Equine Preventative Medicine
The saying that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure is well-known and often repeated for good reason – it’s 100% accurate. When it comes to caring for horses, investing in wellness and preventative care will go a long way to save you money on the cost of treating a sick or seriously injured horse and in preventing your horse from developing issues that could affect its health, comfort, performance, and attitude while also potentially shortening its lifespan. At Jackpot Veterinary Center, we place a strong emphasis on wellness and preventative care for our equine patients, working with their owners to determine an appropriate schedule of examinations, vaccinations, parasite prevention, and more.
Wellness and Preventative Care Services for Horses
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Wellness Examinations
Every preventative care appointment begins with a consultation with you to talk with you about your horse’s performance and any changes you might have noticed since your horse’s last exam. We then perform a thorough physical examination, evaluating your horse at rest and in motion, testing their joint flexion, and evaluating their weight and appearance.
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Routine Diagnostic Testing
We also recommend running a few routine diagnostic tests to look for the earliest signs of illness, parasites, or other changes in your horse that could indicate a health concern. These tests enable us to detect, treat, and manage problems before they cause any actual problems, symptoms, suffering, or lameness in your horse. We might also recommend additional diagnostic testing (such as digital x-rays, ultrasound, endoscopy, or gastroscopy) if other symptoms or unexplained changes have occurred in your horse.
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Vaccinations
We can recommend and administer an appropriate schedule of core and non-core vaccinations to maintain your horse’s health. We base these recommendations on your horse’s exposure risk, travel, and show requirements.
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Dental Exam and Float
While you might think that the hooves are more important than the horse’s mouth, oral health actually has a strong connection to overall physical health and wellbeing in horses, just as it does in people and other animals. At Jackpot Veterinary Center, we emphasize the importance of oral health and routine dental care as a part of every equine patient’s ongoing wellness.
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Nutritional Counseling
We can help recommend a balanced diet with the proper intake of calories and nutrients based on your horse’s individual needs.
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Parasite Prevention and Management
In addition to vaccinations, parasite prevention is also essential to maintaining your horse’s health.
Why Do Horses Need Dental Care?
Wild horses survive just fine without dental care. So, many people naturally wonder why domestic horses need to have their teeth looked after.
Horses have hypsodontic teeth, which are molars that grow continuously. In the wild, a horse’s natural diet consists mostly of rough forage that wears down their teeth at the same rate they grow. In domestic care, horses’ diets differ greatly, and most only spend a small fraction of time actually foraging. As a result, their teeth can grow out of control, resulting in an uncomfortably uneven bite and dangerously sharp cusps that can damage the soft tissues in their mouths.
Poor dental health and upkeep can lead to lameness in a horse and difficulties when wearing a bit. It can also affect a horse’s ability to eat well and maintain a healthy weight in addition to affecting the body with a host of systemic issues that can develop as a result of dental disease.
How Often Do Horses Need Dental Care?
In foals, the proper development of teeth is essential to the horse’s overall development and health as it grows into an adult. A foal’s teeth should be examined during its first wellness examination and about every three months after. With more frequent examinations, abnormalities can be detected and corrected early on before they develop into more serious problems.
A horse should have its first comprehensive dental examination and float between 18 and 24 months of age. Until the horse reaches dental maturity at around age 5, we recommend annual to biannual dental exams. After this time, we typically recommend scheduling a routine dental exam and float appointment about once a year for healthy adult horses.
Choose Jackpot Veterinary Center for Equine Wellness and Preventative Care
At Jackpot Veterinary Center, we provide our patients with thorough preventative care such as wellness exams, vaccinations, and a variety of tests to ensure horses are living long and healthy lives.
In addition to our comprehensive preventative care programs, we are also fully equipped in our haul-in equine clinic to handle horse emergencies, wound care, comprehensive diagnostics, lameness evaluations, joint injections in a sterile environment, and more.
To learn more about the full list of equine veterinary care services available to patients of Jackpot Veterinary Center in Tucson, we welcome you to contact our office today.
