Over Coming Pony Vaccination Allergies
I have got a mare that has allergies to anything you care to name and a couple of things you may not think of right away. In the beginning, I once believed she was an exceptional case, a freak if you will. Experience has taught me since then that allergies are as common to horses as colds are to human beings. I have no idea whether all horse allergies have existed from far off times, or whether horses are developing new allergies all of the time, like humans discover new illnesses all the time. I’d never heard about AIDS till I was in my twenties, and swine influenza and bird flu appeared to come into existence when I was in my 40′s. I was aware of just human influenza till then.
I haven’t managed to confirm if Trigger, Roy Rogers’ horse, had any allergies. Nor have I got any decisive knowledge on the subject of any allergies suffered by Dale Evans’ Buttermilk and Man O’War. The books are silent on allergies which will have plagued Seabiscuit and Exterminator. How did people treat their horses for allergies in the days before vaccination treatments were invented?
Horses allergic to vaccination treatments show varying symptoms. In some, the area around the injection site will swell. Other horses break out in hives. Some horses develop tender rocky mounds that appear to go on and on for weeks. I have known lots of horses to go off food.
My mare belongs to the “been there, seen it all, suffered it all” classification.
It is a good idea for owners of allergy-prone horses to get the vet to inject their horses with an antihistamine shortly after the vaccination. I have also discerned the position of the vaccination injection plays a massive rule in the effectiveness of the vaccination and in any allergenic response it may bring about.
With my super-allergic mare, injecting vaccine on either side of the neck, with an antihistamine injection thrown in on one side of the neck, did not seem to work. Her neck swelled worryingly, and became really tender. She couldn’t lower her head or graze. At such times I had to feed her with a feed net.
But I have a belief in prevention, not cure. After trying vaccinations in the hindquarters and antihistamine in the neck and failing to keep down the allergenic reaction once again, I got my vet to try shots in the hindquarters followed by antihistamine in the same part. That ultimately helped, surprising me, my vet and most of all, my mare. You might see she was missing something.
My experiences with my mare have taught me that the easiest way to administer vaccinations to the pony with exaggerated allergy is to give shots in both hind quarter areas and follow up with split antihistamine shots very close to the sites of vaccination injections. At the worst, this will keep your pony in a position to bend its head, graze and eat feed, though your horse may bear some tenderness. I have received positive feedback about this method from virtually all of my pony owner pals to whom I made this suggestion.
Be really alert, though, if your pony develops respiratory problems in the aftermath of vaccination without or with antihistamine. Your vet may have more work to do.
Horses are Heather Toms passion and she enjoys sharing her extensive knowledge through her 100s of articles with other horse lovers, like all things about equine health
by List of Sports on May 14th, 2012 Tags: barrel racing, horse riding, horse training, Over Coming Horse Vaccination Allergies
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