Flu Vaccination

heland

New Member
Sep 11, 2001
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N. Yorks
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The horse I recently purchased has had his flu vaccinations done every year. However, as he was up for sale she let his last one slip. This means he is 13 weeks overdue.

My question is do I need to start from the begining or can I carry on with his jabs.

Your help would be great:)
 
If you want to go to any shows in the UK, or use him for Pony Club or BHS rallies, then you will need to start again from scratch. A pain I know. It happened to me last year - my vet stopped doing horses, didn't pass on dates to the new vet, and I missed the due date by only a few days (poor memory and too used to relying on the reminder notes). But to go anywhere you do need the correct vaccination regime.

If you only ever hack out, and none of the horses on your yard go to competitions, then discuss with your vet. I think there is a fair bit of leeway when a horse has had regular tetanus jabs, but not so sure about flu'.

Which reminds me - my horse is due this week! I'm not going to miss another date and have to start again!!
 
some vets will be ok with you carrying on, but it's a bit of a difficult one as in order to sign the certificate to have it done, the dates must be right, and if they aren't then technically speaking the horse is NOT vaccinated, and the vet has signed the certificate falsely. As the vaccination certificate is technically a legal document, for a vet to put their signature on it when the dates are not within the guidelines is actually asking the vet to falsify a legal document. It's a bit of a minefield!

In terms of the horse, as tina says, it doesn't really matter, but for showing it's vital that the dates are correct or you will be refused entry. Some livery yards are particular about it too. You would have to start again from scratch and though it's expensive, you also need to consider that if you sell him on again, you will be selling on a horse that doesn't really have an up to date vaccination record, even if it's a few years down the line and he's been having them every year, until the primary course has been done again it's invalid!
 
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