting bacteria were discovered only at the end of the XIX century.
At that time, the disease infected a large number of horses in different countries and posed a serious threat to farms. In the herd, which was infected, almost 80% of the horses were infected. In the modern world, the disease does not pose a serious threat to equids, since there are effective methods of treating and preventing the disease.
Causative agent of infection
The cause of the disease is Streptococcus equi bacteria, which have the following structural features:
- spherical shape;
- the color of the molecules under Gram;
- lack of spores in capsules;
- inability to move in space independently;
- chain strokes.
Wash bacteria can coexist with other viral pathogens. Washed streptococcus manifests itself in violation of the conditions of detention or a lowered immune system of the horse.
Reasons for occurrence and habitat
First of all, horses under the age of 5 suffer from the wash.
Foals have immature immunity, which increases the risk of infection. As a rule, adults rarely suffer from this disease. Infection is not a threat to humans.
Bacteria enter the airspace through the airways of the diseased stallion. The virus quickly infects the feeder and drinker of the animal, and also gets on the litter, stall and manure. Bacteria can be transmitted through food, however, more often this is due to the contact of the diseased individual with a healthy one.
The virus is able to live for some time outside a living organism:
- In manure and litter, the virus can exist for more than a month.
- Bacteria live in soil strata for nine months.
- In purulent discharge, the disease persists for about a year.
In large farms, the disease is able to quickly hit the entire herd, if you do not take timely measures. A favorable period for washing is considered autumn.
The first cold snap and change of food increases the risk of contracting this disease. An ill horse receives enhanced immunity to infection, but for some time continues to be a carrier of bacteria.
Disease Detection Methods
Diagnosis of washing can be carried out both laboratory and by external signs. The defining symptoms include massive infections of the foals, fever, and airways.
Horse washing can also be detected by opening a dead equine. When establishing a diagnosis, the most important thing is to specifically determine this disease, since the symptoms of the wash are similar to diseases such as pneumonia, glanders and other ailments that affect the nasopharynx.
The manifestation of washing in horses
Streptococcus bacteria penetrate the horse's body by airborne droplets and settle on the mucous membrane of the respiratory tract. After infection through the circulatory system affects the lymph nodes of the horse. The incubation period in the wash lasts 14 days. During this period of time, bacteria actively multiply in the horse's body, continuing to capture the lymphatic system, nasopharyngeal mucosa. During the disease, inflammatory processes are attacked by white blood cells, due to which purulent discharge from the nose of the horse begins to flow.
In the usual form of the disease, washing your domestic horses can cause a fever at which the animal’s temperature can reach 40 ° C. In stallions, health immediately worsens, a cough, a snort appears, and the amount of discharge from the nose and mouth increases. The lymph node during a tactile examination is noticeably enlarged. On the second day after an increase in temperature, the tumor in the airway increases, blocking the horse's throat. By the fifth day, the edema matures, after which purulent discharge appears. Usually, after opening abscesses, the horse feels better, his appetite reappears and the temperature returns to normal.
There are other forms of the course of the disease, except for acute:
- Abortive. With this form, the disease proceeds calmly, a runny nose in an animal passes after a few days, there are no purulent discharge. Usually this form of a character disease is for adults who have already had a wash and are immune.
- Atypical. This form is characterized by inflammation of the upper part of the nasopharynx and pneumonia.
- Metastatic. In this form, abscesses form subcutaneously and can be opened inside muscles and joints. Also, secretions can be found in the digestive system. This form is one of the most dangerous, since sepsis begins due to contamination of internal organs and the animal can die.
Features of drug treatment
If a sick individual is suspected of being washed, it should immediately be separated from healthy individuals and special care should be provided to the mount. The infected horse is placed in a special stall. The stallion of a sick stallion should be warm and clean, without temperature fluctuations. The daily diet needs to be balanced: the infected animal is fed with quality hay or fresh grass. The horse should always have a full drinker: at temperature, the animal organism loses a large amount of moisture. Before consumption, water should be boiled and cooled to room temperature. It is also required to exclude cold air, draft or frozen foods. They can cause a worsening of the horse.
The horse's nasopharynx should be cleaned with lavage and inhalation. To do this, use solutions such as:
- potassium permanganate;
- furatsilin;
- baking soda.
The liquid must be warm. Rinse the airway of the horse twice a day.
When washing with horses, the most important thing is to remove purulent discharge from the body in time and bring down the heat. For this, warm dressings are applied to the sites of subcutaneous edema. At elevated temperatures, the process of maturation of abscesses occurs faster. After opening the abscess, the animal's oral cavity should be treated with such drugs as:
- hydrogen peroxide;
- potassium permanganate;
- syntomycin ointment;
- liniment Vishnevsky.
In some cases, for the rapid maturation of abscesses, Dorogov's antiseptic is injected into the abscess in a twenty percent concentration.
If the process of inflammation has dragged on, treatment continues with penicillin-based antibiotics. However, such drugs injure the internal organs of the animal; therefore, a horse with a high calorie diet should be provided. Sulfanilamide drugs can also be added to food.
Preventive action against wash
In the modern world, an effective medicine has not yet been found that can protect the herd from the disease. It is known that the sick system improves the immune system, and the risk of getting sick again is extremely small. Also, animals that are more than five years old rarely suffer from washing, because their immunity fights various streptococci throughout life.
Preventive treatment is primarily aimed at improving the conditions of horses:
- The stall of animals should be warm and dry.
- Stables should be built hermetically, with the right ventilation system.
- The stall must be cleaned at least once a day.
- A complete disinfection of the stable should be carried out monthly.
- Horses must undergo compulsory vaccination against other respiratory diseases.
- A new stallion needs to be kept apart for some time to identify possible pathologies.
If in agriculture the wash of a farm horse was diagnosed, then the animals of this farm are subject to restrictions for the entire treatment period. It is forbidden to sell horses washed with horses or to keep them in a common herd. Sick animals are quarantined, but the healthy horses' mouth is also treated with various solutions for prevention.
Manure from infected horses is thrown into a separate pit and not used for agricultural purposes. This restriction is removed from the farm 2 weeks after the recovery of the last sick horse.
