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Equine

Our experienced team of dedicated equine vets are passionate about ensuring your horse is happy and healthy. They share a special interest and extensive knowledge in a range of equine fields such as emergency care, reproduction, dentistry, and lameness. 

Our equine vets have completed additional studies to ensure they can provide you and your horses with the best care. This is complemented by our modern diagnostic equipment and technology ensuring the best results when treating your horses.  

Our dedicated equine team has all your horses health needs covered. Like you our equine vets are dedicated horse people and share a special interest and knowledge in a variety of equestrian disciplines, they are always on hand to support you with education, resources, and products to ensure the best care for your horses.

We offer both mobile veterinary services and in-clinic consultations out of our Awapuni clinic. We also stock a wide range of carefully selected products to complement our services.

Services

During a general health exam our equine vets will assess your horse from head to toe: your horse’s mouth, heart, lungs, spine, lameness, Body Condition Score, faeces, etc. A general health check will help your vet determine any underlining illnesses or issues that without help could become bigger problems later in your horse’s life.

We understand that not all vet call-outs are planned. Our experienced team is well equipped to deal with emergencies and offers 24/7 emergency care.

For the Manawatu region, we share our equine after-hours services with Equivets (Southern Rangitikei Vets).

• Faecal egg counting
• Blood testing
• Insulin resistance testing
• Pathology
• Radiography
• Endoscopy
• Broncho alveolar lavage and trans-tracheal wash
• Electrocardiography

Our vets are always ready to attend to your horse’s wounds whether they are an acute situation or an older wound. They can assess the wound and provide first aid, sutures, bandaging, drains, and pain management to ensure the best results.

Horse’s teeth erupt continuously throughout their life. Regular dental checks are important to examine how the teeth are wearing and to prevent any discomfort and abnormalities.

We can perform a thorough investigation to accurately diagnose lameness in your horse and provide treatment to ensure the best possible recovery.

Simple surgical procedures can be performed at your home, these include routine castrations (geldings), lump removals, and soft tissue injuries.

If you’re considering breeding, we can offer pregnancy testing, Artificial Insemination (AI) fresh or chilled, caslick, treatment of uterine infections, examination of poor fertility, foal examination, antibody / immune testing of the foal, etc. If you would like to know more about our breeding mare services, please contact us.

We can provide your horses with a regular vaccination program to ensure they are protected against viruses. The most regular vaccinations for horses are for Tetanus and Strangles. There are also other vaccines available such as EHV, and salmonella, these are especially worth considering if you are breeding.

Are you looking to brand, ID and/or microchip your foal? Totally Vets can either use your personal brand or our own.

Looking to purchase a horse? Consider getting a pre-purchase examination done. We will examine your horse head to tail and provide you with a report of our professional findings. Pre-purchase examinations can be done in either 2 or 5 stages depending on which findings you are after.

Available additional tests include radiography, endoscopy, electrocardiography, blood tests for prohibited substances, and reproductive examination.

We understand that not all vet call-outs are planned. Our experienced team is well equipped to deal with your equine emergencies and offer 24/7 emergency care.

For the Manawatu region, we share our equine after-hours services with Equivets (Southern Rangitikei Vets).

Find below some helpful tips for dealing with some common emergencies. 

If your horse is showing signs of colic, this is an emergency situation. Please call your vet asap.

Possible signs:

  • Dull/not interacting with surroundings/slow
  • reduced appetite
  • Flehmen (upper lip pulled up)
  • Excessive yawning
  • Flank watching
  • Standing in an abnormal position
  • Pawing
  • Sweating
  • Kicking towards the abdomen
  • Lying down and getting up again repeatedly
  • Rolling
  • Laying in an abnormal position
  • Distended abdomen

 

Do’s and don’ts:

  • Don’t stand beside the horse for safety reasons, stand in front of the horse.
  • Do check your horse’s heartrate (28-40/minute) and gums (should be salmon pink), then call your vet immediately.
  • Do prepare some buckets of water for the vet and check your horse’s heartrate and gums every 15-30 minutes.
  • Don’t let your horse eat.
  • Do check if there have been any fresh faeces and keep count of new droppings.
  • Do pay attention to whether your horse is passing gas (flatulence).
  • Do walk your horse in a safe space, but don’t force or exhaust your horse, just 10 minutes at a time to keep him/her from going down and rolling. If it’s not possible to lead your horse safely, then let your horse roam free in a safe space (mind fences!).
  • In case of an oesophagus obstruction: do apply light massage of the affected area if possible.

If your horse is showing signs of laminitis, this is an emergency situation. Please call your vet asap.

Possible signs:

  • Unwilling to walk
  • Rocked back stance
  • Sweating
  • Flehmen (upper lip pulled up)
  • Excessive yawning
  • Increased digital pulses
  • Feet warmer than usual
  • Doesn’t want to pick up either (front) foot
  • Increased heart rate (normal 28-40/minute)

Do’s and don’ts:

  • Don’t move your horse!
  • If your horse is laying down, don’t make it stand up.
  • Don’t let your horse eat (no grass either) but bring it water.

If your horse is tying up, call your vet.

Possible signs:

  • Sweating
  • Abnormal posture
  • Flehmen (upper lip pulled up)
  • Stiff gait or posture
  • Tremors
  • Abnormal walk
  • Not wanting to move
  • Sudden extreme bouts of restlessness / nervousness
  • Pawing
  • Lying down
  • Poor performance
  • Urinating orange or red urine

Please note that there are different degrees of tying up, so it can show differently. It might happen during exercise (suddenly your horse doesn’t want to go as much or at all anymore), it can happen just after exercise or it can happen insidiously. If you are not sure whether your horse is tying up, please contact us so we can help you out.

Do’s and don’ts:

  • DON’T MOVE YOUR HORSE!
  • Do keep your horse warm enough (rug if necessary, protect from cold draft or wind).
  • Don’t feed your horse but bring it water.

The eye is a very sensitive structure. The cornea is very thin and can deteriorate quite quickly if not treated properly and promptly if damaged. If your horse is experiencing a bout of uveitis, this can have lasting effects on eyesight. If your horse has any issues with its eye(s), please call us immediately.

Possible signs:

  • Swollen eyelids
  • Excessive tear flow
  • Closed eye
  • Colouration of the cornea

Keep in mind that if issues evolve in both eyes, it can be harder to notice subtle changes because there’s no comparison to a normal eye.

Our vets are always ready to attend to your horse’s wounds, whether this be an acute situation, or an older wound. They can assess the wound and provide first aid, sutures, bandaging, drains, and pain management to ensure the best results.

Unfortunately, we can’t prevent every health problem, but there are a lot of things we can do to keep our horses healthy and safe. Have a look at our management and prevention tips and tricks.

It can be difficult to know what your horse’s dietary needs are. Sometimes it seems simple enough if a horse has access to a lush paddock, but even then, deficiencies can very well develop with consequential health issues.

Read the linked articles below for more information 

Everyone wants to stay on top of their horse’s health. Vaccinations, worming, dentistry and hoof care are all part of the necessary preventative healthcare of your horse.

Good paddock management is important in keeping your horses healthy. Would you like to learn more about grass’ nutritional content, how to maintain good quality pastures designed for horses and how to keep parasite levels low? Read the linked article below.

The basics of grass and pasture management

Find below linked articles about managing your pregnant mare and some foaling tips to ensure your well prepared.

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Equine
Feilding

25 Manchester St
Feilding 4702

feilding@tvg.co.nz
06 323 6161

Feilding
Awapuni

189 Pioneer Highway, Palmerston North 4412

awapuni@tvg.co.nz
06 356 5011

Awapuni
Taumarunui

168 Hakiaha Street,
Taumarunui 3920

taumarunui@tvg.co.nz
07 895 8899

Taumarunui
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