Swelling at the injection site? Absess?

[morgan21]

Okay, so I had a friend give Morgan her vaccine on Thursday. Well today I am out with her and I notice that she has a lump where the vaccine was given. It does not stick out very far but is large in diameter (about the size of your palm). I can't tell if it is warm cus her whole body is warm cus it is really sunny. I was touching it and she didn't seem to mind till I pushed hard on it. I am a little worried that it could be an abesess or something. My friend has given shots before and knows how to do it that is why I had her do it. So what is your experience with this? She hasn't had this exact brand of shot before, so I don't know if she could just be having a reaction to it. She has gotten small bumps where she has had shots before but they were pretty small. She seems fine and it eating, drinking, moving around and can bend her neck both ways pretty good. Today was finally Rodeos last day of antibiotics for her absessed tooth, so I am a little bummed. I just don't know what to do. Is there any way I can tell if it absessing and what can be done if it is. I am thinking of keeping an eye on it for tonight and tomorrow and then Monday morning if it looks worse then I will call the vet out. Has anyones horses ever absessed at the injection site? What happened, how was it treated and what did you do? Thanks.

[philly78]

maybe your friend got it in between the skin?? we had that happen to our lambs a few times, noyhing bad came from it, it just took longer for the shot to soak through???

[morgan21]

How long did it take?

[lovemyshy]

I've seen horses Abcess from injections, all it takes is for on tiny spec of dirt to find its way in with the needle for an infection to occur. When it happened we had a vet out to lance the abcess (just a small nick at the bottom of the swelling) to drain out the puss. Then we had to irrigate the pocket a couple times a day with some kind of a solution (we used a long skinny tube that fit on the end of a syringe and inserted it right into the pocket to flush out any infection). I can't quite remember how long we had to do this for, but we also had to have them on antibiotics as well.

[philly78]

How long did it take?

Well considering there is alot more to a horse shot than a lamb shot, if she did just get it in between the skin, I would keep an eye on it for a week, make sure no fever pops up, just keep watching for heat and any discolored drainage!
You should start to see it going down real soon....if this is the case!

[Rparrish20]

I had a horse once that had previously absessed from an injection sight before i had him. I do remember that he had huge holes in his rump (where the injection was) and that his owner had to put those tubes in to flush it out.

[Cast_No_Shadow1]

oh wow i just had this problem too!! and everyone gave me GREAT info.. one thing i learned is just LEAVE it will go away it is from either dirt getting in or she injected it to fast.,, but the horse shoukld be fine.. if it is the same as what happened to me..
Good luck
~CNS~

[MyY0Y0]

Hmm, I would just keep an eye on it til Monday, and if it's not gotten better, to call the vet out. Did you clean the neck with an alcolhol wipe and squirt a bit of the shot out before you gave your mare the shot? That could easily allow dirt to get under the skin.

Good luck, keep us updated on how she's doing! I hope she gets better really soon!

[TrueColoursFarm]

a lot of times they WILL have a reaction at the injection site and get sore - the same as some of us do when we get a needle ...

Hot towel compresses can help as can bute or banamine

In *MOST* cases it does go down on its own after 1-3 days ...

Do you know that vets wipe down the injection site with alcohol for the sake of the owner and really -nothing else?

According to a study done at New Bolton University, if you wipe alcohol on the surface it will take approximately 15 minutes for any/all surface bacteria to be killed, so unless your vet is prepared to stand there and wait for the 15 minutes, spitting on the site will have the exact same effect ...

As well, by wetting down the surface before you inject, you are actually ALLOWING any bits on the surface to be potentially pulled under the skin when you stab them with the needle, whereas if their injection site was dry, that would not be the case

Personally, I dont swab down the injection site any more nor do any of the vets that come out to treat my horses

Something to talk to your vet and think about isnt it?!

[horsegent]

it won't be an absess it will be a haematoma. This can be a contraindication with some vaccines. They can also form if you don't vigourously rub the vaccine site to disperse the product immediately on vaccination.

So warm compress and rub it to try disperse it and if it remains for longer than say 4 days, then get the vet back out as it may need cutting and draining.

In any event you should let your vet know as he should be interested.....