Lethargic following vaccine

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Horsegirl25

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Horse had EHV booster on Friday, over the weekend had progressively sank into herself more and became quite lethargic, ate 1kg of hay throughout Sunday. Switched her into haylage which helped and she’s now stem however is refusing to eat her hard feed and when goes into the field stands at the gate moping?
Vet was out today and checked her over, physically she is fine, heart gut sounds etc. she wouldn’t let him into her mouth mind you but her teeth were done a couple months ago. She’s eating haylage no bother albeit not very much of it.vet thinks she’s just down after her vaccine but I’m getting more worried the more she doesn’t pick up. Has anyone experienced this before?
 
Yes, I've seen it happen. The EHV vaccine can really knock some horses flat for a few days. They run a mild fever, feel sore and miserable, and go off their food.

If the vet cleared her physically today, that's the main thing. Stick to just haylage and water for now, don't force the hard feed. Give her until Wednesday to snap out of it. If she's still standing at the gate like that and not eating, call the vet back.
 
Alexanderevan145 said:
Yes, I've seen it happen. The EHV vaccine can really knock some horses flat for a few days. They run a mild fever, feel sore and miserable, and go off their food.

If the vet cleared her physically today, that's the main thing. Stick to just haylage and water for now, don't force the hard feed. Give her until Wednesday to snap out of it. If she's still standing at the gate like that and not eating, call the vet back.
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Thank you. So very odd as this is her 4th/5th booster and all the other times has been fine.
Poor girl! Like you say will give her until Wednesday and see if she perks back up. Wish they could speak to tell you what’s wrong!
 
Horsegirl25 said:
Thank you. So very odd as this is her 4th/5th booster and all the other times has been fine.
Poor girl! Like you say will give her until Wednesday and see if she perks back up. Wish they could speak to tell you what’s wrong!
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Oh no, the poor thing! That's so strange it's happening now after she's been fine before. Hopefully it's just a one-off reaction and she'll be right as rain by Wednesday.
I know, right? If only they could talk - would make things so much easier! Fingers crossed for your girl 🤞
 
Same as the human flu vaccine, sometimes whatever strain it is hits them harder. Or they can react to a different carrier fluid if the manufacturer changes something. Spoke to my vet about it in detail after 2 on the yard (not mine) had terrible reactions one year. Just bad luck, and both were absolutely fine after a few days!

We also had a discussion about some vets using a bovine flu vaccine if they run out of equine which is fine for most horses but some of them do react more strongly
 
I experienced this following routine flu in December. Only symptoms were loss of appetite and generally just low.It has taken weeks and vet now doesn’t want to give second vaccine for a while, so that’s competing out for spring.
He has had the same brand several times in the past.
 
Yes, we had this recently with routine FT booster.

The old boy had mild temperature by evening, and really sore neck with swollen injection site. The swelling got worse over the next few days, and for a week he wasn't comfortable lowering his head. Hay, water, hard feed, everything had to be given elevated since he couldn't eat off the floor. He lost his appetite, was lethargic, but the temp returned to normal in a couple of days.

It took a week before he was ok again. What I was really worried about was a potential abscess at the injection site, but we got spared from that. It took a while for the swelling to go fully down and for him to be happy to eat off the floor again.

He has routine vaccines yearly, and this was the first time it kicked back this bad. He had both flu and tet this year. He's 17.

(I have also seen the repercussions of not vaccinating, so unfortunately these are the risks we have to take and carry on vaccinating.)
 
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