Routine Health Care

Our vets have all of the equipment necessary to examine your horse at your yard. The areas we cover include:

Local visit fees within 0-10 miles of each practice start from £32.54. Visits can be shared between owners of horses on the same yard to further reduce the cost. For yards that wish to set up a routine visit and if there are 5 or more horses treated on the same yard at the same time, the visit fee is waived. For clients that wish to bring their horse to the clinic, there is no visit fee.

Out-of-hours, weekend, bank holidays and long distance visits will incur a surcharge. Horses subscribed to our Premium Health Plan can enjoy 10% off out of hours visit fees.

Vaccinations are used for several diseases in horses. Their main uses include reducing the risk of an outbreak occurring, reducing the spread of an outbreak and to decrease the severity of illness in affected animals.

All vaccinations have an initial course of injections followed by booster doses at specific intervals, the frequency of which depends on the type of vaccine and the immunity provided.

Prevention is better than cure and vaccinations can help prevent several diseases that can affect your horse. The main two diseases commonly vaccinated against are Equine Influenza and Tetanus. Both of these diseases are surprisingly common, especially in unvaccinated horses and it is important that you ensure your horse is vaccinated against these two potentially fatal diseases.

We also offer other vaccinations that are important if you are breeding from your horse or if you are travelling abroad. The cost of routine vaccinations for tetanus and influenza is not covered by insurance policies. However, vaccinations are relatively inexpensive given the expense involved in keeping horses and they can save lives as well as avoiding large veterinary bills. Our Horse Health Plan can help you to spread the cost of annual 'flu and tetanus vaccinations.

From October 2020, regardless of their age, it became compulsory for all horse owners to microchip their horses, ponies and donkeys.

Owners who fail to microchip their horses, ponies and donkeys could face sanctions from their local authority including a compliance notice and a fine of up to £200. If your horse, pony or donkey is not yet microchipped, we strongly advise you get this done soon.

Legally foals must have a passport and microchip within six months of birth or before 31 December of the year in which they were born. Often this is done through the society for the particular breed. Currently you are not obliged to include a name in the passport application, but most breeders do. Thoroughbred foals need to be initially registered for birth within the first month.

Our vets are able to implant microchips and complete the forms necessary to register your horse or foal and issue them with a passport.

We have a team of experienced veterinary surgeons with expertise in equine dental procedures.

Regular inspection and rasping can help prevent much more serious disease in the future. The ideal way to achieve is to have a dental examination and teeth rasp performed every 6 - 12 months.

Only horses with the more severe problems require attention more frequently than annually. Most horses just require the sharp enamel points rasping on the outside edge of the upper cheek teeth and inside edge of the lower cheek teeth every year. If your horse has more severe problems, we are equipped to deal with a full range of dental conditions. Our routine dentals costs just £55.00 per horse including sedation.

Click the image to read more about our routine dental work (PDF).

Equine obesity is a growing and serious problem in the UK horse population. Obesity and recent weight gain is associated with a range of health concerns including increased laminitis risk and poorer prognosis for recovery; worsening of other lameness issues and arthritis due to excess weight; increased pro-inflammatory mediators; respiratory compromise and restricted treatment options for joint medications, respiratory issues and allergies.

There are a few tools we can use to assess your horse’s weight or body condition and the first step to recognising that your horse may have a weight issue is understanding how to assess them.

Weighbridge:

The only way to gain a measure of your horse’s exact weight is to use a weighbridge, which is essentially a large set of scales that you can walk your horse onto and record their weight. We are very fortunate at our Poppleton Clinic to have a weighbridge available that our clients are able to access. Clients are welcome to book a FREE appointment to bring their horse into the clinic to weigh in or if your horse is at the clinic for another reason please just ask if you would like to weigh them at the same time. An accurate weight for your horse is also very useful when calculating how much feed or forage to give, especially when maintaining a strict diet.

Weigh-tape:

Although a weigh-tape won’t be quite as accurate, it will provide an estimate to help with feeding and if used regularly it will help you to monitor weight gain and loss. Weight management can be a frustrating process sometimes and so keeping a record of regularly recorded weights can help you understand if you are making progress or highlight where things may not be quite going right. Most weigh-tapes are used around the horse’s girth and it is important that for each measurement they are used in the same position each time and around the same time of day.

Body Condition Scoring (BCS):

Although measuring the weight of your horse is extremely useful, body condition scoring helps us understand if that weight is appropriate for your individual horse. The most commonly used system in the UK scores the horse from 0 (emaciated) to 5 (obese) with half scores used. On this scale, depending on the individual, a score of 2.5-3.5 would be considered a healthy range for the vast majority of horses. We would recommend you score your horse at least monthly and keep a record so you can recognise any changes and react accordingly.

Alongside monitoring your horse’s weight, management typically involves a combination of reducing grazing and adjusting supplementary feeding, increasing exercise and utilising your horse’s metabolism. If you have any questions regarding weight management or would like to speak to one of our vets for further information or advice please do not hesitate to contact us.

Our Horse Health Plan is the simple way to look after your horse’s health whilst saving money.

A healthy, happy horse needs lots of care and attention, including vaccinations, worm treatments, and regular check-ups. By spreading the cost of essential treatments over 12 months, our Horse Health Plan makes caring for your horse more affordable.

Your horse gets their annual vaccination against potentially dangerous diseases, and protection against internal parasites.

To keep your horse in peak condition, we provide regular health checks with your vet, as early diagnosis of problems will help your horse to live a long, healthy life. Our Horse Health Plan can help to ease the worry and financial strain of owning a horse.

How do I register?

Pick up a registration form at reception, or download and print the Application Form at home then bring to reception with you.

For further information please download our Healthy Horse leaflet or speak to a member of our team.

Standard Plan – £12 per month

• Annual influenza and tetanus vaccination
• Start up vaccination (x3) (Including 3 vaccinations in the initial course)
• Health check at time of vaccination
• 4 annual worm egg counts
• Annual routine dental check and routine rasp (Including sedation when required).

Potential saving of over £200!*

Premium Plan – £16 per month

• Annual influenza and tetanus vaccination
• Start up vaccination (x3) (Including 3 vaccinations in the initial course)
• Health check at time of vaccination
• Unlimited annual worm egg counts
• 2 six monthly dental checks and routine rasps (Including sedation when required)
• 2 six monthly ACTH (Cushings) blood tests
• 2 six monthly long-term medication check-ups annually
• Free Moxidectin / Praziquantel combined wormer for Autumn treatment.
• 10% discount on the following long-term medications: Equipalazone. Chanazone, Prascend and Beclametazone
• 10% discount on out of hours visit fees.

Potential saving of over £530!**

*Based on a horse having, in a year, a full influenza and tetanus vaccination course, 4 worm egg counts, and 1 routine dental examination and rasp under sedation

**Based on a horse having, in a year, a full influenza and tetanus vaccination course, 6 worm egg counts, 2 routine dental examinations and rasps under sedation, 2 ACTH tests, and receiving 1 equipalazone sachet and a prascend tablet per day.

Targeted worming is the best practice for your horse’s health. By performing regular worm egg counts, it ensures that only those horses that have worms are treated. This means the worms are less likely to become resistant to the products we use.

Faecal worm egg counts are processed at our Poppleton clinic and cost £6.13 per sample. We are very competitively priced for a wide variety of wormers and for Tapeworm ELISA test kits.

We also offer a 12-month Worming Programme to our clients. This costs £50 per year and includes:

• An initial consultation with one of our vets about worming and grazing management
• An individual tailored plan for your horse/yard
• Targeted annual tapeworm monitoring including saliva test
• Autumn/winter wormer if required
• A minimum of 3 faecal worm egg counts per year
• Yearly wall planner to help you keep track of your personalised programme

Our vets are available to offer you advice on worming and can provide you with our targeted worming plan, designed specifically for your horse.

It is a requirement for all horses and ponies exiting the UK to have an Export Health Certificate (EHC) and accompanying health tests before travel.

The EHC is an official document that confirms your export meets the health requirements of the destination country. There are also a number of isolation and residency requirements and blood tests that your horse needs before travel.

Minster Equine Vets have Official Veterinarians (OV's) qualified to provide EHC's, confirm that your horse meets residency and isolation requirements and to take the necessary blood tests that your horse needs in order to travel.