Chine House Veterinary Hospital | Article Types Equine

RCVS Hospital Status

Chine House was proud to be accredited by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons as a Small Animal Hospital and an Equine Hospital in 2003. Since then we have had two inspections to confirm that we meet the required standards. Hospital status is the highest possible level of accreditation.
This recognition from the RCVS is a great achievement for the practice and something we work hard to maintain. The accreditation scheme is a voluntary initiative – not all practices are part of it yet. RCVS accreditation means that, as a client, you can rest assured that not only in those parts of the practice which you can see, but also ‘behind the scenes’, high standards are being met.
Further details can be found at http://www.rcvs.org.uk/practice-standards-scheme/about-the-practice-standards-scheme/

Useful Links

February 12, 2014/in Equine /by Jonathan Garrat

When horses/ponies are exported to foreign countries, they will usually require a vet’s inspection within 48 hours of leaving. An Export Health Certificate will have to be completed by the vet. Some countries will require blood tests, swabs or quarantine. This will be stipulated by the importing country and will be detailed in the Export Health Certificate. The Export Health Certificate needs to accompany the horse on its journey.

If quarantine, blood tests and/or swabs are needed, it is important to find this out from DEFRA as soon as possible after you have taken the decision to export the horse. These tests will have to be done in advance of the export and if quarantine is required, this will have to be set up.

The horse owner or transporter should contact DEFRA to apply for an Export Health Certificate and DEFRA will forward it to us. When it arrives, the receptionist will find a vet to carry out the inspection and complete the certificate.

The following vets are allowed to do this inspection:

Kyle Black
Lucile Creis
John Dickerson
Jonathan Garratt
Tom Leaman
Simon Turner

Vaccinations

December 2, 2013/0 Comments/in Equine /by Jonathan Garrat

Vaccinations are used as a method of protecting your horse from common diseases.

Horses and ponies in the UK are routinely vaccinated against equine influenza, tetanus and equine herpes viruses 1 and 4.

Vaccination requires an initial course followed by booster doses, the time between these doses depends on the vaccine and disease.

The following is only a basic guide and detailed information about the diseases or advice should be obtained from a vet.

Equine influenza:

Equine influenza is a highly contagious respiratory infection associated with coughing and a fever. This infection spreads rapidly between unvaccinated horses and, although not usually life threatening, can lead to affected animals being rested for several weeks.

Foals can begin their vaccinations when they are 4 – 6 months of age.

Equine influenza vaccination requires two injections 21 – 92 days apart, followed by a third injection 150 – 215 days after the second injection. Booster vaccinations are then given yearly after that (you must not exceed 365 days between injections). These are the rules of the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) and British Riding Clubs (BRC) and what we generally recommend.

Horses competing under FEI rules require boosters every 6 months. In addition, horses cannot compete within 7 days of a vaccination.

There will be other organisations (such as British Eventing(BE)) which have different rules. It is up to the horse’s owner to check the relevant rule books and make sure that the horse’s vaccinations are up-to-date.

Making sure that the dates are adhered to is the responsibility of the owner. If any of the vaccinations are late, the horse will have to re-start the vaccination course to be up-to-date.

Tetanus:

Tetanus occurs when a bacterium in the soil, Clostridium tetani, enters the animal via a wound and produces toxins. The foot is a common entry site. Tetanus infection is often fatal and is characterised by muscle stiffness, hyper-responsiveness to noise or touch and third eyelid prolapse.

The initial course is two vaccinations 4-6 weeks apart. A third vaccination is usually given 18 months later. Thereafter a booster every two years is required.

Brood mares should have a booster 4-6 weeks before foaling to provide the foal with some protection from birth. Foals can start their own vaccination course from 6 months of age.

Tetanus and influenza vaccinations are often given at the same time as most manufacturers produce a combination product. Horses will alternate each year between influenza vaccination on its own and the combination vaccine, enabling yearly flu boosters and every other year tetanus vaccination.

Equine herpes virus:

Equine herpes virus (EHV) can cause abortion, respiratory disease and occasionally neurological disease. Vaccination can guard against abortion and respiratory infection, however, cannot prevent neurological disease.

Brood mares should receive a vaccination during the 5th, 7th, and 9th months of pregnancy to help prevent abortion caused by herpes virus.

To protect against respiratory disease, horses receive two doses 4-6 weeks apart followed by a booster every 6 months. Vaccination can commence from 5 months of age.

Equine rotavirus:

Equine rotavirus causes diarrhoea in foals, particularly where lots of foals are kept together such as large studs.

Brood mares can receive a vaccination during the 8th, 9th, and 10th months of pregnancy to prevent infection in foals. This boosts the amount of antibodies to rotavirus that the mare produces in her milk. Whether this vaccination is necessary for your mare should be discussed with one of the veterinary surgeons at Chine House Veterinary Hospital.

Insurance

December 2, 2013/1 Comment/in Equine /by Jonathan Garrat

Like any insurance, the idea of horse insurance is to protect the policy holder against unexpected problems arising with their animal.

Most insurance policies run for a 12 month period. At the end of this period the provider may offer you a new contract which will take into account any changes in the horse’s condition or value and may exclude any condition that occurred during the previous 12 months. The providers are not obliged to offer you a new contract after a year and in the same way neither are you obliged to accept the new terms and you can choose to find an alternative provider.

Any insurance policy is based on ‘utmost good faith,’ meaning that both you and the insurance provider are expected to disclose all facts relating to the animal and the insurance policy. This is very important as if you try to hide anything from the insurer relating to your horse’s health, the policy may be void and they could refuse to pay out on a claim.

Once a claim is made for an incident or condition, the cover will usually extend for 12 months from the date the problem started. After this point most insurance providers will not pay out further for this particular condition and, if this is provided in the insurance policy, loss of use may be claimed (see later).

Any pre-existing conditions that your horse has will not be covered by the policy. This is very important to realise when buying a horse, that problems found on a pre-purchase examination may not be covered by insurance and could potentially prove costly. Your veterinary surgeon can offer an opinion as to whether certain conditions should be excluded or not, however, in the end it is up to the insurer to make this decision.

The amount paid on monthly premiums largely depends on the type of insurance protection and the value of the animal. The main types of insurance are veterinary fee cover, death and permanent loss of use. Theft, public liability, personal accident, tack and trailers may also be covered in the policy.

Types of insurance

Veterinary fee cover
This cover pays for non-routine vets’ bills except for an excess, which varies, that you must pay. The amount that the insurance company will pay varies with each policy as they have different degrees of cover for different budgets. The cost of this cover will also increase if the animal is worth a lot more and is in a higher level of competition. Some policies will still have restrictions for certain diagnostic and alternative treatments so it is important to read the policy carefully to see exactly what the cover includes.

Many insurance policies for vets’ fees will exclude all incidents that haven’t been caused by accidental, external and visible injury.

Before any treatment is initiated on an animal, unless in an emergency situation, the vet should give you an approximation of the cost so that you can get the go ahead from your insurance company and to check that there are no exclusions for this condition. The insurance company should also be contacted before any referral or surgical procedure is performed.

The insurance company will either pay the veterinary practice direct or pay you to then settle the bill with the vets. There have been cases of people being paid by the insurers and then not paying the vets. To prevent this, most policies now state that the claim is only valid once the vet has been paid.
Mortality
This insurance pays the value of the animal following euthanasia. To qualify for this, the horse must fulfil the British Equine Veterinary Association’s guidelines for destruction on humane grounds. In these cases, the horse must have an illness or disease which is so severe that it requires immediate destruction to alleviate the pain and suffering and no other options of treatment are available. This allows the veterinary surgeon to be able to act quickly in an emergency situation to prevent suffering to the animal. For other situations, when the horse can be given effective pain relief or other relevant treatments, the insurance company should be contacted to get prior consent. The insurance company may send out another vet for a second opinion before they allow the animal to be put to sleep. If after this, an agreement between the two vets cannot be reached, a third opinion can be sought to settle the issue.

Once the horse has been put to sleep, most insurance policies require a post-mortem. It is very important to check this, as if the animal is disposed of without one, the insurers may refuse to pay out. If a post-mortem is not required, the veterinary surgeon should simply identify the animal and confirm the reason for euthanasia.

If the animal has died before the vet can get there, the rules about a post-mortem still apply if the animal is insured for mortality.
Permanent loss of use
This covers the horse if it becomes permanently incapable of performing the tasks it was insured to do. This varies between policies. This insurance does not cover for loss of value, behavioural problems, temporary incapacity, etc.

Once all treatments have been carried out, usually for 12 months, and the horse is deemed to have permanent loss of use, the insurers should be contacted immediately. They will usually arrange for the case to be reviewed by their veterinary adviser. The veterinary adviser can either agree, and the claim can be settled promptly, or they may wish to have a second opinion and may offer help in treating the animal.

Once the claim has been agreed, the owner will usually have the choice of keeping the animal in retirement or having he/she euthanased. If the horse is kept in retirement, they are freeze marked with an ‘L’ within a circle.

Some insurance policies will need the horse to have a veterinary examination before insurance commences. This will either be a full 5-stage vetting or a 2-stage vetting. For higher value horses, radiographs may also be required

Horse Passports

December 2, 2013/0 Comments/in Equine /by Jonathan Garrat

Since 28th February 2005, owners have not been able to sell, buy, export, slaughter for human consumption, compete with or breed with any animal without a valid passport. This was set out in the Horse Passports (England) Regulations 2004 making it compulsory for an owner to have a passport for any horse they own, including ponies and donkeys.

A list of passport issuing authorities can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/horse-passport-issuing-organisations

If your horse does not have passport, you should apply for one now so as to comply with the law. All horses and ponies born now must have a passport either by the time they are 6 months of age or before the 31st December of the year in which they were born, whichever comes later.

This law has brought England in line with the rest of the EU and has been put in place to prevent horses which have been treated with veterinary medicines, not authorised for food producing animals, being slaughtered for human consumption.

When a vet treats your animal, they must satisfy themselves that the animal in front of them corresponds to the one in the passport and will then check the declaration at Section IX of the passport regarding whether the horse is for human consumption.

If the passport has not been signed in section IX or the horse IS intended for human consumption, certain drugs will have to be recorded by the vet. If the passport is unavailable, the drugs administered should be put in writing elsewhere.

If the declaration has been signed stating that the horse IS NOT intended for human consumption, no drugs have to be recorded in the passport. Vaccinations will be recorded in the usual way.

You can appreciate that it is far easier for all concerned if your horse is considered not intended for human consumption.

When a horse is sold, the owner must transfer the passport over. The new owner then has 30 days to fill in the change of ownership details and inform the passport issuing authority. After a horse has died, the passport must be returned to the passport issuing authority within 30 days. Similarly, an owner has 30 days to apply for a replacement for any lost or damaged passport.

Equine Worming

December 2, 2013/0 Comments/in Equine /by Jonathan Garrat

Types of worm

Redworms (strongyles)
These can be divided into large redworms and small redworms (cyathostomins). Both these parasites colonise the intestines after the horse grazes contaminated pasture. As adults in the intestine, they produce eggs which are passed in the droppings to further contaminate the pasture.

The large redworms hatch out of the eggs and migrate as larvae through the intestines, liver and mesenteric blood vessels before becoming adults. The small redworm larvae can form cysts in the intestinal wall to hibernate over the winter. They emerge again in the spring to form adults in the intestinal lumen. This is the dangerous time for horses as the mass emergence of larvae can cause severe damage to the intestines. This condition is known as larval cyathostominosis and can be fatal.
Tapeworm
The tapeworm, Anoplocephala perfoliata, lives at the junction between the small and large intestines, the ileo-caecal junction. Tapeworm infestation can cause recurrent colic.
Oxyuris equi (pinworm)
This worm lives in the large intestine and it lays eggs around the horse’s anus. It can cause horses to rub their hind ends. They can be hard to treat as we believe that it is difficult to achieve high enough wormer levels to kill them.
Parascaris equorum (roundworm)
This roundworm usually affects younger animals and large numbers can block the intestine.
Bots
Bots, Gasterophilus, live in the stomach of horses as larvae. These are later passed in the droppings and hatch out into adult flies. These flies then lay their eggs on the horse’s coat, especially the legs.
Lungworm
The larvae of lungworm, Dictyocaulus arnfieldi, migrate to the lungs and can cause respiratory disease. This is seen very rarely. However, horses that live with donkeys are thought to be at greater risk.
Strongyloides westeri
This worm can be transmitted from the mother to her foal in the milk and can cause severe diarrhoea.

Diagnosis

A veterinary surgeon may often be able to determine that worms are a problem in horses with the typical signs of ill thrift, colic, diarrhoea and weight loss alongside inadequate worming and poor pasture management. Some blood test changes may also be suggestive. Samples of the droppings can be used to count the number of worm eggs present to help in the diagnosis. These worm egg counts are a very useful management tool. A blood sample or saliva test is also available to help diagnose tapeworm infestation.

Prevention

1. Good pasture management: The pasture should not be overcrowded and droppings should be regularly picked up (at least twice a week).

1. Regular faecal worm egg counts during the grazing season so that only those individuals with high counts are wormed. This helps to prevent resistance to wormers. To be accurate, a representative sample must be taken i.e. small amount from several fresh (same day) faecal balls. Samples must be submitted on the same day as collection or else refrigerated overnight. Delays in analysis can lead to false negatives

1. Resting the pasture can allow time for worm eggs on the pasture to die. To be effective, the pasture should be rested for at least six months.

1. If it is possible, sharing grazing with other species such as sheep or cattle can be helpful. Parasites from these species don’t affect horses and the horse parasites will be destroyed in the rumen of sheep and cattle.

1. New horses, with an unknown history, should be wormed on arrival and should be stabled for two days before going onto the pasture to reduce contamination. (Please speak to one of our vets about the appropriate wormer to use).

1. Appropriate use of chemical wormers to reduce the number of eggs passed in their droppings.

1. Avoid harrowing pasture unless hot and dry weather. Eggs and larvae can withstand cold and dry temperatures and so harrowing in these conditions will increase pasture infectivity.

1. If manure is spread on the pasture as fertilizer, the muck heap should be turned at least once to ensure all parts of the manure are exposed to temperatures sufficient to kill eggs..

Frequency of worming

Worming regimes should be set up for individual horses. Every client’s situation is different and so blanket recommendations cannot be given. Ideally we want to bring wormer usage down to a minimum level so that costs to clients are low but disease is still prevented. Using fewer wormers should also help reduce the development of resistance to the wormers in the worms.

The main method to minimise wormer usage is to take faecal samples and count the number of worm eggs present, with or without a tapeworm blood test. Horses with high numbers should be wormed. However, if the numbers are low then worming is not necessary. This will reduce cost and slow the development of resistance in the worms. This technique works very well on small yards where there are not many horses present and few new horses are introduced. Unfortunately some premises have to rely on more wormer use because of their circumstances. For faecal worm egg counts to be accurate a representative sample must be taken i.e. small amount from several fresh (same day) faecal balls. Sample must be submitted same day or else refrigerated overnight. Delays in analysis can lead to false negativesbr>
Using the correct wormer is very important as certain wormers will only kill certain worms. Inappropriate use of wormers has also been seen to increase the build-up of resistance.

Veterinary advice should always be sort to develop a worming programme.

Types of wormer

Ivermectin and Moxidectin
These wormers will kill almost all types of worm, including bots. However, they are not effective against tapeworm. Although ivermectin has some action against the hibernating, encysted cyathostomin larvae, they will not kill all of them and moxidectin has been seen to be far more effective. Moxidectin is the only licensed product for treatment of encysted cyathostomins to which resistance has not developed therefore it should be reserved for this purpose. not be used in young foals and severely debilitated animals. Ascarid resistance to Ivermectin is widespread in the UK.
trade names:

Ivermectin: Eqvalan, Noromectin, Eraquell, Vectin

Ivermectin and Praziquantel: Equimax, Eqvalan Duo

Moxidectin: Equest

Moxidectin and Praziquantel: Equest Pramox
Fenbendazole
This wormer is effective against most species of worm. However, resistance in cyathostomin populations to Fenbendazole is now extremely widespread and therefore should only be used to treat for small strongyles with proven sensitivity. A 5 day course of Fenbendazole is licensed as a treatment for encysted cyathostomins however most UK populations are now resistant to this wormer.

Trade name: Panacur

Panacur Equine Guard (5 day treatment)
Pyrantel
It is reasonably effective against many mature worms. It can also be used as a treatment against tapeworms at double the dose. Some resistance to this wormer has been recognized.

Trade names: Strongid-P and Pyratape-P
Praziquantel
This is a specific treatment for tapeworms.

Some trade names: Praziquantel: Equitape

Praziquantel and Ivermectin: Equimax and Eqvalan Duo

Praziquantel and Moxidectin: Equest Pramox

Please see table at the end of this article which shows some of the different wormers and their respective actions.

Worming method and amounts

The following is only a basic guide. Please contact one of our vets if you require more in depth advice.

1. Pick one class of drug to use for one to two years as your routine wormer and then change to another the following year to help reduce resistance.

1. Use this wormer throughout the year when the faecal egg count results indicate that the horse needs worming or, if this is not possible e.g. large yard, treat at intervals recommended for the individual wormer.

1. Treatment against tapeworms should be given in the spring+/-autumn. Either praziquantel or a double dose of pyrantel should be given.

1. An annual treatment for encysted small redworm should be given at the start of winter. Moxidectin is the only wormer licensed for this purpose to which small redworms have not developed resistance.

1. Ivermectin or moxidectin should be given in December to treat bots.

It is very important that the correct amount of wormer is given to every horse or it may not be effective. In some situations it can be toxic. To calculate the correct amount of wormer to give, you can weigh your horse using a set of scales (there is a set at Chine House Veterinary Hospital) or use a weigh tape.

Wormer Name	Active ingredient	Activity against
Noromectin	Ivermectin	O, B
Equimax	Ivermectin & Praziquantel	O, B, T
Eraquell	Ivermectin	O, B
Eqvalan	Ivermectin	O, B
Eqvalan Duo	Ivermectin & Praziquantel	O, B, T
Vectin	Ivermectin	O, B
Equest	Moxidectin	O, B, EC
Equest Pramox	Moxidectin & Praziquantel	O, B, T, EC
Panacur	Fenbendazole	O
Panacur Equine Guard	Fenbendazole	O, EC
Pyratape-P	Pyrantel	O, T (at 2x dose)
Strongid-P	Pyrantel	O, T (at 2x dose)
Telmin	Mebendazole	O
Equitape	Praziquantel	T
T= Tapeworm B=Stomach bots EC= Encysted cyathostomins O= Other worms

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RCVS Hospital Status

Types of insurance

Types of worm

Diagnosis

Prevention

Frequency of worming

Types of wormer

Worming method and amounts

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