Routine Health Care
As a conscientious owner, we know your horse’s healthcare is your top priority. Preventative health care such as vaccinations, dentistry, worming and weight management are essential to keeping your horse happy and healthy.
Our vets have all of the equipment necessary to examine your horse at your yard. The areas we cover include:
- North Yorkshire including York, Harrogate, Boroughbridge, Selby, Malton, Easingwold, Ripon and Thirsk
- West Yorkshire including Leeds, Wetherby and Pontefract
- East Yorkshire including Hull, Goole, Driffield.
- South Yorkshire including Doncaster
Local visit fees within 0-5 miles of the practice start from £37.60. Visits can be shared between owners of horses on the same yard to further reduce the cost. Free visits are available to yards that wish to set up a routine visit, or for dental visits for 5 or more horses. You may also choose to to bring your horse to the clinic, which is free of charge. Our £25 Zone Visit scheme is also available for routine and preventative healthcare appointments.
Out-of-hours, weekend, bank holidays and long distance visits will incur a surcharge, however 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.
Vaccination prices:
- Equine Influenza £46.24
- Equine Influenza + Tetanus £52.79
- Tetanus £38.47
- Equine Herpes Virus £52.90
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 this is to have a dental examination and teeth rasp performed every 6 – 12 months.
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. However, if your horse has more severe problems, our vets are also equipped to deal with a range of dental conditions. Only qualified veterinary surgeons are able to carry out extractions (for example, the removal of wolf teeth) or more complicated procedures.
Our routine dental examination and rasp costs just £85.45 per horse including sedation. Modern equine dentistry is most commonly performed under sedation and there are several reasons why this is beneficial:
- Sedation makes it possible for us to perform a thorough oral examination. This is essential if all the relevant pathology is to be diagnosed. Subtle pathology can easily go undetected in an un-sedated patient. Sedation also makes the procedure less stressful for the horse and therefore much safer for horse, handler and veterinarian.
- The dental exam and any subsequent treatment involves many potentially dangerous components: a heavy steel gag, motorised dental equipment and not to mention a 500kg animal!
- The sedatives used are extremely safe and give a window of roughly 40 minutes of good sedation. The patient remains standing and is generally compliant throughout the procedure. They will sometimes become slightly ataxic (wobbly) but this is rarely a problem and the effect is only transient. After this time the effects of the drugs gradually wear off. Horses should not be fed immediately after having received a sedative as they are at an increased risk of choke for a short time.
Only veterinarians can legally administer intravenous sedation.
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. We have a set of portable scales that we can bring to your yard on zone visit days, or just request us to bring them with us when you have another appointment booked. 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 Fat Scoring:
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.
Weight Loss Programme
Our Equine Weight Management programme is available free of charge for our clients to join to help manage their horse’s weight. Our campaign is supported by Dengie, and we’ve teamed up to compile a free equine weight management booklet that shows you how to assess condition and safely lose any extra pounds. There is space for you to set targets, track your horse’s progress, and create an exercise plan. We also have a limited number of weight-tapes available to the first few clients who sign up. If you would like more information on weight management or to organise a free weight loss clinic at your yard, please just contact us for more information.
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 £12.60 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 £60 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. Please contact us to find out more information.
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.
As a conscientious owner, we know your horse’s healthcare is your top priority.
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.
In the United Kingdom, it is now mandatory for all horses, ponies and donkeys to be microchipped. This is important because lost or stolen horses can be reunited with their owners more easily, but it also improves animal welfare because the police and animal welfare organisations can trace the owners of dumped horses. The microchip must be implanted by a vet and the owner/keeper has a legal obligation to keep up to date via the database.
Can you get fined if your horse is not microchipped?
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 as soon as possible.
When do you need to microchip a foal?
Legally, foals must be microchipped 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.
What should I do if I am unsure if my horse is microchipped?
As your vet to scan your horse to check for you.
What is a microchip?
A microchip is a small electronic device, about the size of a grain of rice. Each microchip has a unique number within it that can be scanned, and recorded in a central database, along with an owner’s personal contact details. The microchip is placed underneath the skin using a specially designed implanter. An anaesthetic is not required, and the procedure should be no more painful than a routine vaccination.
How do you update your details?
You will need to update your details each time you move house or your phone number or email address change. To do this, visit: equineregister.co.uk.
What is the Central Equine Database?
The Central Equine Database (CED) is an online database which holds records of all equines in the UK. You can visit equineregister.co.uk to set up an account and make use of its services: equineregister.co.uk.
On 1st July 2009, it became a requirement for all horses, ponies and donkeys in the UK to have a passport, even if they are retired or do not ever leave the yard. You can be fined up to £5,000 for not having a valid passport! The legislation comes from an EU directive that has been adopted into UK law to protect the human food chain from meat containing traces of equine medicine that may be harmful to humans. It has had the additional benefit of making it harder to sell stolen horses.
Is there a deadline to apply for a new passport?
Yes – under the legislation, foals must have a passport and microchip within six months of birth or before 30th November of the year in which they were born, whichever date occurs later. If your horse does not have a passport your insurance may be invalid; you may also be liable to prosecution if you attempt to sell the horse.
When do I need to show my equine’s passport?
The passport must be always kept with the horse (except in special circumstances such as a short hack/ride). For example, if you normally stable your horse at livery, the passport must be kept at the livery yard. You might be asked to present your horse’s passport at a competition, when transporting your horse or when your horse receives veterinary treatment. If you have a horse in your care and you can’t show a valid passport on request, you could get an unlimited fine.
What do I do with the passport if my horse has passed away?
In the event of the horse’s death, you will need to send the passport back to the office that issued it. It is an offence not to do this within 30 days.
Section IX/II of the horse passport
Section IX of the Horse Passport MUST be signed by the owner, keeper or veterinarian to identify whether the horse is ‘intended’ or ‘not intended’ to enter the human food chain. This is primarily to ensure that no horses receiving certain medications enter the food chain, and also to prevent the sale of stolen horses or ponies as the passport should prove its identity.
FEI passports
An FEI passport is mandatory for horses competing at most international FEI sanctioned events. If you are planning on competing at an FEI event and your horse requires an FEI passport, please contact your discipline directly for information on how to apply. Be aware that most disciplines require at least 6 weeks’ notice in advance before they can issue a passport.
Applying for a passport
To apply for a passport, you’ll need to apply through a passport issuing organisation (PIO). You can find out which PIO applies to your horse by checking on www.gov.uk/horse-passport/apply-for-a-horse-passport. You need a vet to implant a microchip in your horse and complete the identification chart before you can apply.
