Ridecamp: [RC] REACTION TO VACCINE?

> 31 y/o horse in excellent health, 1st West Nile vaccine and nasal strangles
> vaccine given last Wed.  Friday, feeling "peevish." This a.m. (Sat.),
> copious amounts of clear/whitish nasal drainage, mostly from left nostril,
> plus frequent coughing up drool, absolutely no interest in food, no temp.,
> movable golf ball sized lump behind right jawbone, obviously depressed.

Joan: one thing I learned from my horses vaccine reaction was to never give 
multiple vaccinations at the same time. If you do, you won't know which 
vaccine it was that caused the reaction. Plus, you can really screw up the 
immune system.   My horse actually had the nasal strangles vaccine given a 
week or two after his other vaccination, so we knew it was the nasal 
strangles vaccine, and it was the 2nd time he received it (a year apart).

> Any ideas?

Besides checking the things you already mentioned (temp, appetite, etc.), 
check your horses jowls for swelling. The lymph nodes may become enlarged. 
Check the sheath area (gelding?), and if it does become swollen it can be 
really tender for the horse. My horses sheath swelled up like a football 
and he had a hard time walking. Everybody still marvels at the size of his 
sheath (not really funny), and it's been probably 3 years now since his 
reaction. It took him 10 months to recover from it, and caused permanent 
damage. He was pretty sick for 10 days, and was down for a lot of it. The 
only thing that saved him is that he would lie down in a bed of hay and eat.

The vets don't think Weaver would survive another vaccine reaction, and 
they don't know if it was the vaccine or the carrier agent that caused the 
problem. Often, when an immune system response occurs like this, it will 
get worse each time.

My other horses do get vaccinated still, but we are much more careful about 
it. One at a time, and spread out -- no stress before or after, no worming 
right then either. The horse that had the vaccine reaction now also has 
reactions to some wormers. I would suggest that once your horse recovers 
from this that you stick with a more mild to the horse type of wormer 
(panacur seems to be the best for my horse), until you know how he will 
handle it. There are lots of things you can do to help the horses immune 
system, and things you can give him to help clean his system out. Hopefully 
you are just having a mild case of strangles and not a full blown reaction. 
I can give you more details on the things I did that helped, and didn't 
help if you need it.

The only time this horse has ever been really sick in his life, was from 
that vaccine reaction, and he's been hauled and ridden all over the country 
and has been at a few rides where strangles outbreaks have occurred.  I 
received emails from other people whose horses had a similar reaction, and 
one about a horse that actually did die from it.  Since then, Weaver's been 
healthy....has completed five 50's in the last month and going 
strong!!  :+)))

Karen
& Weaver...who really liked riding in Oregon yesterday :*)
& Rocky....me too!





=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp
Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp

If you are an AERC member - PLEASE VOTE in the upcoming By-Laws 
Election!!!! (it takes 2/3rds to tango!!)

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=