upper respiratory infection

Question
At my stable there are 3 horses sick.Are in quaratine,I noticed my 7 yr old Quarer horse was sneezing and coughed a couple of times last night.This a.m. rec'd call he has green snotty nose.My ? is I noticed above his eyes are very dark,is this part of the infection.He also didn't finish his food this a.m. very unheard of with him.He is up on all shots.

Answer
karen:

these are all signs of upper respiratory viral infections- including the darkness in his eyes. The virus is most likely to be either influenza (most probable) or herpes virus. Generally speaking, the infection lasts about 7-10 days during which time they shed the virus in that nasty nasal discharge you are seeing. It is the sneezing, coughing and nasal discharge transfer to other horses that spreads the infection from one susceptible horse to the next. Its very helpful that your horse is vaccinated, but unfortunately, most owners do not realize that most of the vaccines do not prevent infection. they probably reduced the severity of the disease the horse gets and shorten the time that they shed the virus in the secretions, but they do not keep them from being infected. In my experience, the best vaccine to give for upper respiratory infections in horses is the intranasal influenza vaccine and maybe the nasal herpes vaccine too. These vaccines are not perfect either, but in my hands, they have dramaticially reduced the incidence of viral respiratory disease in my client's horses. Discuss this with your vet and see what he/she thinks. In the meanwhile, the infection needs to run its course in your horse. The good thing is that natural infection is the best vaccine- so your horse will be very unlikely to get the virus infection again for 6 or more months. If the horses in your barn start to develop other signs outside the respiratory system, you and your vet need to be very aggressive in evaluating the cause as certain herpes virus infections can cause other signs- including the neurologic signs associated with the outbreaks of neruologic herpes infections in the past few years. Good luck to you.