Insight on vaccination decisions and vaccine-manufacturer support.

Provide the best possible disease protection for your horse. Journal photo.

From AQHA Corporate Partner Pfizer Animal Health

As a horse owner, you make important health care decisions for your American Quarter Horses on a daily basis. Everything from what to feed your horse to a training regimen is dependent on your plans for the horse and the horse’s overall condition. Similarly, your veterinarian reviews many factors when administering preventative health care, such as vaccinations, for your horse.

When vaccinating horses, veterinarians consider many factors, such as diseases that may be circulating in a specific region, the potential exposure to new horses and whether the horse will travel to shows and other events where unfamiliar horses are present. Obviously, the top priority for any veterinarian is to help provide the best possible disease protection for each horse, so the efficacy and safety of the vaccines used weigh heavily on a veterinarian’s decision to use specific products.

Learn more about your horse’s health with the Common Horse Health Issues report.

Manufacturer support is demonstrated by the Equine Immunization Support Guarantee from Pfizer Animal Health, which provides up to $5,000 for reasonable diagnostic and treatment costs if a horse properly vaccinated by a veterinarian contracts the corresponding equine disease.

Disease protection backed by the Equine Immunization Support Guarantee includes infection from West Nile virus, equine influenza virus, tetanus, eastern equine encephalomyelitis virus, western equine encephalomyelitis virus and Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis virus. Vaccinations must be provided and administered by a licensed veterinarian with an established client-patient relationship to be eligible.

Dr. Susan O’Brien of Lebanon Equine Clinic in Lebanon, Ohio, recently utilized the Equine Immunization Support Guarantee program on behalf of a client’s horse that showed symptoms that could have been consistent with a lack of vaccine efficacy. When diagnostic test results were negative for the diseases covered by the program, Dr. O’Brien was able to modify her treatment accordingly and order additional tests to try to determine the source of the infection.
“Pfizer Animal Health covered all of the expenses related to the farm call and diagnostic testing for my client’s case,” Dr. O’Brien says. “I know that my client was relieved to have support with the costs due to therapy and screening, and I was able to make better-informed treatment decisions based on the diagnostic results.

The Common Horse Health Issues report gets you steered in the right direction and arms you with the knowledge you need to be a responsible horse owner.

“At the end of the day, a program like the Equine Immunization Support Guarantee gives me confidence that a manufacturer is committed to their products and working with me, the health care provider, to provide the most complete care for my clients’ horses,” Dr. O’Brien says.

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