Another New Horse - It's Bo!

[Bluey]

We had a horse get a big basketball sized swelling where he received his rabies shot on the thigh, it started swelling about three hours after his vaccine at the vet clinic.
He was also dead lame on that leg.
We were sure it was the rabies vaccine, as he received other vaccines in the neck.
We called the vet and he stopped by and treated him and did so for several days on his way to the clinic and back, until horse was ok.
He would not charge, said the vaccine company would pay for all his trips and medications, since it was clearly a vaccine reaction and they were responsible for any such.

Maybe your vet could also check into that and then all they do to him related to this would be charged to the vaccine company?

[JBCool]

Yay! So glad Bo seems to be feeling better. Extra hugs for both of you

[Heinz_57]

I tell you what, I’m so used to having them in my backyard and being able to check on them at every whim, this is like a form of torture. It’s so difficult to have him away, relying only on phone calls from people that don’t actually know him or his usual ways. If they keep him a third night, I will have to ask if I can visit him tomorrow.

I’m glad he’s improving now, I’ve been trying to transmit mental pictures to him of him getting better and coming home soon. Don’t want him thinking he’s been abandoned again, he was just starting to open up!

[rockymouse]

@Heinz_57

Don’t want him thinking he’s been abandoned again, he was just starting to open up!

He will see you and come home and all will be forgiven.

[Displaced_Yankee]

@rockymouse

He will see you and come home and all will be forgiven

…so long as you don’t soak his beloved Purina Senior

[beowulf]

I would love to learn more about the process of designing and registering your own brand. I have a field of solid bay horses. I have been seriously considering branding them for years.

In other news, I hope you keep a photo of the day Bo came to you on hand. Such a testament to your care.

Jingling for Bo. I’m sure he will forgive you. If anything I bet he will be happy to see you, and be like “MOM, these ladies at this awful place don’t even soak my food how I like!!”

Btw, last spring my gelding had a violent near-colic like reaction to his rabies shot. Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve heard of it in others either.

[volvo_240]

Don’t feel bad at all for asking. When I was in small animal vet med I routinely made sure the vaccine company covered costs of treating a reaction to their product.

This kind of thing needs to be reported to them as an adverse event. During that process they are necessarily going to offer to pay, but if I bring that up (and I wasn’t shy about telling them this is what I expected) they will cover at least a portion of it.

[Heinz_57]

@Displaced_Yankee

so long as you don’t soak his beloved Purina Senior

I wouldn’t mind if they convinced him to eat mash. I don’t know what sort of container they feed in, but if he’s at all interested in food and it’s not bolted down they may get to experience his tub-flinging abilities. Hopefully his appetite comes back. I had good luck with B-12 paste jumpstarting him back in the early weeks, but we’ll see what kind of re-feeding protocol they draw up for him.

@beowulf

I would love to learn more about the process of designing and registering your own brand. I have a field of solid bay horses. I have been seriously considering branding them for years.

So, I’m in TX. Here, brands are only registered with the county you live in, but some states have a statewide registry you are required to register with instead. Many have their brand books online, you can search through to get inspiration or to see if your idea is taken/too similar to something else. It wasn’t expensive to register the brand with my county - just $35 for one location, although there are 7+ locations on each of the two sides. So if you wanted to register your brand for ALL locations and both sides (so nobody registers it in a different location), that would be a bit more spendy. All I had to do was fill out the form and mail it in with a check. Registration cycles vary by area - my county does a 10 year cycle, all current brands will expire in August 2031 if they aren’t re-registered by a certain date.

As far as designing the iron - some specs to think about. The company I used recommends a minimum character height of 2" with a face-width (width of the lines) of 1/4", min 3/8" space between lines and a total iron size of 3-5" on mature horses. You can pretty much do whatever you want design-wise, but the more intricately detailed you try to make it, the higher the likelihood that it comes out muddled or smeared once it’s applied. Some of that can possibly be mitigated by using a person very skilled at freeze branding. Here’s a PDF that talks about lines and spacing, solid shapes vs open, etc. that might be helpful: https://uploads.strikinglycdn.com/files/54aa890b-3f82-4b0f-aed9-dba6d0e6e8c4/PF%20Design%20Guidelines.pdf?id=113135

You can use letters, numbers, shapes, lines, a combo of any of those or really anything you like to create the design. Pittsburg Foundry has a design tool on their website, which is basically a square canvas you can draw on. I struggled to do any sort of accurate drawing on my laptop (had better success using the very crude line tools in MS Paint to do my actual designing) but it was a good tool to see the representation of line width and what I could reasonably fit within the space. Some iron makers offer designing services, others don’t - I don’t think PF does. Their prices are listed on the website by size, if you are curious about the cost.

Sorry to ramble! I did a TON of hours of research on brands, the branding process, looking at different designs, etc. Do you have any idea where you might draw inspiration from? Your initials, something of numerical significance, farm initials or logo? A favorite charm, shape, talisman, symbol that means something to you…

[starsandsun]

Please do let us help, if we can.

[findeight]

Heinz…you absolutely did the the right thing taking him to the closest clinic, especially since they had just seen and treated him. To me, thats a no brainer. Don’t doubt yourself on that choice.

IME and on my vets advice, seniors may not tolerate even routine vaccinations as well and may not even need them. Something to keep in mind. That rabies shot may have been his first ever, not everybody gives that one and I sure would not repeat it. Something more experienced vets might have advised you on or recommended against in an old horse with unknown history recovering from severe neglect.

[Heinz_57]

@findeight

IME and on my vets advice, seniors may not tolerate even routine vaccinations as well and may not even need them. Something to keep in mind. That rabies shot may have been his first ever, not everybody gives that one and I sure would not repeat it. Something more experienced vets might have advised you on or recommended against in an old horse with unknown history recovering from severe neglect.

Ironically, when I was explaining to the on-call vet about the previous vaccine side effects he had had, and mentioned that if this was related to the rabies we wouldn’t be giving it to him again, she very sternly told me ‘NO, we just do pre-emptive care and STILL do them’. I’m sure it was just an offhand comment intended to educate, but it rankled me. Banamine is not a guarantee. It is my decision as to whether or not to take the chance of vaccinating him again, and I’m not going to risk him try to die again thankyouverymuch.

I’ll be honest, this is the first year I have ever vaccinated for rabies. I have had horses for nearly 20 years and have been involved with them for 25. None of my vets ever recommended rabies vax for horses. I have never known anyone with a horse who contracted rabies (though I know it HAS happened). I feel the risk is pretty low generally speaking but was trying to ‘get with the program’.

I was going over my bill from Wednesday this AM and noted that the charge wasn’t listed for the rabies vaccination - you can bet I called the clinic ASAP I need that documentation that it was actually administered…

[Heinz_57]

I will let COTH know how bad it is once I have the bill in hand… I did mention to the receptionist that I was going to try to get reimbursed from the manufacturer, when I was on the phone with her making sure the rabies vax was added to my bill.

[starsandsun]

Just another comment on vaccines. In this area, Potomac Horse Fever is dosed twice a year … and the one (and only) my horse had last year caused him to colic severely within 24 hours. A month later we titered and, while I don’t quite know how to explain this, there was no trace of the vaccine left in his body. It nearly killed him and had little to no staying power, if that makes sense.

[rockymouse]

@Heinz_57

I have had horses for nearly 20 years and have been involved with them for 25. None of my vets ever recommended rabies vax for horses.

Huh - I’m in a different part of the state than you and here everyone gets rabies for horses. No judgment, it’s just interesting.

[Heinz_57]

I was previously in the PNW, we just moved here at the end of August. I was just looking at the maps, looks like there was one lab-confirmed case of rabies (in a bat) in my county in 2022. Overall for Texas, it looks like there were 2 cases of lab-confirmed rabies in horses in 2022.

[Bluey]

In our part of TX we have rabies cases regularly in wildlife and some times in dogs, cats, horses and cattle.
Vets consider rabies a necessary vaccine.
To vaccinate as per protocol protects not only our domestic animals but humans.

Of course if a horse has a bad reaction, vets know how to handle that and what to do if to vaccinate when next vaccination dates come up.
The one mid teens horse that had a reaction was fine the next few years, it was a one time thing with him. Vet used a different company’s vaccine.

[beowulf]

@Heinz_57

So, I’m in TX. Here, brands are only registered with the county you live in, but some states have a statewide registry you are required to register with instead. Many have their brand books online, you can search through to get inspiration or to see if your idea is taken/too similar to something else. It wasn’t expensive to register the brand with my county - just $35 for one location, although there are 7+ locations on each of the two sides. So if you wanted to register your brand for ALL locations and both sides (so nobody registers it in a different location), that would be a bit more spendy. All I had to do was fill out the form and mail it in with a check. Registration cycles vary by area - my county does a 10 year cycle, all current brands will expire in August 2031 if they aren’t re-registered by a certain date.

As far as designing the iron - some specs to think about. The company I used recommends a minimum character height of 2" with a face-width (width of the lines) of 1/4", min 3/8" space between lines and a total iron size of 3-5" on mature horses. You can pretty much do whatever you want design-wise, but the more intricately detailed you try to make it, the higher the likelihood that it comes out muddled or smeared once it’s applied. Some of that can possibly be mitigated by using a person very skilled at freeze branding. Here’s a PDF that talks about lines and spacing, solid shapes vs open, etc. that might be helpful: https://uploads.strikinglycdn.com/files/54aa890b-3f82-4b0f-aed9-dba6d0e6e8c4/PF%20Design%20Guidelines.pdf?id=113135

You can use letters, numbers, shapes, lines, a combo of any of those or really anything you like to create the design. Pittsburg Foundry has a design tool on their website, which is basically a square canvas you can draw on. I struggled to do any sort of accurate drawing on my laptop (had better success using the very crude line tools in MS Paint to do my actual designing) but it was a good tool to see the representation of line width and what I could reasonably fit within the space. Some iron makers offer designing services, others don’t - I don’t think PF does. Their prices are listed on the website by size, if you are curious about the cost.

Sorry to ramble! I did a TON of hours of research on brands, the branding process, looking at different designs, etc. Do you have any idea where you might draw inspiration from? Your initials, something of numerical significance, farm initials or logo? A favorite charm, shape, talisman, symbol that means something to you…

This is really helpful. Thank you. You’ve given me a good starting point to jump off of to restart my brand goals. I think you mentioned yours is a freeze brand, right? I seem to remember in the brief reading I did about this topic, that freeze versus hot have different line widths/height considerations to take into play.

As far as initials, numbers, or logo… Part of the problem is, I have always been bad at drawing “simplicity”. Which I understand is important in branding. Originally, I thought deer antlers with the farm initials, but I can’t get something symmetrical enough - then I thought maybe a fox head with farm logo, but same deal, it doesn’t look visually pleasing. I love how simple but original your concept is.

How is Bo today?

[Heinz_57]

No word yet. I’m waiting by the phone. They are probably still trying to convince him to eat his mashy breakfast

What are your farm initials? If you’re still considering the antlers, maybe take some inspiration from the Trakehner brand’s moose antlers? Similar style but deer antlers with farm initials below? If you like I’d be happy to putz around on paper and see what I can draw up (with the disclaimer that I am not an artist, I sent a rough paint sketch to the iron company with the instructions to make things symmetrical and even LOL).

Yes, mine is a freeze brand. Hot brands create a scar with no hair, freeze brands make the hair turn white. I’m honestly not sure of the line size or spacing for hot brands, as I knew from the start I wanted to go with a freeze brand for more visibility (and less pain for the animal).

[Bluey]

Freeze brands are applied just long enough to turn hair white in horses with colored hair, applied a bit longer on white horses or those that will turn white it will kill hair follicles similar to a hot brand.

Most anyone is using freeze brands today, as they are more clear and can be more detailed, won’t smudge as easily as hot brands do.
We had grey horses freeze branded and their brands were neat and clean and hairless.
Freeze branding hair is shaved and skin cleaned with alcohol, let dry and then brand applied.

We used to hot brand before freeze branding came to be.
One difference, a hot brand is applied in a second or two, done before a horse feels it and reacts, freeze branding takes half a minute or longer, depending on the horse’s hide and hair characteristics, our vets like to tranquilize lightly so horses won’t move around from the pressure, it doesn’t seem to hurt like hot branding did.

[hoopoe]

Rabies is usually dictated by state and federal government. Texas has an endemic problem as Bluey mentioned, and often the state regulators and local jurisdictions are in charge of these issues as a Public Health matter