Horror Story

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claireelizabeth

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A lady I met recently told me a really horrible incident with her Daughter's pony.

Over this Easter holiday her pony got kicked, it swelled up so they called a vet who gave an antibiotic injection as a precaution.

Within 5 mins the pony was dead, it went into anaphylactic shock due to an allergic reaction to the antibiotic.

While I'm sure this is rare it got me to thinking ours have never had antibiotics so would have no idea if they are allergic. Is there a way the vets should test before giving a big dose or any way to avoid this happening. However unusual it is it doesn't bear thinking about!!!
 
Same thing happened to my friend's first arab mare. To make things worse the mare was staying at another friend of mine's yard whilst her owner was on holiday and YO called the vet who gave the injection. The mare had a nasty cut on her leg and because YO did the responsible thing and called the vet to a horse that was in her care, it died. We all knew that the actual owner would have washed the wound with a hose pipe and slapped some iodine and antiseptic cream on it.
 
My mare had an allergic reaction to an antibiotic injection. Her heart rate went through the roof, shallow breathing, sweating and her eyes rolled to the back of her head. We called the vet back and he administered the antidote and she was fine but it was a close call.

She can have antibiotics but not that type which luckily they don’t use anymore it was the same and the human antibiotic septrin, which funnily enough i am allergic to too and it put me in hospital when i was a child.
 
If it was penicillin then yes my pony reacted badly last year when he was treated after having glass in his foot. He's never had to have veterinary treatment in the 15 years we've had him so we didn't know (neither did the vet) as reactions to penicillin are rare but can be fatal.

He was poorly with colicky like symptoms and trembling all over he also wouldn't eat. He lay down flat out for hours. I was v worried as really thought he was going to die. Think vet was concerned too but just asked us to monitor him - he likened the symptoms to a bad hangover.

He said it would last a couple of days and it did. Within a week he was back to pretty much normal.

However, now we know he's allergic to penicillin and it's on his records. IF he was given it again he could very well die. Sadly it sounds as though the lady you spoke to maybe didn't know the full veterinary history of the pony? I think the reaction is like that of humans - first time (say with penicillin or a bee sting) the person will be quite poorly but will recover BUT if they have it again the reaction can be fatal.

Fortunately these reactions are (apparently) rare but it shows how important it is to know a horse's veterinary history.
 
My horse was allergic to Neopen, her heart rate went through the roof, she panicked when you went near her, she was shaking like a leaf and her breathing was rapid! Horrible to see.

I noticed she was not right when she was stood by the gate in the field when she is normally grazing!

Scary to think that many have died because of it though, luckily the vet was round the corner when I called!
shocked.gif
 
My horse had a bad reaction to antibiotics and as some of the others experienced, he was shaking, dripping with sweat and shallow breathing. He just had to ride it out though on the vets advice, I wasn't aware that they could die from it so quickly or I would've demanded an antidote!!!

Poor people and what a shock to come home to! Does make you wonder about things more, I guess the only thing to do before they inject your horse is ask them what they have in their kit if they have a reaction to it.
 
They were with the Pony when it died as it was so quick but they had to get their daughter from her friends house and tell her and give her chance to say goodbye - I think I can just relate to it as I have a daughter the same age and it was so close by. I wanted to ask a bit more but it was obvioulsy still painful and she said they'd had to just draw a line under it so I didn't want to keep on.

It's obviously not that rare to have a reaction though as a few on here have had a problem even if the end result is slightly different!

I'm still in touch with our pony's previous owner so might ask them if she's had antibiotics before, it's good to be aware of these things though!
 
There is no 'antidote' as such for this type of reaction, it is possible to give adrenaline and corticosteroids which may help to alleviate the symptoms if given in time.

Sadly there is no way of knowing that a horse (or person) is going to be allergic to something without giving it. Luckily reactions such as these are incredibly rare but no less tragic when they do occur.

Just shows that despite all our medical and veterinary advances nature still has the upper hand sometimes.
 
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