Equine Services

Out of Hours Cover

It goes without saying, you don't want to need to use us out of hours, however you can rest assured that if you do need us, we will be there for you. All 5 of our vets take part in providing out of hour cover 24/7, 365 days a year meaning that if you do need a vet, it will be a familiar face in a time of crisis. Out of hours calls can vary greatly, from assisting the Fire Service with animal rescues, to assessing a painful corneal ulceration, wounds or colic. If you have concerns that you may need a vet out of hours, give us a call and we can discuss the problem with you.

Lameness Investigation

We are experienced in conducting lameness investigations and invest heavily in both purpose-built facilities and equipment to give us the best chance of diagnosing and treating your horse efficiently. We have state-of-the-art wireless digital radiography (x-ray), giving us high-quality, instant images. Our ultrasound machine has multiple probes, allowing us to image all parts of your horse in the highest resolution possible. Assessment of lameness is best carried out at our clinic, where we have a team of assistants to aid in trotting up and lunging on appropriate surfaces. The clinic also provides a clean and sheltered setting for sterile procedures, and diagnostic imaging.

Dentistry

From routine dentistry to tooth removal, and everything in between, we are equipped to carry out a wide array of procedures. We examine your horse's mouth thoroughly to ensure that any issues are caught early, giving us the best possible chance of resolution. Our rigid oroscope allows us to obtain excellent 'live' images, whilst head radiography can also be used to gain more detail about the roots and sinuses.

Routine dentistry aims to ensure your horse's mouth is pain-free and to reduce the chances of needing more advanced dental procedures, this is something we would recommend carrying out every 6 months and can be done at our clinic or at your horse’s home. We are all equipped with modern “power floats” used to carefully remove sharp and painful points of enamel during routine dentistry.

Reproduction and AI Services

A full range of stud services can be carried out either at our clinic in Fakenham or at your yard (dependant on the facilities). Routine work includes mare examinations, pregnancy scanning, fertility problems, foal care and treatment and all pre-breeding laboratory sampling.

Prior to covering, we would often recommend testing for infectious diseases including, but not limited to, CEM and EIA. Following covering, mares usually require two ultrasound scans to assess for pregnancy and twinning.

We would recommend that all new-born foals are examined after birth. This examination covers a health assessment including for any deformities as well as an examination of the mare and her afterbirth.

Worming Advice

Tailored worming advice is provided to our clients, often based upon individual Worm Egg Counts performed in-house and Equisal Tapeworm Saliva Tests. By performing regular worm egg counts, we are able to give the best advice for you and your horse to help prevent problems with worms and keep them healthy.

When submitting faeces, it should be in a clean bag, with as much air pushed out as possible or a pot (which are provided as part of the worming scheme). They should be as fresh as possible, and from various 'nuggets'. We require less than 10g!

Our worming scheme entitles you to 4 worm egg counts per year and a tape worm saliva test, as well as a 10% discount on any worming products needed, for £60 per year. Please call if this is something you would like to join.

Surgery and Castration

We are equipped to perform a variety of surgeries. Our purpose-built theatre is there for when a horse needs to be fully anaesthetised, but these days we do more and more under standing sedation. We have a set of stocks at the clinic for this, but we can also do some minor surgeries out on yards.

We can do castrations either at the clinic or at your yard, as long as there is somewhere suitable to do it. We perform all our castrations under general anaesthetic, with two vets present - one to do the procedure and one to monitor the anaesthetic. If carried out at our clinic, patients benefit from the comfort and increased safety of our “padded knock down box” (pictured) below for their anaesthetic, surgery and recovery from the anaesthetic.

Wensum Valley Vets are well equipped with both a therapeutic K-laser and extracorporeal shock wave machine, both treatments adapted from human medicine. Both can usually be carried out in a sedated, standing horse.

Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy (shockwave)

Shockwave treatment works by generating pressure waves to direct towards a damaged structure via a handheld probe, providing pain relief and promoting healing. Different energy levels, frequency and number of shocks are used depending on the location and type of injury - the 'shockwave' is mechanical and not an electrical pulse. Where appropriate, we can use this technique in non-healing wounds, tendon/ligament issues and sacro-iliac pain cases. We can use shockwave therapy both for both treatment or as part of a diagnostic protocol.

Therapeutic K-laser

Our multifrequency, therapeutic K-laser is used to provide non-invasive treatment for tendon and ligament injuries, as well as to aid in the healing of wounds and surgical sites. It provides pain relief and accelerated rate of healing for a range of problems.

Gastroscopy and Gastric Ulcers

Our three metre video gastroscope allows full visualisation of your horse's stomach. Most commonly this is used to diagnose gastric ulcers so that they can be treated accordingly.

Whilst it used to be thought that Gastric Ulcers were just a disease of racehorses, we now know this not to be true and we know that horses can present with an array of symptoms such as ridden issues, problem girthing and behavioural changes. Please call and ask to speak to one of our vets if you have any concerns.

Endoscopy

We have two endoscopes to allow us to visualise your horse's respiratory tract. We may choose to do this if your horse has a cough, nasal discharge or makes a noise when ridden.

Whilst there are several different areas of the respiratory tract we can look at with these endoscopes, they are most commonly used to assess, and take samples from, the windpipe or the guttural pouches. The picture on the left shows the inside of a guttural pouch. Using our endoscope we can assess important structures, such as nerves and blood vessels that reside in the pouch.

Oroscopy

Our rigid oroscope allows us to obtain excellent 'live' images of the teeth, examining the sides and chewing surfaces for problems

Musculoskeletal

Our ultrasound machine allows us to make a detailed assessment of soft tissue structures on the limbs. Below is an image of the tendons of the forelimb.

Breeding

Transrectal ultrasound is used to evaluate the uterus and ovaries of masses to predict and manipulate their reproductive cycle or diagnose pregnancy. Our new, high definition ultrasound machine can connect to your phone via bluetooth to allow you to watch along during scans and capture images to keep.

Lumps, bumps and sampling

Detailed assessment of lumps and bumps can allow us to identify them and decide on a plan of action. We use ultrasound to assist us in sampling lumps and fluid, allowing us to safely guide a sampling needle for procedures such as liver biopsy.