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EQUINE MATTERS
Please pull out and keep for future reference
KEEP ING HEALTHY
Lorna Buckley BVM&S MRCVS,
North West Equine Clinic
Pull out and keep!
Keeping horses healthy
As members of the equine industry, we are all responsible
for the health and welfare of our own horses or those we
care for. With riding increasing in popularity, the UK horse
population is on the rise and more and more horses are
being moved around the country and abroad.
Veterinary surgeon
Lorna Buckley
XLEquine practice
North West Equine
Vets Ltd
This means that the risk of disease is higher
than ever and we all need to play our
part in prevention and control.
There are lots of steps you can take, as an
individual horse owner or as a yard, to help
reduce the risk of infectious disease and to
minimise the impact when it does occur.
Table 1
lists some of the more common equine
infectious diseases that we see in the UK.
Equine influenza
Ringworm*
Worms
Strangles
Mites and lice
Salmonellosis*
Equine herpesvirus (EHV)
*
zoonotic (transmissible to humans) diseases
Respiratory
Skin
Gastrointestinal
Table 1:
Common equine infectious diseases
Recognising disease
: the sooner the better
Prevention is always better than cure but in
the event that your horse does succumb to
disease then early recognition can make all
the difference to the outcome.
Top tip!
Know what is normal for your horse
Regular monitoring of your horse’s vital signs
will alert you to any change that could
indicate a problem. The normal reference
ranges for vital signs in adult horses and
donkeys are shown in
Table 2
.
Feeling for your horse’s pulse rate
Physical Parameter
Normal range
Rectal temperature (Horse/pony)
37-38.5°C (99.5-101.3°F)
Rectal temperature (Donkey)
36.2 to 37.8°C (97.2 to 100°F)
Pulse/heart rate (beats per minute)
28-42
Respiratory rate (breaths per minute)
10-14
Table 2:
Reference ranges for equine vital signs