What is everyone out here in horse world using to protect their pregnant mares from Rhino ? I use Pneumabort-K + 1b , wondering if there’s a cheaper product available that does the same thing … [h=1][/h]
It is only 18.00 at Jeffers, so not the most costly. Have you tried getting it from your vet so you can save on the shipping ( which is what really ups the price).
I only use Prodigy.
Such shots can cause abortion. So you are taking a calculated risk giving them. Worth the risk as a breeder of numerous mares to prevent all of them aborting. Some breeders I know get all mares preg checked right after giving shots, so any open mares can get bred back right away. In a closed herd, just one broodmare with no new horses coming, maybe not worth the risk.
We were the “good owners” in giving the shots, doing everything “right” for the best foal. But no one EVER told us of the abortion risk. Lost the foal with the 9th month shot. Mare was old, never got her in foal again. With only one broodmare at a time here, we don’t give the shots any more. No horses coming and going. Haven’t lost another foal since.
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I hear similar horror stories too . When I don’t vaccinate I worry , and when I vaccinate I worry . This year I decided to not vaccinate and my longest bred mare lost her foal at (7) months . So , I decided to vaccinate my other (3) pregnant mares ,for better or worse .
I use Prodigy because it doesn’t seem to have the history of abortion that pneumabort does even though I don’t necessarily believe pneumabort causes abortions. It just isn’t worth the possible risk if there is some truth to it.
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Breeding is a gamble. No doubt about it! You make your choices and have to live with them. These shots are a gamble either way.
L just brought up the abortion topic in case you had not heard of the problem being shot related. Sorry to hear of your lost foal, could even have been another cause than rhino. I am on pins and needles until the foal arrives with so many “what if” things that can happen!
Good luck, safe arrival for your coming foal.
My vet too. Not that she saw a LOT of issues with Pneumabort, but she sees significantly fewer with Prodigy.
If your mare is in a closed herd, horses don’t come and go, and you aren’t visiting other barns, it’s very possibly you can skip this series of vaccines. The problem can still come in with a farrier, or even a vet, so that’s something you’d have to consider, even though it’s really quite unlikely.
I have seen some arguments about the shots actually causing an abortion. Unfortunately, every case I’ve seen (as argued over/discussed here, various breeding groups on FB such as the one Equine Repro runs) has also had the argument that the timing of the abortion is very common for abortions in general - 7 and 9 months - even among mares who do not get that vaccination. There’s just something about those timeframes that has an increased risk of losing foals. That makes it very hard to believe it was the vaccine which was the catalyst.
The whole point of having these vaccines developed was because of the (relatively) large losses due to rhino, and there has been a dramatic decrease in later term abortions since this type of vaccine began widespread use.
I’ve bought mares mares over the years (mostly recuse) that were bred and we didn’t know it. We lost about 50% of the foals as we did not provide what they needed. I’d be interested in seeing the proof of risk of abortion due to vaccine as opposed to the risk of loss because of lack of vaccine.
G.
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We haven’t vaccinated much in recent years. We don’t have a transient population anymore. We only give pre foaling “shots” vacs. No saying what to do or what not to do. Just saying what we have been doing. We have had a very high conception rate and a lower than average, slip, abort rate. Most years never. 100% conception.live cover only. The mares have been under my management pretty much since their first foal.
I lost enough foals soon(within a couple of days) after Pnuemobort K that it became to my attention about 15 years ago. I believe that it was due to mounting the immune response, not that the vaccine GAVE the disease. I quit giving those shots as a result. The new stuff wasn’t available at that time, but became available due to others also noticing this relationship. Makes you think about what vets advise you to do, doesn’t it? Kinda like when we injected Ivermectin for worming until a certain percentage of horses died from it.
Seems to me that if your broodmare band is isolated (as much as you can do this), AND if they have been mares who have been out and about in the world in their competitive careers prior to retiring to the breeding shed, and have seen many forms of circulating viruses, you have a pretty good chance that that mare already has adequate immunity, and doesn’t need the vaccines. Because there is always a risk when giving vaccines, and that risk has to be considered.
We also use Prodigy and Pneumabort K
