Your Horse's Vaccinations

Every April the Animal Care Center hosts an Equine Health Month by offering discounted vaccines and Coggins testing.  This is our effort to try to get our equine enthusiasts ready for a season of fun and keep their riding buddy healthy.  Every year I get lots of questions about vaccinations in horses, so I thought I would address them today.

One common question we get is whether the horse owner can vaccinate their horses themselves.  Of course you can.  This can sometimes be one way to decrease some of the costs of vaccinations.  However, I would recommend your purchasing your horse's vaccinations from your veterinarian.  One of the biggest concerns veterinarians have is if the vaccines have been shipped and stored properly.  Vaccines that have not been stored under refrigeration may be de-natured and not effective.  If you order your vaccines on-line and are not cold on arrival, send them back.  When you get them, refrigerate them right away if you are not immediately administering them.  I am always cautious about purchasing from local farm stores, because I don't know if they were warm when they came in, or were left sitting in a box until they were warm and then refrigerated.  If you trust your local farm store, then by all means they can be purchased there.  In our clinic, all vaccines are immediately taken from their shipping container and refrigerated, if they are not cool on arrival they are returned to the supplier.  You can trust your veterinarian.  The biggest advantage of letting your veterinarian vaccinate-manufacturers will guarantee the safety and efficacy of the vaccine if it was administered by a veterinarian. 

What do you vaccinate for?  What you should be vaccinating for depends on your horse's lifestyle and designed to protect your horse according to their risk of exposure.   All horses should at least receive core vaccines: Western and Eastern encephalitis, tetanus and West Nile).  Ask your veterinarian if horse should be vaccinated against Rabies, Strangles, Herpes and Influenza.

Finally, I would recommend giving your horse at least a 48 hour rest after a vaccination.  Vaccinations stress your horse's immune system and cause him to feel off center for a few days.  The ideal would be to wait at least 2 weeks after his vaccinations for any heavy riding or performance.

If you have any questions about your horse's vaccination safety, feel free to give me a call or e-mail me.