Page 109 - January 2017

you wouldn’t know which part caused the reac- tion. “Sometimes it’s wise to separate these out and not give everything all at once in a 7-way vaccine. When I work with owners whose horses react, we give the vaccinations separately until we figure out which one is the culprit and plan the subsequent annual boosters accord- ingly. But with a foal, it will be the first time it’s ever been vaccinated, and it may be wise to not give everything all at once,” she says.
“The literature tells us, from a research standpoint, that it is better to give the vaccines singly and not all at the same time. But for practical purposes, this isn’t always possible. If you give one, wait a week, give another, wait
a week and so on, it may take 6 or 7 weeks to give those first doses. In some instances, you just about have to do it all at once or split it into just two sessions. Research will tell you that the antibody levels are different giving them all at once versus spread out, but physi- ologically it still gets to a protective level. I usually tell owners that unless they have a horse that doesn’t respond well to vaccines or is very sensitive and tends to react when vaccinated, I don’t worry about giving multiple vaccines at the same time. On some of the bigger breeding farms, with dozens of foals to vaccinate, this is the only practical way, especially if people are not going to have hands on those foals again in a week,” says Hammer.
IMPORTANCE OF BIOSECURITY ON THE FARM
It’s also important to remember that even if we vaccinate, no vaccine works 100% for all the animals we vaccinate. “It doesn’t always prevent disease,” says Wilson. “It’s impor-
tant to keep up the appropriate biosecu-
rity measures and good husbandry of
the horses. This can really help prevent diseases and is just as important (often
more important) than vaccination,”
she says.
The mares and foals on a farm are very vulnerable to disease exposure if there are other horses coming and going from the farm. You need to keep them out of harm’s way if there is horse traffic with outside horses coming to the farm. “The time period for young foals between 6 weeks of age and whenever you start to vaccinate them is when they are at high
risk for disease because the colostral antibodies have waned. They are no longer effective
for protection, but they are still there and can interfere with
Some horses react negatively to certain vaccines. Instead of giving a combination vaccine with multiple antigens, administer vaccines individually. This way, you can single out any that may cause a reaction and plan boosters accordingly.
vaccination. The foals themselves are starting to produce their own antibodies, but if they haven’t been exposed to disease, they haven’t had much chance to create protective antibodies. So this is a very high risk period,” Wilson says.
If mares are sent away to be bred with foals at side, this is always a risk. It helps if they can stay home and be bred at home and remain in a more controlled environment. Disease preven- tion is always very important.
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EQUINE HEALTH