Woodgrange Specialist Equine Hospital -The Horse Vet

03/11/2024

Foaling down (and calving) has been busy with some gorgeous babies gracing our stables. All happy mums and babies (and an orphan calf).

16/10/2024

This patient presented to our hospital with a severe nose bleed as a result of a Guttural Pouch Mycosis. This equine required emergency surgery to save its life however needed to be stabilised with a blood transfusion due to the blood loss. Thankfully our permanent equine residents are on hand for such emergencies and a successful blood transfusion was performed to be able to then take the horse to surgery. This patient has gone on to make a full recovery and has since given birth to a beautiful foal, so two lives were saved!

26/09/2024

And embryo season is up and running! First flush first embryo for 2024/2025 repro season for Dr Ceri and Dr Izzie and what a perfect embryo it is! 🤍

23/09/2024

Colic surgery: Epiploic foramen entrapment is the displacement of a section of the small intestine through a small hole or foramen that then separates the omental bursa from the peritoneal cavity. This is fixed by pulling the small intestine back through the hole it entered. This is much more difficult then it sounds considering the size of the horses stomach cavity (often the surgeon - Dr John Russell - who is not short by any means can be up to his shoulders and still cannot reach the bottom) and the gut is up to 30 metres long and has a volume of up to 180 litres so it is almost like finding a hole in a very active live haystack. This patient is doing very well post surgery thanks to our entire team looking after him pre, intra and post operation. 🤍

17/09/2024

Woodgrange Veterinary - providing routine and emergency vet care for all animals including out of hours.

16/09/2024

Head over and like our new small animal veterinary page to keep up to date with everything that’s happening in our new smallies department.

Woodgrange Veterinary - providing routine and emergency vet care for all animals including out of hours.

11/09/2024

Woodgrange’s next monthly Gastroscope Day
4th October 2024
Bookings Essential 0458655461

31/08/2024

One happy race horse speller has checked in for a short spell and some paddock R and R.

29/08/2024

September 6th = Gastroscope Day (bookings essential)

*GASTROSCOPE DAY*
Due to ongoing requests we have decided to implement a gastroscope day on the first Friday of every month.
September 6th 2024 is the next scheduled day on the calendar. Contact our office to book on 0458 655 461.

19/08/2024

Dr Dora has been busy with the farm animals lately from cows, goats, donkeys, pigs (all in a day) and in this scenario sheep! It was a very sad outcome for mother Ewe who passed away following post birth complications but fortunately after a rough beginning her two lambs are both doing amazing! Bluey and Bingo as they are now named are going from strength to strength at two and a half weeks old.

**Updated video in comments

Equine vet turned small animal vet turned farm animal vet, there’s nothing Dr Dora can’t do taking our practice to a full fledge mixed veterinary practice!

14/08/2024

What a relief this beautiful patient Evie is home safe and sound…. Evie had emergency surgery for left guttural pouch epistaxis.
Hyovertbrotomy approach was performed and a double ligation of the left external carotid artery was done followed by an oral approach to tie off left major palatine artery.
It is 8 days post surgery so still very early days but so far so good! Everything crossed to see her foal safely delivered within the next few weeks!
We are so lucky to have blood donors on site to stabilise these patients when the time comes, Relmsparc Foxtrot was the generous donor this time - hopefully he passed on his winning ways to this special patient! 🤍

My patient is home from hospital - we are now 12 days in since I found her.
It pays to know your horses inside and out, however the day I found her unwell there was no reason for me to go and check on her, just that something had pushed me in that direction that morning.
When she greeted me like all the broodmares do her front legs were covered in blood and I originally thought she had been stuck in a fence, yet there was no wounds to be found and it would be out of character for these mares to do stupid things its just not in their nature. It became very apparent that this mare had had a nose bleed and I stress not just one but several pools of blood were found in the paddock. With a high temp and heart rate she was loaded on the float and taken to the best place I know. At first we thought she had a guttural pouch mycosis (very rare but it does occur) The only thing stopping her from bleeding out was a clot that had formed. Her heart rate was too high to go on the table at this stage and she ended up having blood transfusions on the Saturday night. She still was not stable enough to go to surgery on the Sunday so it became a waiting game, there were a few more small bleeds along the way. I was definitely expecting the worst. We got through to Monday night and the dreaded midnight phone call took place. She was definitely going to have to go to surgery it was just a matter of when. I did get the option to call all the staff in and operate in the middle of the night, I opted against that as in my mind another 6 hours was not going to make a big difference I would rather the team fresh and focussed. At 10am she forced our hand and was rushed into surgery as she had another major bleed - this one was not going to stop on its own accord. Still not exactly knowing where the bleed was coming from it was a race to try and cut off the blood supply and save her life. There is still no official diagnosis as there was no time to scope and see where the extra lesions were.
My Woodgrange Family, what can I say I’ll be forever grateful for what you have done to keep my pony alive. I can’t imagine how stressful it was each day knowing im there watching the going on’s.The perks of working in the best workplace. The pressure that must of been felt when she was rushed to surgery the way she was I can’t even begin to think about, but every single vet and nurse was on board and doing everything they could to save her life.
To the best surgeon in the country (John Russell) I don’t really know how to thank you but im lucky enough to get to watch the care you take and the dedication you have towards peoples animals each and every day. My appreciation is next to none for the your amazing care and the facilities we have on our doorstep.

Our journey may not be over but I can safely say that I have done my best with this one. My only hope now is we keeping tracking in the right direction and that her unborn foal is born with less dramas than what we have just undertaken. This foal has been showing the staff its karate kick moves so all is well on that front.
I did get a weird comment from someone saying this horse was only a broodmare why did I not just put her to sleep. I want to make sure everyone knows that if your chosen to live with me you become part of my family, your not just a horse. Would I do this over again absolutely I would.

To my Beautiful Evie its hopefully onwards and upwards from here, all be it my anxiety levels are through the roof knowing that your at home and if things go south my options are now limited.
Woodgrange Specialist Equine Hospital -The Horse Vet

13/08/2024

How many puppies can you count on this gorgeous smiling fur mum?

13/08/2024

*GASTROSCOPE DAY*
Due to ongoing requests we have decided to implement a gastroscope day on the first Friday of every month.
September 6th 2024 is the next scheduled day on the calendar. Contact our office to book on 0458 655 461.

09/08/2024

This GoFundMe has been set up by Sarah Moody (Moody Racing) with all proceeds going to Giovanni Spiga. … Sarah Moody needs your support for Giovanni Spiga

07/08/2024

Our first foals of the season have arrived safe and sound 🤍 congratulations to Michelle they’re just stunning! Our foaling checklist is a handy tool created by Dr Ceri Garner to ensure you are fully prepared and always remember the foaling 1, 2 and 3! If you are a non client but would like to register for OOH emergency services and have a mare due to foal contact our office on 0458 655 461.

Our foaling down services are also filling fast, so if you would like to book your mare in we would be delighted to help! It’s our favourite time of year and our favourite service to provide in the Repro Department (foal cuddles 🥰)!

02/08/2024

Dental Month is here for our small animal department! Preventative health care is always our preference and August is the perfect opportunity to take advantage of some great specials. Contact our office on 0458655461

02/08/2024

Welcoming Dr Izzie Bamford to our team of vets here at Woodgrange! Some of you may have already met Dr Izzie as the moment she arrived a couple of weeks ago she dived straight into work servicing all of our on road clients and racing stables. Dr Izzie has just completed an 18 month hospital internship at North Yorkshire in the UK and has decided to continue on over here for the repro/competition/racing season, and will be bringing her experience to our reproduction department helping Dr Ceri as well as servicing our hospital and ambulatory clients alongside Dr John, Dora and Charlie.

Dr Izzie competes up to 2* eventing and has joined a hockey club since arriving in Australia! If you see Izzie out and about please make her feel welcome to our wonderful country! Perhaps she might decide to stay longer than “the season” like Dr Ceri did!

31/07/2024

Dental Month is here for our small animal department! Preventative health care is always our preference and August is the perfect opportunity to take advantage of some great specials. Contact our office on 0458655461

Specialist Veterinary Care

29/07/2024

Lameness Month is here!
Lameness specialist Dr John Russell has performed thousands of lameness examinations including Melbourne Cup winners and Grand National winners. Dr Johns experience and expertise help him to pick up even the most subtle ailments and we can offer some of the latest treatment modalities.
August is a great time to make sure all is well with our equine athletes as they ease back into peak performance, just in time to hit all the major events! We are offering discounted prices for the whole month of August. Contact our office on 0458655461 to book in.

Specialist Veterinary Care

24/07/2024

Correct wound management is so important to give your horse the best chance of recovery. What can seem like a straight forward injury in fact can be so much more sinister. This beautiful horse had a nasty altercation escaping their paddock, it was presented to Specialist surgeon Dr John Russell walking with a slight toe drag, on further investigation it was found that the extensor tendon had been cut. This horse went to surgery and had the tendon flushed arthroscopicly and the wound sutured,bandaged and placed on appropriate antibiotics. Unfortunately like many wounds, they do breakdown and in this case required ongoing flushes and drains placed to get the infection under control. It was a very long process that Dr Ceri went on to manage closely and eventually the wound began to heal and this horse returned to soundness. It certainly felt like it took forever as wounds can do, but miraculously Mother Nature takes over and it’s amazing the end result!

01/07/2024

Congratulations on some fantastic games the Under 21 Intermediate Women’s Polocrosse team and our own Jess Angell on a super week away representing Victoria.

01/07/2024

Woodgrange is participating in National Desexing Month for the entire of July. We have joined the National Desexing Networks campaign to provide discount desexing with a further 10% discount provided to Concession and Pension card holders. Contact our office on 0458655461 for pricing and bookings.

30/06/2024

Thank you so much to Jade at Equine ID Solutions all 27 paddocks are now labelled with their custom gate ID plates. They look fantastic and wonderful service too 🏷️ 🤍

28/06/2024

Woodgrange has been fortunate to have had a visit from the founders of VetChip Dr Maxwell and Dr Garnett Hall
VetChip is a smart animal health monitor, much the same as a microchip that is able to provide real time data straight to your smart phone measuring your animals heart rate, temperature, breathing and oxygen levels. Its continuous health reporting enables vets and pet owners to be alerted of any changes in their condition including fever, lethargy, stress or illness.

We are particularly excited about this technology for instant assessment of seriously ill patients or those with ongoing health issues such as heart conditions, monitoring the health of our recipient mare herd who are now decked out with VetChips, and eventually in built foaling alarms coming soon!

VetChip