Did anyone else have a horse have a poor reaction to Lyme Vaccine this year? My gelding had a bad reaction, as did a few at the barn I truck into.
Contemplating even giving it at all next year, but the problem is we’re in such a Lyme heavy area. I was dealing with lyme seemingly every year, until I started the vaccine.
Sorry to hear that 
My two mares had no reaction this year (given back in February and will again in the fall).
Hope the reaction resolves quickly for all of you!
I’m glad your two girls were fine! I’m still waffling but thinking maybe it’s banamine every time this horse gets a shot… We already split up his vaccines anyway because he tends to get really sore in his neck, and he gets banamine for Rabies. I’m just kicking myself for not thinking of it for the L-V.
My younger mare got the Lyme vaccine for the first time in March 2024 (she was 4 yrs old at the time), and had a bit of a colicky reaction to it, which stressed me out. This year we figured we’d just give her that separately from the rest of spring shots to see if it was just something about having it the first time vs something she’d always do. Happily this year she didn’t slow down a beat after that vaccination (or any other spring shots), so I am hopeful she’ll continue to handle it that way.
Even though we had a “real” winter in Vermont this past year, with cold-cold temps and close to 2 feet of snow on the ground from Thanksgiving through March, the ticks are the worst I’ve ever seen them right now. I’ve probably pulled 4-5 ticks off each mare DAILY these past couple of months. They are itchy, they are raw, they are miserable, but there’s just nothing that seems to work to prevent the ticks attacking them. Usually I have one crawling on me after every feeding, just contact transfer from the horses.
Knocking on all the wood I have not had a case of Lyme in any of my vaccinated horses. I did have a rough round of anaplasmosis with one mare a couple of years ago, and occasionally see some very bad open, angry sores at the site of tick bites, so there are still tick-related problems that come up. But, I think the Lyme prevention benefit of the vaccine outweighs the potential side effects for my personal situation.
I only wish the recent progress towards a human vaccine wasn’t being jeopardized right now
Oh no!! I’m sorry she had a reaction to it. That sounds somewhat like what I’m dealing with now (I also give it separate). Glad she didn’t have a repeat reaction this year.
The ticks are awful this year, I don’t know if it got cold enough here to kill off any. I don’t know if Freedom45 or Equispot are available to you, I use both every ~4 weeks. Run a damp sponge from top of head to topline, then put the drops in (the damp sponge making their backs wet seems to help with reactivity).
My gelding (impaction) colicked on Sunday after vaccine administration, and then had another relapse on Wednesday. Vet and I are leaning towards it possibly being an adjuvant causing him to be too sore to drink, and one thing lead to another.
And I’m with you, it’s awful what’s happening out there.
Deep snow insulates at the ground level and improves their winter survival unfortunately. Freezing ground without snow is better. Also removing leaves from the edge of the woods where it meets pastures or lawns hugely reduces the number of deer ticks as they preferentially overwinter in that edge habitat. The deeper the leaves the more ticks. Wait till it’s as cold as possible then chop 'em up so they decompose rapidly, drag them out and spread thinly or add to your manure pile.
Mine doesn’t get the Lyme vaccine, but he did have a reaction this year to one of 3 vaccines he got on the same day (rabies, Potomac and West Nile). Another horse in the barn also had a reaction to one of them. Just slight fever, listlessness and excessive sleepiness, but he’s never reacted to a shot before so not sure if it was a one off with this year’s batch or something that will be a yearly issue. We are going to be giving banamine prior to vaccines going forward just in case.
My guy got the Lyme vaccine this spring and didn’t seem to have a reaction to it. I think a couple of other horses at my barn also got a Lyme vaccine and I don’t think they had any issues either (at least that I know of).
My horse always gets sore from the Lyme vaccine but this spring was the worst. He didn’t eat for about 24 hours because his neck was so sore. I split his spring vaccines over two appointments because he gets sore from all shots, vaccines being the worst. My horse gets the Lyme vaccine twice a year, so I’m going to banamine him with his fall dose to be safe. The ticks seems to get worse every year so he’ll be getting the vaccine as long as he tolerates it.
My guys got it per usual, and didn’t have any issues this spring, including the newbie who got hit twice to start the series. I use the merial recombitek Lyme.
I did have one year where I had a couple reactions–sore necks, fevers, nothing crazy, but enough to notice–to the Vetera EWT WNV, and it was a surprise because that particular vaccine/brand had never been an issue before. When I talked to the vet about it, she said that her pharma rep advised that the vaccine getting too cold in shipment could = more reactions. Something about ice crystals forming (even though they weren’t present when the vaccine was used.) I thought that was interesting, and could perhaps be one factor for those weird reactions that pop up out of the blue in horses that are not typically problem children.
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