Avonvale Equine Vet Practice are proud to offer a comprehensive range of routine equine healthcare services, including equine vaccinations. Many of these services can be performed as part of our popular free zone visit scheme, which is available throughout our equine vet clinic coverage area.
Vaccination imparts immunological protection against infectious disease. Horses are routinely vaccinated against equine influenza (equine flu) and tetanus in the UK. Horses can also be vaccinated against equine herpes virus (EHV) and rotavirus. Our equine vets are always happy to speak to clients to discuss equine vaccinations.
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, influenza is rarely fatal to adults, however it can cause death in foals, older horses and immunocompromised individuals. Also, similarly to humans, vaccines do not stop horses from catching influenza, but they do drastically reduce the severity and duration of the symptoms, which reduces the spread of disease. We strongly recommend vaccinating all horses against influenza, at least annually but ideally every six months.
Different 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. Signs may include a protruding third eyelid, stiffness of the jaw and limbs and may progress to respiratory failure and death. Unfortunately, even with intensive treatment, the survival rate for tetanus cases is low. 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 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 equine vet clinic also offers a range of full equine MOTs. This is a detailed examination to ensure your horse 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 £334.52 (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 £303.02 (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 £340.90 (inc. VAT) – this represents up to a £90 saving.
