Download Vaccinating your horse

Vaccinating your horse
Vaccinating is something that is often overlooked by many owners in the routine health care of their
horses. For this reason we have developed a basic vaccination schedule that can be easily followed to
ensure all horses on your property are adequately protected against major diseases.
The three major diseases we recommend routinely vaccinating horses for are:
1.
Tetanus
2.
Strangles
3.
Equine Herpes Virus
Tetanus
Tetanus is a disease caused be the bacterium Clostridium tetani that can affect all animals. This type of
bacteria produces spores that can survive in soil and the environment for many years.
Horses are the most susceptible of the domestic animal species to tetanus infection, and are often
frequently exposed to infectious spores via hoof or leg cuts and abrasions.
Tetanus is a rapidly progressive and often fatal disease in horses. Affected animals may initially
develop signs such as lockjaw, muscle stiffness and spasms, colic and reluctance to walk or feed from
the ground. As the disease progresses horses are no longer able to stand, they may seizure and
eventually die from asphyxiation within 24-48 hours after they first start showing signs of the disease.
There is no treatment for this disease, only supportive care and the prognosis remains grave even with
supportive therapy. Thankfully, the vaccines available are highly effective at preventing this
disease, and we therefore strongly encourage you to keep your horses up to date with their tetanus
vaccinations by following the vaccination protocol below.
Strangles
Strangles is another bacterial disease of horses caused by the bacterium Streptococcus equi. ssp. equi.
Strangles is a highly contagious disease that causes infection of the glands under the jaw.
Infected horses become lethargic, go off their food, have a fever, nasal discharge and swelling under
the jaw from abscesses in the glands. These abscesses may break out through the skin causing pus to
drain out. Although few horses die from this disease, strangles is notifiable in NSW and an outbreak
may result in closure of the affected property until the outbreak has been controlled. This disease
therefore poses a significant economic threat.
Strangles is diagnosed by culturing the bacteria from nasopharyngeal swabs or sampling infected
glands.
The vaccination available is not 100% effective in preventing the disease, but will reduce the severity
of the clinical signs. For the vaccine to be most effective, all horses must be vaccinated according to
the vaccination protocol outlined below. It is also wise to isolate any new animals coming on to the
property for 2-3 weeks, ensuring they are up to date with vaccinations and ideally monitor their
temperature over this period.
For more information on preventing and controlling a strangles outbreak, please contact us.
Equine Herpes Virus
There are a number of different strains of equine herpes virus (EHV). EHV 1 and EHV 4 are the two
most significant strains of concern, causing respiratory disease, abortions and occasionally neurological
disease in affected horses.
The vaccination available for EHV is not 100% effective at preventing disease, however vaccinated
horses tend to be less severely affected by the respiratory disease and have a lower incidence of
abortions.
This vaccination is not routinely used, as the incidence of this disease is relatively low, however if you
have racing horses, brood mares or keep a large number of horses together on your property, you may
wish to consider vaccinating them against EHV.
If you decide you wish to vaccinate against EHV, please phone ahead as we may need to order it in for
you.
* The EHV vaccination may provoke and inflammatory response at the injection site and horses may be a little
lethargic or have a temperature for a day or so following vaccination. For this reason we do not recommend
vaccinating performance horses less than 7 days away from competing.
Vaccination products available:

Equivac 2 in 1
Tetanus and Strangles

Equivac S
Strangles only

Equivac T
Tetanus only

Equivac TAT
Tetanus antitoxoid should be administered to horses
suspected of having tetanus infection, or horses with any kind of
open or penetrating wound.
Please contact us for more
information.

Duvaxyn EHV 1,4
Equine Herpes Virus 1 and 4
Standard Vaccination Protocol
The following vaccination protocol can be used for any horse that is 3 months of age or older. All
horses entering your property with unclear vaccination histories should be started on this course of
vaccinations, as should all foals once they reach 3 months of age.
Week 1
Week 3
Booster
every
months
Week 5
6
Booster
every year
Tetanus
Equivac S
Equivac 2 in 1
Or
Equivac 2 in 1
Equivac 2 in 1
Equivac 2 in 1
Strangles
Respiratory Disease Control
Equine
Herpes
Virus
Duvaxyn EHV
1, 4
Duvaxyn
1, 4
EHV
Duvaxyn EHV
1, 4
5th
Month
Gestation
7th
Month
Gestation
9th
Month
Gestation
Duvaxyn
1, 4
Duvaxyn EHV
1, 4
Duvaxyn
1, 4
Abortion Control
Equine
Herpes
Virus
Mares should be vaccinated with
the above protocol for respiratory
disease control with additional
boosters as follows
EHV
EHV
Written by Sally Coggins (2007)