It’s easy to get complacent about vaccinating horses.
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Livestock producers know the critical importance of vaccinating sheep and cattle against clostridial diseases such as pulpy kidney, but tetanus is often considered only when a horse is injured.
More than fifty percent of horses with tetanus will die.
It’s an extremely painful disease caused by Clostridium tetani, a bacterium common in soil and manure that enters the body via fresh wounds.
The smallest puncture wound can create the low oxygen conditions required for the tetanus spores to germinate and release toxin.
The toxin hits the central nervous system causing progressive muscle stiffness and severe spasms, with signs starting 3 to 21 days after an injury.
The horse stands stiffly with all four limbs planted apart and the tail stretched out, the neck is extended and ears pricked, the jaw ‘locked’ with spasms, and the third eyelids prolapse.
The animal is hypersensitive to noise and touch, ultimately collapsing and succumbing to respiratory failure.
Prevention
Treatment is difficult, expensive, intensive and often unsuccessful. Vaccination with tetanus toxoid is the only way to protect a horse from tetanus. CVH recommends the following vaccination schedule:
- foals between 3 to 6 months of age and unvaccinated adult horses: a course of 2 doses, 4 weeks apart is essential for initial immunity
- adults and young horses over 12 months of age: an annual booster after the initial 2 dose course, then 5 yearly or booster at the time of injury
- pregnant mares: vaccinate during the last third of pregnancy to protect the foal until first vaccination
- vaccinated horses: booster at the time of injury
- injured non-vaccinated horses or those with unknown vaccination history: require both tetanus antitoxin and tetanus vaccination, with a follow up booster vaccination in 4 weeks.
Crookwell Veterinary Hospital offers some of the most up-to-date veterinary facilities in regional New South Wales. A mixed rural practice, we service Crookwell and Goulburn.