Strangles

Hi welcome to the forum!
 
From what I know of strangles its like us with a cold.  If a horse drinks, grooms or hangs out with a horse that has come inot contact or has it recently (not sure actual time line) then the strangles will spread from horse to horse.  Water buckets can be bleached and cleaned but with all the horses I have ever owned if they get it once they don't ever seem to get it again and it might look and feel horrible but never had one get down with it before.
 
The worse case I had was a colt who was accedent prone to begin with go it from a mare I was keeping for a friend.  He bought her at the sale barn and brought her over.  Instead of keeping her in the round pen for two weeks I turned her out and he swelled up something frightful and after we lanced it, gave him some antihistimines to clear his airway and some pen he was right as rain.  Took about a week for him to come back around to his usual lazy self.
 
Hope someone else has some more info for ya.  The vacine is very simple though.  They stick a tube up the horses nose and blow the vacine in.  Over and done befroe the horse knows what happened.

Before calling the new horse a carrier, how much time elaped between him showing up and the other horse came down with it?  A normal case of strangles can easily be active and infect other horses 8 weeks or more after the clinical signs are over.  4-6 months isn't unheard of.  Chronic shedders can shed for years and it will normally involve the bacteria setting up shop in the gutteral pouch.  You would have to have it swabbed and cultured to know for sure.
 
  Most adult horses aren't at risk for debilitating or fatal bouts of strangles.  At some point in their lives they've had it and although immunity is not great, it is something.  If it gives you some peace of mind, by all means get your horse vaccinated.  I'd do a 2 shot series or 2 intranasals (if that's protocol).  If it has been 6 months since your horse was exposed and she hasn't developed any illness, she's not going to get it.

My neighbors had a baby come down with it and left it in the herd of mares.  He cleared up fine.  No one else got it.  They might have been lucky on this but....

IF you vaccinate, it's a live vaccine sprayed up the nose and promptly sneezed all over the place by the horse!  PLEASE use caution and protect yourself from the spray.  If you accidently ingest it you will suffer far worse than a horse, maybe for the rest of your life.

It was three months from the time the horse showed up to her showing signs of Strangles. The horse suffered for about a month. Her care was horrible, her owner had no money for senior feed and fed her corn mash and bread. How do you find out if a horse is a carrier? Is there a test? I know they can flush the pouch, is that the only way to find out?
  If my horse got it. it's too late for the vaccine. If she doesn't have it, then I will get it for her next spring. The mare that got the strangles was 20 years old, my mare is 19. But she is very healthy. I just called the Humane Society on her, her fences are just one wire and the electric is off half the time. She has no hay so I dont know what the horses are eating. The Humane officer will check on their feed, water and fenceing. I am praying they will take the horses out of there. this horse has gone hungry every winter now for at least 10 years.

I've heard that strangles can live in the ground as well.  For years.  A friend of mine lost her horse to a poorly timed strangles vaccine.  One of the horses at the barn where she boarded got strangles so the vet came out and vaccinated all of them.  Unforntunately my friend's horse already had strangles but wasn't symptomatic yet the vaccine caused a huge blood clot to form in the horse's gut and eventually killed it.  They did an autopsy and removed a foot long clot. 
A bout of strangles hit the college horse barn and I think pretty much every horse owner in a 50 mile radius got their horses vaccinated.

  You swab the nasal passages to determine if he is a chronic shedder.  You tread it by flushing the gutteral pouch and if that doesn't resolve the problem than it's a surgical candidate.  The poor shape of the mare, bad hygiene and lack of care was probably the reason the mare was so slow to recover.

My Arabian gelding came down with Strangles back in 2002. He was 17 at the time. It took him 2 months to fully get over it. He was my only horse at the time so keeping him isolated was easy. We also put signs up on his pasture fence to let the public know. My vet told me that he should never get it again since he already has gotten it. I have had my horse around a number of other horses including his pasture mate which i bought back in 2005. She has never come down with it and neither has nay of the horses he was pastured with when i had him boarded.

Yes, a horse that is a carrier of the bacteria that causes strangles can be treated.  They can also be tested to ensure that they are a carrier.  Generally the guttural pouch is scoped and a sample of any debris there is taken and sent to the lab for culture.  If S. equi is found then the guttural pouches can be flushed with an appropriate antibiotic to kill the bacteria. 
 
(Just FYI, not everyone who uses the title "vet tech" has actually had any special education in veterinary nursing, etc.  There are still some states which allow the title to be used by anyone regardless of experience, training or education so it's always best to ask a few questions about how they got to be a "vet tech" before you put too much faith in information you are given.   )