This week has been horrific for us. Tuesday, our two quarter horses (both about 20 yrs old) got their annual check-ups, 6-way shots, and rabies shots. The vet (who’s well-respected in the area) declared them both to be in perfect health. She hung around for maybe 10 minutes, then left.
90 minutes later, our gelding banged into something in his stall, stumbled around the corral, fell over and had a seizure. He went into anaphylactic shock, and died a few minutes later. Fortunately, we were outside and were able to be there. By the time the vet got back 30 minutes later, it was far too late.
We’ve had that gelding for 18 months, and he got the exact same 6-way last year, with no ill effects. The rabies vaccine is a different brand than last year. Our mare had no problems with either. The vet reported the incident to the drug company, and they immediately recalled that batch. No word yet on whether we’re the only case that’s been reported. I’m not sure which brand either of these drugs was, but I’ll try to find out & post here.
How common is this? The vet (who’s maybe in her 30’s) said it’s unbelievably rare. Our neighbor (who’s about 50 and owns horses) said it used to be more common, to the point where some horse owners used to keep epinephrine on hand, and the vet used to stay for 30 minutes after every shot, just in case. Not that it makes any difference now, but would a human-sized epi pen have done any good for a horse? We remembered the following day that we have one for our son, who (ironically) is allergic to horses.
Another thing I noticed: the following morning, there was blood dripping from the spot on his neck where the shot had been administered. There was also a little bit of swelling around that area. There was no bleeding there the night before, even an hour after he died. Does that mean anything?
Needless to say, we’re all heartbroken. This was my 17-yr-old daughter’s first horse–the one she’d longed for her entire life, and for whom we’d spent all summer searching. This horse was like spouse to my daughter. If our mare (who kind of fell into our lap a few months later) had died, it wouldn’t have been quite as hard.
Our mare is also very lonely. She isn’t eating as much these last two days. She stands out by the road all day, waiting for that yellow truck (the renderer) to bring her friend back home. I’m already exploring options to bring her another companion, but it’s tough to balance that against my daughter’s broken heart for her gelding.
We’re fairly new to horses, and I’ve learned a lot of stuff along the way as we’ve encountered it. If there’s something we should have done differently here, this is NOT how I wanted to learn it, but I definitely don’t want to make the same mistake again. Should we have done something differently? Should the vet have done something differently? Should we try to take some sort of recourse with the drug company?
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