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Horse routine health care — tetanus vaccination, annual dental checks, farrier hoof care every 4-8 weeks, worm control (UK DEFRA code)

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exotic-pet-health 200 tok en 2026-08-22

Horse routine health care — tetanus vaccination, annual dental checks, farrier hoof care every 4-8 weeks, worm control (UK DEFRA code)

Source: UK Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA), “Code of practice for the welfare of horses, ponies, donkeys and their hybrids” (December 2017), gov.uk. Crown copyright, Open Government Licence v3.0 — verbatim quotation permitted with attribution; C1 substring-verified against pdf-raw/horse-welfare/horses_welfare_code_2018.txt.

Routine preventive health care from the DEFRA welfare code: vaccination (tetanus strongly recommended), dental inspection at least yearly, hoof trimming/re-shoeing typically every 4-8 weeks by a registered farrier, faecal-egg-count-based worm control, and isolation of new arrivals.

Claims

  • It is strongly recommended that all horses are vaccinated against tetanus as horses are very susceptible to this fatal condition.
  • Teeth should be inspected by a vet or British Association of Equine Dental Technicians (BAEDT) equine dental technician at least once a year, and rasped or otherwise treated if necessary.
  • Hooves should be trimmed and/or re-shod as advised by the farrier, which should usually be every 4-8 weeks.
  • The routine use of wormers without faecal egg counts is strongly discouraged, as this will encourage parasite resistance to these drugs
  • When a new horse enters premises, the horse should be isolated before being introduced to the rest of the herd.
  • Become familiar with what is normal for your horse such as normal temperature, breathing rate, water consumption and mobility.

Sources

Horse routine health care — tetanus vaccination, annual dental checks, farrier hoof care every 4-8 weeks, worm control (UK DEFRA code)
Source document: Code of practice for the welfare of horses, ponies, donkeys and their hybrids (DEFRA, December 2017)
Department for Environment, Food & Rural AffairsCode of practice for the welfare of horses, ponies, donkeys and their hybrids (DEFRA, December 2017)retrieved 2026-08-22

Verification file: pdf-raw/horse-welfare/horses_welfare_code_2018.txt