From: Lisa
Hi Jessica, I love your advice and I am always sending the e-mails I get to my friends. I am buying a Dutch warmblood filly out of northern UT and shipping her down to me in southern NV. Her owner dose not Vaccinate her horses, and I am worried about how she will do in the trailer (commercial) for the drive down. Is it better to have her vaccinated their or not, or do I vaccinate her at all? And If I do, which ones? I have worked as a rider for other people for years but I have not been in the position to make these important decisions! I want to do the vary best for this beautiful filly, she is going to be with me for a long time! Thank you, Lisa
It also touches on Federal and State law, so yes, for many reasons, you'll definitely want to get your filly vaccinated several weeks before she leaves her current home and gets on that trailer. In fact, you will probably find that any good commercial (or private) hauler will insist on having all of the necessary health paperwork for each equine passenger, before the horses can be loaded. At the very least, the requirements generally include a current negative Coggins test and a health certificate (papers signed by a vet, stating that s/he has given the horse all necessary vaccinations on specified dates). Otherwise, there are too many risks to allow a horse onto the trailer - risks to the other horses, and risks TO the horse from the other horses. Then there's the farm at the other end to be considered - most farms and stables will not permit an incoming horse to be removed from the trailer, much less put into a stall or field on the property, until the barn manager has checked the horse's Coggins and heath papers. Between loading and unloading, during the trip itself, there is also the matter of crossing state lines. Haulers must have the horses' papers in order.
I certainly see the sense in not vaccinating a foal too early, since maternal antibodies (passed from the mare to the foal in the colostrum) can sometimes persist until the foal is four or five months old. This means that IF a particular foal had such antibodies, it would probably not respond to vaccinations at an earlier age, and it would be better not to vaccinate such a foal at two or three months, which used to be common practice. Nowadays foals are generally vaccinated later, but good sense must always come into the decision of when to vaccinate a foal. If the farm is isolated and has a stable population of healthy horses, it would probably be quite safe to postpone a foal's vaccinations until it is the age of your filly. On the other hand, if the farm is, say, a busy breeding operation involving outside mares, or connected with a sales or training barn, then the risk would be much higher and the foals would probably benefit from earlier vaccination. In either case, it would be wise to measure a foal's antibody levels before vaccinating it. The farm veterinarian should be able to advise you on this - and in this case, you should definitely consult your own veterinarian at least several weeks BEFORE you finalize your plans to have your filly shipped to you.
Be sure to tell your veterinarian about the (non) vaccination schedule followed by your filly's breeder. If the broodmares on the property are not vaccinated, then the filly's dam mare may not have had those antibodies to pass on to her foal. It's not enough for the foal to get colostrum from the mare, even if it gets a lot of colostrum - the mare must have been adquately vaccinated, or the colostrum won't contain the necessary antibodies. In this case, it would be even more important to be sure that the foal had a chance to begin building immunities before being transported, and the end result might be that you would need to make those arrangements with a vet near the breeder and then wait until s/he thought the filly could safely be transported.
Since foals need regular, frequent boosters that first year, you may need to put off your filly's travel plans. It's not possible for the vet to come out to the barn, give your filly a series of vaccinations, then put her on the trailer to come to you - there will be several weeks, at least, of lag-time. You should also be aware that it can take several days or a week to get the results of the Coggins test, as the blood must be tested at a state lab. This is not something your vet can do on the spot - s/he can draw the blood for the test, and that's all.
If I remember correctly, Nevada does require a health certificate and a current negative Coggins on every equine entering the state. Very young suckling foals accompanying their dams are usually exempt from this IF the dams have their own current negative Coggins, but this doesn't apply to foals traveling without their dams, or foals six months old and up. Either way, your filly will need her own negative Coggins and her own paperwork. Check with your vet - s/he can tell you what your state's current requirements are, and can advise you on how to find a vet in Utah and schedule the Coggins test and necessary vaccinations. You can also get information from the Nevada Department of Agriculture, but even if you do, your vet should have some input into which vaccinations will be most important for your area and the filly's specific destination.
Good luck with all of this - I'm sure that when your filly finally arrives, you'll feel that she was worth all the trouble and effort and expense. ;-)
Jessica
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