Vaccines, inflammation, and ERU?

It's about time for Miss Lacey to get her yearly vaccinations and this means that we've reached another concern of mine. Really though, when DON'T I have concerns?!

Anyway, I'm debating about whether or not Lacey really needs/should get any vaccinations at all.

In the most basic sense, ERU (Moon Blindness) is an auto-immune disease that causes issues via inflammation. And don't vaccines have to trigger an immune response to get the desired result?

My current system, that's been working so far to prevent ERU episodes, is to keep her immune system up and her inflammation levels as low as possible.
I'm just not sure if provoking her immune system via vaccines is really a great idea.

ERU is sort of like a volcano that's dormant most of the time - it's dormant until conditions are right, then it goes "crazy". Lacey's ERU is pretty under control right now but that's just because we've been kicking it's butt by keeping her immune system up and her inflammation as low as possible.

She doesn't leave the property, doesn't contact other horses (just 2 llamas and 2 goats), has no prospects of leaving the property or contacting other horses, and she doesn't interact with anyone who does contact other horses regularly...

I don't know, what would you guys do?
My gut says not to vaccinate unless something comes up that means Miss L will be contacting other horses or going off the property but I don't know....

My vet isn't super "up" on ERU so she sort of defers to me in these sorts of cases. She knows how to deal with ERU medically but medically dealing with it and living with it are two different things! Haha

Here's an article that might be interesting...the second paragraph is the part that's really the "useful stuff" about inflammation etc. (Mods, hopefully this article is ok, I know that COH has a forum, maybe? But this is just a article link...feel free to remove it if it violates anything :) )

New Hope For Moon Blindness | The Chronicle of the Horse

Vector borne diseases are still a concern, a big one. Rabies too. Your vet should know what diseases are prevalent in your area.
You could probably do without strangles & Rhino/flu.

It shouldnt be a problem if your not taking her anywhere or she's not contacting other horses. You should be fine plus youve got to think of lacey. I know people who don't give certin shots, some who havent had their horses done in years and they are perfectly fine.
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I would still consider rabies like natisha said. I know she doesn't have any other equine contacts but illnesses such as that that can be transmitted through other canals would still be a big concern at least imo

Eastern and western equine encephalitis viruses are harbored by birds, not horses. They are transmitted to the horses by mosquitoes. The horses are dead end hosts.

If your horse dies of encephalitis or rabies or tetanus, it surely will not get "moon blindness" because it will be dead.

Wow, Celeste. No need to get snippy. I'm trying to do the best possible thing by my mare and keep her pain levels as low as possible. I wasn't sure if ERU trumped vaccines (some literature that I've found says not to vaccinate ERU horses, period - wanted to link to it but couldn't find it) and THAT is why I'm asking.

To everyone else, thank you for your thoughts! I really appreciate it! I will definitely be talking to the vet about it. I know that last year we gave her some kind of 4(5? 3?)-way thing and a shot for flu. Definitely no to the flu one this year but I'll talk with the vet in depth about the others.

Keep us updated chicka. I'm super curious as to what a vets opinion would be in a situation like this.

What about running vaccine titration tests first? I don't know how readily available they are for horses, but I work in a small animal clinic and we often send out titration tests for our clients who choose not to vaccinate on a traditional schedule. If the titer shows protective levels, we don't vaccinate; if it shows non protective levels, we do vaccinate.

This is assuming that drawing blood would be less stressful than vaccinations, which I am assuming it would be.

Sorry if I seem offensive, but I really think that it is a matter of life and death.

Wallaby I don't think Celeste intended to sound snippy. She's right though...you can't 100 percent control flying pests that may get near your horse. My horse has no medical issues that I know of, but I wondered out loud at Tractor Supply whether or not the West Nile shot was worth the $$$. The cashier told me that actually, HER horse contracted West Nile, and it cost her a LOT in veterinary assistance (Couple thousand I think?) to recover.

I bought the shot.

As the someone said, you may want to consider things that have gone around your neck of the woods.