vaccination reaction :( poorly foal

[NeverSayNever]

anyone got any experience?

my sec A colt who is 9 months got his 2nd vacc yesterday. He seemed ok after and was ok this morning... but when i came home at lunchtime i could see he wasnt right. The vet came back out and confirmed it is a reaction to the vaccine. Poor wee guy was shaking and shivering, very unhappy in himself and most noticeable seemed off balance and swaying. the vet thinks this might be because his neck is so sore he was swaying as he tried to reach his hay Poor wee bubba! He temp was up 2 degrees so i had a mad dash to get a small enough rug to stick on him as i haven never rugged him but the weather is pretty dire and the vet has got him on bute for 5 days and said to keep him in.

to top it all the wee guy only has 1 testicle descended and is going in for surgery on it next monday (hopefully) which the local vet hosp has agreed to do as i just cant afford to send him to the Dick vet in Edinburgh which was what we were advised to do initially.

 

[Britestar]

Did he have a combined flu/tet? The tet can sometime make them feel right off, and give them a sore neck.

I have one who had this type of reaction, so its individual jabs for him from now on.

There was something on here a while back, and there seemed to be a suggestion that a certain brand had more reactions than others. That was the brand that had been used on my horse, so now I ask for a different one.

Mine was not great for about 5 days, also had bute.

 

[misst]

Our 2yo had a similar thing a couple of weeks ago. He had his first annual vaccine booster in the morning. I went down to feed that night and he was pawing the ground and twisting his head and looked very sad. He seemed unwilling to eat but then I realised he could not get his head down! Called vet who advised bute and observe. He was much much better within a couple of hours of bute and after 36 hours was back to normal. I held his feed bucket up so he could eat and put something under his hay so he could reach. His water I kept topped to the top of a large trug so again, he could reach. Hope your little guy is ok. It is quite scary to watch when they are like that.

 

[Birker2020]

anyone got any experience?

my sec A colt who is 9 months got his 2nd vacc yesterday. He seemed ok after and was ok this morning... but when i came home at lunchtime i could see he wasnt right. The vet came back out and confirmed it is a reaction to the vaccine. Poor wee guy was shaking and shivering, very unhappy in himself and most noticeable seemed off balance and swaying. the vet thinks this might be because his neck is so sore he was swaying as he tried to reach his hay Poor wee bubba! He temp was up 2 degrees so i had a mad dash to get a small enough rug to stick on him as i haven never rugged him but the weather is pretty dire and the vet has got him on bute for 5 days and said to keep him in.

to top it all the wee guy only has 1 testicle descended and is going in for surgery on it next monday (hopefully) which the local vet hosp has agreed to do as i just cant afford to send him to the Dick vet in Edinburgh which was what we were advised to do initially.

Sorry to hear about your foal. I hope he feels better soon. My horse had his flu and tet yesterday and i quite expected to see him with a big lump on his neck and feeling miserable but he was fine and stuffing his face as normal!

I know that our yard had the strangles vacinne about four years ago now. Every horse that had been injected was poorly, showing signs of lethargy, depression, not eating, shivering and one even had heart problems which gave rise to an englarged heart. The manufacturer eventually paid up for this horses treatment, but it was something that no one wished to repeat. The treating vet who had administered the vacinations said his practice would not be using the vacination again. Whether he meant the strangles vacinne entirely or whether he meant from that particular manufacturer I'm not sure. Luckily my horse didn't have it as he was on antibiotics for something else at the time.

 

[imr]

My horse has a history of allergic reactions to the flu vaccine. Now we keep them under control by medicating him with flunixin intravenously at the same time as we give the jab. Also do it early in the am so if he reacts can see it and call the vet for a second shot of flunixin. Generally he is ok now so when it comes to the next one speak to the vet about trying something preventative. Also it is okay to change brands for the boosters but the original course should be from the same batch of vaccine.

 

[Fahrenheit]

I've had 2 horses with vaccination reactions.

First was my gelding, he got a dinner plate size abscess at the site of the jab, the vet arranged with the vaccine producer to have all his vet bills paid by them. From then on he had his jab in his bum because then if he reacted again it would be in a slightly less worrying site than the neck or brisket to have an abscess and would also drain easier.

Second is a tb mare, one year she got big swellings under her armpits and was very uncomfortable, the vet tried a different brand the following year and the same happened and again the following year, she now also has her jab in her bum every year, she also starts a couple of days of bute on the morning of her vaccination and *touch wood* since we have been doing this she hasn't been reacting.

 

[MissTyc]

Poor little guy Hope he gets well soon.
Can't you wait a bit longer for the testicle to make an appearance? Your other horse is a gelding, isn't he?, so you could run him as a colt for a bit and hopefully by autumn he'd be easier to geld. I tend to geld mine as early as possible, as well, but have occasionally waited until they were 2 if I had a suitable gelding group and the colt was a uni-ball . Some just take a bit longer to turn into real men!