Vaccination and deworming of foals: Owners’ perspective

Foals are susceptible to many infectious diseases and they should be treated and protected differently compared to adult horses. Objectives of this study were to investigate vaccination and deworming practices of foal owners in Finland. The questionnaire study was executed. Foal owners (n = 236) gave a response and 217 of them told that they vaccinate their foals against equine influenza and tetanus (combination vaccine) (88 %) and herpes (12 %), but not against rabies (1,8 %). About 8 % did not vaccinated their foal at all and a risk of being non-vaccinated was regionally distributed (p<0,05). Among foal owners deworming (99,2 %) preferred over vaccination (92 %). Foals were dewormed by taking regular fecal samples first (76%), but also routine treatments without samples were favored (22 %). Differences between foals of this study and horse population in general (horses of all ages) need to take seriously when conclusions are drawn. Different recommendations come from different veterinarians should be taken under further research.