Troy Equine Services

09/17/2025

You're Invited ✉️🎉

We’re growing—and it’s all thanks to you! Over the past year, our team has expanded, and you may have noticed a few new faces. We’d love for you to meet our newest team members while enjoying some delicious eats from the Fo'Cheezey Food Truck. 🧀

09/08/2025

Our final new addition to the Troy Equine team is Dr. Olivia Cotnam! You may remember Dr. Olivia from her time with us during her veterinary school placement in 2023. She now joins our team as an Associate Veterinarian 🐴

🌟 Olivia grew up in Carleton Place, Ontario. Starting life with a big orange cat by her side, Olivia has loved animals from the start! She began riding as a child and was able to explore local dressage, hunter, and hunter paces with her beloved horse, Siesta. During her undergraduate degree in Marine and Freshwater Biology at the University of Guelph, she was lucky to work with animals of all kinds, from orphaned raccoons, to turtles, to non-releasable raptors, to sea urchins. Throughout these experiences, her love of horses shone through. Bringing Siesta to live with her in Guelph reconnected Olivia to the horse world and inspired her to become an equine veterinarian.
After graduating from the Ontario Veterinary College in 2024, Olivia completed an internship in Calgary, Alberta at Burwash Equine Services. There, she grew her knowledge and skills in general and referral equine practice from podiatry to emergency medicine to neonatology. Olivia especially loves ophthalmology and expanding her skills in lameness diagnosis and treatment.
When she’s not working, Olivia enjoys spending time with her partner, their cats, Echo and Flora, and her horse, Siesta, as well as hiking, birding, cooking, and catching up with her friends. 🏞️🍽️

Welcome to the team Dr. Olivia! 💫

08/29/2025

☀️ Happy Long Weekend!

Our office will be closed on Monday September 1st for Labour Day. Emergency services will remain uninterrupted for all regular clients over the long weekend! The on call veterinarian can be reached at 📞 226-755-0785. We will reopen for regular business hours on Tuesday September 2nd at 8:00am.

08/18/2025

🦟 DISEASE ALERT 🚨

🦠 EEE (Eastern Equine Encephalomyelitis) has been reported in our area! EEE is a viral disease spread by mosquitoes that can cause acute neurological symptoms (ataxia, weakness, trembling, recumbency, seizures and paralysis) and is fatal in up to 90% of cases. Other symptoms include fever, lethargy and inappetence.

💉 Prevention is the best medicine! Vaccination is highly recommended and is very effective in prevention of the disease. Other than vaccination, reduce exposure to mosquitoes by using insect repellents, eliminating standing water, and bring horses in at night when mosquitoes are most active.

If you are unsure if your horse is up to date on it’s vaccines or would like to schedule vaccines, contact the clinic at 226-755-0785 ☎️ or [email protected] 📧

Eastern Equine Encephalitis also known as the sleeping sickness, is a viral disease that causes inflammation of the brain and spinal cord. It is transmitted by mosquitoes.

08/13/2025

Castration season was in full swing this spring! ✂️ As the end of summer is in sight, fall is another great time of year to do castrations as we don’t need to battle with the heat and bugs! 🙅🔥🪰

We are able to provide on farm surgery services for minor surgeries including castrations, enucleations, laceration repairs, and mass removal👩‍⚕️🩺.

08/06/2025

Tonight at 8:00pm join AAEP veterinarians Drs. Carrie Hammer and Michael St. Blanc for a wide-ranging, light-hearted look at some common equine veterinary myths and the truths — and misconceptions — behind them 🕵️💬. They'll engage the audience with a poll about each myth, followed by a discussion of the topic.

Registration is ❗️FREE but required❗️If you can’t make it, don’t worry — a recording of the webinar will be available if you miss the live event.

Register here: https://events.zoom.us/ev/Ao_rvrGXNquW8oMEHIC7Nf84y7pSPYTI4bdfTPs0t90YcayfOLHF~AqqPddj8fNuAs8IccVFiJmM-OGVEAYaYrolqrJY50wREdUWAkodSd2AU5w

This informative session is brought to you by the AAEP Horse Owner Education Committee.

08/01/2025

It’s looking like it’s going to be a beautiful, sunny long weekend! 😎🏖️☀️🍹 We will be closed on Monday, August 4th for the civic holiday, and regular office hours will resume on Tuesday, August 5th. As always, 24/7 emergency coverage is available to all regular clients by calling 226-755-0785 📞

07/29/2025

Disease Alert! 🦠Potomac Horse Fever🦠

This year we have been seeing a significant rise in confirmed or suspected cases of Potomac Horse Fever. What is Potomac Horse Fever (PHF)? 🤔

It is a bacterial disease that can affect horses🐎 and donkeys🫏 of all ages. It is not spread directly from horse to horse, instead it is transmitted by a variety of aquatic insects and flies🪰. This makes any horse that has access to outdoor water or feed (hay or grass) susceptible. It was originally thought that horses on farms with ponds or standing water were at higher risk, however we are seeing more and more cases on farms where this is not the case. Infection occurs when the horse inadvertently ingests these insects infected with the bacteria Neorickettsia Risticii. The time of year that is most common to see these cases is late spring to early fall📆.

Symptoms can include fever🤒, lethargy💤, inappetence🌾, diarrhea💩 and laminitis👣. These symptoms can go from mild to life threatening within 48 hours if not treated promptly.

So what can you do?
- Reduce risk by always providing clean and fresh water, changing water buckets and troughs daily 🧼
- Daily temperature checks
- Keep feed buckets covered
- Turn off barn lights at night to avoid attracting insects 💡
- If you notice any of the signs above, call us right away. Waiting a day or two to see if your horse will work through it on it’s own can mean the difference of mild treatable symptoms, to a life threatening condition that requires hospitalization.
- Vaccinate! 💉

There is a vaccine for PHF. While the vaccine is not 100% effective as there are multiple strains of the bacteria and the vaccine does not provide protection against every strain, it can help provide some protection and reduce the severity of symptoms if your horse does get infected💪.

If you have any questions about PHF or would like more information on the vaccine, please contact us at 226-755-0785 or [email protected].

07/22/2025

Our next new addition to the team is Brooke Hunter! You may remember Brooke from her time with us last summer as a vet assistant or her days as a coop student. She now joins our team as a Veterinary Technician 🎉

🌟 Brooke grew up right here in Troy, Ontario! Her family has bred and raised halter showed Belgians ever since she could remember and Brooke had no doubt that horses would be her passion too. She began her professional equine career journey right here at Troy Equine Services in 2022, where she completed a high-school coop. From there she attended the University of Guelph: Ridgetown Campus, achieving her Veterinary Technician diploma as of June 2025. During her time at Ridgetown, Brooke developed a strong passion for surgery and the skill of anesthesia while completing an externship at King Animal Hospital.

Outside of the practice you can find Brooke spending time with her cat, Chinchilla, working her own Belgian c**t, Quinn, and working on her creative outlet by drawing, reading, travelling and riding! 🐱📚

Welcome to the team Brooke! 🩷

07/18/2025

We are so pleased to introduce some new team members to you! First up we would like to welcome Hunter Laskowski - Veterinary Assistant and Receptionist 🌸

⭐️ Hunter grew up in Burlington, Ontario and spent lots of time at her grandparents’ farm in Puslinch. She was born into the horse world, and found herself spending lots of time in the saddle as a child, which eventually led to her getting her own pony, Sonic. After high school she has taken on several personal sales horses, riding client horses, as well as running her small gourmet horse treat business, Spoiled Dapples. Hunter later gained professional experience at a barn in Waterloo spearheading the training and sales of horses in their program. Outside of the clinic, you can find her and Sonic training for horse shows or goofing around. In addition to showing, Hunter has a passion for foxhunting and is a long-time member and Whipper-In for the Wellington-Waterloo Hunt Club. Outside of the barn she enjoys hiking and spending time with her dog, Fairy (which some of you may have already met if you’ve stopped by the clinic, she thinks everyone is coming to see her of course!) 🩷🐶

Welcome to the team Hunter! 🐴

05/27/2025

The cutest visitors dropped by the office today!! 🐣

05/15/2025

The warm weather is finally here to celebrate a long-weekend with us 🪻🌷🌞 AS a reminder, we will be closed Monday May 19th!

If you experience an emergency during our closure please call (226) 755-0785, and you will be redirected to the veterinarian on-call.
Regular hours resume Tuesday May 20th at 8:00am.