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Holly
New Member
Username: paintnh
Post Number: 2
Registered: 7-2008
| | Posted on Tuesday, Aug 5, 2008 - 12:21 pm: |   |
I purchased (7 years ago) a Paint mare from MI, who is now 11 years old. My mare has a history of having extreme allergic reactions to injected vaccinations. Historic symptoms occur within 20 min of injection and include anaphylactic type reactions including terrible hives. She has had breathing issues during these episodes among other potentially life threatening symptoms. Fully recovering from these past episodes has taken her a couple of weeks. Upon inspection of the previous owners veterinary records, she had had reactions (urticaria) noted in her files as a baby.
I have tried many options to mitigate the problem including changing vaccine manufacturers, splitting up vaccinations, pretreating her with Dex and antihistamines prior to injection etc. None of which had any effect. With the symptoms getting worse over the years, my current vet suggested that I not vaccinate her at all because, and I agree, the benefit vs. the risk does not justify the situation. Although she has been able to tolerate the intranasal Strangles vaccine, after the last episode a few years ago, my vet has been hesitant to give her that as well. My mare is a show horse and historically travels to 6-7 shows a year in New England.
At this point I should mention that I used to own a biotechnology company that produced polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies for human and veterinary diagnostics and research. I have a good understanding of the immune response (both IgG and IgE etc). Based upon my observations, it seems as though my mare might be allergic to something in the adjuvant that is present in all of the injectable vaccines. I used to work a lot with various adjuvants (Freunds etc) in my previous company and found that the various adjuvants available all had similar components with minor changes in the immunostimulators and modulators.
So, ultimately I am looking for some options for vaccinating my mare going forward. Perhaps intranasal?? Is there some testing that can be done in advance (ie western blot vs the adjuvant) to confirm my hypothesis and clarify a future direction?? Each time she has had a reaction it has been worse than the previous one so she is definitely hypersensitized.
Based upon my studies, I would have thought that she might have been hypersensitized in some manner as a foal which triggered this whole problem. I certainly didn't think it was congenital problem. So now my story gets more complicated..... I inseminated my mare last year. During her pregnancy she had no vaccinations (of course this is against all normal practices). I was careful that she never left the barn and was cautious during that time that she not have contact with any horses new to our facility or show horses that traveled. Luckily all went well and we now have a beautiful 5 month old colt. When he had his first vaccination a month ago (EWT), he had an immediate allergic reaction. Eyes swelled shut. Mouth and lips swelled up so much he looked like a clown. He had terrible hives all over his body and required treatment. All....just like his mom. I am really surprised that She passed this on to him. My vet wants to go ahead and continue with my colt's vaccination program. He suggested pretreating him with Dex and antihistamines...however, this was unsuccessful with my mare. I am hesitant to go along with this although I understand the need to vaccinate both of them to infectious diseases in this region. |
Robert N. Oglesby DVM
Moderator
Username: dro
Post Number: 21161
Registered: 1-1997
| | Posted on Tuesday, Aug 5, 2008 - 6:27 pm: | |
Hello Holly,
That is an unusual story.
Yes you could try the intranasal vaccines for diseases they are available but these are just the respiratory diseases, not life threatening except in rare examples. If I had a case where I could not prevent anaphylaxis, I agree you should not vaccinate. I am interested in the particular medications, dosage, treatment schedule, and timing prior to vaccination used as a prophylaxis and what treatment was successful once the reaction occurred.
Concerning your foal, if the decision to continue vaccinations is made, I would include flunixin in the pretreatment as I have found it very effective for problems with swelling.
DrO |
