Vaccination Time! Combo or Individual?

I’m wanting to vaccinate for EWT and WNV. Is there any advantage of purchasing the EWT and WNV as separate vaccinations, or are the EWT+WNV combos just as safe/effective.

My vet clinic gives it as a combo as SOP. I’m sure they could separate if a person requested it. My horses get it twice a year and have for many years without issue. Mine have not had any sort of vaxx reactions though. Maybe if I had one w a history of vaxx reactions I’d request a different procedure. I’m in NW FL if that matters.

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I’m in South Georgia and our vet normally gives it as a combination as well. The mosquitos are so bad already this year!

The barn owner has decided she is only going to vax once a year now in January and I’m not changing my twice a year routine, especially with the mosquitos we are already seeing! So, I’m going to save the farm call fee and just order my own. When I saw they come separated as well, I wondered if there was an advantage, etc. My horse has never had an issue.

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I’ve got one that has developed vaccine reactions (as did his mom and uncle), and my veterinarian has been splitting his vaccines the last few years.

My horse doesn’t get West Nile and rabies vaccines at the same time, either, as the vet considers those to be the two that are the roughest on the immune system.

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I prefer to split, but couldn’t find them separately this year in my preferred brand.

Splitting is always better, so you can have a better idea which vaccine caused a reaction if you get one.

That said, tetanus is such a different vaccine I don’t count it, so that leaves you with EW and WNV, and 3 in one injection isn’t terrible, especially those 3. I wouldn’t be bothered by that, + rabies in another injection site, for a normal average healthy horse.

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May I ask, how did it present?

I had a 4yo last year with what we suspect was a vaccine reaction. It was a legit nightmare. His new person was fully informed just in case it WAS that, but I will always be curious exactly WHAT it was and am comparing notes every chance I get.

This gelding did the whole go down in his stall, sudden onset high fever, quickly developed laminitis thing out of the blue. Zero to sixty, Boom!

Legit nightmare is right.

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OMG! Wow!

I give that exact combo and thankfully have never had any issues.

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My vaccine reaction horse runs a fever and gets so sore at the injection site she won’t move :frowning:

But (knock wood) has done fine since splitting her vaccines up, and using Vetera for what we can.

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Same here.

I have another one that gets super high fevers…no injection site pain though. What is Vetera?

Were you able to find Vetera EWT (without WNV) this year? It was out of stock everywhere when I went to buy :frowning: I really hope they’re not discontinuing the product!

Have yet to do vaccinations this year, but last year my vet didn’t mention a problem with it, although WNV (separately) was apparently an issue.

I don’t know what I’ll do if Vetera is discontinued.

Last year I couldn’t get WNV separate. I was really nervous to use the Prestige 5 way + WNV, but surprisingly, my reactive horse had no issue with it. Possibly the least reaction she has ever had. :woman_shrugging:

I’m not trying to minimize concern; just sharing my surprising results.

Funny, I had zero issues getting stand alone Vetera WNV last year!

Other Vetera products seem readily available, it’s just the EWT that I just couldn’t find this year. I agree, I hope it sticks around!

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My two super healthy guys get combo shot. My pony gets individual and spaced out. He only gets one shot at a time otherwise it seems to overload his system and he runs a temp and gets foot sore.

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I am usually a fan of the combo just for simplicity sake but knocks on my coffee table, SHHHH DONT TELL HIM I may have the least sensitive chestnut there’s ever been.

I moved barns in Sept ‘22 though and I believe they don’t do combos when it comes to spring shots. Which honestly is fine and I won’t balk at the vet putting her eyeballs on my guy more than once over the next several weeks, just to be safe.

A brand of vaccination products made by Boehringer Ingelheim :

https://www.valleyvet.com/ct_search_results.html?q=vetera

In my experience with several horses, these seem to cause much less negative reaction, particularly as compared to the old Fort Dodge (now Zoetis) vaccines.

Had a vet tell me years ago that he no longer used Fort Dodge due to the high incidence of reactions. I’ve been told it was due to that company’s choice of adjuvant.

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