Vaccinations are important. They do help prevent devastating disease and sickness. Over the years I have recommended different vaccinations and ways of doing them. But, what happens if you do not vaccinate?
If you own horses and do not bother with vaccinating them or even getting a coggin’s test done annually normally I don’t worry about it, they are your animals. But, every once in awhile you see a horse without vaccinations or coggin’s test. Then you get a call from the owner about the horse walking very stiff, head down and not wanting to eat very well. When you look at the horse it is evident that you have a case of tetanus. Now this is very life threatening. A case like this takes a lot of time and medicine to treat. We do use tetanus antitoxin, to treat this disease. Normally, the dose is seven of those little vials daily or twice daily for about a week.
If they go into titanic seizures, this is not good. They become very dangerous to be around. They will be kicking and falling all over. You have to know exactly what you are doing to be around them without getting hurt. They need to be under heavy sedation at this time. Now when they are going into these titanic seizures and over 26.5 years of practice, I have never been able to bring one out of it. Generally we end up putting the horse down and end the suffering. Not a good choice, but better for the animal. Medicine can only do so much.
Now my point is this could all be prevented by a vaccination for around about $10.00 or less per year. Enough said.
The other point to bring up is about coggin’s testing. Arkansas does require a negative coggin’s test every year to own a horse or any equidae, including donkeys, mules and zebras. For change of ownership the negative coggin’s test must be within 6 months prior to the exchange. Now, yes I do make a little money on doing this coggin’s testing but, like I have told many clients, my job is doing the testing and providing information. The state of Arkansas has not put me on the payroll or given me a gun or badge. So, I am not enforcement. But, if they do catch you, you will be quarantined until you prove that the testing has been done. And if you do not get the testing done you can be brought up on charges. These charges can be to the tune of $1,000.00 and/or 6 months in jail per head. These charges do carry some weight.
