Avonvale Equine Vet Practice are proud to offer a comprehensive range of routine equine veterinary services, including equine vaccinations and worm counts for horses. Many of these services can be performed as part of our popular free zone visit scheme, which is available throughout our equine vet practice coverage area.
Vaccination imparts immunological protection against infectious disease, and is an essential aspect of preventative care. Horses are routinely vaccinated against equine influenza (equine flu) and tetanus in the UK. However, horses can also be vaccinated against equine herpes (EHV), rotavirus, and equine strangles. Our equine vets are always happy to speak to clients to discuss equine vaccinations and your horse’s individual requirements.
A virus spread by respiratory secretions (e.g. coughs and sneezes), equine influenza causes coughing, nasal discharge, and malaise. Equine flu can travel for miles in the air, and horses that no longer travel to competitions are still at risk. Like in humans, equine influenza is rarely fatal to adult horses or ponies. However, it can cause death in foals, older horses, and immunocompromised individuals. Also, similarly to humans, the equine influenza vaccine does not stop horses from catching influenza, but it can drastically reduce the severity and duration of the symptoms, which reduces the spread of the disease. We strongly recommend vaccinating all horses against influenza, at least annually but ideally every six months.
Different equestrian venues and organisations have different requirements for equine flu vaccination. Please check with the authority under which you intend to compete.
A bacterial infection caused by Clostridium tetani, tetanus lives in soil and faecal matter, and usually enters the body via breaks in the skin. Toxins work their way up the nervous system to cause painful muscular contraction. Symptoms of tetanus in horses may include a protruding third eyelid, stiffness in the jaw and limbs, and may progress to respiratory failure and death. Unfortunately, even with intensive treatment, the survival rate of tetanus in horses and ponies is low.
Our ambulatory equine vets can administer a combined influenza and tetanus vaccine for horses as part of our free weekly zone visit scheme. We recommend vaccinating all horses for tetanus every other year to ensure adequate protection against this deadly disease.
A faecal worm egg count (FWEC) measures the number of worm eggs contained in a sample of your horse’s dung, to indicate whether you need to give your horse a wormer or not. FWECs are an important tool for effective and responsible worm control, and should be conducted every 12 weeks for adult horses during the grazing season. You can find out more about our annual worm control package here.
Our fully-comprehensive annual worm control package includes:
The cost is £90.00 per year (inc. VAT). Call us for more information.
Our independent equine vet practice offers a range of full equine MOTs. This is a detailed veterinary examination to ensure your horse or pony is in optimum health, and we offer various packages based on your horse’s age and workload.
For performance and competition horses. Can be tailored depending on your horse’s discipline. Help keep your horse at peak performance with our competition horse MOT service.
All this for £346.24 (inc. VAT) – this represents a £100 saving over individually priced package components.
For leisure horses and ponies. We can help you keep your leisure horse in good health with our riding horse MOT service.
All this for £313.63 (inc. VAT) – this represents up to a £75 saving.
For older and retired horses. Keep your veteran horse or pony happy and healthy in their senior years.
All of this for £352.84 (inc. VAT) – this represents up to a £90 saving.
