WHEN VACINATIONS GO WRONG!!!

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skewbald_one

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Just thought I would share this -Be warned, It has some gross picture .


My friend had the vet out as her jabs had lapsed, so had to start from the beginning again. Anyway 2nd jab due on the 1st June save on the call out have his teeth done at the same time. He was sedated for his teeth in the neck, so the vet vaccinated him in the chest. All goes well.

The next day his chest began to swell and he was in pain. The vet was called he was given painkillers and antibiotic. Bobby had a temperature of 104 for 4 days he was very ill.
He was not getting better, so we called the vet again who came out and scanned it, the result being an abscess, 5cm in his chest where the needle had gone in. It was to far in for him to lance. He left us with different antibiotics, we had to hot wash it to try and draw the abscess out.
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The swelling got worse but his temperature went down to 102. He couldn’t walk or eat from the ground.
10 days after his vaccination with a bit of help from a needle it burst. The smell is horrendous but he is soooo much better in himself. His temperature is normal and we let him out in the small paddock for a walk round. The vet came said keep it clean, no need for any more antibiotics.
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His skin had been so stretched as it healed it turned to scab.
Yesterday it looked like this
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Today (last night) the scab fell off, It has left a hole in his chest the size of a saucer and 2ins deep. I have squirted it with diluted hibby scrub, and the vet is coming tomorrow. Picture to follow.


The vet said it is one of those things and it happens sometimes. When the needle went in it took a germ of the skin that caused the infection. (But it will be covered but your insurance) Like that makes it all better.

We just want him better, but do you think the vet is to blame?
 
Poor, poor horse!! Make sure he gets lots of polos!!

I think there are some situations where the vet is to blame and that there are some where its just bad luck and I think this is one of them. The vet doesn't appear to have been negligent. It was just one of those things. Bloody bad luck though!!
 
I guess everyone would react differently....I have a feeling you blame the vet, and if it was my horse i think id be exactly the same. so yeah i think its the vets fault! he/she should certainly pay the costs to get him better again ( thats what id be expecting anyway) at the very least
 
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Thats awful but ive never heard of vaccinations been given in the chest??
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Me either?!

One of mine had an acsess on the same spot last year (not caused by vacc though!) - it healed really well after it had drained. That looks damn sore though!
 
Hi, I've had this happen on a neck. In my case it was a wrong width needle helping to cause a heamatoma, which then abscessed and then got infected. My vet paid his own bill - I had queried the needle at the time. Still remember it well!
 
OMG I've never seen anything like it. I would have been so panicked the vet would have had to have bought a sleeping bag.

I had a strange thing in that my first horse years ago had his annual jab and the vet said he was as fit as a fiddle he'll be around for another 20 yrs ( he was just 8 )

Seven o'clock that night he dropped dead.

The autopsy said it was an Aneurysm but I guess we'll never know. I often wonder if he was just very unlucky.
 
Wow that is terrible.. don't think I have ever seem anything like that before! I have heard of sedation being given in the chest but have always seem evidence of swelling after.
Think you would struggle to prove anything tbh even if they were negligent..
I reckon a few people on here would suggest Manuka honey for that but no experience of anything so vast before myself.
Hope it heals soon, crap time of year for open wounds (obvously crap any time of year but much harder in summer with flies!)
 
Thankyou for all your replies, I will pass them on.
ChicoMio - Bobby is a pure bred arab so yes she does show him in-hand and ridden as well as dressage, he is a good allrounder.
He has been so good while we have poked and prodded. I am sure he knows we are trying to help. He has even accepted that he must stay in his stable on his own.
Today's photo when I can get it on here will shock you even more.
Any healing advice will be gratfully recieved.
 
this happened to a friends horse. i her case it was a contaminated batch of vaccine. One horse died from the reaction. Her horse had a massive abcess. As it was in the neck, the abcess tracked down to the shoulder. He had to have surgery to remove it, leaving a hole 2 fists wide and 1 fist deep, with a track all the way down the neck. He is fine now but you can see a dip in the muscle.
In the chest is actually a better location for a jab, as if an abcess does form it is easier to drain etc. In the neck or in the rump is more difficult as gravity doesnt help you. The chest or in the hind limb (semimembranosus/tendinosus) can be a better option.
 
my boy has his vaccine in his chest coz if he has it in his neck he can not move for a few days later. This happened because it was given in the chest am i right?
 
I saw a friends horse's reaction to a routine tetanus vac nearly 30 years ago. Poor boy developed a very large abcess on his neck the size of a dinner plate. When it burst it left a sizable crater. He unfortunately started to show classic signs of lockjaw and was pts. It's one of those horrible memories that will stay with me.
 
Poor horse, hope he heals quickly.

The vets around here often inject into the chest. Except my needle phobic pickle, who has it in his bottom!!
 
babybells-I don't no if this happened because he was injected in his chest. or if it would have happenen if he had it in his neck, I guess we will never no.

FPErin- Oh my good how terrible, this too has left a crater.
I can't bear to think about it not getting better.

Can a horse still get lockjaw, if it's tetnus jabs are up to date?
 
When my youngster was gelded, it all went horribly wrong and he had a huge and according to the vet - very stinky - abscess in his underneath bits. Had to have surgery and they had to leave a fist sized open wound. I had to clean it daily with hibiscrub diluted in warm water - chunks of cotton wool soaked in it.

Vet said as long as I got 2 or 3 good swipes of it, it would be fine. 2 weeks later it was gone - healed really fast, no big hole left.

Honey is excellent for healing but if you seal any infection in it will just abscess again. We used honey on a non infected leg as you can bandage over it and leave for 48hours at a time, but you'd struggle to keep it on a chest.

Just keep it clean and keep the flies off if you can. We kept Finn in on a night and only in a little paddock during the day so he couldn't hoon around.
 
Just to show you how well the horses body can heal i have posted some pictures of my old pony Simon. He had surgery to repair an infected broken rib. He had his side opened up and also had a large amount of " dead " infected muscle removed. The difference between the two pictures is 2 months. I dont have any after the last one as he died of colic
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but i would have thought it would have healed with only alittle scar to show. He really did have a massive hole in his side so it shows how well they heal. Nothing was put on this other than flushing with hibbiscrub twice a day.

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here you can see how small the scar actually went

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same happemed to one of my horses,eventually the vet said it could have been a bad batch of drugs. Although the abcess burst the swelling didn't go down and my horse ended up in potters Bar for abour six weeks.He was operated on and had numerous abcesses. Was left with a dent in his neck about the size of a football. My vet was lovely and he got the drug company to foot the bill. Came to around £4000.
 
Todays photo as promiced
when it is washed the skin looks quite good but it doesn't take long for the pus to form again.

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We have made a sort of bib for him out of a bed sheet, as he was biting at it and making it bleed. We put vasaline between his legs to stop the pus burning his skin.
The vet is coming out in the morning
 
I used to be engaged to a vet and helped put in the surgery at times and i have honestly never seen an abcess like that in my life.
Thats shocking poor horse,i have never ever heard of a vac been givin in the chest i find that very odd.

Hope pony feels better soon look forward to some pics of it looking better,hope it does not scar.
 
God poor poor horse! that really is horrednous.
I have never heard of vaccinating into chest (most vets would just jab into other side of neck from sedation, or even same side as sedation is IV and vacc is IM so are put in different sites anyway), but on the other hand i dont think that the abscess was caused by the chest injection. it could have abscessed over a site on the neck. It is one of those bad luck things i would have thought. As long as vet maintained sterility i.e. didnt use a dirty needle or the batch of vaccination was dodgy etc, they are not really at fault...though i would just check up on why vacc was put into chect in first place...

Was it flu or tet or both?
 
without meaning to sound REALLY stupid.........

you ahve contacted the vet right?! as a poor batch would be very likely.....

If the vet has not been out, id get them out a.s.a.p. as that is getting rather deep by the look of it!

better safe than sorry and all that, as he will prob need antibiotics etc
 
Our vets often inject into the chest.

I had a horse in a few months ago. she had a reaction to her flu and tet jab and ended up with an abcess. We hot clothed to try and draw it out but it ended up dispersing on its own.

We have used the spa with success on abcesses in feet. It might be worth talking to your vet about flushing it out with a hose attachment with a spa. the benefits being that the water contains very high level of both normal and epsom salts, so helps to draw pus and toxins out. It is also chilled water to be colder than an ice bath, this would help with swelling and would also act as a natural pain relief. the spa has also been used with success in helping wounds to heal, speeding up the healing process, promoting new skin growth and cleaning out infection.

Good luck with him and I hope it gets better soon
 
Ooooh, poor boy!!
Apparently chests are one of the safest places to give jabs, not least because in the case of an abscess they drain more easily. My YO injected one of his foals and caused a massive abscess in the neck. It's now no more than a dent, but apparently it was utterly gross and quite freaky!! I've given a few IM injections... I'd be totally gutted if that happened to me!
 
Gosh how awful. Please, please, please, anyone reading do not be tempted to not bother getting your horse vacinnated though, the outcome is a lot worse than any side effect! There is an interesting story in this weeks Horse Magazine of a horse with tetanus, which is a killer, due to bacteria in an injury site. The horse presumably was not vacinatted and the photo shows the horse lying down in the stable distressed, apparently when an adult horse lies down with tetanus the prognosis is very poor. I hope your friends horse starts to feel better soon, I know it looks gross but I am sure it will heal very well. I would say you would be hard pushed to say the vet is to blame for this, IMO it is just one of those unfortunate things that occur from time to time but if the injection shouldn't have been put in the chest in teh first place then I would say you have got grounds for taking this further.

 
Friend had had the horse injected previously with no probs (could possibly have been the 2nd vac of an initial course so not fully protected) It was horrible to watch him suffer. Perhaps it was a reaction to a bad batch of vaccine and it wasn't made clear by the vet. It was a long time ago before the " blame and claim" culture when mistakes were more readily accepted. He was insured though so I know she was covered for his vet fees and value. Despite his reaction to the jab it certainly made me have every horse I've owned since then vaccinated for tetanus.
 
Hi all, I'm Bobbys owner. I don't use this forum very often as its soo big and I lose track but its very good.

Thanks for all your comments and sympathy. There's almost too much to reply to here but it certainly all gives me something to think about and provides me with a lot of information.

The vet has been involved almost from the word go, there's no way I could have dealt with this on my own and I hope that no one else would try to. You really need to know what you're doing.
But I'm annoyed that vets don't wipe an injection site with antiseptic before injecting. It takes 2 seconds and could prevent the horror of what I've been through. I will be writing a very strongly worded letter to the practice and hope that they will at least pay the excess on my insurance. All I wanted was a flu jab
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skewbald_one has been a tower of strength and support, I don't know how I would be managing without my friends.
The good news is that the vet came this morning and is pleased with what he saw. He has no doubt that it will heal and probably quite quickly. He will have a scar of some sort (the horse not the vet!) but he was supposed to be a happy hacker not a top class show horse so I don't care. I just want a healthy horse
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