I must admit I've been rolling my eyes a bit about the paranoia that seems to have sprung up over vaccines in animals. Then I vaccinated on Tuesday with a brand and type of vaccine that I trust and have never had problems with. I also gave the horses Panacur dewormer, which they've never had before, but it's supposed to be ultra safe. Normally I wouldn't do both on the same day, but I did it this time without even thinking about it.
Then they started acting weird. Scout was standing funny in the pasture and then pressed his butt up against me when I went to check on him. He doesn't do that. Then he offered to kick me. He was cranky and seemed uncomfortable in the hind end for a couple days.
Bella trotted in lame Wednesday night (she's lame anyway so I just kind of ignored it). Thursday morning she was reluctant to move and kind of staggering around, her right fore and left hind acting strangely. I panicked, took her to work with me, and had the vet check her over. Nothing showed up as wrong there after she'd gotten her adrenaline up with the trailer ride and being stalled alone. She was still vaguely weird in her way of walking after some time chilling in the pasture at home, but seemed fine the next morning.
Thank goodness for that.
I realized that although I might talk tough about having her put down someday because of her lameness, it would break my heart to lose her. She's a spirit horse. Everyone who meets her says she's special. I'm glad she's okay.
Now I'm not sure what protocol I'm going to follow when I vaccinate next. Hmmm. You can premedicate with antihistimines for several days, and give dex. I might do that. I might not vaccinate Bella with anything more than tetanus and flu/rhino. She doesn't travel much so she shouldn't be high risk, but Scout does travel and could bring something home to her. Not that we go to densely populated areas. I don't know. We shall see.
Tomorrow is a big day. Going to ride the mule out on the trail.. I'm so excited! I didn't sleep very well last night, and when I did I dreamed about him. I'll update tomorrow night, hopefully with pictures. See ya!
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5 comments:
I do hope to see some pics. I like mules, and this one sounds interesting.
Good luck with the mule!
Since all three of my horses have had EPM, and Pie has also had Lyme, I'm very careful about how I vaccinate - but I do vaccinate as I believe the protection the vaccines is essential, particularly as I live in a large barn (where there are no rules about vaccination and horses come and go), and my horses do occasionally go to other places.
I do East/West encephalitis in one shot, flu/rhino at the same time as West Nile (except for Pie who only gets flu/rhino - he's my most sensitive one and also gets his rabies in the fall) at one appointment about two weeks later, and then rabies (Pie gets West Nile at this appt.) two weeks after that. If anyone seems under the weather 24 hrs. later, I check temps (and always know temps from before the vaccination) and medicate with Banamine - medicating earlier can interfere with the immune response to the vaccine. I do deworming on an off week. I no longer vaccinate for strep/stangles - I would if I were showing or flu/rhino in the fall - I would do both if I were showing. My vet says flu/rhino is usually the most reactive vaccine, and there is now an intranasal version that fewer horses react to.
I meant to say in the first comment: "I do East/West encephalitis and tetanus in one shot . . ."
I would add that even if your horse lives all by itself and never travels anywhere, vaccinations other than flu/rhino are necessary - the mosquito borne disease can be devastating or fatal, and you certainly don't want your horse to get tetanus or rabies.
We don't do rabies in horses around here, thank goodness. We do have it in the bat population but never in horses yet. Most people do 5way plus west nile all in one shot with no trouble. I haven't given west nile in years but was going to this year. And I usually do strangles in the ones that travel, but about a month after the other vaccines. Never have had any trouble with that one. I did have reactions to a 5 way many years ago but that was a bad batch of vaccine (admitted by Ft. Dodge) and I quit using that brand.
The vaccine issue is a touchy one. I am a firm believer in them, but i also think we drastically over-vaccinate at the same time. It just doesn't make sense to me, from an immunology stand point, that horses need to be vaccinated every year. I have seen some really bad vaccine reaction, a couple of them fatal. I do the core vaccines for the diseases that are truly a risk.
I am looking forward to hearing more about the mule. He sounds nice and I have been very intrigued with them. If I was looking for a new mount, I would be very tempted to find a nice mule.
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