Re: Rabies Vaccine

[K S Swigart <katswig@deltanet.com>]

On Fri, 13 Mar 1998, Lori & Roger Sumrall wrote:

> 	Okay, I guess I might be missing a critical piece of information here. 
> Despite the fact that it may not be incredibly imperative that someone
> vaccinate their horse against rabies in their particular area, why the heck
> not JUST DO IT?!  It costs me $9.  That's NOTHING if you consider it sort
> of like insurance. 
> 	Someone fill me in on what I'm missing here if it's not the cost.

Some people are of the opinion that vaccines, if administered
indescriminately, can actually HARM the individual, and that sometimes
they do more harm than good (cost aside).

A vaccine is an assault on the horses immune system.  To be needlessly
assaulting an individual's immune system without understanding what the
impacts of that might be may nto be in the best interests of the horse.

Also, it is not unheard of for horses (and people too for that matter) to
have allergic reactions to a vaccine, some of which lead to almost instant
death.

Administering a vaccine is not a risk free (healthwise) activity.  It is
up to each person to determine  what the risks are, what the risks are if
the horse is not vaccinated and then decide which risks are more
palatable.

For some other diseases (that are not 100% fatal like rabies is), you can
also do a "cost/benefit analysis" to decide whether the cost of all the
insurance is more or less than the cost of having to treat the animal were
it to become ill with the actual disease.

kat
Orange County, Calif.