Routine and emergency consultations
Mobile Veterinary Services
Our Mobile Veterinary Services cover a large area including Serpentine, North Dandalup, Pinjarra, Mandurah, Stake Hill, Dwellingup, Waroona, Yarloop, Hamel and Harvey.
We now also provide set fee travel days for routine services to the area between Harvey and Bunbury including Benger, Burekup and Dardanup.
Routine Visits can be arranged by appointment. Our team of vets are equipped with the latest equipment and up to date knowledge to provide your horses with comprehensive veterinary care.
All our veterinarians are experienced equine practitioners and can provide a wide range of routine services at your property. This includes vaccinations, drenching and worm management, dentals, pre purchase examinations, routine health checks, lameness evaluations, diagnostic ultrasound and radiography as wells as routine and minor surgical procedures. Travel to your property is charged by zones based on distance from our Hospital in Coolup and is kept to a minimum. Where possible we try to accommodate a request for your preferred veterinarian but in an emergency this is not always possible.
Hospital Care
Our Hospital facilities allow us to treat horses in a safe and purpose built facility. We have dedicated reproduction facilities and laboratory for mare and stallion work. The large treatment area, imaging room, trot up strip and arena gives us plenty of space to workup even the most complicated lameness.
The hospital is fully equipped with all the equipment required to perform diagnostics and anaesthesia on your horse. Digital radiography, ultrasound, endoscopy, gastroscopy, blood analysing equipment, fully equipped laboratory, gas anaesthetic.
We are passionate about your horses safety and care so have specifically designed crushes, nonslip flooring, intensive care boxes, stable facilities, sand yards, irrigated paddocks, stallion yards and mare and foal facilities to allow us to treat and house your horse in the safest and most appropriate way.
Emergency Care
We provide a 24 hour per day 365 day per year Emergency service. In the event of an emergency the “duty veterinarian” will be able to discuss any worries and can provide prompt veterinary attention to your home. If your horse has a more serious condition it can be quickly admitted to the hospital for more intensive care or surgery. If you live beyond our travel zone we are able to assist you afterhours in an emergency by seeing your horse at the hospital.
Neonatology
At Murray Veterinary services our veterinarians and nurses are able to provide care for foals with a wide variety of problems. Our team members are all highly skilled and this allows us to care for compromised foals that require an intense level of professional intervention. We have designed our hospital facilities to allow us to manage and care for foals with a wide variety of problems including neonatal maladjustment syndrome (“Dummy foals”), prematurity, septicaemia, diarrhoea, limb deformities, septic arthritis, umbilical abscess, hernias and a multitude of other problems that foals will encounter in the first few months of life.
Early intervention results in better outcome for foals so at Murray Veterinary Services we are able to provide on farm post foaling examinations for your foals and mares. The foal will be assessed for overall health and condition as well as taking a blood sample to measure IgG levels and ensure that passive transfer of immunity has occurred adequately from mare to foal.
Farrier Care
We have two Master farriers who routinely visit the hospital and consult on cases, which allows us to provide care for complicated podiatry cases.
Diagnostic
We have a large range of modern and advanced diagnostic facilities allowing us to investigate poor performance and complex lameness.
- Radiography
Radiography is the main imaging modality for the assessment of bone and bone structure. Murray Veterinary Services uses the very latest in wireless digital computer radiography systems which produces radiographic images of excellent qualityThe pictures are viewed on a computer tablet screen and areas of particular interest can be focussed on to achieve more detail. This system allows us to easily send digital copies of your xrays. The system we have is fully portable allowing us to obtain high quality xray images at your property.
- Ultrasonography
Ultrasonography is an imaging modality used to assess soft tissue structures such as tendons, ligaments, internal organs, eyes and masses. Damage to tendons and ligaments can be seen on ultrasound as changes to the fibre pattern and cross sectional area of the structure.Ultrasound is used rectally in mares to assess the uterus and ovaries as well as checking for pregnancy during their breeding cycle. Murray Veterinary Services has a hospital based ultrasound as well as 3 mobile ultrasounds, allowing us to perform thorough ultrasound exams in the hospital and field.
- Endoscopy
Endoscopy is the process by which a long fiberoptic camera is used to visualise the equine respiratory tract. Using this camera we can visualise the pharynx, larynx, guttural pouches and trachea in great detail and take biopsy samples for laboratory testing if required.We have two video endoscopes which display the image on a screen that allows the client and veterinarian to observe and discuss the findings together during the consultation. Both of our video endoscopes are fully portable and available for use both in the hospital and in the field.Endoscopy is an essential part of evaluating horses with upper airway disease, abnormal respiratory noise and lung disease. The equine urinary tract and uterus can also be visualised with the use of an endoscope. By inserting the camera into the horse’s urethra or uterus we can visualise the insides of these organs and take biopsies if required for diagnostic testing.
- Gastroscopy
Gastroscopy is the use of a special three meter long video endoscope which allows us to visualise and assess the equine stomach.Equine gastric ulcer syndrome (EGUS) can present with a number of different symptoms, low grade colic, weight loss, changes in attitude and behaviour, sub optimal performance, dull coat and many other vague signs of ill health. Gastroscopy allows rapid and accurate evaluation of the horse’s stomach lining and therefore an instant diagnosis as to whether the horse is suffering from ulcers.If gastric ulcers are found in the stomach our veterinarians can then tailor a treatment program specific to your horse’s needs and track progress through rescoping of the stomach.Horses admitted to the hospital for gastroscopy need to be fasted for 12 hours prior to admission. This gives time for the stomach to empty completely so that the entire stomach lining can be visualised during the scoping procedure. On booking your appointment one of our team members will run through the steps with you in preparing your horse for its gastroscopy appointment.
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Laboratory
At MVs we provide a comprehensive range of in house laboratory testing procedures. This allows us to provide our clients and patients with fast and accurate laboratory results.Our testing services include:
- Full biochemistry analysis
- Complete blood counts
- Fibrinogen analysis
- Joint fluid cell counts and analysis
- Urine analysis
- Cytology
- Immunoglobulin G level testing
- Irap and PRP therapy preparation
- Endometrial/Uterine swab culture and sensitivity
- Semen analysis and NucleoCounter for sperm concentration and viability testing
- Faecal egg counts
- Faecal Worm Egg counts
At Murray Veterinary Services we can undertake faecal worm egg counts on horses to determine if they are low medium or high worm egg shedders.The advantage of performing a faecal worm egg count on your horse is that it allows us to advise you on how and when it is best to worm your horse based on its unique situation and faecal worm egg count. This results in the decrease in unnecessary use of inappropriate wormers saving you both time and money and reducing the risk of worm resistance occurring on your property.We recommend a faecal worm egg count be done at least twice a year in Spring and early Autumn.
Faecal egg counts are best done within a 48 hour window of collection of the manure sample as once the eggs hatch we are unable to count them. Keeping samples cool (refrigerated) will also prevent worm eggs from hatching.
Horse faecal samples can either be dropped into the clinic for testing or you can sign up for our strategic worm package. - Strategic worm package
We realise life is busy so to take the hassle out of managing your horses worming program we have put together a strategic worm package to do it all for you. Twice a year we will send you a faeces collection kit. This contains everything you need for collecting a faecal sample. (Sample bag, latex glove, submission form and instructions, ice brick for keeping samples cool and a pre-paid post return package) Keep the sample refrigerated until it can be lodged at a post office and preferably post the same day. Once the sample is received it will be analysed and you will be emailed a report with advice on how to best worm your horse based on its faecal egg count and unique environment situation. We will then send you a reminder once the next faecal worm egg count is due.
Please read our blog on strategic worming for more information as to how this can benefit your horse.
For all other laboratory testing that cannot be performed at MVS we have same day service to a veterinary pathology centre in Perth.
Reproduction Services
Murray Veterinary services provide a comprehensive Equine breeding service. We perform both routine and advanced reproductive services for both pleasure mares and stud farms.
Services provided for mares include:
- Routine and stud breeding management
- Artificial insemination
- Embryo transfer
- Pregnancy diagnosis
- Twin reduction
- Diagnostic workups of infertile mares
- Pregnant mare care
- Obstetrics
- Foaling management
Services provided for Stallions include:
- Fertility evaluation
- Investigation of infertility
- Stallion breeding management
- Semen collection and evaluation
- Preparation and shipment of chilled semen
- Freezing of semen
- Frozen semen storage
At Murray vets we offer service packages to simplify breeding your mare when inseminating with chilled or frozen semen. These packages are available when the service is provided at our hospital facility and includes all routine reproductive procedures from first follicle scan to the 45 day pregnancy test. Alternatively we provide a pay as you go service for mares seen off site.
Our onsite farm at MVS allows us to run a large heard of recipient mares for our Embryo transfer programme. We can provide embro transfer procedures to both donor mares bred on site or transported embryos. We offer an embro transfer package that allows for up to three embryo flushes and transfers per mare per season.
A wide range of stallion services are provided at Murray Vets. We perform both stallion training and collection. Semen can be collected for evaluation, fresh insemination, chilling or freezing. We use a NucleoCounter as part of our routine semen analysis and this allows us to precisely determine sperm concentration and viability in semen. We have safe and specifically designed stallion facilities to house stallions on site or alternatively we can provide your stallion with a walk in collection service.
Pre purchase examinations
Pre purchase examinations are designed to protect you when you are contemplating buying a new horse whether it is a child’s pony or a valuable performance horse.
We recommend a 5 stage pre purchase examination and as members of the Australian Equine Veterinary Association we follow the EVA guidelines when undertaking the examination.
This includes the following stages:
- General clinical examination including eyes, hearts, lungs, mouth feet and conformation.
- Examination of gait, walking and trotting in hand on a hard surface in a straight line. Hoof testers will be applied, the horse examined turning and backing and flexion tests done.
- Observation under saddle or on the lunge. The horse may be ridden or lunged at the trot or canter for at least 15 to 20 minutes.
- The cool down phase
- Final trot up and gait examination walking and trotting in hand on the hard surface in a straight line lunging on a hard surface and repetition of flexion tests.
Extra tests can be performed as part of the examination if requested by the purchaser to give a more detailed clinical impression of the horse. This may include digital x-ray, upper airway endoscopy, ultrasound or drug testing.
We encourage the purchaser to discuss their requirements with our veterinarians prior to undertaking the pre purchase examination. This allows the Veterinarian to have a good understanding of your intentions for the Horses use.
It is also important to remember that when our veterinarians is undertaking a pre purchase examination we are acting on behalf of the purchaser and therefore can only discuss any findings of the examination with them or a person they authorise.
To perform a pre purchase examination our veterinarians require the following facilities;
- Flat smooth hard area for trot ups
- Safe area to exercise or lunge the horse
- A stable or similar area where lights can be dimmed
If these facilities are not available at the property then the PPE can be undertaken at our hospital.
Dentistry
Dental Care is the key to good health in a horse and at Murray Veterinary Services our vets are able to provide both routine and advanced dental treatments.
We use both hand and power tools allowing us to treat al of your horse’s teeth appropriately. All horses are sedated during the procedure and their heads supported with the aid of a dental stand to minimise stress for the horse and allow correct visualisation and treatment of the horse’s back teeth which cannot be done properly without sedation.
Our vets are also able to perform more advanced dental procedures such as oral radiography, dental extractions, periodontal therapy, oral endoscopy, restorative dentistry and fracture repair. Most of the advanced procedures are done at the hospital in one of our purpose built crushers to ensure the safety of your horse.
Surgery
Murray Veterinary Services has a purpose built equine surgical theater with two recovery boxes. This theater allows the our Veterinarians to perform a range of soft tissue, orthopedic and dental surgical procedures under Gas and IV anesthetic. We use updated techniques and provide thorough post-surgical observation and care at the clinic. Video monitoring is available in all of our recovery boxes to minimize anesthetic recovery risk for the horses.
