Reaction to flu injection

[ChowChow]

Has anyone's horse at a reaction to an injection. Mine got his 2nd primary on Friday and he is normally a bolshy in your face horse and very greedy.

Over the last couple of days he hadn't been himself, very quiet, not interested in his usual hugs and kisses which he loves. I thought he was having an off day.

I then noticed today he has a lump on his neck and it seemed an effort for him to put his head down to eat.

YO doesn't seem to think vet should be called but to monitor the lump. Has anybody else see this? Will he recover in a few days or should vet take a look?

 

[monkey54]

i had a similar problem with an antibiotic jab years ago, and he could hardly move his neck, i had to hand feed him for half a day and put his water bucket on steps for him to reach! best thing is keep his neck warm, and possibley get next jab done in another area, as its muscular i think? and i had to do lots of stretching exercise with him afterwards, even if he has a jab in neck now years later hes still a little stiff in neck for day or two, although only slightly, so i have him jabbed in his chest or rump, aparently the same can happen on rump jab, but at least they can still eat/drink fine with that! only my one experience though so may be completely wrong!!

 

[cyearsley]

A reaction to the flu jab is quite common. My last horse never reacted but my new boy gets a swelling each time and this time the vet did it further down his chest so wouldn't interfere so much when he was working like it would on the neck, it still got a bit swollen and we called it has man boob! Went down after 3 days ish I seem to recall.

 

[ChowChow]

So nothing too much to worry about then? (I'm very much a worrier when it comes to my horses!)

 

[only_me]

yes, some of the ponies at my yard all reacted very badly to the injection.

it wasnt the flu in the injection, it was the tetnus that they reacted to

my old pony is still not right, and he got the injection a year a go

 

[ChowChow]

I'll see how he is over the next couple of days then

 

[em21xx]

haha, dont get me started on the flu jab! the previous owner of my horse had it done just before the horse came to me. within a week he was struggling to breathe, nostrils streaming with snot, eyes running, lumps under his neck and generally down in the dumps.

i got a vet out immediately who gave us some medicine which made no apparent improvement. vet came out again with a stronger medicine, again not helping.

we had scopes, excercise programs, injections, more scopes, antibiotics etc. etc...

after a very steep vet bill we came to the conclusion that nothing would work!

so as a last resort we turned to homeopathy, which i previously thought was a load of b*llocks

! he went on a macheine which sent "healing messages" to him via radio waves as well as a little bottle of medicine.

after just a few days of this treatment the lumps had disappeared, he was much brighter, he was breathing perfectly and there was much less snot!

i would definately suggest getting someone out to look at him...just to be on the safe side

 

[ChowChow]

Getting worried again

 

[em21xx]

sorry for that!

i was just as worried when it happened to my horseif it makes you feel any better

 

[oln]

reaction to a flu jab is quite common, so long as eating and drinking ok i would give him a couple more days before worrying. it can be caused by the tetanus if this has been given too often, the vets often give flu jab combined with tetanus and some horses cant cope with it others can. this is what my vet said anyway,hope it stops you worrying too much.

 

[kellyeaton]

has lond as he his eating drinking and being hims normal self dont worry to much do some neck streches and give him a couple of bdays on arica just incase there is any brusing in the area if your horse is no better in 3 to 4 days then call the vet!

 

[fatpiggy]

Bums only for jabs in my horse! She reacted to tetanus a few years ago after a neck injection and was completely unable to put her head down to eat or drink. Luckily I noticed she was in trouble and was able to hold everything up for her to eat and drink. I'd rather she had a sore/stiff bum for a few days thanks!

 

[only_me]

a pony at my yard had the worst reaction i have ever seen - it was totally unable to move its neck, swollen up, and when it lay down it couldnt get back up as unable to move its neck.

all its food had to be at head height on top of shaving bales, including his water, and he was in incredible pain for a few days. (painkillers helped a bit)

is fine now, he recovered fully after 2/3 weeks.

most havent reacted at our yard, but we think the batch we used was faulty.


Im sure your horse will be fine!!

stop worrying

 

[lachlanandmarcus]

mine got very ill after flu/tet and worming done close together, never do that again ! I do worm counts and blood tests now for the worming and so far so good. He had an ME like recurrent virus over months and months....

 

[ChowChow]

Well my boy is looking a bit brighter today, he's still quite quiet and stiff in the neck but I think he will be fine in a couple of days

 

[Murphy88]

murph had a reaction to his flu jab winter before last, but not nearly as bad as some of these stories. he was just a bit off in himself, not very obvious as he's a moody b*****d at the best of times. he just had a cough and a bit of a runny nose, appetite a bit depressed, trouble was it lasted forever! kept scoping him, but just didn't clear. had 3 diff types of antibiotics, including baytril, and in the end we had to inject excenel everyday for a few weeks to get rid of it. in all, spent about 4 months on antibiotics and off work, and had an almighty vets bill for a horse that was barely even ill! he'd always coughed twice when first ridden before this, and vet said that was probably a sign of something dormant that the flu jab made flare up.
hope your boy makes a full recovery!