Coggins Papers at Trail Rides

[Dawn]

Today at the McBurg ride the State had an offical checking coggins papers. They will now be at all the organized rides checking. So have your papers ready. As I leave my yellow copy at home in the horses file and carry a copy she told me to have it stamped copy by the vet and have him sign it in a different color than black.

[Mike Gooding]

I second what Dawn says, I did have my coggins, keep them in clear sheet protectors along with registration papers in a notebook and just happen to have them in the truck this weekend. We were also told there was a case of Coggins detected in the area. I heard Petersburg area but don't take that as fact.

[Bubba's Last Words]

It's crap like this that is shutting down alot of the private land that we ride on.

[Leighanne]

It is a statelaw to have a coggins test pulled. That is a good idea to have someone checking them. And thanks for the update. Keep Tennessee coggins free!

[Jackie]

"Coggins" is a test for for the disease EIA It is only as good as the time it is drawn, Your horse can be bitten by an infectious mosquito right after the blood draw and become infected but that test will be negative As an old horse trader told me once, if your horse has EIA you will know it before any test results come back positive I'm with Bubba on this one!

[Leighanne]

It may be only good when it is drawn, but how would you know if your horse has it unless you have him tested on a yearly basis? If it was not enforced, we would see a lot more cases a year on a regular basis. I want my horse to stay healthy. A horse can carry the EIA Virus for a long time, without showing any symtoms. It is like the AIDS virus in humans. Be safe ! Get your horse tested every 6-12 months!

[Linda Grajewski]

www.eqgroup.com/library/coggins.htm This is a good site to understand the disease of; equine infectious anemia.
CLINICAL SIGNS
Three different sets of symptoms occur: acute, chronic and the asymptomatic carrier. With acute infection the horse has fever, depression, and no appetite. The acute horse may be difficult to diagnose because the symptoms are very general and he will not be positive on the EIA test for a month and a half. Approximately one third of infected horses will die of the acute form within a month.
Equine Infectious Anemia is a viral disease for which there is no vaccine and no cure. Though most horses succumb rapidly to EIA a percentage of infected horses appear to recover. However they still harbor the virus and during times of stress may become ill again. It is because of these healthy appearing carriers that we test horses. It insures that we do not put their pasture mates at risk.

TRANSMISSION
Recently we have learned more about the transmission of this disease. The disease is spread by horseflies. The large horsefly is the main vector. If they bite an infected horse and then bite a healthy horse, the disease gets transmitted. The virus does not live for very long on the horsefly, maybe as little as fifteen or thirty minutes. So for one horse to infect another they must be close to each other. This disease occurs anywhere horseflies live.

[ReubenT]

considering what I know about viruses, the "incurable" part has got to be a farce, I just wish I could find a way to experiment. Maybe someday.

[Bubba's Last Words]

I am not saying I don't get my horses coggins tested b/c I do. The problems that I have heard about coggins are coming out of traders barns who move alot of horses in and out. I never have my coggins unless I am going camping. Like I said this is what's making alot of people say "you know what I don't want anybody riding my land b/c the government or somebody from a traders barn might show up." We are all having to travel alot further than we used to just to ride on the weekend.

[Jackie]

Absolutely! And you are supposed to have the Coggins test results with you whenever you take your horse off your property and in your saddlebags on the trail-the Trace rangers have actually stopped folks at road crossings or set up in the trailer parking area and asked for Coggins I just think a better way to protect horses is to pay attention to your horse's normal state and keep ypur horse at home if he is "not doing right", coughing, lethargic, whatever to not only keep him healthy but keep others' horses from catching whatever yours might be carrying, wheteher it's EIA, strangles or a simple cole

[Leighanne]

If someone has something against a horse trader, you must have something against me. I buy and sell horses for a living... If you look at my pictures, my horses are not the typical or standard horse - They are beautiful pleasure and show horses. All of my horses are coggins tested when they come into my barn. Most of my horses have a current coggins before they come in. Just because you have a large number of horses trafficing in and out, does not mean you are pron to have horses with coggins. It is the backyeard horses that show up with the coggins that have never been tested in their whole life. Think about that...Just because you have a private horse that has never left the farm does not mean he does not have the EIA Virus. He/she has never been tested. Horses that come in and out of sales, trail rides, horse shows, etc. are more than likely not to have the coggins because they are tested every 6 months to a year.

[Jackie]

Where did I say I had anything against a horse trader? I thought that was practical advice he gave me and I had a whole new perspective on Coggins testing after I thought about that! I do think that unless your horse is a silent carrier that caught EIA before you owned him, if he develops EIA you will notice SOME change in him even if it is a mild case. If you pay attention to his normal demeanor, appetite, movement, etc-at that point you may want to keep him at home and re-test before exposing him to other horses And yes the horses that are taken out for shows/rides and public sales will more than likely have a current Coggins-I am just saying it is not a foolproof method of preventing spread of EIA, and as Bubba said is one more reason we may be losing some places to ride