Is it possible to give too many vaccinations?

[user 3234]

Is it possible to give too many vaccinations?

Giving the an annual Rabies and the Internet Prestige V twice a year (spring & fall): It protects against Eastern and Western Encephalomyelitis (sleeping sickness), Rhinopneumonitis respiratory (EHV-1 and EHV-4), Equine influenza (A2) KY 93, KY02, Newmarket 2/93 (cross-protects against: KY91, 93, 99, 02, OH03, Suffolk 89, NM 1/93 and 2/93 and South Africa 03) and tetanus toxoid (KV).

Too much?

Would like some feed back.

Thanks.

Sherry

 

[user 3234]

Any thought at all by anyone?

 

[ohmt]

I would talk to your vet to make sure that the vaccines can be given at the same time. Some vaccines need a certain time period before another can be administered as immune systems can be greatly weakened.

Just call the vet and they'll let you know if the 2 vaccines are compatible

 

[Jill]

I swear, this is something I wonder about each spring when I re-vaccinate horses and dogs for the same things I vaccinated them for the year before.

Yesterday, I had an appointment with a really good client (couple). The wife was telling me more about their grandson who has autism. She told me (tears) that she can look at pictures of him from 2-3 years old where he's engaging the photographer, eye contact, the whole nine yards. She attributes his autism to the preservatives in the vaccines he received. She and her husband have substantial assets and have put him in a special school where he has made great progress. However, when she was talking, I sure was thinking about all I inject into our horses and dogs year after year... I feel scared NOT to, but also worried about the harm that the shots may cause....................

 

[shorthorsemom]

Goggle... Jean Dodds, "stop the shots" and vaccinosis among other topics. Yes it is possible to overvaccinate. We are essentially killing our pets with over vaccination. Most dogs are vaccinated for life on their puppy shots. Overwhelming amounts of information already available on dogs... still need to do research on horses, but there are theories out there that Cushings in horses and ponies could be related to over vaccination. Especially since there is a "one size fits all" attitude for shots and that you should give the same amount of vaccine for a draft horse as for a miniature horse.

I got talked into vaccinating two of my older dogs for lyme a number of years ago by my vet. Within six months I lost both, one to an agressive form of cancer, and one from Degenerative myeopathy. A friend of mine vaccinated their geriatric dog, and lost the dog within a few months to cancer. Some forms of cancer in cats are directly linked to yearly vaccinations. My mothers dog gets sick within 7 days of his yearly vaccinations, (her vet recommends yearly for everything).. I could go on and on with examples, but you get the gist. I also agree with the theory that vaccinations are related to autism.

My first dog that I adopted the reduced vaccination protocol on lived 18 years, prior to that I was losing all my dogs earlier than 10 years old, those dogs, I did yearly vaccines on...

hmmm. Read Jean Dodd's stuff, very excellent reading, she is a vet and she has the numbers to prove it. Theory also is that much of our dogs that suffer allergies and health problems are directly linked to vaccinosis. cheers.

 

[shorthorsemom]

http://preventdisease.com/news/articles/ov...ting_pets.shtml

Here is a good link... many more...

cheers

 

[ohmt]

I work at a clinic (people clinic!) and I can tell you that with providers are much more cautious about giving vaccines to people that vets/owners are to animals. If anyone has gotten the seasonal flu shot or the H1N1 this year, you know there are a lot of questions that you have to answer about your health and history before you can receive the vaccine. I have noticed that owners and a lot of vets don't really check everything before giving vaccines.

ALWAYS check temperatures before giving a vaccine. If your horse's temperature is off absolutely do not give it any sort of vaccine. If your horse isn't feeling well-do not give it a vaccine. I also check gums and heart rate

I stick with the basics-I do the 3 way and a couple of others and thats it. I've never had a sick horse other than colic-though most of my horses never leave my farm and we are very careful when bringing new ones in. I think that if you follow the guidelines for the vaccine and make sure you're giving it to a healthy horse, your odds of something happening are very slim.

 

[Kim~Crayonboxminiatures]

I only do Rabies once a year, I've never heard of giving it twice a year, that one is good for one year. I do the Prestige V once a year also.

 

[Zora]

We never give any vaccines.

Rabies shots are quite harmful.

 

[ohmt]

We never give any vaccines.Rabies shots are quite harmful

I've never had ANY problems with the rabies shots--we've had our 50+ minis every year since 1989 get it.

With all of the skunks and mice and stray dogs, theres no way i'd risk NOT vaccinating my horses for rabies. They're such nosey little kids...and LOVE to play with every stray animal that wanders through our farm.

I also do tetanus-bought a stallion about 10 years ago. He was on the farm for a few weeks, got really sick and the vet couldn't figure out what was wrong with him. Turned out he had lock jaw which came from all of our flooding and he must've had a scratch that it got into. He was my dream boy.

 

[~Lisa~]

I personally would never risk my own horses or my neighbors horses by choosing to never vaccinate

That said I do also feel we over vaccinate our horses not sure they need tetnus every year - that type of thing. But after seeing horses very ill or dying from illness that could have easily been prevented - well that sticks in my mind so I continue to vaccinate

 

[Nathan Luszcz]

You CAN overvaccinate SOME species, people included. Horse vaccines do not work the same way though. You can not over vaccinate a horse if you follow proper guidelines. Rabies is an annual shot, and is extremely safe. Some vaccines like Tetnus will boost the immune responce to other vaccines, so you can give that one more often.

 

[barnbum]

Isn't it a law that horses must have rabies shots? Like dogs?

I just had this conversation with my vet yesterday. Tucker was supposed to get gelded, but when I called the day before to ask if the foals could get their vaccines on the same day, the vet said Tucker needed a series of shots before he could be gelded, mostly tetanus. Once she arrived, I had to decide if I wanted her to give them tetanus and rabies, or the 5-way. My mares have had terrible reactions to something in the 5-way, so they've ordered 3-ways for spring, just for me. My vet said she'd like to go back to 4-way. It's all so confusing! I went ahead and had the foals get the 5-way and they didn't have reactions, thank goodness. Now they need a booster in January, then we'll do spring shots in April. Good grief!

I feel scared NOT to, but also worried about the harm that the shots may cause....................

Exactly!

 

[Nathan Luszcz]

Rabies is regulated at the state level.... no state I know of requires it as a mandatory shot, but many do require it for any travel or show entries.

 

[flflyingw]

I also continue to be concerned about this and I wonder if the area we live in may have something to do with the shots. I live in Florida and go by my vets knowledge as I just don't know.

 

[wildoak]

Having just recently lost a cat from a bad reaction to rabies shot, I won't say it's a harmless vaccine. Nathan, how exactly do horse vaccines work differently? I have read, but do not remember the difference. My take on it was that immunity in cats, dogs etc is more likely to build up than it is in horses, due to the way the vaccine works.

It's kind of a darned if you do darned if you don't proposition - don't want the disease, whatever it may be, but certainly don't want to do harm by giving vaccines. It has been suggested that doing a titer will tell you if there is still immunity, but apparently that doesn't give you a simple yes or no either according to a vet I questioned. My cats & dogs generally get the full set of vaccines their first year, and after that I've only done rabies regularly - and more recently we've added the rattlesnake shot for the dogs.

Jury is still out for me on the horses, would love more information.

Jan

 

[Jean_B]

I don't think the issue is so much one of having too many different kinds of vaccinations (though it is unnecessary to vaccinate for some diseases that are regional only).

The big issue is giving them too many different kinds all at one time. This is EXTREMELY dangerous and can be deadly. Example:

I sold a weanling filly to someone who is relatively new to horses. Her vet insisted on giving virtually every vaccine known to man all at once!! The poor thing didn't stand a chance. She quickly went into respiratory and system failure because her body was overloaded and she spiked a high fever. So then this so-called trained moron of a vet proceeded to over-medicate this filly with WAY WAY WAY too much antibiotics without giving any probiotics or gastroguard.

End result....the filly bled to death internally. I don't blame the new owner. She thought she was doing the right thing by trying to protect the filly from every conceivable disease. The vet killed this filly by giving them to her all at once. The filly would have been fine if there had been a week or two between some of the vaccinations.

 

[Miniv]

There is no absolute FOR SURE answer.......no matter what ANYONE posts on here. There are studies that have been done and are still being done that argue for and against this subject.......

Personally, I do NOT agree with NOT vaccinating. In my opinion that is gambling with your horses' health and is asking for trouble.

I DO believe in building your foals' immunities - much like one does with a human child. Prepare their little bodies for the basics at first. And if they are going into a new environment later, then prepare them for that as well.......just like we would if we travel to a Third World Country.

It's all about BASIC COMMON SENSE.

 

[Zora]

dr.carley.com and theflucase.com are great website on vaccines.

 

[wildoak]

I DO believe in building your foals' immunities - much like one does with a human child. Prepare their little bodies for the basics at first. And if they are going into a new environment later, then prepare them for that as well.......just like we would if we travel to a Third World Country.

I've been using a supplement on some of my horses that is designed to do just that. We had a seminar here recently with Dr Russell Smith, the founder/developer of Gomers, Inc, and that was one of his main points. His product is supposed to build and maximuze the immune system so that it can handle and utilize the vaccines (and other challenges to the system). I have my in foal mares on it and my yearlings, and have used it on a big mare who was thought to have epm. So far so good, this spring will be a good test of its effectiveness when mares foal. It is www.gomersinc.com if you are interested. We use the Karbo Combo.

I agree with you miniv - no way that any of us know absolutely for sure how our animals are affected by vaccines in the long term. I think it's a question of balancing the risk of vaccine against the risk of potentially deadly disease.

Jan