Farm & Equine

HERD HEALTH PLANNING

Herd health planning is available for beef, dairy and sheep production. The Vet will be able to advise you on worming, vaccination programs, breeding programs, lameness and other common disease problems related specifically to your farm set-up. Improving herd health can ultimately improve animal welfare, productivity and profit.

Regular visits can be arranged to carry out fertility work in 2 or 4 week intervals to suit an individual farms needs. Scanning and manual palpation techniques are used to diagnose pregnancy, to detect barren or non bulling cows and other medical problems pre and post calving. This will help to determine the most appropriate treatment and effective medications to use.

Your horse's teeth matter, as dental disease can have a significant impact on his health and well-being and can also reduce his performance. As with humans, dental pain can not only be debilitating but can have a knock on effect to other organs and can lead to systemic disease.

It is important to look out for signs of dental disease so we can intervene early. Your horse may become wary of having the bit in its mouth or head-shy when being tacked up.

The mucosa of the tongue and cheek becomes ulcerated and painful leading to difficulty chewing and swallowing food. If the horse is unable to gain its nutritional requirements, over time it will begin to lose weight and condition - there is also the added risk of choke.

Your horse may develop swelling around the affected jaw, have smelly breath and may even develop a nasal discharge.

We offer routine dental health examinations. A treatment plan can then be discussed to suit your horse's needs, such as wolf teeth removal, rasping with or without extractions.

The assessment of dental health is also incorporated into pre-purchase examinations as this may impact the horse’s long-term health.

We offer a special price for a combination of visit and dental rasping or a reduced price for dental work undertaken at the same time as other treatment.

PREPURCHASE EXAMINATIONS (PPE)

A full 5 stage examination is necessary to declare a horse 'sound' and insurers expect to see such a certificate if they are covering for veterinary fees or if the value of the horse is high. This examination assesses heart and lungs, gait and flexion tests, a period of strenuous exercise and a further examination following rest and a full foot exam. Just as a surveyor inspects a house before it is bought, we recommend that a horse be thoroughly examined before purchase.

Some purchasers only require the shorter 2 stage examination which is thorough but limited in scope, and it is not possible to assess adequately the heart, respiratory system and limbs. We will however perform whichever examination the purchaser requests. Please contact the surgery for more details or to book a PPE.