Rod Hoare, Technical Specialist Equine Health, Menangle Introduction Prevention Tetanus Vaccination certificate Strangles Further information Introduction Vaccinations against tetanus and strangles are routinely given to horses. This bacterial disease causes fatal tetany in about 80 per cent of those horses which are infected. The organism Clostridium tetani , which causes the disease, lives in soil and manure. It enters the body through wounds. The bacteria multiply only in sites where there is a poor oxygen supply, such as in deep wounds.
Death follows within a few days of the signs first appearing.
The first sign of the disease may be a difference in the animal's normal resting stance, its behaviour and the way it moves. There is muscle stiffness, especially of the muscles of the face and legs. The ears become erect and the tail stiff, and the animal may be unable to eat. An increasing number of the body's muscles then go into spasm, including a characteristic spasm of the third eyelid when the side of the face is slapped. A very painful death occurs.