June 24, 2008 - Eastern Equine Encephalitis is on the rampage in our area. Please advise people to get their horses vaccinated! I have the test results from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Division of Animal Industry-Bureau of Diagnostic Laboratories - attached is one of two lab results on the horses that we had come down with EEE. The third horse we did not have tested. We know it was the same thing. Vet bills run up too quickly!
Nevertheless, in all we had three horses that had to be put down due to the EEE virus. According to our veterinarian, the vaccines only last approximately nine months, not a year according to popular belief. Our vet advised us to have all our horses vaccinated at nine month intervals to keep them protected. We will surely do so, it was a costly mistake on our part not having vaccinated them early enough. Please stress in your article the importance of the vaccine. There have been so many horses to die already this year, I would hate to see anymore contract this deadly disease due to negligence or procrastination.
Our vet said there hasn't been a case of West Nile in Florida for three years now. However, the Eastern Equine Encephalitis has been on the rampage here in North Florida. He had already had to put down five other horses in his service area prior to our three. One of the other horses was just a few miles from us. As far as the vaccine goes, he recommends the EWT, Eastern/Western Equine Encephalitis and Tetanus vaccine. It is a three in one shot. He recommends one dose, then 3-4 weeks later give a second booster dose. After the initial two doses he recommends one every nine months to keep it in their system well enough for protection. We gave our initial dose two weeks ago this past Saturday.
The last stallion we had come down with it started showing signs of the encephalitis last Monday (a week ago yesterday); by Tuesday at noon he had already become blind and we couldn't get him to take anymore fluids. The vet also said it was a race in his body to see which was going to win, meaning between the vaccine and the virus. "Baby" as we called him, had the vaccine in him for 9 days prior to him showing symptoms of the illness. Our vet thinks he was probably bitten by the infected mosquito 3-5 days prior to showing symptoms, therefore the vaccine hadn't been in his bloodstream well enough to keep him from getting sick.
So far we have got healthy horses at the house now. When I talked with our vet he indicated our vaccines are probably in their system well enough now for protection, however there's no guarantee since they haven't had their booster yet. They will be getting the booster shots this coming Saturday; it will be three weeks since the initial vaccine. We are praying we don't lose anymore between now and the time the booster gets in their system.
I told my husband, we have four children, ages 18 to 13. Feeling the pain and anguish it has had on us losing our horses, I cannot imagine how I would feel losing one of our children. If anything good has come out of this, we are very cautious when it comes to the kids being outside at dusk when the mosquitoes are so prevalent. We have also tried to get mosquito control out in our area, however the county we live in does not have funds for the mosquito spraying. So, all we can do is protect our children with a deet based insect repellent and protect our horses as best we can with the EWT vaccines, and pray a whole lot!
Thank you so much for doing an article on this very serious problem. I pray maybe it will keep somebody from losing one of their special loved ones, whether it be a horse or a family member. Again, thank you for your concern in the time of our sorrow. And yes, it is very scary.
Connie Welch, Asgitisdi Gadohi Farm
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