SARAH: "Is it okay to share tack and grooming
tools between horses?"
I love this question.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Why?
SARAH: Because I think it's something that barns do a lot
and don't think about until there there's a problem.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Yeah.
SARAH: And then it's like, now what do we do?
DR LYDIA GRAY: I'll tell you a little secret, is I
go to a lot of barns, sometimes as a vet,
but sometimes just as a rider.
SARAH: Sometimes just as a busy body.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Just as a nosy person.
SARAH: You're just wandering around.
DR LYDIA GRAY: And I'm wandering around.
And I see shared equipment.
And I have, like, germ goggles on because of my vet training.
And I'm like "Oh, man."
SARAH: Is there like a spinning red light on top
and it's like "Wah, wah?"
DR LYDIA GRAY: They look like red to me
when I see potential areas of germs crawling around.
I just think of obviously, skin diseases like your rain rots
and your ringworms and warts can be passed from horse to horse.
But not just that, equipment--
whether it's brushes, tack, bits--
SARAH: --saddle pads.
DR LYDIA GRAY: --saddle pads, blankets, sheets.
Anything that comes into contact from one horse to another
can be a fomite.
What is a fomite, you ask?
SARAH: (WHISPERING) I don't know.
DR LYDIA GRAY: So fomites are inanimate objects
like all those things we just listed
that diseases, bacteria, viruses can be on and wait and be
passed to the next horse.
So diseases like strangles, influenza, herpes virus, well,
they like nose-to-nose contact, but they don't need it
because if your horse puts his head in a water or feed bucket,
and then you use the same water or feed
bucket for the next guy, their work is done.
They just have to sit there and be taken in.
So I don't think people think about that.
I went to a show once with my own horse.
And I was unloading.
And the person who went with me said,
I'll fill the water buckets.
I didn't think about it till I saw
her filling the water buckets.
And I had to go over and tackle her
because she was taking the hose of the showgrounds--
SARAH: --dunking it.
DR LYDIA GRAY: --and putting it in the bucket.
And so the bucket that was filling up with water
around the hose.
SARAH: And that's not even each horse
in the barn's different buckets that you're
sticking the hose in.
But it's the hose from the showgrounds that's definitely
been in other people's buckets.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Strange horses.
Yeah, so you've got to have your germ goggles on anytime
you're working with horses.
And the experts in biosecurity--
that's the field it's called-- will tell you,
better even in your own barn, for every horse
to have his own stuff.
And their suggestion was to use colored duct tape.
And so this horse gets blue, this horse gets green,
this horse gets red.
There's more suggestions of that when
it comes to biosecurity when you have,
say, a strangles outbreak.
The red horses are the sick ones that are showing signs.
And the orange ones are the exposed ones.
And then the green colored duct tape
are the ones that haven't been exposed
and aren't showing signs.
So the colored duct tape is a handy, handy tool--
whether you have an infection, or you're
trying to prevent one.
SARAH: And that's how you can train your germ goggles,
so that you can get them to the expert level like yours.
Although it sounds scary.
It sounds like you see germs everywhere.
And it sounds like it would be a very concerning and stressful
experience.
DR LYDIA GRAY: It's stressful because I go into places
and I see situations that I wouldn't do it that way.
But I know that it can be more work
and more expensive to have everyone
have the dedicated equipment.
And you might start out that way,
and then there's no diseases or outbreaks for a while.
And so you get lax.
Yeah, it's just human nature.
SARAH: Yeah, so not a best practice, sharing brushes
and equipment, for sure.
DR LYDIA GRAY: --but easier, for sure.
SARAH: But that whole conversation
did make me think of a great joke.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Oh, gosh.
SARAH: You ready?
DR LYDIA GRAY: Oh, maybe.
SARAH: Would a puppy or a kitten kick you?
DR LYDIA GRAY: No.
SARAH: No, but a fomite.
Ah!
DR LYDIA GRAY: Oh, my goodness.
Did you just think of that?
SARAH: I did.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Wow.
SARAH: I thought of it the whole time you were talking.
DR LYDIA GRAY: And you were like, I've
got to say this somewhere.
SARAH: I'm so excited.