A one-year study of Pony Club members conducted in New South Wales, Australia, revealed some interesting trends in preventive healthcare:
Foot care was the most regularly administered preventive healthcare;
Deworming did not follow current evidence-based recommendations. Instead, some ponies were not dewormed at all, others were dewormed excessively, and some were dewormed using anthelmintic products licensed for use in sheep and pigs;
Less than 40% of ponies underwent dental care;
Only 4 of the 48 included horses were vaccinated (either tetanus alone or in combination with strangles only). Rabies was not administered because they do not have rabies in Australia; and
No annual veterinary health checks were performed on any pony.
Sending the invoice for the annual check-up of your perfectly sound horse.
Some observations.
1. Hoof care is very important to keep a horse in work and sound, so it's no surprise that horse owners keep up with that. Further, it's very easy to determine whether your hoof care professional is doing a good job.
2. On deworming - most experienced horse owners have concluded that the deworming schedule given to us by people who stand to profit the most from our adherence to their "evidence-based" schedule has resulted in parasite resistance to the wormers on the market. And they have no solution to that resistance problem.
And yes, we have also figured out that a) the horse wormers don't kill all the worms - larval stage worms will swiftly re-infect, and b) you are selling the same products for horses and for sheep and pigs at very different prices. So no wonder people are buying anthelmintics at the best price point.
3. While we always recommend dental visits, it's perfectly understandable that horse owners only call a dentist when the horse is showing symptoms of dental problems, like losing weight or dropping food.
4. Vaccines - you guys shot yourselves in the foot when you charged unaffordable prices for Hendra vaccines that were so unlikely to effect the normal horse and horse owner, and insisting on such frequency. AND such a horribly high incidence of career-ending adverse events for horses receiving the Hendra shot, it is no wonder that horse owners have complete backed off their vaccine schedule altogether.
5. No annual vet check? Of course not. Huge call out fee to a totally sound horse for your vet to find a problem that they can then profit from. No thank you.
Buckley, P., D. Buckley, G.T. Coleman, et al. 2016. Preventive health care of Pony Club horses in rural New South Wales, Australia. Australian Veterinary Journal. 94(8):265-270.
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