11/20/2025
Passing this post on for education purposes. This is from a classmate of mine and an equine professor in Louisiana. I have had many phone calls and texts today about an outbreak. The key messages...DONT panic; use good hygiene, VACCINATE!!
Hey everyone!! Obviously we are taking a ton of calls about equine herpesvirus and the recent outbreak. This is definitely not the first time our doctors have dealt with this type of outbreak. So here are the cliff notes:
We have had to deal with this while practicing at major racetracks in Kentucky and New Orleans IN THE PAST. As far as we know, there is currently not an outbreak at those tracks that we are aware of. Just trying to give you all some perspective. So…. dealing with it in the past, this is how it played out. One barn gets 2-3 cases of equine herpes, especially young horses that have come to the track, are stressed, and vaccine history is not well documented. In a barn of 40 horses, we had a couple die. Their symptoms are usually high fever, very depressed, and they lay down and don’t get up…. WITH THAT BEING SAID….. instant quarantine takes place and the other 1,000-1,500 horses on the backside of the track did fine. We checked temperatures twice a day for abnormal changes and gave EHV 1/4 boosters. Thankfully every time we had one of these outbreaks, it was contained. After two weeks, horses in the quarantined barns were able to train again,but at a separate time from the rest of the track,and we did not have any more issues. After two weeks of training separately, and a total of one month quarantine, the track went back to normal operation. It’s a bit of a pain and scary at first, but it worked out, considering the circumstances of a large volume of horses in close proximity.
What everyone needs to be aware of is it is mainly a hygiene situation. Don’t dip water hoses in buckets and then dip them in the next horse’s water bucket. It’s probably good to do this anyway when you are at any show to keep from getting strangles or other viruses. Have your own water hose, hook it up, give your horses water, and then take your hose away.
At big events where there’s a lot of nose to nose contact, this can definitely be an issue, so if you’ve been in a situation like that over the last week or two, then just check temperatures twice a day. You can give a vaccine booster to your horse if you want to, it won’t hurt anything. The vaccine isn’t necessarily formulated for the neurologic strain, but there is some possibility that it will give some immune boost.
If everyone just lays low for about two weeks, this is for the most part, going to pass on its own.
We do have a positive horse at our hospital that is quarantined and it was isolated. The moment that it came to the clinic, we tested it immediately and results came back positive. The horse has been at our hospital for 3 days and is stable. Typically, the bad cases do deteriorate rapidly within 72 hours. The state veterinarian was immediately notified, and because of the procedures we have in place, we have not been quarantined as a hospital. Horses that have been hospitalized while that horse was at our hospital are doing fine and the owners have been notified. If you are concerned about coming to our hospital, we understand that completely, but because of the protocols we have in place, we are not concerned about any cross-contamination with horses coming in for routine clinical examinations. Anything is possible, but we deal with a lot of very sick horses. In the last 15 years, we have yet to have an outbreak throughout the rest of our hospital from anything highly contagious, including strangles, to infectious diarrhea, and other respiratory diseases.
Just know that if you have not been anywhere in the last few weeks and have not been around horses that have been exposed to horses at some of these events, then the likelihood of you having any issues is extremely low. Just practice good hygiene and lay low for a couple of weeks. Most of the big events are being canceled, as they should be, in the short term, and we can always get those events back online later so that everyone can go enjoy the sport that they love.
If you are concerned that your horse has possibly been exposed, isolate the horse and monitor for any symptoms including fever, dullness, poor appetite, runny nose, stumbling excessively, head tilt, etc. if you notice any of these symptoms we recommend that horse be evaluated and tested.
Testing asymptomatic horses is not recommended at this time, per the State Veterinarian. If any question of potential exposure arises, quarantine all horses on your property and monitor for previously mentioned symptoms.
Just letting everyone know that the horse in our hospital is currently stable. It had been vaccinated earlier in the year and right now we are hoping for a full recovery.
If everyone stays positive, uses basic hygiene, and works together to lay low, this will be over very soon.
