Reaction to booster jab

Poor Fudge

I took him for his booster jab yesterday and went for anice run afterwards, took him home and an hour later his head had swelled up so badly he could see and he tongue was being forced out of his mouth. Thankfully the vet said they would see him again immediately and gave him an IV of antihistamine and anti-inflamatory.
I was sooo worried he didnt look like the same dog I was so shocked when I went home and seen him (MIL was looking after him and phoned me at work to come home straight away) He looked like a strange crossbreed with a gigantic head and a Chihuahua body!
Thankfully all is well again this morning, but has this happened to anybody else? The Vet said it will only get worse eveytime he has his booster so thats something to look forward to!!

Sorry to here that.
Did the vet not tell you about titre testing for in the future.
If one of my dogs reacted that badly I have to say I would not boost in the future. At least with titre testing you can see if it's needed.
Don't want to scare you in any way. But my friends dog reacted to her second boosters. The dog had a huge reaction, and she had to be put down two weeks later after going down hill and going completely blind. Completely different to your dogs reaction though so don't panic.
Also if you are going to boost. The boosters aren't all done annually now. I only boost mine once every two years as advised by my vet, he is a friend though so not going to push me on the annual booster issue.
There are other options available out there

What a shock for you. Glad wee Fudge recovered OK. Titre levels before next booster due would be an option.

Thanks guys, Thankfully it was just his head that swelled up, I was so worried about his throat etc swelling. I will definately have the test next time to make sure he needs it though. I will keep a really close eye on him in the next few days, the funny thing is he still wanted to go for a walk and eat his tea when he was at his worst, little monkey!!

What a nighmare for you, just when you think your being a responsible owner your little one has a reaction like that. Keep us posted please, and hopefully Fudge will soon be back to normal xx

Hope Fudge is ok. With kids they use a different vaccine if they react as it is often the carrier in the jab rather than the actual medical content. Egg albumen is normally the one used for human vaccine. i wonder if there is a veterinary alternative out there also?

You are still going to allow him to have boosters after this reaction ? We lost our first Cavalier to his reaction to his booster(the PM revealed this)he had the vax & never left the surgery dying three hours later

I haven't boostered my dogs since 1982 when I met a vet who all that time ago was getting worred about dogs being ill & dying after boosters. He offered titre testing instead & my dogs have never needed boosters, I even had one dog who never needed a vax at all

I never allow lepto to be given even in a first vax as it is this that causes the worse reaction

Did you report the reaction to the vax company via your vet ?

This is Spanglers Site He died due to the reaction to his booster

I am due to take both Harvey and Archie today for their boosters..... but I will be asking for Titre testing!!

That's terrible! Yes, we had a labrador on here about a year ago, with the same thing. It's head swelled right up and I think it took weeks for it to get back to normal! She posted loads of pics at the time, I can remember it well, but I can't remember who posted it sorry!

I think you're very lucky that your vet saw him straight away and gave him the necessary jabs, you could have ended up in big trouble there I think.

I hope Fudge is ok now though. I don't have the lepto jab now, and my vet sort of agreed with me last year when I discussed my reasons! I'd rather take the risk of them not coming into contact with it than giving them that jab, one's too old anyway now to have any boosters (vet also agrees with that!)and the other one will just have the necessary one every 3 years (I think that might be slightly longer now? Not sure).

I didnt know about the test you could have, I will definately avoid having the booster in future if I can. His head was back to normal after about 6 hours and he is fine this morning, eyesight is fine (I have been testing him!) and is fine in himself. The vet didnt seem overly worried about it so it must have looked worse than it actually was. She said that she is going to report it to the company, as although it does happen sometimes it shouldnt.
Im just glad that the vet saw him so quickly and the jabs seemed to bring his eyes back to normal within an hour. He didnt need to be kept in or anything, im just glad that Tristens mum was with him and noticed it so quickly.
Thanks for letting me know about the test, I was wondering how necessary it was to have the booster every single year, I dont want to go through this again