Annual Vaccinations - Yes or No

[Simkie]

@CaliforniaDreamer

I had them given all at once, as per what I do every year (with previously no reaction). This year I will see if I can spread them over two visits and just pay the extra farm charge.

Your vet may be willing to just leave the vaccines for you and you can give on whatever schedule the two of you decide will minimize reactions.

Or you can buy your own. I have a reactive horse and find that she has no problem with Vetera vaccines. I purchase them from United Vet. The vet comes out for rabies, I do the remainder on my own.

[vxf111]

@DiamondJubilee

My vet does not like combo shots (though the rabies/tetanus is a combo one) as he states he finds more horses react to them, and he will split these shots up into 2 sessions. If you tend to get reactions, you could try to split up the shots and ask for single doses as well as it might help

I totally agree with this!!!

[btswass]

@Dutchmare433

Ugh, it sucks to be in that position. I’m curious why exactly people think we are over vaccinating? It seems to have stemmed from that whole “vaccines cause Autism” in people, which of course was 100% fabricated, but the paper got published and it planted that seed of doubt. The best I can figure is that people have this vague desire to treat everything “naturally” or holistically. But that gets dangerous for humans and horses alike when you’re dealing with zoonotic disease.

I also wonder if say, a vaccine for Lyme disease or EPM was developed and shown to be very effective. (There is a canine vaccine for Lyme that’s sometimes given to horses but its efficacy is low.) Both are disease that many (most depending on geographic location) horse owners have dealt with. Would people be more likely to vaccinate against a disease of which they have personally seen the consequences?

I actually think it has stemmed from all the dog articles. There have been so many cases of dogs dying from vaccines because apparently they give the same dose no matter the size of dog. I have read several articles and asked the vet that attends rally class what she would recommend and she says after 3 years every 3 years is more than enough.

I also heard that they were working on a vaccine for lymes for humans but it was causing hearing loss. I really wish they could do something about it for humans and other animals. Its so bad in our area and seems like they should have been able to create a vaccine by now.

[Where_sMyWhite]

With the exception of rabies (which for horses, I don’t believe is required in any state). Dogs must have rabies to be administer by vet as proof of vaccination.

[trubandloki]

@Where'sMyWhite

With the exception of rabies (which for horses, I don’t believe is required in any state). Dogs must have rabies to be administer by vet as proof of vaccination.

NYS requires horses to have a rabies vaccine to enter any state or county fair grounds. I realize that is not the same as them requiring it for the horse to just hang out and be a horse. But it is worth noting.
Pretty much every show or such requires a proof of rabies.

[Where_sMyWhite]

trubandloki, thanks, didn’t know that. Sounds like not a state requirement in terms of requiring all horses to have it. Interesting that it is required for state/county fair grounds given that horses, in general, don’t pass rabies horse-to-horse…

[jvanrens]

@Where'sMyWhite

trubandloki, thanks, didn’t know that. Sounds like not a state requirement in terms of requiring all horses to have it. Interesting that it is required for state/county fair grounds given that horses, in general, don’t pass rabies horse-to-horse…

[Hej]

@Where'sMyWhite

trubandloki, thanks, didn’t know that. Sounds like not a state requirement in terms of requiring all horses to have it. Interesting that it is required for state/county fair grounds given that horses, in general, don’t pass rabies horse-to-horse…

But they CAN pass rabies to humans.

My OB/GYN and her husband and two children all had to have the rabies protocol after one of their horses contracted rabies.

It was a pasture ornament/occasional trail horse, and while they realized it was sick and called a vet, they all handled it before they had a (suspected) diagnosis. The horse was euthanized and rabies confirmed via necropsy.

Fortunately, none of the family became ill.

[Where_sMyWhite]

Yes, horses can pass rabies horse-to-horse or horse-to-human but it is not common. Rabies is transmitted via saliva of the infected animal which is why bites are problematic in transmission.

From the CDC.

[MandySands]

Yes!

[RedHorses]

I do three separate vaccination visits for my horses. They get the four way tetanus/ewe vaccine on one day in April. Then two weeks later they get WN and PHF. Then in the fall, Oct-Nov, they get rabies.

I started PHF when they boarded one field away from a swamp and as it is inexpensive it is as easy to continue as it would be to do the vac plus booster series should I happen to move them near a swamp again.

The rabies is not a flybourne disease, so it’s done in the fall. Tetanus isn’t flybourne either, but it’s in with the flybourne diseases in the combo.

Coggins is, of course, a blood draw and test, not a vaccine. In actual fact the so called “Coggins” is no longer used. Coggins is the name of the test use to check the blood for Equine Infectious Anemia, or Swamp Fever, and is no longer used in most places as the “Elisa” test is more accurate. Check your bit of paper - they’re usually stamped “tested by ELISA”.

[Magicboy]

I show so need the vaccine papers…one of the geldings gets rabies only every 3 years because of a soreness reaction.