That’s great info to know- thank you.
We used to have one that had a reaction to everything and it turned out that he was reacting to the silicon in the syringe. That was a fun one- he also had reactions to latex. Seriously how do horses survive lol?
From the different vets whose brains Ive picked, all have said that a lot of the times it’s not the vaccines themselves, but the carriers or adjuvants that cause the reaction.
It sure does make you wonder!
Agree with this 110%.
Honestly, it’s how I’ve been able to keep horses my whole life.
I do my own vaccines. The vet sees every horse on the farm at least once a year to do rabies, coggins, and dentals. The vet is generally out several more times a year because, ya know, horses. 
But doing my own vaccines saves me several hundred dollars a year, so when I have that unexpected emergency, it’s not as much of a hardship.
My horses live out, which not only saves on bedding and hay costs, but is also healthier for them.
I don’t feed a lot of supplements. Any sort of body work is a bonus, not a necessity-- I can keep my horses comfortable without it. When I can’t afford it, things like lessons and competitions don’t happen. And that’s ok. I’d rather my horses have a good quality of life than compete regularly.
I set my horses up for success to stay barefoot. Trimming my own is something I’ve been debating for years now and I will most definitely start if my hand is forced.
Now, my friend recently had a situation where her horse was hospitalized with a breakthrough case of EHV despite vaccination, and low and behold, the vaccine manufacturer did indeed pay her vet bills after her regular vet submitted the records. I had always heard that was true, but this was my first time seeing it actually happen. With that said, I still feel like the cost savings of vaccinating my own is worth it despite losing that benefit.
There’s a vet local to me that does that package deal, but it’s just the basic spring/fall. Having some more options in there is a super idea.
Not the person you quoted, but it reminded me that my vet clinic started offering a similar routine wellness package option - let me see if I can find the name of it. I don’t recall the exact pricing but there were several tiers, a basic package, something in the middle and one that was targeted specifically at seniors. I wish I could find the details, my memory is fuzzy but I want to say it was a monthly payment and certain tiers even included a certain amount of emergency coverage.
Sidenote: if any other work is performed in addition to the vaccine, you may not get fully reimbursed… speaking from experience. The assistance was appreciated, but they only paid 1/3 of my bill.
Did that include the office call plus a vet exam? Or was it a farm call with the farm call plus vet exam?
I think the last time I paid for a farm call I was also charged a fuel surcharge like truckers do.
@FjordBCRF My vet would tell me every time that cleaning the sheath was something I could do. No, I will pay.
If it were like $25, that’s fine. $50 is too steep for me with a gelding that’s a good sport about it! I had a mare growing up, but worked at a camp with a lot of geldings. That was probably the ONLY time those poor ponies got cleaned!
$60.35 farm call per horse, so $120.70 for the farm call. $5 gas surcharge per horse, so $10 gas surcharge. We live 5.5 miles from the hospital so I feel it’s a bit steep, but I just can’t take the time to haul them during tax season. It’s a $75 haul in fee (no matter the amount of horses) anyways, so worth the extra $45 to not deal with it. No exam or medical waste fee.
My normally laid-back small animal vet had an absolute fit that I vaccinated my puppy myself when I picked him up. I got him from a woman that didn’t believe in vaccines, at 10 weeks old. I vaccinated him right after his thorough flea bath to start getting him caught up. She said I should never do such a thing because you don’t know what the farm store does with the vaccines and if anything happened there would be no recourse anywhere and also she considered him completely unvaccinated until he had all his shots documented at a vet.
Like, I get it, but also it was 2021 and it was many weeks before I could get a vet appointment, I wasn’t gonna let him have nothing in the interim. She wasn’t real happy that I had my CVT cousin do his microchip shortly after either, she said you can’t chip a dog until it’s under for a neuter because it hurts too much. This lug didn’t even notice.
My vet is the same. Also, if they do not see the horse within one year for something a wellness check has to be scheduled or your dropped. It’s a very busy practice with good, kind vets and one of the few offering after hours emergency care in the area, so I’m good with it.
My floats are double that 
.
So the fuel surcharge is still in use. I guess it’s like most things, once people start paying for it, it never gets removed. I think mine figured out at about 17 cents per mile past a certain radius around the clinic.
It chaps my hide that their gas surcharge isn’t prorated by distance. I could be 15 miles or 1 mile from the clinic and would pay the same surcharge. But it is what it is.
Ouch!!! 
Wait, your farm call is per horse? That makes no sense to me.
My vet offers wellness packages each spring, each of which is discounted from the price if you were to pay for everything a la carte. I think the highest is discounted 15%, the next down 10%, the smallest package 5%. I always get the package with all of the options because I do them anyway. It includes spring and fall shots, Coggins, two fecals, annual power float with sedation. I think that’s it. IIRC it’s $495 per horse. I have my own place so have to pay all of the barn call, which is 110 even though I am about 2 miles from her but hey, I know she has bills to pay too. I think it’s a great idea to offer this kind of package.
I live in a relatively affordable area to own horses. But just coggins, rabies, and a dental float sets me back over $200 per horse, provided there are no exceptional issues. My farm call is $79.
It would be no big deal to have the vet do all the vaccines if I just had one or two horses. But to own multiple horses? It really adds up.
Thankfully my vet has always said that she just cares that the horses are vaccinated, whether she does it or the owner. I had a vet in another state who was extremely opposed to owners vaccinating their own… he also charged more than double what my current vet charges (a decade ago) and employed questionable practices like always giving banamine in the muscle along with the vaccines, at the owners’ expense.
Doing FECs yourself is super easy if you are the science-y type. You can source all the equipment relatively cheaply… I paid less than $300 for everything buying it all new many years ago, and the price has since gone WAY down thanks to Amazon. With multiple horses, it has more than paid for itself by now.
It’s $120.70, but broken out on the bill if that makes sense? So if I had ten horses seen, it would be $12.07/horse.
I do the senior wellness package as it includes farm fee and one emergency call per year. Plus vaccines, 2x a year teeth, coggins, sheath cleaning, 2x a year fecal.
They still charge an extra fuel fee but it’s 10.00.
If it’s vaccines I don’t want to give at one time, she just leaves them with me to give. I trust her handling the vaccines over my purchasing them from Tractor Supply or other local places.
I pay for a sheath cleaning as my pony will sit down/kick/throw himself around without a healthy dose of ace. He hates getting his sheath done.
100% this
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