Problems with routine vaccinations

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lilacwine33

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My horse had a routine vaccination on tuesday 15th and by the night was looking on deaths door. So a routine jab that should of been £35 has turned into a £500 vet bill, but I do not feel I should be footing the bill. There is a scab on the injection site, which indicates that blood was drawn, so if the vet hit a blood vessel, then this could be their fault. I expect the horse to feel down after a jab, but no where near like how my horse was feeling. Was wondering how anybody else feels about this and if anybody has had side-effects from a routine vaccination?

Thanks.
 
IMO it is unlikely to be anything to do with hitting a blood vessel. The scab is most liekly from blood vessels oozing from the skin as the needle passed through - much much less likely that it was from directly injecting into blood vessel. And I still doubt whether it is operator related. How did your horse present? Stiff neck? reluctance to move? temperature?
The type of reaction horses are having to vaccination has changed(due to changes in the make up of these vaccines it would appear). Few are having abscessation or firm localised swellings and generalised soreness and stiffness +/pyrexia is now the typical rxn seen.
Get your vet to log the reaction with the manufacturer. Quite often if you let them know you are not happy footing the bill, they may be able to get the manufacturer to cough up some of the cost 9though rarely all of it). What vaccine was it(brand etc - PM me if you prefer)?
 
My vet had a few problems with Duvaxyn including a very severe reaction from my own horse. It's possible you can try to get the manufacturer to pay if there is a known problem. My vet no longer uses Duvaxyn.

Symptoms for my horse - tied up from head to foot. Solid neck muscles and backside. difficulty moving. Swollen head and neck with difficulty swallowing. Refusal/inability to eat or drink. Patchy sweating, clearly in pain, pulse up to 40 and very upset.

I hope you get some help with that bill!
 
We had one react badly to a jab in the summer, called the vet and described the symptoms/told him I suspected a jab reaction....dashed over to the surgery to pick up some bute and the horse was right as rain within the hour...what on earth happened to cost £500??

Hope your horse is ok....though I'm afraid it's one of those things and it is going to be down to you to pay.
 
She is much better but not entirely herself, and we are 3 days on now.

The vaccine used was equilis prequenza (intervet). Just the flu. My horse has never reacted this way. The first time she was jabbed, there was some localised swelling on her neck, and from then on she was jabbed in the chest, and this is the first time there have been any problems. For the last 3 years the same vaccine type from intervet has been used on her.

The symptoms I saw came on gradually over a 6 hour period.
I left the yard at 12 and went back at 5.30 to muck out and feed her and noted a huge drop.
If she could of looked pale she would've. Her mucus membranes were pale and her temperature was high, eyes completely glazed over. This is a horse that would usually be so eager and bright it was very scary! She was also shaking, leaning up against the wall in her stable. We asked her to walk on and she was visibly struggling, very wobbly, drunk looking!! Looked like the slightest push and she would've fallen over. Her neck was cramped away from the injection site. Never seen anything like it from a routine flu jab! Seen a lot of site reactions, but never such a bad vaccine reaction. She is a bouncy fighting fit 5 year old healthly arab cross, so it is very hard to believe that somebody isn't at fault somewhere.

But there is little research in the field of side-effects on routine vaccinations in horses, lots on small animals...

The main reason for me questioning this is that I'm writing my dissertation on this topic (makes me sort of think I jinxed the horse!). So its really interesting to hear other peoples experiences and would be good to gather together some case-studies. Am hoping it could be something I could present to some drug companies. Unfortunately, vets are saving money by seemingly buying the cheapest vaccines to make a huge profit, even the vet that came on the emergancy call admitted that.

Also this vet that jabbed the horse has a bit of a 'bad reputation' for not being able to inject properly, have heard a few horror stories. Not comforting to hear that she was in surgery practising injecting :S

Thanks for all your feedback on the topic.
 
Into her chest (pec muscle), on her near side. In all honesty the vet didn't even check the area, the jab was very quick, which is why it was a worry that she could of possibly hit a blood vessel. I took some pictures of the site, quite a big scab!
 
I would be surprised if this was associated with injection into a blood vessel - if this was the case I would expect to see much more immediate signs, not the gradual onset you describe.
If cleanliness of the site was an issue, then the result would likely be an abscess forming at the injection site, not a systemic reaction.
Vaccine price is somewhat irrelevant, as regardless of the cost all vaccines used are specifically licensed for the horse and undergo the same rigorous quality control. There is a small chance there is an issue with a particular batch of vaccines, and for this reason your horse's reaction should be reported to the VMD and to the drug manufacturer. The prequenza line of vaccines are actually one of the more (if not the most) expensive on the market.
Drug manufacturer may pay for treatment costs once your vet has informed them. They have no legal requirement to do so, but they sometimes will pay out of goodwill.
I'm sure every vet currently practising has had an injection not go ideally at some point or other. Dealing with a unique living animal means this is an inevitability. Unfortunately the stories that get passed around are the 2/3 bad experiences, not the hundreds or thousands of injections that get done with no problems.

I suspect your horse has had an idiosyncratic reaction to a component of the vaccine, most likely one of the adjuvants. I doubt there is blame to be placed anywhere.
 
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