Preventative Care
Your horse’s health is our #1 priority.
We hope to never see your horse in an emergency situation and therefore we emphasize the following preventative care:
Physical Exams
A yearly physical exam is important for your horse’s overall health and well-being. During an exam, the doctor can detect any abnormalities that could potentially lead to future health problems. Each exam includes an evaluation of the heart, lungs, and gastrointestinal tract, a body temperature reading, an ophthalmic exam, and a general assessment of your horse’s health and condition. This is also an opportunity to discuss any concerns you may have in addition to getting nutritional counseling and healthcare recommendations from the doctor.
Vaccinations
Immunizations are one of the few things that can easily and effectively protect your horse from the ravages of disease. Relatively inexpensive, vaccines prevent diseases that cost significantly more to treat and those which have a high mortality rate. Listed below are the vaccinations that we recommend. We are more than happy to help you design a vaccine program tailored specifically to your horse and their lifestyle.
Core Vaccines (all horses)
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Eastern & Western Encephalomyelitis
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Tetanus Toxoid
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West Nile Virus
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Rabies
Risk-Based Vaccines
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Influenza
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Rhinopneumonitis
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Strangles (Intranasal)
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Potomac Horse Fever
Deworming
Deworming is very important to the health of your horse. Internal parasites are silent killers that can cause extensive internal damage; you may not even realize your horse is heavily infected. At the very least, parasites can lower resistance, rob your horse of valuable nutrients and cause gastrointestinal irritation and unthriftiness. At their worst, they can lead to colic, intestinal rupture and death.
An effective deworming program won’t necessarily get rid of all worms, but will keep the population in check, prevent illness in your horse, and keep pasture contamination down. The cornerstone of a deworming program are quantitative fecal egg counts (FEC), which will help to identify your horse’s worm burden and dictate which schedule they should follow.
Following are our recommended strategic deworming schedules:
