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  Discussion on Vaccine reaction in jack
Author Message
New Member:
galager

Posted on Sunday, Feb 17, 2008 - 1:19 am:

DrO - I wasn’t sure if other equines are included in discussions on horseadvice.com. What about donkeys? If not, ignore this message. Our young jack continues to have a severe allergic reaction to vaccines. The first year everything was fine with the 7-way. Since then we tried the 5-way and 4-way, both of which produced allergic reactions. The severity of the reaction has increased significantly from year to year. Last year the swelling in the face and mouth was accompanied by a cough. This occurred after pretreatment with NSAIDS (banamine), as suggested in your article on vaccine reactions. It takes only a few minutes for the reaction to occur. In each case about 12 hours are required after an injection of dexamethasone for the symptoms to disappear. This year we thought about either giving single injections over a period of several weeks or administering the 3-way (minus influenza) and West Nile (I saw online that West Nile is now included in the 3-way with tetanus and east/west encephalomyelitis). We have since discovered that a single dose of tetanus toxoid does not produce any side effects. Could the influenza vaccine be the culprit? I have heard of reactions from this vaccine in horses. Based on your article, I suppose all we can do is find the culprit by a process of elimination or decide not to vaccinate based on risk. Any more advice on this problem?
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Sunday, Feb 17, 2008 - 9:04 am:

Hello George,
Yes this article would apply to donkeys and mules and concur that first you need to decide which vaccines, if any, would on balance be more beneficial. Eliminate the others and then give them one at a time allowing a month between injections.

A note about your reaction. If shows an unusually large histamine component. You might consider pretreatment with NSAID and antihistamine. Antihistamines are not well characterized in horses but we do have information on types and dosages at Diseases of Horses » Respiratory System » Heaves & Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. I am interested in how much Banamine (flunixin) you gave and when.
DrO
New Member:
galager

Posted on Sunday, Feb 17, 2008 - 9:53 am:

DrO: Thanks for the reply. This is a minature donkey weighing about 250 lbs. We dosed him for this weight with banamine about 45 minutes before the injection.

George
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Monday, Feb 18, 2008 - 6:35 am:

George often these local reactions persist for 3 or 4 days and rarely even longer, so as the article recommends you should continue with either flunixin or bute twice daily for the length of time that past history suggests the reaction is going to continue and should be picked back up if symptoms return.

However neither the hives nor the cough are likely to NSAID responsive and suggest a more serious form of allergy so I would proceed with caution. Besides the histamine component it would be good to review the article on anaphalaxsis and proper treatment just in case. There is a link from the article following the coughing section.
DrO
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