Ha Ha! How many of you thought I meant I was getting married?
Actually we have set the date for Sassy's visit with the NB trimmer that was recommended to me by Cody Ovenick. We go down on the 22nd. Unfortunately we missed the date for his regular Cheyenne run, so we have to go all the way to CO.
After I talked with Steve (funny funny guy on the phone) and set the date, I realized that we would be transporting over state lines. YIKES! That means health certificate and Coggins test. Luckily I was able to get an appointment for that today, and then TC was nice enough to take her down to get it done. You also have to have a brand inspection if transporting over the WY state line, but I have lifetime inspections on all of my horses, so I that is one less thing to worry about.
I told TC to go ahead and get all of her vaccinations, but then the question came up about the Strangles vaccine. Last year my horses were given the live vaccine through the nasal cavity, and Danny and Killian had pretty severe reactions to it and the other two had minor reactions. For that reason there is a lot of controversy about that particular vaccine. I decided I do not care for it. So I am torn now. I surely don't want to run the risk of her getting strangles, or bringing it home. I don't suspect that she will really be around any other horses, but I don't know that for a fact. She is going to get trimmed and come home. If she was going to a show, then I would feel differently.
I finally told him to leave it up to the vet. She is a good vet and won't just give it to her unless she really thinks it is the right thing to do. Heck for I all I know it may be required now.
So, I am curious about what others do? Do you vaccinate for Strangles? If so which type of vaccine do you prefer? Do you vaccinate all your horses for it, or just the ones that you compete on?
I am excited for the 22nd. I sure do hope that he can see what the problem is and help her out.
I am totally against the strangles vaccine. I think that just getting strangles is less harmful to your horses. If your horse is going to shows all the time and around a lot of other horses I think it might be worth it, but in general I think that the effects of the vaccine aren't something that horses need o go through
ReplyDeleteI think you did the right thing, I am not fan of the strangles vaccines either. It has a lot of adverse reactions and doesn't give great coverage. The timing is bad as well since you will be trucking her in just a couple of weeks. The vaccine won't have time to work, but will depress her immune system prior to shipping. I'd skip it if you can get away with it.
ReplyDeleteI hope these folks can help Sassy. I'll be very interested to see what they do for her. Good luck!
I've worked for an equine vet for the last 13 years. I'd guess that maybe 20% of our clients boost for strangles on a regular basis. We use Pinnacle Intra-nasal and to date, I've not seen or heard of any reactions to it. It's a modified-live virus, so we don't dispense it, but rather the doc administers that one. Personally speaking, I do not do it, never have. But, I have a pretty closed herd and don't take them to a lot of public venues. The doc doesn't vaccinate his horses for strangles either, and his wife does attend an occasional dressage show. Common sense prevails when you're in public, use your own water bucket, no nose-to-nose contact, no chewing of walls, etc. where the virus could have recently been. We've treated many cases of strangles here, and I would absolutely NOT want to go through dealing with it, if at all possible. That said, if I were worried about my horses getting it, I would vaccinate them, and not think twice about it. The vaccine is quite safe, has been used in millions of horses without reactions, and would absolutely be better than having your horse get sick. Strangles causes them to run high fevers, go off-feed and water, no antibiotics can be given until the pus pockets grow large enough to be lanced and drained, which can take a week or more of your horse suffering, most cases require IV fluids...if it were me, I'd take a reaction to a vaccine any day over getting the illness. It makes them very sick, expensive to treat, a pain to prevent spreading in your herd, and there's always the chance of you carrying it to someone else's place if you're not especially diligent about sterilizing your boots, changing clothes etc. Nope, just smarter, cheaper, much kinder and a whole bunch simpler to vaccinate if there's a concern.
ReplyDeleteIn your case, I'd just keep my horse away from strange horses and don't let your horse drink from a public water trough. Should be ok.
I don't understand why there's so many folks who have vaccine phobia...they're cheap insurance against a lot of potentially serious, and expensive diseases that are easily prevented. Nowadays there's a lot of parents with the same fears/phobias regarding the vaccinating of their children too. I don't get it.
Thank you so much for your very helpful and informative comment on my post yesterday. Great tips!! I love Reeses too by the way. :)
I'm so glad to hear you have an appointment! I can't wait to hear what he has to say, and what the plan is going to be.
ReplyDeleteI always vaccinate Lilly for Strangles. We go to quite a few shows and I don't want to take the risk. I keep her away from other horses and try to be careful about other things she could catch, but you just never know when something could happen. There's no way I want to risk her getting sick. The only reaction she's ever had was to a rabies vaccine. Otherwise, I haven't had any issues.
Oh, the joys of crossing state lines. I live right on a border so I have to be legal all the time. Kinda sucks.
ReplyDeleteI give the Pinnacle IN strangles vaccine to my horses every year because we travel a lot and I do not ever want to have to deal with strangles. Never had a problem, never heard of anyone having a problem. I've heard of lots of problems with the injectable kind though. I'd love to hear more about what happened to your horses. At the vet clinic where I work they've only once ever had vaccine reactions in horses, and that was with a different vaccine that the company had mixed incorrectly. Even with that, the reactions were pretty mild.
Can't wait to hear what the farrier says!