My boy got his flu/rhino booster Wednesday. He had a reaction to his Spring shots, but we thought that was because he got them all at once (different due to Covid concerns). Well yesterday he was lethargic and stiff just from the one shot! Still not right today and I gave him banamine on advice from vet. He now has a notation to give banamine with any vaccinations! Anyone else have a horse this sensitive to vaccinations?
Yes, I have a mini that reacts to all his vaccinations like this. We now do titers to see where he stands before deciding to vaccinate. Not a perfect solution, but it’s a compromise.
Might also want to consider switching over to an intranasal flu vaccine.
(Personally, I was trashed for 2 days after my flu vax this fall…)
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Yeah I tried to get my flu vaccine today figuring we would feel punky together, but one place didn’t have the “elderly” vaccine and the other had a long waiting list.
One of my boarder’s horses is sensitive, he gets Banamine with the vaccs and the day after.
Mine has reactions but I have found giving the shot then riding right after really helps. I also found she had a very mild reaction from equi-ject Flu shot and strong reactions to the Merck one.
Oh, yes. My gelding always had bad reactions to vax–especially from Ft. Dodge, but even Boehringer Ingelheim caused reactions. We had to break his vax up into 2-week intervals and give them in his pecs with Banamine. And he always got swelling at the injection site–sometimes quite pronounced.
His last vax essentially did him in–he was mistakenly given Vetera Gold and it overwhelmed his immune system at the same time as he was trying to fight off an EPM flare (which we didn’t know at the time). That led to a cascade of issues and he herniated a disc struggling to get up in his stall, so I put him down rather than risk him suffering an even more catastrophic injury (he was having proprioception issues in his hind end). 
OTOH, my retired mare (a hot redhead) has no problem with vax–including Vetera Gold.
I have one gelding that reacts badly. He gets stiff in his neck, as in can’t lower it to graze. He gets banamine prior to vaccinations. My aged pony had mild colic symptoms after his vaccines last year. He will get his vaccines spread out to try and keep him from having issues.
Yes, my now-late gelding would have very serious reactions, once needing IV fluids because he was unable to even stand with such a high fever. Often had high fevers, lethargy, unable to lift his head more than a few inches off the ground, massively stocked up legs and sheath. I resorted to administering single shots individually on 2-3 week intervals for a few years, then gradually started combining them as his reactions lessened each year. I tracked every brand and dose over his 9 years of life and some produced fewer reactions than others - Vetera Gold made him react worse than any others.
How quickly do your horses that have reactions react? My gelding just had flu/rhino booster and rabies yesterday around noon. This is my first year with him so this was our first experience with vaccinations together, the seller didn’t mention any issues with his spring vaccinations so hopefully he is good. I went back to check on him yesterday evening and he seemed like his normal self at 7PM. Vet said he may be lethargic today so I will see how he is with that here soon.
If a horse has not been reactive to vaccines, can they develop reactions over time?
My horse always reacts. If I give him 2 grams of bute around the time he gets the vaccines, he does fine.
Like all things of this sort - yes!
My mare had twice yearly vaccines for many many years with no obvious reaction and then poof, hives every where which lead to very swollen legs which lead to laminitis all with immediate vet intervention since they were still there when the symptoms started.
The next year we tried giving her one vaccine that was not one of the vaccines she got on the infamous bad vaccine day and she hived up and acted colicky.
We (well the vet) has since found a rabies vaccine that we have given her a couple of times with out a reaction with quite a bit of pre-treatment cocktail. Other than that she is not vaccinated.
Though I am all for horse owners doing stuff on their own, this mare is the reason I think all vaccines should be given by your vet. Never a reaction until there was a reaction, a bad reaction.
I consider a stiff neck to not really be a bad reaction. It is the same as my stiff arm from a tetanus or flu vaccine. Muscles complaining about stuff being poked into them.
@trubandloki Thanks for the info! I am glad I was on alert with this. When I got the the barn this afternoon he seemed in good spirits with his normal self, but his resp rate was high. I took him for a walk to graze and he was enthusiastic about that, but once he was back in his stall and settled, it was still high so I called the vet. They asked to me check his temp which was cause for a run to the drug store as the office was locked and I figured having my own thermometer would be a good idea. Poor cashier rang me out with just that and one lubricant hahaha. Anyways, he is running a fever (102.3) so I was able to get into the office and get some bute for him. Ugh. Im running back up to hang out with him before turnout tonight which they recommended as long as nothing changed for the worse.
I also managed to get a puff of the bute out of the syringe in my face so of course I had to worry about that as well. Apparently it was good if you had gout or arthritis in the 1950’s so I should be in the clear there I think LOL.
That had to have been scary with your mare!! My goodness 
My guy usually gets a reaction. Vet says to give him bute if he’s uncomfortable. She also has given the recent ones in his butt instead of his neck. Not sure if that’s why or if it’s for another reason. He does also tend to get upset with needles in general.
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