Vaccinations for Mini Zebus?

[JosieBlue]

Hello everyone! I recently purchased 21 zebu from two different breeders. One of the breeders mentioned that they no longer vaccinate the adult cattle, only the calves, as the vaccines seemed to make them sick every time . My vet does not have any experience with zebu but does want to vaccinate the bred cows. I would love to hear from someone who has zebu and how they handle vaccinations. I have all of my other cows vaccinated but certainly don't want to get this new herd sick doing so. The cows range from 50 pounds ( calves) to about 400 pounds for the cows and the bull may be 600 lb. the breeder I spoke with said that the dosage is the same for all cows , so a 1200 lb angus would get the same dose as a tiny zebu and that is why they were getting ill following the vaccines. Any information would be much appreciated! Thank you

 

[Lucky_P]

Pshaw.
They are cows. I don't care that they weigh 400-600 lb. They are still cows, and you need to give the approved dosage.
If you need to vaccinate them for herd health reasons, vaccinate them. What kind of 'sickness' did these cows allegedly display when vaccinated?

You can't necessarily give a half or quarter of a dose, just because these animals weigh 1/2 or 1/4 as much as a 'real' cow, and expect to get the desired immunologic response to the vaccine. Biologics manufacturers have fine-tuned these vaccines to contain the optimal amount of antigen to elicit a protective immune response without inducing excessive inflammatory response. Doesn't matter if they're 400 or 1400 or 2400 lbs... the recommended dose is the same.