My 6 YO gelding cut his cheek open last week and got an infection. We gave him his first round of Excede in his hind end and he did just fine, no signs of any reaction. We waited 10 days to consider doing a second round and decided to because his face still wasn’t quite healing. We injected his neck on both sides and his right pec, and 24 hours later he has pretty intense swelling on his right pec. About the size of my palm, possibly bigger. It is hard and warm, he has a slightly elevated temp but is eating, pooping, drinking just fine. He is also very stiff in front walking because it is obviously causing him some pain. Checked his feet and digital pulse, all seems time. Doesn’t seem distressed, just sore. I gave him a tablet of Bute and ran cold water on it for 20 mins. Has anyone else had swelling/weird reactions with Excede? Is there anything else you did to help clear it up? Thank you!
How much did you give in the pec?
Horses can become sensitized to the drug through repeat dosing and have a reaction to the drug. Have you talked to your vet?
May I ask why there was any wait on the 2nd injection? It’s full course is 2 doses, 4 days apart, for a total of 10 days of circulating abx.
My vet has told me that the 1st dose rarely causes a problem, but the 2nd dose is much more likely to.
It just takes time for the swelling to dissipate. You may find he gets a “boob” that eventually goes away as the fluid is moved around and out.
Definitely call your vet, and I too am curious not just how much was given in the pec, but why the dose was split into 3 sites. Usually it’s just 2, unless the horse is so big his dose is gigantic.
My bad, it was spaced 4 days apart with a total 10 day circulation. The reason he got 3 injections is because he is indeed gigantic, 18+ hands 1600Ibs. Today it is more spread out and not as hard and localized, hopefully just moving through his system. Talked to my vet and they agreed, bute and cold rinsing. Hopefully his “boob” will go down soon and not be as sore after this 48 hour mark. Thanks for the feedback
The first time my horse got it, he swelled on both sides of his neck. The second time, about a year later with a different vet, she massaged the injection sites fairly vigorously and recommended I do the same when he got his follow up dose. I did, and he had zero swelling. The med is so thick, it pools easily in the muscle and takes a while to dissipate. I imagine that’s why the pec swelled, there not a lot of movement compared to the neck muscles.
Ok, that’s good 
Yes, that is not that uncommon. The study I read recently (and no idea why I ended up on it, I wasn’t looking for it lol) said that in their small study, 4% had the swelling reaction. I don’t know if that % is similar to real-world use, but I suspect it’s a bit higher than that.
FWIW, my vet, while still doing no more than 20mL/site, adjusts the needle about halfway through the injection, so while it’s the same “spot”, it’s deposited in 2 slightly different spots.
IMHO it’s always a good idea to some massage on IM injection sites, whether vaccines or abx or even Adequan, so the chemicals don’t sit there for any longer than they have to. And given the choice, the pecs are a good idea over the neck for horses who are a bit more sensitive - it’s usually easier to lower the head to eat (and drink!) with sore pecs than a sore neck.
Some horses have an allergic reaction to excede that causes swelling at the injection site & joints. I had a mare almost die after a single injection at a show. The swelling did not start until the next day, but it was terrifying. It’s not the med, just an allergic reaction, I would not use it on your horse again.
Allergic reactions are usually much closer in proximity to the injection. Many, many horsed get injection site swelling with a variety of meds, including penicillin and more. Sometimes it’s the needle. Sometimes it’s injecting too thick of a substance too quickly, or too much of it in a single spot, both of which are possible with Excede and penicillin.
Just because there’s injection site swelling doesn’t mean that’s an allergy. That’s a discussion to have with the vet.
Where did your mare swell? What made it life-threatening?
That’s not unusual when you give Excede into the pectorals. I will give vaccines in the pecs, as they will eat and drink better if they get sore, but Excede is always neck and semimembs for me.
It’s not a huge problem, more of a PITA to cold hose +/- cold pack.
My one horse got Exceed here just today first dose 15 CC then another in 4 days. Will see how it goes as far as soreness from shots. Not thrilled with it ,but that is what vet want’s horse on so that what horse is getting.
Yes this happened to me about 2 months ago when my sensitive TB was on Excede for a very ugly leg wound. His wound healed great but he was left with huge knots in his neck. They started to ease up in about 7-10 days and were mostly gone within 2 weeks. I gave him Banamine IV to help with the discomfort.
JB, that is what made the situation crazy. I was at a show, and the vet is a well-respected vet with a big-name practice. She’d been treating the mare for scratches that she’d picked up at the show and we’d been there for a month so she’d really gotten to know the mare. She gave the Exceed on Saturday evening, mare was fine. I came out and hacked the mare early Sunday before they closed the rings. There was NO injection site swelling when I tacked her up. 30 minute hack, got off and noticed her neck was swelling. Vet happened to drive by and I showed her and we agreed it was really weird, but at that point it was not scary, but I told her I was concerned. She said exactly what you said, that it could not be an allergic reaction so long after the fact, I (not a vet) said, okay, but remember how you gave her a shot last night and now her neck is swelling at the injection site? We were kind of joking about it because it was not a serious issue at that point, but it was blatantly obvious that the mare had injection site swelling (to me, who is not a big believer in coincidences). I put the mare in her stall and left the show grounds for 30 minutes. I was driving back when my trainer called me crying and said that it appeared my mare had broken her leg in her stall and the vet was in the stall taking X-rays. Mare was down, leg was so swollen they were struggling to get images. At that point I became convinced my trainer had lost her mind. I got there five minutes later to find the vet and her vet tech struggling to get X-rays and my sweet baby green horse in heart-wrenching distress. I can’t remember which joint they were so focused on other than to say if I saw it on its own it did look broken. However, I looked at her neck and it was horrifying. Huge, horrible streaks of swelling and I told the vet to please stop trying to X-ray the joint in question and look at her other joints, which were all swelling literally before our eyes, particularly her front legs. Her entire neck ended up swelling. And then she started having trouble breathing, although they’d had to sedate her to try to X-ray the first joint that swelled up, and she was in so much pain I don’t know if that part was an allergic reaction. I said, it is clearly a reaction to the shot, but timing made no sense and vet had never seen anything like it before. She gave as much Benedryl and every other thing she could try, and told me that I needed to start thinking about making difficult decisions. She called her mentor and the one thought they had was that there was some type of infection/bacteria in her joints and they wanted to pull fluid to test. But, it was a Sunday and they were trying to figure out how to have it tested immediately. In the meantime the meds appeared to be starting to work. Eventually the swelling eased enough that the mare could bend her knees, and then she got less shock-y looking, for lack of a better term, and after a few hours it became apparent that it was just swelling. It took a full month for the swelling to go away completely, and the mare suffered no ill-effects long term. The fluid test came back negative. After saying how impossible it was for this to be caused by an allergic reaction, after we got the test results, everyone agreed that she had a weird reaction that did not manifest until she was exercised. The vet had me call the company that manufactures Exceed and file a report, but everyone involved thought that kind of reaction was unique to the horse. I have never seen anything like it before and pray I never do again, and am so thankful to the vet and her tech, this happened so fast and was so scary that without their cool heads I don’t know what would have happened, not to mention the fact that we happened to be at a show and they were able to get to her within five minutes of the knee joint starting to swelI. I was on the other side of the country getting a health cert to bring her home from a show that winter when I saw the vet tech and she told me it was a similar situation had happened with another horse at the show and someone told the treating vet what happened with my mare so they treated it as an allergy even though the thinking was that it could not possibly be an allergic reaction because of timing. Sorry for the novel, but it was a bizarre occurance. For the record, I have used Exceed on another horse when other antibiotics did not work and it worked like a charm, although I was nervous about it. The mare in question, however, was sold with written and verbal warnings not to give Exceed and has had a great career with her junior (eek, who is now an amateur!). And that, my friends, is my very long story about why I would not give a horse who had a reaction to it once another dose. Again, not a vet, I don’t even play one on tv.
@Justice O…M…G… :eek: :eek: You should have seen my face while reading that! Thank you for typing all that out, I think that is incredibly useful information to know and I’m sure others do too. I’m glad I was nosy! :winkgrin:
Do you happen to know if the other horse’s similar reaction also occurred after exercise? And this was at the same show as your horse? That sounds too coinkydinky and makes me wonder if there was some weird little virus thingy going around that just happened to interact? Grasping there. Dang…
HATE the stuff makes for a miserable horse!
Tazy it’s REALLY not that bad. Is it bad when there’s a terrible reaction? Of course. Ever seen a nasty reaction to penicillin? They all have the potential. Some, a little more due to their physical nature.
Neither of my horses who’ve had this have been miserable. Yes, they had some site swelling and heat, but only 1 was a bit sore in putting his head down. He also got a sore neck years ago from twice daily penicillin shots, so…
How’s your horse doing on it?
Just finished TWO rounds of Excede for a fairly horrific injury that a rescue sustained at New Holland. Each time I administered the drug, I rubbed his neck for a period of time after injecting. NO swelling or ill affects, and the injury is just about completely healed, at this point.
I had a filly on Naxcel years ago, and she ran me out of the stall when I went to give her the last dose of that stuff. Apparently, it really stings! I am so glad Excede exists now- even if I do need to use a HUGE needle to give the stuff- which is the consistency of glue.
He’s improved as far as the being sick. His neck is sooooo sore and a big swollen knot that he can’t put his head down that’s on both sides of neck. Yeah it works good horse improved fast on it,but the reaction to it SUCKS for poor horse. Cold hosing and doing bute. Vet gave both shots not me.
I’m curious - because I always want to know details when things to “wrong”: [LIST=1]
Pulling the needle partway out after depressing the plunger halfway, adjusting to a slightly different muscle spot, and going back in for the rest, can also avoid putting all that liquid, even though it’s not the full dose, into the exact same spot, and that can help reduce knots and soreness issues.
Horse only got 15 cc and vet gave about half then redirected needle and gave other half. No he did other side of neck for second dose. But horse was not good about second shot he required twitching. This horse is very reactive to any injections given,spring shots or any kind of shot produces a very sore neck. Exceed is absolutely the worst reaction to a shot i’ve seen on this horse. He hasn’t laid down for 3 days now.
Doing shots in hindquarters really isn’t an option he will kick,and he cow kicks with real good aim.
For clarification - he got all 15mL in a single site, redirected halfway through? My vet won’t give anywhere near the max 20mL that Zoetis says. My horse gets a 22mL dose, so she’ll do 11 and 11, not even 15 and 7. She’ll just aim for as close to 10 as she can without having to do 3 injections. So, consider that if you find you need to have that used again.
Also consider the pec muscles for shots. Horses tend to be less reactive - all around - there, possibly because they aren’t the typical site, so for one, they don’t expect to be stuck there.
