[SwampYankee]

We are becoming germophobics.

Do we sanitize the products on the grocery shelves before touching them? Carts? Gas pump handle? Railing on stairs we go up or down? Building door handles? Seats on Metro? Office phones? Office printer buttons?

Do we walk in front of our kids at school wiping what they are about to touch? passed out papers? sports equipment? lockers? bleachers and the floor?

ARE WE CREATING SUPER BUGS?

The crapper in Grand Central Terminal is now cleaner than most of our houses. Trust me!

[Hippolyta]

I am not talking about trying to sterilize anything. That is ridiculous.

We are talking about a confined space that may have contained a sick horse, in which my horse is now going to be confined. The aerosols & mucous from hypothetical sick horse are on the walls of the stall. A sanitizer will reduce number of infectious particles, with the goal of getting them below the infection threshold. Yes, there are sanitizers that work on wood, even if organic matter (snot or manure particles) is present (bleach is not one of them).


Using an effective sanitizer on the walls was what my dad did with his cattle when he brought them to the fairs, it was what my animal husbandry classes and extension vets told me was best practice, along with quarantining new animals (which no one does, either) & washing your hands between farm visits.

[Hippolyta]

And yes, we are creating super bugs & I subscribe to the hygiene hypothesis, but neither is being driven by occasional stall sanitation.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/li.../l_104_07.html

[Fairview Horse Center]

along with quarantining new animals (which no one does, either)

Do you quarantine each horse coming back from a show for a month?

[Hippolyta]

No, new animals should be quarantined, in case they have cooties.

[Appsolute]

No, new animals should be quarantined, in case they have cooties.

But what if they picked up cooties at an event? We had an EHV-1 outbreak locally. Horse picked it up at a show and brought it back to the home barn. - Barn was put on lock down and the disease did not spread further.

After that, they had a quarantine protocol for all NEW horses - but not for horses that traveled to shows. Always thought that was fairly silly (especially as the stall cleaning tools were not segregated to the quarantine area )

The prudent thing to do would be to quarantine all horses that leave the property, but it is not practical.

Never disinfected a stall. Even during my years as a working student for a large eventing barn with well traveled upper-level $$ horses.

Also never personally had one come back sick from a show.

[Hippolyta]

The prudent thing to do would be to quarantine all horses that leave the property, but it is not practical.

a lot of bioprotocols recommend this, but it is next to impossible. Would they be segregated for the entire show season?

I think for most boarding barns it is impossible/impractical to quarantine even new arrivals, which is why it isn't really done. True quarantine does include segregating tools, washing hands between contacts, etc.

With everything, the calculation involves the risk vs effort.

[Fairview Horse Center]

No, new animals should be quarantined, in case they have cooties.

Horses coming back from a show are far more likely to introduce something, than a horse moving in from a place with much less animal traffic.

So, I have always thought how crazy it is to see barns do the initial quarantine, but not for any that have been exposed to hundreds, as well as bringing in anything from their respective barns.

And no barns that I know quarantine for a month. It is usually a week or two.

How about the vet that has driven to a farm he just treated a sick animal? Farrier truck tires? Feed delivery truck?

Quarantine a horse coming back from a scope done at an equine hospital?

[bludejavu]

The only time I ever disinfected in the 35 years of showing that I've done is when we showed very young horses. I stopped wanting to show weanlings after seeing too many weanlings lost due to contracting something that they had no resistance or not enough resistance to (not my young horses, but those of friends and aquaintances). Older horses (over two) are much more resistive and even if they do contract something, they are able to recover much better than weanlings. So to answer the OP's question, it was a waste of my time to sanitize show stalls for the older horses. Now sale barns are a whole 'nuther story.

[Chall]

WHAT good bacteria? The only good bacteria I know of is the one in stomachs that help digestion. There are good bacteria out there on the surfaces of dirt and wood?
Shudder, I have had a staph infection under the skin and just got antibiotics for my cat bite. I didn't know there is good bacteria out there.

[Hippolyta]

WHAT good bacteria? The only good bacteria I know of is the one in stomachs that help digestion. There are good bacteria out there on the surfaces of dirt and wood?
Shudder, I have had a staph infection under the skin and just got antibiotics for my cat bite. I didn't know there is good bacteria out there.

There are "good" microbes (not just bacteria - fungi, archae, etc) on your skin, on everything. There are more bacteria in your mouth than ppl on the planet. They need to be there. Commensal bacteria are technically part of your defenses. If you kill them off,the pathogens have no competition & get to party.

There are always some pathogens around, but the normal flora usually keep them in check.

this is why you always keep cooked and raw food separate. The cooked food has fewer microbes on it. If you inoculate with the raw food, the bad bugs have an easier time taking over.

You got antibiotics for cat bite b/c they have sharp teeth that poke down & a puncture wound is a perfect place to have anaerobes secrete toxins (tetanus,etc).

[BarbaricYawp]

Avoid common watering areas at the shows, hang a haybag, and if you have a lot of international horses (or ones where you think their vaccines haven't been given regularly), consider Equistim.

I have enough cleaning to do in my own barn without resorting to cleaning someone elses stalls.