Page 41 - The Veterinary Care of the Horse

of the upper lip and muzzle or develop a slight temperature on the day of vaccination.

VetBooks.ir FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS

A new vaccine which can be given by the intramuscular route and provides 80% protection
has been developed. It is anticipated to be available in the UK in 2020.

Vaccination against equine rotavirus

Pregnant mares are vaccinated in the 8th, 9th and 10th months of pregnancy. Antibodies
produced are passed to the foals in the colostrum and help to protect them against the

diarrhoea and illness caused by rotavirus.

Vaccination certificates and passports

A record of all vaccines administered is included in equine passports and vaccination

certificates. These must be kept up-to-date. If an equine influenza booster is overlooked and
given more than 12 months after the last injection, it may be necessary to begin the whole

programme again.

DENTISTRY

It is normal for horses to have sharp and ridged grinding teeth (molars). This design of

dentition has evolved because the horse is a herbivore. In the wild, the horse spends up to
sixteen hours a day with its head down chewing coarse grass material which contains

abrasive silicates that continually wear the teeth. To compensate for this, the permanent teeth
of the horse continue to erupt for most of its life at a rate of 2–3 mm ( in) a year.

Many of the problems we see today are the result of domestication. The mouth and
dentition of the horse were not designed to accommodate a bit or to have a diet composed

mainly of concentrate feeds with relatively little forage fed at head height or above in
mangers and haynets. Equine dentistry seeks to promote health and accommodate man’s

influence on the horse, thus preventing any pain or discomfort.

The dental formula of the horse

The dental formula is used to describe the number of teeth present in each side (i.e. the left or

right side) of the mouth. ‘I’ refers to incisor teeth, ‘C’ to canines, ‘P’ to premolars and ‘M’ to
molars. The number of teeth in the top jaw is placed above the number of teeth in the lower