Did I say we never saw a need? No.
Am I vehemently opposed? Also no. I can’t speak for others though. Maybe some are vehemently opposed?
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My wife and I always have dental procedures separate from vaccinations. Our gelding and one mare have to be sedated for the dentals.
Unfortunately we pay a large vet clinic call charge because we are an hour away from the clinic so it’s a hit on us financially, but we feel better for the horses.
We do not do any vaccines ourselves because the vet clinic has a policy that if a client doesn’t have yearly vaccines done by them you are not eligible for emergency services and are fired as a client.
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Wow! That’s a lot! How many injections would that be?
Mine got done today. One horse had a tooth shard in her gum, poor bugger. The foal had to microchipped which she was surprisingly good about.
I got my Moderna Covid vax and flu vax on the same day. Two dead arms!
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For me, 2 injections. My choice:
1 injection of “core minus rabies plus EHV plus EIV”
- Eastern and western encephalomyelitis (EEE & WEE)
- West nile virus (WNV)
- Tetanus
- Herpes virus types 1 and 4 (EHV-1 & EHV-4)
- Equine influenza virus (EIV)
1 injection of rabies alone
In my area, we typically don’t vaccinate for Potomac or Lyme or botulism.
Some folks will vaccinate for fewer (possibly even fewer than “core” ) or more diseases depending on previous reactions, travel, insect populations/surface water, etc.
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Do you vaccinate for strangles separately?
Well let’s see…
EEE, WEE, VEE, Tet, WNV, Rhino, Flu can be given in a 7 way single vaccine
Rabies and PHF can be given in a single vaccine (but using the combo reduces response to the rabies, so they’re often given individually)
Strangles can be given as an injection or as an intra nasal if given.
Lyme would be on its own if given.
Botulism would also be a single if given.
There’s also an intra nasal flu option, so that could be given IN rather than via injection.
But for vaccine reactive horses, it’s usually not an issue of number of needles. They’re reactive to specific vaccines, specific manufacturers, or react to the number of agents given at once. First steps with a vaccine reactive horse are usually to switch manufacturer and split up combos.
For example, I have a horse with a well proven reactivity to the EWT + WNV vaccine. So we noted which brand she reacts to, use another, and space her vaccines out. I try to give EWT & WNV separately, but it’s often hard to find the EWT alone in the brand that works for her. We do the core vaccines plus PHF & Lyme, so it’s rabies, EWT (+/- WNV depending on availability) WNV if not given with EWT, PHF, Lyme. Four or five separate injections. Lyme is given a few times a year and everything else is given in the spring.
With these changes in approach, we do not see a reaction. I do not give any prophylactic NSAID because there is no need, and I have zero desire to reduce her immune response.
If given, it’s separate.
That is what we’ve been doing with my mare. She reacts; not terribly, but gets a temp and is punky for a few days. My vet is a surgeon and seems to keep pretty up to date on things. I just brought her in for teeth + vax and asked him about splitting the vax, so he knew I was willing to come back, but didn’t say anything about benefits of doing teeth separately (we could have done the IN rhino while she was sedated, then done the 4-way later). Last time she had a reaction was when he sent me home with the IM rhino to give a week after the 4-way. Even with Banamine, that seemed to be the one that got her, but has been fine two times now given IN.
