I did my own flu/rhino this year because I did it a week after my other vaccines (again, I space them out). Had the vet do most others, but did have to review the rules for showing. Here is the USEF rule:
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A friend of mine has a horse who developed an anaerobic infection following vaccines years ago. Huge abscess. Took a long time to resolve. Horse has a permanent crater in its neck and extensive muscle damage going far beyond the neck into the muscles around the scapula and withers. The drug company did provide some compensation for the vet bills even though this is something that could in theory happen with many IM shots. Horse lived, so I donât know what would have happened as far as money in the case of loss. Horse had been a successful show horse in their disciplines but was not a super high dollar horse.
Also knew a horse who a couple of years ago started having allergic reactions to one 7 pack of Adequan. First time looked like colic, but the vet was suspicious as the horse had never colicked before. Dex resolved the colic-like symptoms after they tried shot #2. Horse had gotten Adequan 2x a year for years before this with no problems, so the vet sent the rest of the pack in and filed a report. Response from the company was there was nothing wrong with the batch. No compensation offered. Horse recovered fine but they donât give Adequan anymore.
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Interesting on the flu/rhino requirements, but it makes sense.
Iâve heard of a handful of horses who developed an allergy(ish) to Adequan, which stinks. And yes, any IM injection can develop a clostridium infection, with certain drugs being more likely due to their inherently more caustic nature and therefore more likely to damage muscle tissue and set up the existing clostridium to take hold. A lot of horses naturally have that in their body and muscle tissue.
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Then thereâs the fact that horses can develop an allergy at any given time in their lives. The endless thrills of horse ownership.
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USEF shows require a recent vaccination report covering flu/rhino within the last 6 months.
âIn compliance with USEF GR845, All Horse Show Competitors must provide proof of immunization of their horses for Flu / Rhino within the last 6 months to prevent spread of EHV1 on the showgrounds. Most recent inoculation will need to be a minimum of 7 days before the show date.â
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UPDATEâWell, we had a comfortable night. No more colicking. She is officially the mystery case. It is so much of a mystery that small animal, large animal, emergency services, and medicine faculty got together to review the case and see what the actual hell is going on. Annnnndddd⊠no one knows.
They are going to try some things. Itâs too much to type, and itâs going to cause a lot of questions if I outline it now â I know you all are invested and I love that and appreciate you all so much! --, but if the tests yield something⊠I will let you know what we did and why.
Creatine still wonât come down. We are lingering at 5.25. It has stabilized there, so thatâs bad, but also good.
So, thatâs the update. We bought another couple more days.
UCD doesnât want to give up. Why do you want to give up the mystery horse case? Someone is going to write a paper I bet. I am 1,000% fine with it if it helps another horse. We want good vet students to move on to take care of our horses - we all need cases like this one. It just sucks that itâs my girl.
OK - now - I saw some squabbling last night. Donât do it. Please. Happy with all the vaccine talk and the cautionary tales about doing sticks on your own. Great sidebars. Good questions and what if scenarios. Thatâs how we all get better. Keep it up! I love it.
Just be nice to each other on this thread. This is an all positivity space. I have latent rage. Donât make me ref.
Love you all. Have a great day!!!
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So, SO happy to hear that sheâs stable(ish?). I also am very glad to hear that they are calling in the troops. At the very least, having more brains to think about the problem is always a good thing! Hope the tests yield something useful. Continuing the jingles!!!
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More Jingles!!!
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Thanks for the update. A sliver of hope is better than no hope at all.
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Pulling so hard for you and your mare! Sending tons of jingles that her creatinine drops and sheâs able to recover with a good quality of life ahead of her.
I had a young Newfoundland dog, less than a year old, go into sudden kidney failure. Six days in a Cornell emergency hospital and every test done with no answers. He had had a dose of Deramax (his first nsaid) the day before he got sick. Vets insisted it wouldnât be the cause butâŠ
And just like that he turned around. His levels came back to where they should be and he was better. With no answers as to why or how this happened.
As you said, some of them are just special. <3
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yes, thanks, thatâs definitely newer than what used to be, and itâs a good thing, given how quickly it can spread, and how relatively easily it can turn neuro,
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So very happy to see the latest update! Stable is good, even if things arenât getting betterâŠyet. Still praying and jingling, and also so very glad more minds are coming together on this.
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@Sfbayequine, you are being much nicer to folks than I think I could be in that situation! People, argue somewhere else! Many more jingles being sent your way for your girl and her thinktank. I had a soundness case a lot of people learned from, but it sucks. Hopefully someone figures it out and it becomes best of both worlds.
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SO glad to hear your update! Continued healing thoughts for your sweet horse.
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Here is hoping that when USDavis writes that paper about your mare the final sentence is âand much to everyoneâs astonishment the mare pulled through with no lingering effects.â 
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Thanks for the update. Glad to hear things have stabilized a bit. Continuing to send positive thoughts and healing vibes to your mare.
I told my trainer about this and she said maybe 25 yrs ago, she had a horse who went into renal and liver failure following vaccinations. She doesnât remember which vaccines. Really hope your mare pulls through. Your grace under pressure, is remarkable.
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Man, what a crazy, frightening thing. I hope she pulls through and that maybe the vets can find some actual answers for you on what all happened. How terrible to not know exactly WHY.
Fwiw, Vetera vaccines used to be marketed as having very low reactivity risk. Something about the way theyâre filtered? I have a mare that had some reactions to her EWT years ago, and after looking at the available options, switched her over to Vetera because of that info.
Thatâs not at ALL to say itâs not to blame here, but I donât think thereâs anything inherently âbadâ or concerning with Vetera. Not like Fort Dodge, that soooooooo many horses had trouble with back in the day (those vaccines are now under the Zoetis name, I think, it can be so hard to keep track.)
Fingers crossed for improvement, answers, and $$$$ from the vaccine company!!
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Thanks for posting⊠that makes me feel sligtly less crazy. 
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Yep. I think at the end of it it all itâs going to be how this one specific very specially reactive horse responded to the vaccine as a catalyst for a bunch of things that happened.
I donât think there is anything wrong with Vetera or BI. I donât want anyone to take that away from this thread.
I mentioned yesterday, both my horses got it. One is in the hospital. One is eating all her hay and has taken over her stall.
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