It is important to report it yourself to the APVMA - Australian pest and veterinary medicine association posted with permission This is our story and I will send you a separate email with the links to report any reaction - no matter how small - please have people do this .... it doesnt take long......this is most important....and do not rely on your vet or Zoetis to have done it. On the 31st of July 2013 my husband and I had 3 of our riding quarter horse geldings who will be refereed to as A, B and C administered with their first Hendra Vaccine by our Veterinary Services....all 3 geldings appeared fine in the following days. On the morning of the 28th of August 2013 the 3 geldings were administered with their 2nd Hendra Vaccine again by our Veterinary Services. That afternoon when my husband and I were feeding up we noticed that Coconut was not himself......off his feed and a little grumpy. However the following morning when feeding up Coconut was unable to lift his head to enable me to un rug him and was off his feed and terribly irritable.....so I rang and spoke to our vet at Veterinary Services who then referred to another person and got back to us to say he would come and examine Coconut and take some blood and have tested....before leaving the vet administered a Bute injection to try and make Coconut more comfortable straight away and told us he was advised by another source to keep him on a course of Bute - which we did over the next week. On the 30th of August I was back in contact with our Veterinary Services to let them know that Coconut had worsened overnight and was now dragging his bottom lip on the ground and was excreting big blobs of foam from his mouth. We were told by the vet that this is just another sign of his distress and to just keep the Bute up. I contact again the following day to let them know that there were no changes and that we were rather concerned about him........It was then suggest to us to ring Ian Poey from our local Department of Primary Industries - which I endeavored to do straight away - but unfortunately he was to be away and wouldnt be back in the office for a couple more weeks - but we did leave a message requesting he contact us on return.......but we never did hear from him. After completing the full course of Bute powders to Coconut - which was around 10 days from when our vet had examined him - we noticed a slight improvement and as it was the end of the course we left Coconut a day without Bute. But the next day Coconut had deteriorated and once again we were advised over the phone by our vet and without examination to continue on with the Bute treatment. Over the next couple of weeks I contact our Veterinary Services pretty much every day and not once did they come back and examine or show any particular interest in the situation with Coconut. So we just kept Coconut on Bute until WE thought he was right - which was around a month from the day he was given the injection. Around 7 weeks from when he reacted to the Hendra Vaccine I decided to bring Coconut in for a quite walk and jog around our arena - which he felt a little average .... but was nice and long and low - which is what we ask at the walk and jog. I did the same exercises over the next few rides - just lots of flexion (which he did seem to dislike comparing him to normal days) and walking and jogging on a long low loose rein. After around 10 reasonable sessions I decided to kiss him up into the lope (slow canter) - but straight away he fell to pieces and grunted and squealed at me and had a little pig root - which he has never done before. Now over the next few months until January 2014 I persisted with Coconut from all different angles under saddle with even trying different types of saddles as we thought he appeared to be sore over the back and loin region and even just working with him on the ground. The more I pushed him to perform to how he was months before the more he would play up.....now to the extent he was dangerous. Over these months we had also pretty much tried to rule out everything that my husband and I could think of from Farriering, Dentistry and Chiropractic to Massage and with the Massage treatments he had - he did not tolerate it very well - especially again over the loin region. With the many friends and colleges who have known Coconunt and most importantly the original breeder and fellow who started Coconut - it was a big shock to see and hear of what we were now enduring.......and for myself it was very distressing. So in January 2014 I started to put more blame now on the 2nd Hendra Vaccine and the awful reaction Coconut experienced for those 10 days and the ongoing recovery period over the following weeks. Was he fully recovered or had he some ongoing issues now from the reaction. Many hours I spent trying to find out if anyone else out there had had their horse react so severely to the injection or if they may have noticed any changes in their horses performance....since commencing with the Hendra Vaccines. I have done many searches and contact many people and different organizations and told of Coconuts story from Richard LEstrange at Zoetis, John Smith and Sally Corinaldi at the CSIRO and Danielle Cregan at the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority. Danielle did tell me that any reaction no matter how small - they should already know about it, if the Vets had followed protocol and reported the reaction to Zoetis immediately.....but Danielle did ask me to go to the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority web site and submit our own Adverse Experience Report through this link.....which I did immediately. Meanwhile after speaking with Richard at Zoetis and with him referring to Heather at the Crescent Head Veterinary Clinic - they between them decided to run some blood tests on Coconut (keeping in mind it is now 4 months on) and Coconuts results came back with some not so good results and we were advised by consultation between Richard and Heather that Coconut would need to be completely spelled for at least 3 months and have him reviewed and retested at around 2 months - which we did at the start of April....and now it appears he has worsen. It was also suggest to us to not have Coconut vaccinated again with the Hendra Injection - and if it did happen to become a requirement of our show association - we could try and dose him up on strong Bute leading up to the date of injection and well after administration. Whilst all of this has been happening with Coconut - I will now go back again to the 28th of August 2013 and tell you how Mac and Mr went with their 2nd injection. Neither of the geldings seem to have any immediate reaction to the injection other than being a little stiff in the neck and a little grumpy at feed time for a few days. We did not ride them for at least a week - but when we did give them their first couple of rides- we only gave them a quite walk and jog and we noticed that Mac appeared to be a little foot sore all round and especially when walking on the rubber in our tie up area. Garry checked his feet numerous times before and after the next few rides and Mac now was beginning to short stride (as if walking on hot coals). Over the next couple of months in between some short spells and a lot of frustration Garry would try and get Mac back to how he was before the Hendra Injection and he did improve slightly for Garry - but something was still not right. So with Coconut being on his spell....I did not have a horse to ride and Garry suggest for me to take over with Mac to see if maybe I could get Macs lovely stylish hunter hack stride back.....but I will say I was not getting the results with the few rides I gave him that I should have been getting and without having to work hard. As for Mr (Nugget) (a real sweet little horse) who had never bucked or pig root even when breaking him in decided now was the time when Garry asked him to step up and pick up a canter.....he has changed also with his movement and character. Now with the advice given from Zoetis to not have Coconut Vaccinated again with the Hendra Injection unless it is a necessary requirement of any registry or show association we are with and with the 6 monthly booster approaching on us we thought long and hard to whether we would continue with Mac and Nugget.... Well yes we decided to continue and now wish we hadnt as now both horses are unridable......they are so muscle sore and irritable that we have now had them both blood tested as we had done with Coconut and yes there is certainly something not right.....WHAT DO WE DO NEXT? We now have 3 of our riding horses and none of them are genetically related out of action and for how long we do not know and will they recover fully? No one even the experts do not really seem to know? Mac had been competing quite successfully prior to commencing the injections and Coconut was to begin his show career in 2014 ….. this is such a big setback for our horses and ourselves….and also very costly. If we had not had the pressure being put on horse owners by our local vets on the Mid North Coast in saying we were irresponsible if we do not vaccinate …. my husband and I would like to have held off for a while longer until a little more knowledge was found on this experimental drug before doing our horses.
Posted on: Fri, 11 Jul 2014 09:53:29 +0000
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