>>> I do agree that it would be better to spread the shots out, but since my >>> vet is 2 1/2 hours away and charges me $95 for a farm call now, I had >>> them done all at once. She did some on one side and the others on the >>> other side, hoping that might help for any soreness--of course, it >>> wouldn't help with overloading their system.
That's a real concern, Ferne. If I were convinced that combined vaccines were dangerous for most horses, I'd give them separately and cough up the farm call fee, but I'm not convinced it's a big deal. I know too many horses who have lived too long getting five-way vaccines every year with no side-effects. I suppose we can give them ourselves...but there are downsides to that too. Where do you get your vaccines? (Not Ferne, but anyone who buys them...) If you mail order them, how does the company ship them? Many vaccines are worthless if they aren't kept under a given temperature, and would you bank on UPS or FedEx not to let them get too warm? I've heard stories of vaccines arriving in suitable cooler boxes, but the vaccines inside the boxes were warm. I've seen the cooler doors left open for the vaccines refrigerator at the farm supply stores... I suppose there's no guarantee that a vet-given vaccine might have gotten warm somewhere along the way, but I'll betcha most vet offices are more diligent about monitoring that sort of thing than is your UPS depot. There's risks to everything we do with horses, but I'm not overly worried about giving healthy horses combined vaccines. Karen Thomas, NC
