Vaccination gone wrong - huge vet bill

Poor You. The symptoms were the same but lesser as we caught it sooner - but def hives, lump and cronic stiffness and distress. Speak to your Vet - I believe you can claim as long as it is within a 12 month period (I may be wrong) but this was what I understood as advised by a vet for a another complaint. In any case I strongly feel it should be the vet's responsibility to pursue compensation from the drug company as they are effectively an 'agent'. Good luck and give it some serious thought.
 
I wonder if admin would do a sticky so we could post the reactions on here - maybe then someone will step up and start to look at the problems we are causing by inocculations - at least we would know what we are looking out for - how many horses are jabbed and put away for the night ?
 
Why should the drug company automatically compensate? If you report it, they investigate and the batch is ok then it's just one of those things.

It is a risk of vaccination. By very definition a lot of vaccines are likely to cause the symptoms of the disease. Doctors tell you this when you get jabs and vets should tell you this when they jag your horse too. Sometimes it really is just one of those things where no one is to blame...

Definitely tell them it happened but don't expect much to come of it!
 
ester said:
JT I suspect that the companies pay for the treatment just to keep everyone quiet and happy ;)
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Tsk. My OH's work do free flu jabs. He emailed me to ask if he should get one (knows I rant about antibiotic resistance ect and doesn't understand biology very much so thought this might be considered not ok, bless him) and I said if I was him I wouldn't as I'm not at risk and I don't want to feel carp for no good reason :p

I have to say, I've had tet shots that have left my arm stiff as a board. Never occured to me to complain. Is tet attenuated or inactivated?
 
There was a massive thread on the BD forum about this, my horse had a similar reaction this year to his routine vacs, I have not got his passport to hand but it was the same brand as those on BD that caused his reaction. Some people on BD had had payouts from the drug company on their vet bills. I was advised not to use that companies vaccs again so was just going to request the other brand in future. FWIW at work we do flu and tet at seperate times and never get a reaction. I was shocked at my horse's reaction as I had never seen such a dramatic reaction before. I've had a few stiff necks and the odd abscess but not a the whole shaking, can't lower or turn neck thing. He was very upset by the whole thing and it took a whole load of painkilling drugs to sort it out.
 
Potterer said:
The jab was the same brand as in his passport from previously and I assumed it might have because of the break in vaccs. Altogether vet bill came to almost £200! Have the batch no. etc. of jab in his passport and photos of the reactions so am wondering whether it may be worth getting in touch with the manufacturer to see if I can claim anything back. Do you think it's a bit late 6 months later?

Haven't had his vaccs finished as general advice seems to be it's not worth it for a reaction like that but as I'm planning to affiliate him next year am not sure what to do :/
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I think it would be worth a try! I had a reaction to anti-tetanus jab (after an incident with barbed wire) my neck and back muscles went into spasm and I was stuck in bed with my back arched backwards and lock jaw for several days - horrendous!!
 
Think it was the owners that mixed up rather than the vets. Just made life easier all round. Luckily not had to ever have an xray with any vet. The previous vets were much fussier and faffier, despite alternating injections...!!
 
I've not read the replies, but your vet will not have used a dirty needle. He will have already reported this reaction to the drug company and will discuss this with you. I hope your horse is more comfortable soon.
 
Despite everything that has been said, I felt the need to reply to this as I hope I can clarify things for you-

I used to work for the manufacturer of one of the best selling Equine vaccines, and encountered this type of thing all the time.

1. The vet should be on the phone to the Drug company as soon as they have ANY "adverse reaction" (i.e an unusual or excessive reaction) That's ANY reaction whatsoever, especially if it required further veterinary treatment. Drug companies take this seriously and have a legal obligation to monitor reactions.

2. The drug company has a vast budget to assist and re-imburse vets in this circumstance, so your vet will not be out of pocket for the treatment your horse was given.

(As an aside, the fact that they have charged you makes me very cross!)

3. It is NOT your fault, and you should NOT be expected to pay the bill! if your animal is healthy - which the vet should assess prior to giving the vaccine - then the animal should not react to such an extent! Yes vaccines cause a small upset to the horse's immune system, and can make them 'under the weather' temporarily, but the reaction you describe is beyond the norm.

Drugs take years to come to market precisely because of all the testing that is done; so an excessive, health-threatening reaction is not acceptable!

4. The fault lies with either the vet (incorrectly storing vaccines can cause problems) or with the Drug company (a 'bad batch' etc) NOT YOU.

You must however be prepared to kick up a fuss, and stand your ground! Refuse to pay, and if I were you, let your Vet know they had a nerve for trying to charge you in the first place! Disgusting behaviour!

Good luck, let us know how you get on :)
 
JenWizard my vets argued black was blue that big lads reaction to his booster was nothing to do with him becoming dog lame less than 24 hours later - we eventually lost him and had a bill of thousands.

I should have pressed more - but i was so caught up with trying to keep the big lad comfortable at the time. I am still really really angry about the whole thing and i dont trust vets at all.
 
Years ago (approx 30!) my friend's horse had an awful reaction to his tet/flu booster. His neck came up like a football and top of lump came off revealing a huge hole. He had lockjaw symptoms and was PTS. My friend claimed on her insurance as far as I can remember. It's such a shame that all this time later there are still problems. Having kept horse for 30 odd years and seen lots of depressing sights this one stays with me as the worse one.
 
I posted on a thread about vaccinating a few months ago and was vilified for saying that whilst I do it because horse competes I don't believe it should be done every year and I have witnessed it doing more harm than good. Reading this thread and hearing the number of problems with vaccinations is scary- I find it frightening that we have been brainwashed into vaccinating everything that moves on a constant basis to line the pockets of the major drug companies. I have been lucky in that none of my horses have had serious reactions but our family dog had to be PTS after reacting to a vaccination and one of my current dogs developed epilepsy after being vaccinated- of course these incidences were written off by the vets as coincidences. However the link between cancer in cats and vaccinations is too strong to ignore. I will put my soapbox away now but I do wish that there was an alternative path to vaccinating every year.
 
elliefiz said:
I posted on a thread about vaccinating a few months ago and was vilified for saying that whilst I do it because horse competes I don't believe it should be done every year and I have witnessed it doing more harm than good. Reading this thread and hearing the number of problems with vaccinations is scary- I find it frightening that we have been brainwashed into vaccinating everything that moves on a constant basis to line the pockets of the major drug companies. I have been lucky in that none of my horses have had serious reactions but our family dog had to be PTS after reacting to a vaccination and one of my current dogs developed epilepsy after being vaccinated- of course these incidences were written off by the vets as coincidences. However the link between cancer in cats and vaccinations is too strong to ignore. I will put my soapbox away now but I do wish that there was an alternative path to vaccinating every year.
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This is why I no longer have my 14yr old cats vaccinated - last year one was poorly for a day or so but recovered. I read around a bit and then spoke to the vet and he agreed that they prob didn't need vaccs anymore especially as one never goes out if she can help it and the other never goes further than next doors garden and at their age they have probably built up a resistance in any case.
 
sussexbythesea said:
This is why I no longer have my 14yr old cats vaccinated - last year one was poorly for a day or so but recovered. I read around a bit and then spoke to the vet and he agreed that they prob didn't need vaccs anymore especially as one never goes out if she can help it and the other never goes further than next doors garden and at their age they have probably built up a resistance in any case.
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Built up resistance- that's exactly what we humans do which is why most vaccinations are a once in a lifetime occurrence for us. There are few vets who would ever say the same about animals unfortunately. I'm glad yours has seen enough sense to agree vaccinating an elderly cat is absolutely ridiculous.
 
Until pressure is put on the organisers to allow injections to be 2 years apart or so, then nothing will ever change.

We have one horse at ours - she was brought and the old owners thought the new would vaccinate the new though the old would - horse went out of date by 3 weeks - poor horse now has to "re-start" so thats 3 injections .....

how stupid !
 
Fransurrey said:
Length of effectiveness depends on manufacturer, but is significantly longer than the two year interval. Horses and humans are both said to have acquired lifetime immunity after a certain number of vaccines. I think in humans it's 3 or 4. Certainly my vet told me that Henry's last vaccine in 2008 could be his last one. He was 16. It would have been his 4th I think.
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Agree. My vet said once prince is done in the summer technically he is covered for life but the drug companies dont sanction it for that and give them a life of 2-3 years. My last vac was a 3 year one. Money presumably?
 
elliefiz said:
Built up resistance- that's exactly what we humans do which is why most vaccinations are a once in a lifetime occurrence for us. There are few vets who would ever say the same about animals unfortunately. I'm glad yours has seen enough sense to agree vaccinating an elderly cat is absolutely ridiculous.
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I think the thing is that horse's are perhaps more susceptible to tetnaus than say people given that they live outside and are accident prone ;)

Gingerwithc, competitions only require influenza I believe, which unfortunately will have to be done annually because it changes.
 
Hello everyone:

Just some further clarity about why vaccines have different 'durations of immunity' and they're not always as long as you'd think:


- Whilst vaccines are indeed every vets bread & butter income ££££ (and drug companies too of course!) there is a Legit reason why you have to vaccinate every 1/2/3 years (or whatever the duration is for that particular vaccine)....

...Drugs companies have to prove that, in a healthy animal, a vaccine will last for X number of years. Then they can write this on the label, and it's official. (Particularly important for Jockey Club, FEI etc)

-They prove it by conducting 'challenge tests': Vaccinating healthy young animals, then isolating them from all other creatures for a number of years, then after the chosen period they deliberately give the animals that disease! The ones that don't get the disease are clearly immune, and this helps prove the vaccine worked.

-It's is a pretty horrid way of proving immunity, for both the poor isolated animals (think beagles in cages) and especially for the animals that become ill or even die as a result of deliberately being given the disease!

Naturally, animal welfare groups campaign against this type of testing.

So drugs companies are reluctant to carry out more tests to see if they can prove that the Duration of Immunity is longer. And this is why durations of immunity for existing vaccines are unlikely to change any time soon.

Hope that clears that up! :)
 
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