No more vaccines

[Warmblood1]

When I was working in the vet field, we did not generally vaccine severe reactors such as anaphylaxis unless it was required by the state. If we did, we hospitalized and did preemptive medications to lower the reaction. I think this would be the route I’d go if I were going to chance vaccinations again.

Often changing manufacturers doesn’t matter and reactions frequently worsen with time. The donkey may have a higher likelihood of death getting the vaccine than contracting whatever the the donkey is being vaccinated for.

[SuzieQNutter]

@candyappy

@moonlitoaksranch

Has anyone owned an equine that couldn’t be vaccinated?

Not all horses are vaccinated and live long, healthy lives. I wonder if he would react to Tetanus vaccine? I would be leery about letting that slide.

Mum had a phone call once asking if she had given a horse she once owned a Tetnus vaccine. Mum replied that she could not remember actually giving him one, however all our horses are vaccinated yearly for it, so if he was here long enough he would have been given it maybe more than once.

The caller said that she had saved his life. He contracted Tetanus and nearly died from it. The vet said the only reason he survived, was because someone in his life time had given him a vaccine.

[trubandloki]

@moonlitoaksranch

Has anyone owned an equine that couldn’t be vaccinated?

Yes.

I have one whose vaccine reaction lead to laminitis.

We tried simply pre-treating and giving only one vaccine of a different brand and things went sideways still.

We do pre-treat and with much careful planning give a rabies vaccine. I do not know the brand but it is a different rabies vaccine than they typically give.

Everything else is not given for this horse.

Adding - this horse had been fully vaccinated for their whole life to that point and had never had a reaction at all. No idea why things changed.

[moonlitoaksranch]

I think that’s why our vet said no more vaccines.

[cayuse]

Yes, I also have one that can’t be vaccinated, he has had 3-4 serious reactions, tried changes manufacturers and pre-treating, but each time he was worse. We just missed lami the last time around and he was sick for about 4 days.

[Jarpur]

My reactor gets the rabies vaccine, as it is a public health risk, but his long-time veterinarian told me the horse doesn’t need to get it every year, so it’s given every other.

Another veterinarian I used for several years told me that, when he was a vet student, he went with others to a prison that had one of those programs for the inmates to train horses. One horse was difficult for its exam, and inmates mentioned that this behavior was atypical for that horse.

Later, he and the other vet students got the call that this horse had been diagnosed with rabies, which explained the change in personality, and they all had to receive rabies boosters. He told me that they had already had an initial vaccination, as a condition of being a vet student.

In my area, my dog’s small animal veterinarian told me that there recently have been foxes in a nearby small town with rabies. We have foxes at our place, along with raccoons, skunks, etc., so rabies is not a vaccine I want to completely forgo. When I was a child and young adult, hundreds of miles away, nobody vaccinated for it, no vet recommended doing so, but it’s a different story here.

[moonlitoaksranch]

Did the prisoners contact rabies from the horse?

[Jarpur]

I don’t know, but I doubt it. The way the vet told this story (which was long ago), my distinct impression was that the horse having rabies was discovered very shortly after the students’ prison visit.

In which case, I’m sure the inmates would have received the series of shots that a previously unvaccinated person would normally get post-exposure (a friend’s young daughter had to go though this after being bitten by a feral cat that turned out to be rabid). As opposed to the students who had already received the rabies vaccinations required for their studies, who only needed the booster. Surely, if authorities were tracking down the students then they were also dealing with the inmates’ treatment.

This story stuck in my mind partially because, apparently, the horse’s sudden personality change was the initial sign. I can’t imagine getting a phone call saying that I must have a rabies vaccination pronto – I remember the incident with my friend’s young daughter, poor girl.

[CuriosoJorge]

Rabies postexposure prophylaxis isn’t as bad as it once was, but it’s still no picnic. If there is any way the beast can be vaccinated, he should be.

[Mardi1]

The OP asked one question:Has anyone owned an equine that couldn’t be vaccinated? .
A few posts have replied.

But there are the numerous other responses to the OP, second guessing the vet’s no-vaccine plan, and offering suggestions how go around it. Are you guys nuts ??

[trubandloki]

@Mardi1

Are you guys nuts ??

I think they are trying to be helpful and offer thoughts of things the OP can have a discussion with their vet about, if they OP has not already had those discussions with their vet.

I can see in my head that this is how a thread would have gone if I had asked here when this all started for me. We (my vet) tried lots of things, we discussed lots of things.

[DiamondJubilee]

I would for sure ask your vet about titers for at least the rabies shot. If his levels come back ok, you won’t have to worry about that for a bit at least. I know we can get that test here in Ontario but its quite expensive due to only one lab being able to test. They said the patent will come off soon and other labs will be able to titer for it (I was quoted $400 for it a few months ago).

Good luck with your little guy, thats a tough situation for sure!

[trubandloki]

@DiamondJubilee

I would for sure ask your vet about titers for at least the rabies shot. If his levels come back ok, you won’t have to worry about that for a bit at least.

I discussed titers with my vet, who was more than willing to go this route but they said that there are no known safe levels in horses so though we can get numbers we will not know if those numbers mean my horse is safe.

[moonlitoaksranch]

Thank you for your concern. It’s common to ask. Many people trust their own vets but are wary of others. There’s no danger in asking. I trust our vet and don’t feel the need to second guess. When vaccine time comes around again, I’m sure it will become clear if the plan has changed. I also noticed a very low rabies rate in our state. Bats are the main culprit, but our immediate area doesn’t have many due to a white nose syndrome outbreak. Where we moved from, rabies cases occurred with some regularity. Still, as scary as rabies is, it’s not something to be taken lightly.

[Simkie]

@Mardi1

The OP asked one question: Has anyone owned an equine that couldn’t be vaccinated? .
A few posts have replied.

But there are the numerous other responses to the OP, second guessing the vet’s no-vaccine plan, and offering suggestions how go go around it. Are you guys nuts ??

Yeah, isn’t it wonderful? We don’t know what we don’t know. This community is so generous with such an incredible amount of knowledge and experience, and when you bring a question to us, people here will help by raising other questions that are worth asking, other things to consider, and share experience that, while may not be identical, is close and provides further insight. It’s amazing.

Can’t even count how many times I thought I knew what the question was, but brought it here and realized the question and answer was something I’d never even considered. That’s the power here. It’s just grand

[JB]

@Mardi1

But there are the numerous other responses to the OP, second guessing the vet’s no-vaccine plan, and offering suggestions how go go around it. Are you guys nuts ??

A forum like this INVALUABLE to crowd-source other experiences. Thank goodness for it, and thank goodness for people asking questions even though they’re involved with their vet.

Not all vets understand that the manufacturer of a vaccine can make all the difference for a horse. FjordBCRF is proof of that and she’s not alone.

Vets aren’t infallible. No vet knows all the things. I would bet the collective here has a lot more experience on any given health topic than any single vet alive, perhaps excepting some rare weirdness.

[Pico_Banana]

I love this forum for exactly these reasons. There’s so much knowledge and experience, even about uncommon issues, from the collective. At a minimum, it’s a good discussion starter with your own vet.

[FjordBCRF]

A consideration point. Charlie was JUST as reactive to rabies on its own as he had been to the Vetera 6 way. I don’t know what brand the rabies stand-alone was, but we didn’t know until we tried. In my mind, I figured if that was the case I might as well just continue with the combo so he was better covered.

I can’t speak to the anaphylactic reactions and how you can or can’t handle those, but it’s all shooting fish in a barrel to a large extent. I anticipate that next spring lm still going to do the around the clock checks since a non-reaction this year doesn’t guarantee anything in the future. Knowing his sensitivities; I’m going to assume the worst and hope for the best.

[candyappy]

This is probably a dumb question but – do horses react as badly when intranasal vaccines are given? Or does it only eliminate the possibility of a site reaction from the needle?

[Mardi1]

I completely agree that the discussion and shared information have been really interesting.
With my vet, I couldn’t (wouldn’t) second guess her about my horses, but I’d certainly do a general Ask-the-Vet with her about some of the things mentioned to learn more.