Vaccines

Who here vaccinates thier own horses? Who here vaccinates?

I've usually always had my vet do it every spring and fall. This includes for West Nile in the spring.

Well, this year, I think I am going to give them to her myself. I'm going to order them here soon from a vet supply site. It's just soo much cheaper.

I know how to give them in the neck, but I've also noticed that you can give them in the rump (you have to be careful though, for a few different reasons). Since I have to give two shots, should I give one in the neck and the other in the rump? Or should I just stick with the neck? The two shots I have to give are West Nile and then a Combo Vaccine that covers a bunch of other nasties.

What do you guys do for spring vaccines?

As far as I know, if you want to stay with the neck, you can inject in the other side as well, so you can put one shot in the right side, one in the left.

I don't feel confident enough to do shots. Especially with some horses reacting to the west nile and flu shots. I'd rather have the vet there.

But there are a lot of people that do give their own without any problems. I always see them giving in the neck.

If you feel comfortable go for neck. I did in bum couple years back (they wouldn't let vet close by :) ).

I usually give combo and WN. And rabies, of course (this one only vet can give in my state). For 2 years I also gave Potomac Fever, but opinions are very different on that one, so I'm not sure about next year.

Important points to remember:

Vaccine handling during transport is very very important. Everytime vaccines are shipped there is a chance that they have gotten too warm (or too cold) and are thus less or not effective anymore. With purchasing from a vet supply you have no idea how concientiously they checked and stored vaccines. The only thing you can control is how well you check their temp when they arrive at your door--they should be cool.

Also check the expiration dates on them when they arrive.

You need to make sure that you are giving exactly what you need. There are core vaccines and there are risk-related vaccines.
You can find vaccination info at http://www.aaep.org/vaccination_guidelines.htm

Know what an adverse reaction looks like and when you need to call the vet. That info can be found in a link on the above mentioned webpage.

You can ask your vet if you can purchase vaccines directly from him/her and give them yourselves. This would mean less tranportation of the vaccines, your vet's input on what your horse needs and it helps maintain that vet-client-patient relationship that is important to have if you ever have an emergency or need advice over the phone.

If you are giving multiple vaccinations, you can give them on each side of the neck. Or you can give them in the rump or the pectoral muscles. Light exercise after vaccination can help minimize local reaction--pain, swelling at injection site.
http://www.aces.edu/pubs/docs/A/ANR-1018/

My vet does most of the shots.

To be honest, let your vet do the shots, not only so they are correctly done, but also you will have records of every vaccination if ever you need them.

I call my vet and buy the medications from him, then my barn manager and I give them. I save myself a $70 house call.

We give our mares their shots in the rump and we've never had a problem. They just stand there and don't even flinch.