Scone Equine Hospital

12/11/2024

Meet Keith Mitchell, our dedicated Scientific Officer in the laboratory at Scone Equine Hospital! 🔬

Keith plays a vital role in ensuring our lab operates at the highest standards, processing samples and delivering accurate, timely results that support our veterinary team's work. 👨‍⚕️👩‍⚕️

Here, Keith is preparing a blood smear for a manual cell differential to count and classify white blood cells. 🩸

10/11/2024

08/11/2024

PART 2 - Fixing fractured ribs in foals – team work makes the dream work. ✨

Following on from our post last night showing the ultrasound of a foal's ribs, here's the case continued. ⬇️

Given their location, surgery was elected to stabilise those right over the heart. Without stabilisation they could have moved further and pierced the heart and been fatal. Once the foal was stable and able to stand and nurse with help from the ICU team, the anaesthesia and surgery team took over to very carefully repair the ribs. 👩‍⚕️

This was performed by specialist surgeon Dr Amy Williamson and intern Dr Angela Fleming. It was not an easy surgery, requiring quite the finesse to place suture through both ends of the fractured ribs to stabilise them. All whilst working in the chest cavity, right over the beating heart. The surgery was a success and the foal was transferred back to ICU for ongoing care. 🩺

The c**t didn’t look back after the surgery and was discharged a week later playing and bucking in the box and of course nursing happily from the mare. 🐎

A fantatsic team effort for a successful outcome! 🙌

08/11/2024

PART 1 - Fixing fractured ribs in foals – team work makes the dream work. ✨

Earlier in the season the ICU team admitted a sick foal with neonatal syndrome (‘dummy foal’) that also had (multiple?) fractured ribs that were sustained at birth. This is not uncommon, especially in difficult foalings. 💉

On ultrasound examination, they were right over the heart and were displaced (see ultrasound video with arrow pointing to the fractured end of the rib). ↖️

Stay tuned for PART 2 of this story to be posted tomorrow morning. ⏰

07/11/2024

Here’s a sneak peek behind the scenes of ICU as our dedicated team Dr Angela Fleming & Nurse Emer Esler cares for this little fighter. 🐎

Moments like these remind us why we do what we do – the bond between our vets, nurses, and these animals is truly special. ❣️

06/11/2024

Our Anaesthesia Assistant, Kayla Lee-Warner, performing a thorough pre-surgical examination to ensure this foal's vitals are accurate before a transphyseal bridge procedure to correct angular limb deformities. 🩺

05/11/2024

Just in time for the Melbourne Cup! Dr Elise Moritz has shown off her creative side with this incredible, race-themed pumpkin carving. 🎃🏇

04/11/2024

Who will be crowned the 2024 Lexus Melbourne Cup Winner? 🏆🏇

04/11/2024

Alongside the busy thoroughbred breeding season, our veterinarian Dr Elise Moritz has also been working on sporthorse and performance horse mares for artificial inseminations like this one. Unlike thoroughbred breeding, artificial insemination with chilled or frozen semen allows for mares to be bred to stallions without the need to travel for live cover. 🐎

This prized mare received a concentrated dose of frozen semen from a stallion based in Western Australia. Due to the nature of the way frozen semen is preserved to travel, the breeding process has to be more intensive to achieve good results, requiring specialist expertise and precision timing of the insemination to maximise conception rates. 🧭

Big congratulations to the owner of this mare who scanned in foal this morning! 👏🏼

03/11/2024

POSITIONS AVAILABLE | Stable Hands | SCONE

✨ Be part of Australia’s largest Equine Hospital
✨ A productive and motivated team
✨ Flexible roster with opportunity for weekend work
✨ State-of-the-art, modern facility

Scone Equine Hospital has a large team of specialist veterinarians, interns, nurses, and barn crew working together to provide 24-hour care for critically ill neonates, adults, and operative and post-operative patients. Approximately 2000 patients are seen annually, including a high caseload of neonatal and adult medicine and surgical cases.

The Role 🐎
Applicants must be able to perform the physical requirements of the role (lifting, carrying, pushing, pulling) and be able to work in a fast-paced work environment. Previous horse experience is preferred and the ability to confidently work around young horses is desirable.

Skills and Experience
⏹️ Experience in horse husbandry (mucking out, feeding, watering)
⏹️ Cleaning areas within the clinic with varying cleaning methods (Power wash, disinfecting, hosing)
⏹️ Driver’s license essential
⏹️ Work effectively in a small team
⏹️ Follow policies and procedures

Benefits
☑️ Starting immediately with the possibility of ongoing work
☑️ Full training and education for the roles are provided
☑️ Flexible seasonal roster with paid penalty rates e.g., shift allowances and overtime
☑️ Supported accommodation is available with rent paid fortnightly from your wages

For more information and how to apply for the position, please visit ⬇️
https://www.sconeequinehospital.com.au/blog/job-openings/stable-hands/

01/11/2024

🪞Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the cutest of them all?

This little ICU foal might take the crown! Catching its reflection in the morning light through the hospital barn door. 🌞

01/11/2024

🐴

The smile says it all from Nurse Saoirse Trench, providing this ICU foal with the care it needs to thrive.

We're grateful for all our nurses who work tirelessly to provide exceptional care for all our patients daily. 😇

31/10/2024

Scone Equine Hospital was thrilled to support our local community by sponsoring prizes for the Gundy & Bunnan Campdrafts this month. 🎉

Congratulations to the Gundy Juvenile winner Kirra Green & Bunnan Ladies winner April Docherty. 🏆🐎

30/10/2024

TRIPLE Surgeries 3️⃣

Our dedicated surgical team was in full swing today with three simultaneous surgeries!

Surgeons Dr Amy Williamson, Dr Jannah Pye & Dr David Railton, Anaesthetists, Interns, and Nurses collaboratively performed a prosthetic laryngoplasty (tie-back) and two transphyseal bridge surgeries.

A massive team effort! 🙌

29/10/2024

The team have been busy utilising the new Qalibra CT (computed tomography) machine since installation last month.

CT is like a 3 dimensional Xray that shows exceptional image quality, delivering high end diagnostics. Patients can be examined under either general anaesthesia or under light sedation. While the horse is standing, examinations of the head/neck and distal limbs to the radial and tibial bones can be acquired and while the horse is anaethetised, images of the pelvis, back and stifles can be taken.

Cutting edge technology to enable precise diagnoses and targeted treatment plans.

25/10/2024

🐎

In the early hours of the morning, a mare was referred to the hospital for help giving birth. The foal’s head was poking out, but the mare had not been able to progress any further with her delivery. This is a difficult time as the foal was at high risk of not being born alive.

To help the filly, our neonatal specialist, Dr Niamh Collins, placed a tube down the foal’s nostrils and into her trachea. This is called an EXIT procedure and meant that the foal could be ventilated until she was able to be delivered.

Foals that are stuck and unable to be born in a timely fashion are at risk of dying as the umbilical cord is compressed and they can suffocate. By breathing for the foal, it gives time for the Reproduction Veterinarian to try and deliver her.

Unfortunately, this was not possible so the mare was anaesthetised and she was hoisted onto a surgical bed for an emergency caesarean by specialist surgeon Dr Amy Williamson and the surgery team. During this time, Dr Niamh Collins and Dr Molly Renowden (Rotating Intern) breathed for the foal with an ambu bag. By the time the foal was lifted out of the mare’s belly, the foal was alive and breathing well.

After a check of the foal’s heart rate and breathing, she was moved to the intensive care unit where she was treated for neonatal maladjustment syndrome/dummy foal syndrome.

The foal was introduced to the mare after she recovered from surgery and the pair were discharged from the hospital a week later.

It was a wonderful team effort to gain a successful outcome. 🙌

18/10/2024

Waking up on a Saturday morning feeling this good as an ICU foal! 🙌

17/10/2024

A fabulous training session for our brand new CT Machine 🤩