Tetanus and influenza come as a combined vaccine or separately. A primary course is needed of 3 vaccines, the 2nd vaccine is given 4-6 weeks after the 1st and the 3rd vaccine 5 months after the 2nd, thereafter an annual booster is needed to maintain adequate protection against influenza and every other year for tetanus. For competition purpose you will need to follow their vaccination protocols, this commonly includes horses being unable to attend until 7 days after their 2nd vaccine of the primary courses and that every annual booster given after completing the primary course must have been given within a calendar year. Some organisations will also require horses to have had an influenza booster within 6 months (+/-21 days) and that horses can’t attend until 7 days after each booster.
It is always advisable to give your horse 24hours without exercise after vaccination as mild lethargy is commonly experienced. Mild vaccine reaction is normal, the body is mounting an immune response and reacting as if it had the real disease - which is exactly what we want it to do! A small number of horses will experience localised swelling and soreness to the muscle injected, if your horses as previously reacted like this, or you are worried they might, then highlight this to me and we can discuss the best injection site.
For some horses I will also routinely dispense a course of anti-inflammatories when vaccinating.
Occasionally horses have a more significant reaction to vaccination, it is still strongly advisable to vaccinate these horses as these reactions do not cause as serious disease as what we are protecting them against. Please do highlight if your horse has previously had a significant reaction so we can discuss how to minimise this. It is worth noting, that just because a horse has reacted badly to one vaccine, does not mean it will react this way to every vaccine, there is enough variations between different influenza and tetanus vaccines that we can use an alternative.
To inject the vaccine I need a brief moment of cooperation from the horse, pony or donkey - the vast majority will tolerate this with no reaction at all, however a very small number of horses will adversely react to a vet and/or the injection. If your horse is likely to be too reactive to inject please highlight this at the time of booking so we can discuss how best to approach this. This may be in the form of some prior desensitisation, allowing extra time for the appointment or dispensing an oral sedative ahead of my visit. For those that are nervous or sharp to handle I recommend desensitisation and positive reinforcement prior to the appointment, a cocktail stick can be great for mimicking the sensation of a needle. There is a cohort of horses which a nose twitch can be beneficial and effective to use to allow injection to be done without any fuss and for this reason I carry a twitch to use appropriately. For a rare number of horses, being injected by a vet is something they just will not tolerate, and I will need to dispense a drug for you to give to either calm or sedate the horse in advance of my arrival.
Please have you horses passport present at the appointment!
