In Harrington, De near Maryland border.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?sto…n__=%2As%2As-R
Creepy.
We had an extensive thread on rabies vaccination a while ago on the COTH forum. My horses are vaccinated, although my vet does not recommend the vaccine for them here on the West Coast, for various reasons which he has explained.
I’m genuinely curious what his/her reasons are. Would you mind sharing?
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I’m in the West. My horse had a terrible vaccine reaction to rabies. Not good. The only reason I vaccinated him is because a coyote attacked a man and dog about 20(?) miles away. We have minimal rabies here.
Seems odd to me, growing up on the east coast, where rabies was a fact of life.
No more rabies for my horse.
Okay, I had this conversation several times with the vet but it has been years ago so I am now fuzzy on the details. I think the main reason is that the vector for rabies which affects horses is not prevalent here. I don’t remember the particulars but the gist is something like this (except that I might be remembering the wrong animals): the main carrier of rabies here is bats which don’t bite horses. In the East, the main vector is racoons and maybe foxes, which occasionally bite a horse so are the rabies vector for horses. Here, the racoons don’t get rabies. I don’t know what the story is with skunks, but apparently, as a vector, they are not a problem here – for horses.
The next reason is that there has not been a case of equine rabies in the West in like, five or six years (or more), and I think that horse was actually imported from the East where it was thought to have contracted it.
So the incidence of rabies in horses is so extremely rare that the cost/benefit is too high to recommend the vaccine, not only the dollar cost of the vaccine, but the cost of the risk of side effects.
Okay, here is a page from some vet website (which looks reputable) for 2015. If you scroll down, the maps show the incidence of rabies in different animals and all the rabid racoons are in the East, so I think my memory was correct about those animals. There were quite a few racoons tested in western states but no rabies. As a tangent, I wonder why that is?
Table 1 shows a breakdown by state of the 14 cases of rabies in horses and mules in the U.S. in 2015, but the numbers in the column add up to 8 cases yet the total indicates 14. I don’t know what that discrepancy is.
https://avmajournals.avma.org/doi/fu…ma.250.10.1117
Edit to add: I noticed on that Table 1 that there were no rabid foxes here in CA in 2015. Maybe they are another vector.
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Another West Coaster chiming in. The last time I talked to a vet they recommended rabies bc although the odds of getting it are low, the chance of death once the horse gets it is 100% and there is considerable risk to humans and other animals.
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Most of us around here do not vaccinate for rabies upon recommendation of our vets. Especially if horse is kept in an enclosed barn.
@PeteyPie Thanks for your reply. Living in an area where rabies is fairly common in wildlife, it is hard for me to imagine why a vet anywhere would not recommend it. But, I guess if it simply isn’t present in an area, the considerations are different. As a native east-coaster, I likely would give the vaccine anywhere I lived, just because it’s ingrained in me. I have heard of many domestic animals affected (frequently cats) and humans who have received post-exposure treatment.
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That is fascinating (that the west coast doesn’t have the same issue). It is the one vaccine that I would never skip, well probably Tetanus too. But I live in CT and just the other day watched my big guy run off a coyote that may have been just stalking the turkeys or may have been sick.
It’s bats which scare me. I love our bat colony that lives in the house roof…but…
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Here we have vaccinated horses for rabies for decades, skunks and feral cats considered reservoirs for rabies, as testing shows.
This year we had a local horse that tested positive for rabies.
Everyone takes rabies seriously around here.
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Here, too, but I in no way mean to imply that others don’t. It’s just completely outside of my experience to live in an area where it isn’t a threat.
I would like to walk for exercise in the early mornings, but it would have to be before sunrise to fit it in. I rarely do that, though, because I am cautious about encountering animals that are possibly rabid in the dark. I know that’s slightly dramatic, but it’s not outside the reasonable realm of possibility.
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I am surprised that a vet would consider bats as non-threatening. A rabid animal ( of any kind) will blunder into anything and bite it, including bats on horses. Bats on the west coast are well known vectors.
I vaccinated my horse as he lived out 24/7. Bats will get into buildings and rabid ones will blunder about inside, so a barn is not protective.
I recall the vaccine as being fairly reactive and produced muscle soreness for a week. Small price to pay and Jay was happy to have the week off.
In washington state we had 1 horse and one llama contract rabies from bats
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I keep hearing about this, the risk (and cost?) of side effects from the vaccine is worse than contracting rabies - that doesn’t compute 
:no:
The vast majority of horses don’t have any adverse reaction to the vaccine. Of those who do, it’s usually some heat and swelling and tha can be handled pretty easily. It’s the small % of horses who react badly enough to warrant not giving it. While it is possible the reactions to the vaccine could end up killing a horse, or costing $$$ to treat him, that’s really, really rare, and is it REALLY worth avoiding compared to the cost of the disease?
I agree, it seems odd to ignore the bat as a threat
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https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/rabies
Worldwide, dogs are the most important vector, whereas wild animals, especially bats, are the main threat to humans in North America
And for @PeteyPie
All rabies virus variants can infect and cause disease in animals other than their reservoir hosts
Rabid bats exist in all 48 CONUS states
https://www.doh.wa.gov/YouandYourFamily/IllnessandDisease/Rabies
Rabid bats have been found in almost every county in Washington.
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My thought too.
Rabies if fatal in horses 100% of the time.
I like to prevent my horses from getting something that is 100% fatal.
I have a mare that severely reacts to vaccines. Her first reaction was to something not a rabies vaccine (she was given two vaccines that day, neither were rabies).
Since then she reacts to everything.
Rabies is the one vaccine we have worked hard to come up with a protocol to allow her to be vaccinated for it. Is it cheap? No. Is it very stressful? Yes. But rabies is not worth the risk of not vaccinating.
Last time I checked all kind of animals can get into a barn, even those that do not fly. Your (general) barn would have to be very closed up to prevent all vector animals from getting in.
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It’s one thing to lose a horse to rabies, but at that point how many people have been exposed and should get treatment? How terrifying would that be, knowing you might have been infected before you knew the horse had the disease?
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In medicine, the phrase is, “the most dangerous vaccine is the one not given”.
Of course there are protocols for vaccinations and contraindications, but as long as those are followed,
In medicine, “the most dangerous vaccine is the one not given”.
Of course there are protocols for vaccinations and contraindications, but as long as those are followed, vaccines are one reason we have the world we have today.
Being a little too cavalier about vaccines is not in the best interest of anyone, each individual and the herd-effect vaccines provide to other individuals.
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Couple things I want to point out. Rabies rates in domestic animals (and humans) are really very low everywhere in the US. What’s the major reason? Because of mandated vaccination of what historically (and currently in many parts of the world) was the most common source of transmission to those species—dogs. The general scenario was—dog mucks with rabid wildlife—>dog interacts with other domestic critters and people before anybody realizes it’s rabid—>domestic/human transmission. What are the comparitively minor reasons why rabies is so rare in domestic animals and people in North America? Because many of the non-dog domestics that have high value are ALSO vaccinated, and because of strict public health laws regarding actions on potential exposures. What this means is, if you choose not to vaccinate your animals for rabies and an exposure event occurs (you find bite wounds on your horse’s nose from an unknown source in a rabies-endemic county, for instance) your choices are to 1) euthanize the horse 2) strictly quarantine the horse for six months. And let me tell you, being in a position where you KILL an otherwise healthy animal because quarantine isn’t viable for some reason is a really effing lousy place to be. Reason number 207 I’m glad I’m a radiologist.
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Just doing a quick search. There are many equine vaccine companies that sell Rabies vaccine (some restrictions apply depending upon the state that you live in) Rabies vaccine is cheap! It’s 2 doses of RabVac per horse. At $2.69 a dose x 2 that is only $5.38 of product. Yes I know the vet will charge more, etc, but that is cheap insurance! Example ;: https://www.jefferspet.com/products/rabvac-3?via=533884c19fa2600f00000615
Rabies is not to be messed with. There is a child in Wisconsin that survived it a few years ago. I don’t know how the kid is doing and what lasting effects it had but the point is, Rabies is fatal. Rabies in a horse looks like so many other things (choke, colic, neuro stuff, etc) humans are in contact with them before they even have a clue that is it rabies. We vaccinate every horse of ours every year.
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