Wellness care is an investment in your horse’s health. Ensuring that your horse receives proper wellness care can enhance your horse’s longevity, productivity and physical condition. The goal of equine wellness care is to help prevent health problems or detect them early, when they are most treatable. Horses are typically vaccinated twice a year—in the spring and fall.
Equine wellness care typically involves an annual physical examination that is usually timed to coincide with spring vaccinations. Each year, a blood test called a Coggins test is performed to detect Equine Infectious Anemia (EIA), a serious viral disease. Horses often require a negative Coggins test result to cross state lines, and most boarding, training, and show facilities will not allow a horse on the premises without a current, negative test result.
The following vaccines are commonly recommended:
- Rabies*
- Tetanus*
- Eastern and Western equine encephalomyelitis*
- West Nile virus*
- Rhinopneumonitis
- Equine influenza
- Strangles
- Botulism
- Potomac horse fever
*These vaccines are considered core vaccines—those that the American Association of Equine Practitioners [AAEP] considers essential to maintaining the health and well-being of the average horse or necessary to safeguard human health. Risk-based vaccines are recommended based on regional infectious disease concerns and individual lifestyle.
Whether your horse is used for pleasure riding, work, or competition, illness and lameness can reduce the time you spend in the saddle enjoying your horse. Thanks to better care and veterinary advancements, today’s horses can be kept happy, active, and useful well into their late twenties or even early thirties. Wellness care is a well-spent investment in that future.
Call us to schedule your horse’s wellness visit today and ask about our “Parade Package.”