Routine Care

Routine vaccination of horses is an essential part of preventative healthcare. By maintaining a high level of vaccinated horses in the UK equine population we have prevented multiple disease outbreaks and reduced the risk of infectious disease to each individual horse.

The diseases we vaccinate against are potentially life threatening. Tetanus is a disease that is caused by a bacterium called Clostridium tetani, this is found in the soil. The bacteria often enters via wounds and then produces toxins that interfere with muscle contractions, resulting in the typical symptoms of muscle spasm, difficulty eating and often a high stiff tail carriage. Tetanus vaccination offers extremely good protection, and is often given in combination with the equine influenza vaccine.

Equine influenza is a virus that results in serious respiratory infection and can spread rapidly within and between groups of horses. There is regular alteration to the virus due to natural modulation therefore use of current and recently updated vaccine strains is recommended. Equine influenza vaccination reduces clinical signs of flu and reduces viral spread between horses. Horses can be vaccinated from 6 months of age with the protocol described below. Annual ‘booster’ vaccinations are then required every 12 months, or 6 monthly for FEI competition.

Vaccination Protocol

• 1st Vaccination Day 0 Influenza & Tetanus
• 2nd Vaccination 21-92 days following 1st vaccination Influenza & Tetanus
• 3rd Vaccination 150-215 days following 2nd vaccination Influenza & Tetanus

All horses, ponies and donkeys should now have a passport, regardless of their age*, type and use. This is a legal requirement. If your horse needs veterinary attention please have his passport available at the time as we will need to check this before administering medication (this is not necessary if we have already identified your horse as a ‘non food equine’ under the medication control section of the passport and altered your horse’s record accordingly – please ask your vet if you are unsure whether this has been done). All vaccinations must be recorded in the passport of all horses.

Basic Identification Passport

If you have not yet applied for a passport for your horse it is very easy to do now. Your horse will need to have been micro-chipped to apply for a new passport which is straightforward and can be done at the same time as many other procedures such as routine vaccinations. We will scan your horse first to ensure a microchip has not already been implanted before inserting a new microchip which has a unique identification number. We can supply application forms for a basic identity passport (Pet ID) which you can then complete yourself before posting to the Passport Issuing Authority (PIA) in the freepost envelope supplied.

Breed Society and FEI Passports

If your horse requires a specific breed society or FEI passport, please contact the relevant breed society/PIA for advice and the relevant paperwork in advance of the vet’s visit. A few societies, e.g. Weatherbys, require us to implant a microchip supplied by the society. We have many of these already at the practice, but do please advise us when booking the appointment if this is required in case we need to source additional microchips. Most societies will also require a vet to complete an identification silhouette of the horse in addition to implanting a microchip. It may also be necessary for the vet to take a blood or hair sample from your horse for DNA analysis – again the PIA should advise accordingly.

When does my new foal need a passport?

This needs to be done within six months of birth, or by December 31st of the year of the foal’s birth, whichever is later.

Any Questions…..?

The information available on Horse Passports can be a little confusing so please don’t hesitate to contact us if you are unsure what your horse requires or how to go about applying for the relevant passport.

Worm Control in our Horses

As a practice we’ve been recommending a more pro-active approach to worming for several years and we have now created an administered ‘Worming Scheme’. This way, we can make sure all of our clients have access to the most up to date information and make sure we are pro-actively involved in this very important area of management and health for all the horses and ponies under our care.

It is always good to understand why we are controlling worms in our horses, and that it requires more input than simply using doses of wormer at routine intervals. We work on the principle that horses are supposed to have a few worms, but that our role is to control this burden and importantly minimise the risk of any worm related disease. In addition we should try and reduce the development of resistance to the active ingredients in wormers to make sure we can treat our horses effectively when we need to.

This is based around:

• Managing the pasture and worm challenge
• Testing the worm burden of your horses
• Planning to dose or test at the right time
• Dosing appropriately with the correct active ingredient when required

There may be variations for individual horses and yards, especially with younger horses and studs, however the basic foundation and principles will remain.

To try and make this work for everyone, our Worming Scheme follows this approach, hopefully with the emphasis being on ease of understanding and convenience for our clients.

The main points to the scheme are:

• An initial assessment of levels of risk for you horses, of course including all relevant history from our clinical records. Feedback will be given where necessary and any advice on wormers as needed.
• Over the grazing season, we will send out or drop off faecal worm egg count sample kits to you as indicated, which you can return by post or even better drop them off at the surgery.
• We will analyse the faecal samples, report the results and give you advice on whether a wormer is required and which one is appropriate.
• In the autumn we will send you a Moxidectin/Praziquantel based wormer at the appropriate time to treat your horses.
• All results will be kept and reviewed regularly to see if any changes are needed to management or treatment regimes.

The cost of the scheme is £46.20 per year, paid in two six monthly instalments of £23.10.

The price includes all the egg counts required (typically around four per year), a year end dose for encysted small redworm/tapeworm for each horse signed up, and of course all the advice and ongoing support you could hope for and expect!

Any additional wormer treatments that are needed during the year will be recommended and we will supply wormers from the practice unless clients choose to source them elsewhere. Our wormers are priced very competitively and compare very favourably against the internet sites so do check our prices if you usually use another outlet. We may be able to offer a further reduced price if you are buying a large number of wormers, so please ask at the time.

Please contact us at the surgery for more information and full terms and conditions. The easiest way is to email us at equine@bishoptonequinevets.co.uk or call the surgery on 01765 602396. We hope that this will be the most straightforward and effective option for many of you – taking the worry out of worming!

We routinely visit a number of local yards on scheduled yard visits free of charge including:

• Beavers, Harrogate
• Birky Nab, Ripon
• Bogs Hall, Laverton
• Brim House Livery, Eavestone
• Crow Trees Equestrian, Birstwith
• Hebden Wood Equestrian, Bishop Thornton
• Homestead Livery, Monk Fryston
• Queen Mary’s School, Thirsk
• Snow Close Livery, Ripon
• Whitcliffe Grange Livery, Ripon

If you want to book your horse onto the next yard visit at any of the above yards or are interested in arranging routine yard visits for your yard, please contact the office on 01765 602 396