Equine Preventive & Routine Care in Madison, Georgia & Beyond
Pre-Purchase Exams
Pre-purchase exams are a wise choice regardless of the price of the horse or the horse’s intended purpose. Knowledge of an ongoing lameness, chronic disease, or other issue is imperative when making the decision to buy a horse. Below is an explanation of the components of a pre-purchase exam performed by any of the Piedmont Equine veterinarians.
Annual Wellness Exam
Piedmont Equine Associates offers wellness programs tailored to the specific needs of your horse whether he has a companion or competitor lifestyle. We recommend wellness exams twice yearly. This allows opportunity to note subtle changes in health and provide preventive care to your horse while also administering appropriate vaccines, performing various blood tests (Coggins, etc.), nutritional consultation and body condition monitoring, as well as keeping a check on oral health and dentition. This also includes examination of the skin, for masses or allergic disease, and the eyes for injury or chronic inflammatory disease.
Vaccinations
We follow the American Association of Equine Practitioner’s (AAEP) vaccination guidelines. These guidelines are tailored to your horse’s specific needs, exposures, and risks based on their lifestyle, travel, and personal health history.
Core vaccines, specifically for horses in the southeastern US, include Eastern Equine Encephalitis, Western Equine Encephalitis, West Nile Virus, Tetanus, Equine Influenza Virus (flu), Equine Herpes Viruses (rhino), and Rabies.
If your horse travels to an area that has other diseases endemic or there is heightened risk, additional vaccines can be ordered for them.
Coggins & Health Certificates
We utilize the electronic service Global Vet Link to provide electronic copies of Coggins tests, health certificates, and event permits.
Nutritional Consultation
With the plethora of available equine feeds, supplements, and forage sources, creating an appropriate diet can be a daunting task. Our veterinarians can provide a dietary consultation to ensure your horse is on an appropriate nutritional plan for his their stage, lifestyle, and energy needs. We are also able to facilitate having your forage (hay) analyzed for nutritive content.
Having a nutritional consult can optimize your horse’s health and prevent wastage of feed and hay (and money).
Deworming Consultations
With ongoing research into parasite resistance to dewormers on the rise, it is critical to have your horse’s manure checked for parasite ova or eggs with a fecal egg count. Performing routine fecal egg counts (FECs) on your horse will allow us to recommend the appropriate dewormer on an individual basis. This is typically done 2-3 times per year.
This helps combat the issue of resistance which was created through the historical use of “rotational” deworming.
Geriatric Care
Older horses can present unique healthcare challenges including chronic disease management (e.g., Cushings Disease, arthritis, eye diseases) and maintaining appropriate body condition. While your older horse may not be traveling or going to horse shows as he once did, we recommend continuing to have wellness exams for appropriate preventive and routine care.
Routine Dentistry
Horses are living longer and longer these days, and this is largely due to appropriate dental care ensuring they can continue eating comfortably and receiving nourishment. We recommend oral exams as part of the bi-annual wellness exams to not only float teeth but also detect any other changes due to trauma/injury or disease.
Equine Dental Services
Routine Dental Exams
Did you know that horses have “hypsodont” teeth? This means that their teeth have very long (several inches in some cases) reserve crown of their adult teeth and they continue to slowly “erupt” as they age, and the exposed crown is worn away while chewing. For this reason, routine oral exams and teeth floats are imperative in maintaining a healthy and comfortable mouth not only for chewing but for holding a bit in their mouths and riding.
Dental/Oral Digital Radiography
We use digital radiography of the skull and teeth when diagnosing dental/periodontal disease or injury, preparing for extraction, and during extraction procedures to ensure all tooth material and roots are removed appropriately.
Teeth floats (power and hand floating)
- As their teeth continue to erupt, they can be worn down unevenly creating sharp enamel points and other abnormal conformations commonly called hooks, ramps, waves, and steps. All these abnormalities can be managed with appropriate and regular floating.
- Having the teeth “floated” means the sharp and/or uneven surfaces are ground or filed down to create smooth and level surfaces. This requires the horse to be sedated appropriately to allow a speculum to hold their mouths open and their heads supported by a hanging “dental halter” while remaining standing and a quick recovery.
- A power float is what our veterinarians use most commonly. A power float is based on a hand drill with a rotating file disc on a shaft. The power float allows each tooth to be treated individually as well as perform the task much more quickly and easily.
Extractions
We also routinely perform tooth extractions. We will commonly remove wolf teeth (small, non-functional teeth in front of the first upper cheek tooth) at the time of castration in males. We remove these at the time of the first float in mares and stallions/studs.
Extraction of other teeth is performed for a variety of reasons including fracture, infection or abscess, and periodontal disease.
Periodontal disease treatment
EOTRH
Equine Odontoclastic Tooth Resorption and Hypercementosis, or “EOTRH”, is an immune-mediated disease commonly seen in older horses, especially geldings, and causes severe pain associated with the breakdown of tissue surrounding the incisors (front teeth). This disease is diagnosed on clinical signs and radiographs. It is treated with removal of the incisors which limits the immune response and pain.
Sinusitis
In adult horses, the most common cause for one-sided, foul-smelling nasal discharge is sinusitis (infection in the sinus cavity) secondary to a tooth issue. We commonly treat sinusitis with various types of lavage systems and, if needed, sinus endoscopy or an open surgery called a sinus flap.
Oral Fistulas, Tumors, and More
We also treat other conditions such as oral/dental tumors and fistulas which are more commonly seen in older horses with a variety of surgical procedures — most of which are performed standing.
[EOTRH] Equine Odontoclastic Tooth Resorption and Hypercemetosis
[Sinusitis] Post Sinus Flap Surgery
Malocclusion/Malalignment Corrections
Malocclusion/malalignments are treated more easily in young horses, 1 year and younger, while still in the phase of bone/skeletal growth and development. Malocclusions, such as underbites and overbites, have a detrimental effect as they impede a horse’s ability to prehend, or pick up with the teeth, grass and hay.
Components of a Pre-Purchase Exam:
General Physical Exam
The general physical exam is a detailed and thorough nose-to-tail exam with special attention paid to cardiopulmonary auscultation and evidence of any previous surgeries on the skin or allergy dermatitis.
Ophthalmic Exam
The ophthalmic exam looks for evidence of previous ocular trauma or disease as well as reflexes and sight.
Oral Exam
The oral exam looks for signs of vices such as cribbing, approximate age of the horse, any previous oral/dental problems, and if the horse needs a teeth float.
Musculoskeletal Exam
This component of the exam evaluates the horse’s conformation, any evidence of previous injury, range of motion, and more.
Reproductive Exam
This is included in the pre-purchase exam for mares and stallions if the prospective buyer requests it. For mares and stallions, this would include most of the breeding soundness exam (see section under Reproduction).
Lameness Exam
During the lameness portion of the exam, the horse is observed moving freely on a lunge line at the walk, trot, and canter or lope. The horse is also observed at the straight trot before beginning joint flexions and hoof testing.
Optional Diagnostics
Imaging
Imaging is frequently advised based on observations made during the lameness examination or specific concerns raised by the purchaser. This may include radiographs, ultrasound scans, or endoscopic evaluations.
Bloodwork
Blood samples are routinely collected from all horses and the serum is saved for six months post-examination. This allows for genetic testing and drug screening post-purchase of the horse if desired.