Equine wellness care in ambulatory practice

Clients want dependable veterinary care and to understand how the services will benefit and meet their horse’s needs. Wellness visits provide ambulatory practitioners with great opportunities to strengthen the doctor-client-patient bond; effective communication with clients during wellness visits, where new literature or facts can be presented, can offer opportunities for demonstrating the value of having the veterinarian maintain a primary role in disease control. The criteria for selecting vaccines, interpreting FECs, and diagnosing dental pathology require the continued need for veterinary involvement. When providing wellness services, veterinarians should discuss those services, the reasons for them, as well as the possibility of adverse reactions. In so doing, the veterinarian is able to clearly distinguish himself or herself from a technician who is merely giving a "shot." Although some of these services can be performed by clients and lay professionals, the knowledge and training that veterinarians bring to these tasks add benefits to the horse beyond the services provided. For example, by targeting treatment and conveying the goals and limitations of FECs and deworming to clients, the speed at which anthelmintic resistance occurs will be diminished, and veterinarians will regain control over equine parasite management. Additional client education, such as demonstrating dental pathology to clients and how veterinary treatment benefits their horse, will not only improve the health of the horse further but also solidify the veterinarian’s role in preventative medicine. While all components of a wellness program were not detailed here, services such as nutritional consultation, blood work, and lameness evaluation should be offered based on the practice’s equine population. With the increasing population of geriatric horses, dentistry, nutrition, blood work, and lameness should be assessed annually or biannually. Each practice has its own set of criteria that could be included under the umbrella of "preventative medicine." It is during these times, when the client is most relaxed and not concerned about a serious health problem, that it is easiest to demonstrate the significance of veterinarians in equine wellness care.