Vaccination Schedules for Horses
  by Robert N. Oglesby DVM

Equine vaccination recommendations vary widely depending on environmental, horse, vaccine, and human factors. The diseases present locally and their prevalence, the horse's use, age, pregnancy status, local climate, will all figure in to what vaccines should be considered. Vaccine factors should be cost, effectiveness, and adverse reactions as some vaccines have high rates of fever, swelling, and soreness. Perhaps most important and least considered is what are your goals for vaccination. In short, recommendations should take into account the cost versus the benefit. Just as important in the prevention of infectious disease are good husbandry practices.

This is a companion article to Vaccines an Overview. In that article we explain how vaccines work and don't work, review the vaccines available, and link to the articles about the diseases for complete information on the disease and prevention. It helps answer some of the questions when you consider, "should I vaccinate for this disease". Reviewing the Overview article first will help you decide which vaccines to give, while this article will help you decide how to schedule them... ...more.