At Countryside Veterinary Services, our veterinarians are happy to advise on all aspects of general equine care. We believe that preventive healthcare allows us to catch problems early and in some cases prevent conditions entirely. We offer a variety of services to ensure that your horse is in the best health. Our preventive equine care services include:
When to Schedule an Appointment
The best time to schedule an appointment for preventive equine care is before your horse's busy season. This way, we can make sure that they're up-to-date on all of their vaccinations and deworming, as well as ensure their teeth are in good shape. During the appointment, we can also do a general exam to make sure your horse is in tip-top shape for whatever their busy season has in store.
Stay ahead of your horse’s health and save money. Schedule a preventative appointment or call us at 770-788-7387.
Regular dental care and treatment is an essential part of preventative equine care and should be undertaken every 6-12 months, depending on your horse’s age and any pre-existing dental conditions. For example, from birth to five years old, the horse’s mouth changes quite a bit, with the shedding of 'baby' teeth and the eruption of permanent teeth. This period may require more frequent checkups.
During your horse’s routine dental checkup, our veterinarians will perform a full visual and manual examination of the teeth, palate, tongue, cheeks, bars and lips. After that, if there are no major issues, your horse’s teeth will likely then be ‘floated’. Horses teeth have an angled shape. Over time and as the horse eats the outside edges of the upper teeth and the inside edges of the lower teeth become sharp. These sharp edges are uncomfortable for your horse and can impact their eating and riding habits. We smooth out these pointy edges by using rasps through a process known as ‘floating’. In most cases, removing points and sharp edges, via ‘floating’ is all that is required during a routine check-up.
Countryside offers Routine and Advanced Dentistry Services.
Microchipping is a safe, permanent and reliable identification method for horses. The tiny chip (it's the size of a grain of rice), is placed into the nuchal ligament of the horse's neck. It's placed in this particular ligament so that over time it does not move around or migrate throughout the horse's body. Placing the microchip is a quick, easy process and there is no scarring or evidence of the microchip's unless your horse is scanned.
At Countryside, we use HomeAgain microchip. HomeAgain provides a unique 15 digit number that can only be assigned to your horse. The 15 digit number is compliant with the USEF and FEI and is approved for passports. Before microchipping, we always scan horses to check for an existing microchip.
If your horse has been microchipped in the past and the number begins with 900, then the microchip is considered unacceptable. Microchips beginning with the pre-fix 900 can't be used because these chips could have duplicate numbers. Microchips are never removed, so once the compliant microchip is implanted make sure to keep the database information updated for both of the chips.
Scanners for microchips are already in place at veterinary clinics, rescue groups and animal control units. The same handheld scanners that are used to identify your dog or cat can also be used on your horse. In the event of a natural disaster or an emergency, scanning for microchips is the best method for identifying animals and reuniting them with their verified owners.
Microchips are already a standard of the FEI (the international federation for equestrian sport), many horse registries and events. Having the ability to authenticate a horse's identity and performance history is increasing validity for show and breeding industries.
Microchips have also assisted in managing outbreaks by giving veterinarians the ability to confirm and track disease contact and exposure.
The USEF approved rule changes in January 2016 for microchipping requirements (EQ.103.2, HU101.2, JP100.2) And as of December 2018, the rule states that any horse competing at at USEF licensed and/or USHJA sanctioned competitions in hunter, hunter breeding, jumper and hunter/jumping seat equitation classes not restricted by breed must be microchipped and have their microchip identification number recorded with the USEF.
Deworming rotation programs have been the standard practice for many years. However, it is no longer the recommended practice as we are now seeing parasite resistance to many of the dewormers that are used. By inappropriately deworming our horse(s), we are actually contributing to the rapid growth of parasite resistance. At Countryside, we choose to take a more precise approach at deworming by targeting the parasites that are actually present, as well as the life stage the parasites are within the body. Fecal egg counts (FEC) are currently the best method of estimating worm burdens in your horse. FEC are easily performed and provide a tremendous amount of information necessary for parasite control. It is important to remember that dewormer programs need to be designed for each individual horse, not the entire herd or barn.
A fecal egg count allows us to identify each individual horse's worm burden through a fecal sample. It's important to understand that not all horses carry the same amount of parasites. Horses can be high, moderate or low egg shedders. Once a horse is identified, they can be properly treated. This prevents unnecessary deworming, which will help slow down resistance and it can save you money in the long run.
A fecal egg count reduction test (FECRT) can be used to evaluate your horse's resistance. The goal of the test is to see if the wormer being used is actually effective and reducing the parasite load.
At Countryside, we follow the core vaccination guidelines of the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP). The AAEP considers these vaccines essential to maintaining the health and well being of the average horse and some are even necessary to safeguard human health. Core vaccinations function to decrease the severity of specific diseases or to prevent them altogether. Unfortunately, there are no effective means of treatment for many of the diseases we vaccinate for and these diseases are nearly always fatal. That is why our goal is to provide the very best in preventive health care and keep your horse as healthy and disease-free as possible.
The decision of whether or not to vaccinate a horse against other common equine diseases are based on several risk factors including:
We recommend the following vaccines for boarding stables, training facilities, show, and trail horses:
As many of our clients know, we love sharing our knowledge and important equine health news. Our blog contains valuable educational resources in one easy location.
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