vacs ???

[shirlnjazz]

I am going to get Jazz his jabs soon and wondered if everyone did the flu jab, Ive always got the Tetanus but never used to bother with the Flu one as I feel they are always a bit peeky for a bit afterwards.
As this is my first pony after a 9yr break I want to do everything as correct as possible
also worming query, Jazz was wormed the day he came to me, which was 2nd Dec, when is he going to need done again and how often does he need done

Please excuse these questions which are probably so simple and daft but I think Ive forgot everything I learned

[zeldalithgow]

I don't give Prince and Daisy flu jabs as they very rarely go anywhere but I've kept Leia's up as she might be sold or go on loan, if I kept them at a yard where there are ponies coming and going all the time I would give them all the flu vac (they all get the tetanus) I think if I had a youngster I would give the flu as they have less immunity

[SuzieP]

Shirl - we've all been there with questions with think are daft!! And this isn't daft - there's quite a debate about 'flu jabs.

I'm with Zelda on this one. Always best to be on the safe side. Yes, some horses can be a bit peaky for a little while - but so much better than getting the full blown illness which can be very debilitating. Bea has never been off colour after his jabs.

[jec248]

My pony gets a flu jab,and doesn't have any side effects. She was wormed in December with Equest and will be wormed on March 1st(tapeworm) I will worm her with Equest again in June 1st , again on October 1st (tapeworm) and then again on December 1st with Equest. I have had my pony for 9 years and she's been wormed on these dates since I got her. I try tp pick up the muck each day. All horses that live together should be wormed at the same time with the same type of wormer, so if he is kept with others you should work a worming plan out with their owners. Hope this is of some help.

[khristyne]

I would agree with what the others say about vaccs. Regarding the wormer, it rather depends on what he was given. some wormers have a longer dosing interval than others. You need to find out what he was given and go from there.

Tet doesnt have to be given every year like flu vaccs.

Lifes complicated isnt it??? ;D

[shirlnjazz]

Am I right in saying tetanus is every 3yrs, god its been so long lol I think that was what it was when I got Squire and Herbie done

[admin]

Tilly was kept on a competition yard with horses on adn off all the time, and we would attend shows there too. So she was kept up to date with tet and flu - she never seemed under the weather with them.

Olivia

[zeldalithgow]

I get the tetanus done every 2 years

[shiatsudales]

All mine are done for flu and tet. The flu is done as Drummer goes out to parties and could easily give a nasty infection to the others if they weren't covered. Even when he's not going out I am and, whilst the chances are slim, I could always bring something back from visits to other yards. Very young stock and very old stock tend to have less efficient immune systems so I would be more likely to keep them covered over middle range age ponies.

My vets recommend tetanus be done every two years although the BHS leaflet says every two to five. I'd rather trust my vet than the BHS. The BHS have a leaflet available at:

www.bhs.org.uk/_Attachments/Resources/428_S4.pdf

For flu jag timings two injections for primary cover are given no less than 21 and no more than 92 days apart. A third is then given no less than 150 days and no more than 215 days after the
second primary injection.

Subsequent boosters MUST be done within 365 days if you want to compete. If not my vet reckons immunity will be relatively OK for around 18 months and that's the interval we have Bonnie on.

If you want to do in-hand showing with Jazz this summer he'll need to have had at least the first two vacs for flu before you take him anywhere. Your vet should put the vac details into his passport.

With worming it's all change at the moment with heaps of new products on the market in the last few years. These people offer some good advice. I follow the tactical worming they outline with dung egg counts between.

www.wormers.co.uk/acatalog/Equine_Advice.html

All places that sell equine wormers must now have a fully trained and certified person on site. If that person isn't there they shouldn't sell you wormers. This does mean you can get expert advice on worming from them though.

A few people, me included, now do the tactical worming. At this time of year the recommendation is to worm for bots. We don't have bots in Scotland so I've missed this worming out and sent of dung samples instead. These will be looked at, worm eggs in them counted and I'll get a report as to whether any were present, at what level and what wormer, if any, I need to use. When I've had these done before they've always come back low but I'm a bit more concerned nowadays as I can't de-dung the fields any more due to the CFS. Doing it this way is no cheaper as the egg counts can cost the same as a lot of wormers but it means you put less chemicals into their bodies and the worm population has less opportunity to become resistant to the wormer.

It doesn't cover the latest product (Eraquell) but this article is easy to read and makes it all rather more understandable

www.chalgraveequineclinic.co.uk/Worming.pdf

I use these people for my dung egg counts

www.westgatelabs.co.uk/samplereduced.htm

The key things are that you make sure to use the right active ingredient (e.g. moxidectin) rather than go by brand name e.g. Equest. It's now actively discourage dot rotate your wormer every time you worm. Modern wormers have a much longer active life in the horse so worming intervals can now be as much as 13 weeks rather than the 5-6 we were used to.

Also to warn that modern wormers are ALOT more powerful than old fashioned ones so WATCH OUT FOR THE DOGS.

My neighbour's dog died this winter after the dog got out when they were worming the ponies and ate some wormer. There wasn't a lot the vet could do and the dog died within 24hrs.

[shirlnjazz]

Thanks Heather, loads of reading there, im saving it all to read at my leisure, bed time reading lol

The yard im at the grazing is poor, full of weeds and YO thinks worming every 6 months is ok the fields are poor, im wondering if I can talk daughter into resting fields and sorting them out, could talk to our mutal farmer friend and get him to say something too

[shiatsudales]

shirlnmisty said:

The yard im at the grazing is poor, full of weeds and YO thinks worming every 6 months is ok the fields are poor, im wondering if I can talk daughter into resting fields and sorting them out, could talk to our mutal farmer friend and get him to say something too

Hmmm, youy're probably going to have to rely heavily on keeping Jazz on a high level of chemical control then.

The getting people to say more sounds a good idea. We cross graze with calves most years, sheep are even better but we don't have any of those we can borrow

If you can get them to rotate and rest sections from horses for six months it'll really help. We used to rely a lot on having snow and the ground frozen for a couple of months a year but this winter has been so mild that we've barely had frosts, let alone a long cold snap.

[taffydales]

I,m not sure on this one, the only thing I have heard is that some horses do have a bad reaction to flu jabs, all mine are just done for tet.

[harleydales]

Harley and Apollo get flu and tet, the little ones just get tet.