The Barn Vet Practice, Copdock 01473 730213
Ashcroft Road Surgery, Ipswich 01473 743460

If you are looking to book a cat vaccination, please be aware that there is an ongoing shortage of some cat vaccines affecting all UK Veterinary practices. Find out more here.

Equine

Excellent Care for Your Horse

The Barn Veterinary Practice’s equine team consists of five ambulatory equine vets, working out of our Copdock surgery, who provide a 24/7 service of veterinary care for your horse.

As a first opinion equine practice we offer a number of services including vaccinations, consultations, dentistry, lameness work-ups to name a few.

Visits can generally be booked in between 9:00am and 5:00pm on weekdays at a specified time and all requests will be accommodated where possible.

Any out of hours emergencies will be attended by our own vets with access to your horse’s clinical notes, ensuring continuity of care and a familiar face.

As part of our commitment to keeping the cost of veterinary care down, we offer all our clients the opportunity to register for zone visits. When a zone visit is booked, no visit fee is charged. For more information please visit our Zone Visits page.

  • Equine Worming Plan
  • Zone Visits

Equine Worming Plan

Annual Worming Package

The Barn Veterinary Practice can offer a fast and cost effective way to protect your horses against internal parasites.

The aim is to prevent giving your horse unnecessary doses of wormer by monitoring for worms throughout the grazing season.

Included in the package is:

  • 3 worm egg counts (WEC) to be carried out at The Barn Veterinary Practice, between March to November.
  • 1 dose of combined Tapeworm and encysted red worm treatment for use in late winter.


Please note, that this package does not include any additional wormers required, if very high levels of worm eggs are found on a worm egg count.

We recommend that a small sample of each horse’s faeces is tested 3 times a year during the grazing season beginning in March. The results of these worm egg counts allow us to determine the level of worm egg burden.

  • Horses with a high WEC should be wormed with the correct dosage of an appropriate wormer.
  • Horses with a low or zero WEC do not need to be wormed.


Underdosing is important to avoid, this can encourage resistance to wormers. Calculate your dosage and add at least 10% as it is better to slightly overdose than underdose.

Field management can be a critical part of worm control, poo picking daily is to be recommended and keeping horses in the same grazing groups will minimise the fluctuations in WEC results.

Collection

A suitable sample should be 4 small nuggets of fresh faeces collected from different sites within a pile of faeces.
The sample should be collected in the bags supplied, and labelled clearly with the horses' name.

Try to exclude as much air as possible from the sample.

Deliver the sample to the Barn Veterinary Practice as soon as possible during the normal working week, ideally the same day.

In the event of a delay, the sample should be chilled but not frozen.

To get your horse on the plan either call in to either surgery or phone us! It’s quick and simple.

Zone Visits

All our equine clients are eligible to register for our zone visit scheme. Once registered to a zone (North, South, East, West) you can book a visit on your zone day (always a Wednesday) and not pay a visit fee. Times cannot be requested on a zone day but clients are usually given a 30 minute time slot for when the vet will arrive.

Zone visits have proved hugely popular with our clients, with many newly registered horses joining the scheme. The main stipulations of receiving a zone visit are that we have a current email address on your account, and that there is no outstanding balance on your account before receiving another visit.

All routine work can be requested on a zone day apart from lameness work-ups and sedation, due to time constraints. For full terms and conditions, please see below.

Zone Days

1st Wednesday: South
2nd Wednesday: West
3rd Wednesday: North
4th Wednesday: East
5th Wednesday (when appropriate): no zone visits

Terms and Conditions

1. Only one free zone visit per client per month
2. Zone visits can be between 0900 and 1700
3. A specific time for the visit may be requested and every effort will be made to accommodate the request, although this will depend on the visit vet’s schedule and are in no way guaranteed
4. Zone visits are only available for large animal clients (i.e. Horses, Donkeys, Goats, Farm animals)
5. Only the visit charge is free, all other veterinary work will be charged as normal
6. An estimate of any work/treatment to be done will be given to you before the day and must be paid for in advance. If extra treatment is required, this must be paid for within 7 days of an invoice being sent.
7. All new clients will be required to pay upfront for all treatment
8. Once assigned to a zone, the designation is attached to a client’s record, this may be changed if an animal is moved, but may only be done so at the end of the month, ensuring only one zone visit is requested monthly. Any zone change requests must be done via email to info@barnvets.com
9. Any queries regarding zoning must be made in writing and will be responded to as soon as possible
10. Zones are restricted to the normal geographical area served by this practice.

Equine Insurance

Equine Insurance

Find out more about the importance of equine insurance and read our guides to selecting and claiming insurance for your horse.