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  Discussion on Vaccinations for show mare to be bred this spring.
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New Member:
lindas

Posted on Tuesday, Mar 4, 2008 - 10:07 am:

Hi Dr. O.
I am a current small animal and former equine vet (20 years ago!) A year ago I bought a couple of Paint horses and am 4-H and APHA showing with my daughter's mare. The mare is 17 years old, a maiden mare, and my daughter wants to try to get a baby out of her if possible. I know that it is now or never as far as breeding is concerned, as she has reached the age when getting pregnant for the first time is more difficult, but I want to be sure she is protected for this show season from Rhino and strangles. Until now we have only been doing small local shows,and have never had to stay overnight, but will be doing many overnight state and regional large events this spring and summer. The mare has had Rhino 1/4 every year as far as I know. I do not think she has had the MLV version. The neuro form of the EHV 1 has me concerned. Should I stick with the killed 1/4 vaccine on both of my horses (the other one goes to small shows and trail rides, perhaps occasionally spending the night at a state park) or should I vaccinate with the MLV vaccine now (with a booster in early April?), then breed late April or May? Also neither one of my horses has ever had strangles vaccine, and as much as we travel I feel that they are at risk. I want to complete the primary intranasal series before the mare is bred, if it won't hurt anything. I just boostered EEE/WEE, WNV, tetanus, injectable influenza, and Rabies, but would like your thoughts on the Rhino and Strangles before I proceed. Thanks. }
New Member:
lindas

Posted on Tuesday, Mar 4, 2008 - 2:04 pm:

I have a correction to my last post. I just talked to the previous owner of both horses, and she said that as long as she owned them she did NOT give any Rhino vaccine or strangles, but had given the other vaccines I mentioned. Whether that would change your recomendations or not I don't know, other than I will need to give a booster of whichever form of the vaccine we choose.
Any other recommendations for vaccination and prevention of diseases in Western NC? What about Potomac Horse Fever? I understand the vaccine is not that effective, but I have heard of people around here vaccinating for it.
(and on a personal note, I went to Georgia also, class of '85. I do remember you from vet school. My maiden name was Linda Hamilton)
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Tuesday, Mar 4, 2008 - 7:10 pm:

Welcome DrS,
We have a small GO-DAWGS contingency on these boards that you hear from in the fall. Glad to have one more.

Hmmm...We face the same problem. Regularly we heavily show a young Paso-Fino stallion while the others are pleasure but with a fair amount of traveling. We have him on the show schedule in the article on vaccine schedules, which recommends Rhinomune every 3 months during the show season. Everyone else is on the regular schedule in the article even though the stallion mingles with our geldings. I think you can make arguments either way on the stay at home but this has worked for us. We do not give a Strangles vaccine but if you feel there is a threat, the intranasal is much better than the older injections (see Strangles article for more on this).

While most disease prevention in horses comes from proper feeding I would direct you to the nutrition articles. Much is changing in the deworming field with the strong emergence of pyrantel resistance and the increasing resistance to ALL benzimidazoles, you might find our recommendations a bit different and I would be glad to discuss them on the board.

Last I heard there has not been any verified case of PHF in NC but you might check with our state lab in your region. You can find out much about PHF and the vaccine at Diseases of Horses » Colic, Diarrhea, GI Tract » Diarrhea in Horses » Potomac Horse Fever.
DrO
New Member:
lindas

Posted on Tuesday, Mar 4, 2008 - 10:55 pm:

Thanks, Dr. O.
I'll definitely check those out. As for PHF, what I heard "through the grapevine" was that there was a fatal case somewhere in the mountains (but it may have been in Tennessee or Virginia) Next thing you know everybody panics and gets their horses vaccinated. I suspect this individual went to an event somewhere where PHF is endemic and brought it home...which of course is how these things often spread geographically, as long as the vectors are present.

More specifically, about my daughter's mare...is it safe to vaccinate with Rhinomune (I assume that is the MLV vaccine) so close to breeding, or should I give her the killed EHV 1/4 vaccine? We have a whole month from mid April to mid-May where we have no important shows. By then she should be back full swing in her heat cycle and we plan to try to get her bred during that time. We would have to give the first vaccine sometime this week, so that we could booster it the first week of April. I just wonder if that is too close to breeding for a MLV vaccine. Of course if she does conceive we will then switch to Pneumabort K to be given at the appropriate times.
I guess the question would be the same for the strangles vaccine, whether it is safe to give immediately before breeding. Thanks.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Wednesday, Mar 5, 2008 - 7:25 am:

Though you should double check the label for changes in status, Rhinomune is approved for pregnant mares and research has supported it as being safe in pregnant mares. When you review the research on this matter it appears that the association between these live vaccines and abortion have been greatly exaggerated. Note we are a bit of a radical on this issue and do not recommend Pneumabort K for abortion protection, for a more on this see the article, Diseases of Horses » Reproductive Diseases » Problems During Pregnancy » Equine Herpes & Abortion.

We cover the use of the IN strangles vaccine in pregnant mares in the Strangles article Strangles, Diseases of Horses » Respiratory System » Strangles & Streptococcus equi.
DrO
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