Strangles: What a Six-Week Barn Shutdown Actually Costs
Strangles arrives on a horse that looks fine. Three days later half the barn has a temperature of 104°F, a nasal discharge, and a throat that is swelling shut. The treatment is mostly supportive. The disaster is the quarantine, the cancelled shows, the boarders who leave, and the six weeks where nobody can move a horse on or off the property.
Know the red lines
Signs that mean call now, not tomorrow morning
- Any horse with a temperature over 103°F — isolate first, ask questions later
- Noisy or laboured breathing at rest, nostril flare, or a horse standing with the neck extended
- Inability to swallow, or feed and water coming back down the nose
- A barn where two or more horses have fever or nasal discharge within a week — treat as an outbreak immediately
- Any horse that has been at a show, sale or clinic in the previous 14 days and now has a temperature
Print this list. Tape it inside the barn door. Under stress nobody remembers a web page, and the person left holding the horse at 9 pm may not be you.
What is actually happening
Strangles is caused by Streptococcus equi subspecies equi, a bacterium that specializes in the horse’s upper respiratory tract and the lymph nodes of the head and throat. It is spread by direct contact, by shared water troughs and buckets, and — the part people forget — by people’s hands, clothing and equipment moving between horses.
The organism is tough in the environment and tough in the horse. Roughly one in ten recovered horses becomes a silent carrier, holding the bacteria in the guttural pouches for weeks or months and shedding it intermittently. That is the mechanism behind the classic second wave: the barn gets clear, a horse goes home, and three weeks later it starts again.
There is a reason the disease is named for what it does. The retropharyngeal lymph nodes swell and can press on the airway, producing the characteristic loud, roaring breathing and a stretched-neck posture. Most horses recover in two to three weeks. A minority develop “bastard strangles” — abscesses in the abdomen, liver or brain — which is a different, far more expensive disease.
What you will see, stage by stage
Veterinary descriptions of these diseases tend to jump straight to the textbook picture, which is the late version. The table below is ordered the way it actually appears in a barn.
| Stage | What you will see |
|---|---|
| Early — the first 48 hours | Fever of 103–106°F, often before any other sign. Refusing feed. A soft, watery nasal discharge that turns thick and yellow. Depression. This is the window where a barn-wide temperature check catches an outbreak early — and almost nobody does it. |
| Established — classic strangles | Painful, hot swelling under the jaw or behind the throat. Head held low and stretched forward. Reluctance to swallow. Loud or rattling breathing. Abscesses that rupture and drain thick pus, after which the horse usually improves quickly. |
| Advanced / complicated | Difficulty breathing at rest, especially with noise — airway compression, an emergency. Purulent nasal discharge that persists beyond three weeks. Weight loss, intermittent fever, or colic signs weeks after recovery — suspect bastard strangles and get a workup. |
Six Weeks of Discipline
- Digital horse thermometer — Fever is the first sign, day oneCheck Price
- Vet-grade disinfectant spray — Handles the tough organismsCheck Price
- Laundry sanitizer — Blankets and wraps leave the barn cleanCheck Price
What your vet will do — and what each test costs
| Test or procedure | Typical cost | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Veterinary exam + temperature | $80–$150 | The farm call. Temperature, lymph nodes, airway assessment. |
| Nasopharyngeal swab, culture and/or PCR | $80–$200 | Confirms S. equi and distinguishes it from influenza, EHV and adenovirus. |
| Guttural pouch lavage / endoscopy (carrier screening) | $250–$500 | Used to clear horses before they leave quarantine, or to find the carrier keeping an outbreak alive. |
| Blood test (anti-M protein ELISA / IDEXX) | $60–$140 | Screens for exposure; useful in a screening protocol, not as a stand-alone diagnosis. |
| Complicated case workup (ultrasound, endoscopy, abdominal imaging) | $500–$2,000+ | Only if the horse is not following the normal course. |
What it costs, honestly
| Line item | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Per-horse veterinary care (exam, culture, antibiotics if used) | $300–$800 | Most cases |
| Draining an abscess (often done by the vet) | $150–$400 | Relieves pain and speeds recovery |
| Nursing labour, 2–6 weeks | $600–$2,500 | Twice-daily temperature checks, separate feeding, disinfection |
| Barn shutdown: lost board, lessons, training income | $3,000–$15,000 | The biggest number, and the one nobody insures |
| Carrier screening to reopen (per horse) | $250–$500 | Three negative tests at weekly intervals is the usual bar |
| Cancelled entries, clinics, sales prep | $500–$5,000 | Highly variable |
A single case, caught early, costs $800–$1,500. A barn outbreak with a six-week shutdown routinely reaches $8,000–$25,000 once labour, lost income and screening are counted. Mortality is low; the financial damage is not.
The three habits that stop outbreaks
Vaccination is the third line of defence, not the first. These two come before it.
What to buy, and what to skip
Prevention gear that earns its place in the tack room
- Temperature-check every new horse for 14 days. A cheap digital thermometer and a notebook will catch an outbreak two days before the discharge appears — which is the difference between one horse and eleven. This is the single highest-return habit in horse management.Check Price
- Quarantine for 21 days, and mean it. Separate paddock, separate water, separate hands and equipment, and no nose-to-nose contact over a fence. New horses, horses returning from shows, and horses coming back from a clinic all go through it. Most outbreaks start with a horse that was “obviously fine.”Check Price
- Vaccinate — with realistic expectations. Intramuscular vaccines reduce severity rather than prevent infection. Intranasal products give better local immunity but carry a small risk of vaccine-associated purpura. Neither replaces quarantine. Talk to your vet about which product fits your horse’s risk and your barn’s policy, and record it.Check Price
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Nothing on this list replaces your vet’s advice on your horse.
Five questions worth asking your vet
Bring these written down. A fifteen-minute appointment goes very differently when you are not trying to remember them from a website.
- Is this confirmed S. equi, or are we assuming?
- Does this horse need antibiotics, or will antibiotics risk bastard strangles?
- When can this horse come out of isolation, and what test proves it?
- Could this horse be a guttural pouch carrier?
- What is the written protocol for the rest of the barn, and who is enforcing it?
Related reading
Sources & further reading
- AAEP — Strangles: Infectious Diseases of the Horse
- Merck Veterinary Manual — Strangles in Horses
- Equine Disease Communication Center — Strangles resources
- Boyle et al., Streptococcus equi research update (J Vet Intern Med)
Price ranges are compiled from published U.S. veterinary fee surveys and practice websites for 2025–2026. Regional variation is large; treat every number here as a planning figure and ask your own clinic for a written estimate before treatment begins.
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