Western Counties Equine Hospital

22/03/2025

Congratulations to Celia Bellamy and Oaty 🏅

Long standing client Celia, on her young connemara Oaty completed their first BE at Moreton last weekend and finished 5th!

Oaty started as a long-legged weak boy 2 years ago, and they built up gradually to doing their first BE with a great result. Their plan is to do a couple more BE80’s and step up to BE90 this summer.

We wish this pair all the best for the rest of their season! 🐎🤞🏼

Please do not hesitate to get in touch, we love hearing about your achievements 🏆

20/03/2025

Incredible result. Well done Chris Honour Racing at Higher Whiddon Farm & team 🥇

It takes a team 💪🏼 and this photo demonstrates just how we all come together ❤️ at Chris Honour Racing at Higher Whiddon Farm. We can never speak more highly of our small group of staff. But it's important to mention that Time To Bite has also received the best care from Western Counties Equine Hospital, Catherine Davis the physio and Jack Veysey our super farrier when he hasn't quite been 100% this season.
The saying couldn't be more true 'team work makes the dream work!" Oh and "happy horses win races!"
We are pleased to say Rasher has come out of his race very well 🤍.

18/03/2025

Congratulations to vet Cullen Turner for completing his internship! Everyone at WCEH is thrilled to have you as part of the ambulatory team 👏🏼

Cullen takes a particular interest in dentistry, anaesthesia and medicine, along with teaching vet students. He is looking forwards to building a relationship with clients and a busy reproductive season.

With the completion of his internship and some more free time, Cullen continues to enjoy playing both field and indoor hockey at national league for his childhood club in South Devon (seriously impressive 🤝🏼)! 🏑 If he isn’t busy running round the hockey pitch, he is busy in the sea, hiking in mountains or planing his next outdoor expedition 🏔️

Well done Cullen from WCEH 🤩

16/03/2025

Health and Safety 💯

You may have noticed WCEH staff have been wearing hats more often both in hospital and on the road. This is being implemented by vets globally to mitigate the risk of serious head injuries 🤕

Statistics show that out of the serious injuries sustained by vets and support staff, most injuries are not caused by the patient itself, but by environmental factors. Examples would be a sudden movement or a kick, either of which result in a loss of balance and then a fall. This can cause injury by colliding with a fence, stable wall, hard surface or equipment, which has the potential to result in a serious head injury.

Luckily most of our patients are well-behaved. Yet as prey animals, horses are often at their most vulnerable when sick or injured. So, it is unsurprising that they may react out of character and then purely by accident create a scenario which could lead to a life changing injury.

Safety first 👊🏼

11/03/2025

Ever wondered what happens when your horse gets admitted for an MRI❔

Did you know WCEH are the only hospital in the Devon, Cornwall & Somerset to have an MRI machine⁉️

Pre MRI:
💤 Admission (ideally day before) to allow the patient to settle.
☑️ Pre Anaesthetic checks by our hospital interns.

MRI day:
🏃🏻 Short lameness analysis by hospital clinician
👟 ❌Shoes pulled
💉 Intravenous catheter placed
💊 Pre meds (ACP & Morphine)

✅QA (quality assurance) of the MRI magnet - we run a short set of scans with a “ball” to ensure the magnet and coil are operating correctly.
🖥️ Enter patient information into the system
🦶 Set the magnet into position - usually starting with the lowest area being scanned, often this is the foot.

🐴 Patient is then sedated and taken into the MRI unit with the technician running it and one other person.
🧲 We will set the patient into position in the magnet with a coil around the area of interest.

📋The technician running it will then align the scans up to a set protocol.
✋🏼 The patient is monitored throughout the entire time they are in the magnet and top ups of sedation are administered when required. It is important the patient stays completely still throughout otherwise scans will have a lot of motion and will not be of diagnostic quality.

🕰️ Scanning can take between 2-6 hours depending on how much scanning is required and how well the patient stands during scanning.

🏡 We like to keep them the night of MRI to monitor them post sedation, before they return home.

07/03/2025

Meet vet Hazel Clewley 🩺 - who has been with us since 2020!

Hazel joined WCEH after working as a vet in a diverse range of settings both here and in Australia 🇦🇺.

Hazel spends a lot of time out on the road in the Taunton, Bridgewater and Exmoor area and loves getting to know and build a close relationship with a large base of regular clients. 🚘

A particular area of interest is sports and competition horse health and wellness, especially lameness and poor performance. Hazel is also unique amongst her colleagues in providing acupuncture for a variety of conditions. It is an especially helpful adjunctive treatment to musculoskeletal performance issues and back pain. 💉

She is part of the team providing veterinary cover at major equestrian events and is an FEI permitted treating Veterinary Surgeon. She is looking forward to being part of the Veterinary team in May for the Nations Cup, although will also be kept busy in the role of Official Veterinarian making sure our international equine athletes are safely exported back home with the right paperwork! 🐎

Alongside all of this, she is:
📚 Education Lead for Bristol Veterinary students whilst with Western Counties for their equine rotation.
🌙 Part of the surgical team out of hours assisting with surgery or performing anaesthesia.

At home it’s more horses, with a rekindling passion for eventing and bringing on a promising youngster. Any time left over is spent indulging her history geek side, cross fitting and chasing after Ted the delinquent terrier. 🐶

28/02/2025

“TO SEE HER BUCKING AROUND THE PADDOCK YOU WOULD NEVER BELIEVE SHE WAS THE SAME PONY” 😊

Brilliant to hear that this lovely pony Roxy is happy as ever back out in the field again. She spent a week in hospital with us at the end of November and was treated for colic associated with large colon impaction and peritonitis.

Roxy was a referral from a local practice, that has continued seeing her since she has gone home. Well done to everyone involved, brilliant team effort 👏🏼

These are the kind of messages everyone at WCEH loves to read, so do not hesitate to contact us!

20/02/2025

Incredible deal until the end of March!

DISCOUNTED SPORT HORSE PRE-SEASON ASSESSMENT ✨

Save £150 on a pre-season assessment including:
🩸 Blood test for general health
💓 Examination
🏃‍♂️ Trot up
👞 Foot balance radiographs including sedation
⚖️ Accurate weight measurement

ADDITIONALLY save another £150 and have a gastroscopy with a FREE overnight stay ‼️

This offer ends 31st March 2025.

For further info or to take advantage of this discounted offer, call us on 01884 841100 or email us on [email protected] ☎️ 📧

https://mycvsvet.co.uk/t/cr/AQiNnAwQuJewARiL0OgUOOjSDO11DcKwICh1YCo1vd9Uws6ThrmRtq903kSEU7U

20/02/2025

CONGRATULATIONS - one of the first foals of the season 👏🏼

This is a lovely bay c**t by Triple Time with his super mum. Vet Hazel attended and examined both mare and foal who are both doing well.

The mare was checked for:
• Excessive bruising or tearing
• Sufficient colostrum
• All foetal membranes have been expelled

The foal was checked for:
• Assured he was standing and feeding well
• Umbilicus was clean and been treated
• Passed meconium
• Eyes and heart examined 👀 💓
• Limbs and feet examined 👣
• Blood sampled and tested for adequate levels of IgG (a vital immunoglobulin and a crucial indicator of colostral uptake) - an incredibly important step❗️

Looking forwards to another busy breeding season and some more healthy foals.

If you have a mare in foal and have any queries, please contact the hospital.

17/02/2025

UPDATE: All phones and computers are now up and running 👌🏼

Thank you for your patience 📞

17/02/2025

UPDATE: We now have one phone line working. If this line is busy please email the office on [email protected] or text 07496842945.

We will update you when it is back fully functioning.

Thank you.

17/02/2025

We currently have a temporary problem with our internet, meaning the phones and computers are down. Please bear with us while we sort an alternative.

Thank you!

14/02/2025

DISCOUNTED SPORT HORSE PRE-SEASON ASSESSMENT ✨

Save £150 on a pre-season assessment including:
🩸 Blood test for general health
💓 Examination
🏃‍♂️ Trot up
👞 Foot balance radiographs including sedation
⚖️ Accurate weight measurement

ADDITIONALLY save another £150 and have a gastroscopy with a FREE overnight stay ‼️

This offer ends 31st March 2025.

For further info or to take advantage of this discounted offer, call us on 01884 841100 or email us on [email protected] ☎️ 📧

https://mycvsvet.co.uk/t/cr/AQiNnAwQuJewARiL0OgUOOjSDO11DcKwICh1YCo1vd9Uws6ThrmRtq903kSEU7U

12/02/2025

HAPPY HORSE, HAPPY CLIENT 👌🏼

Lovely to hear that Fern had her first canter today after being referred from a local practice for colic surgery in August. I think it’s fair to say that both Fern and Lucy have big smiles on their faces.

The whole team at WCEH are thrilled 😁

We love hearing any success stories, so feel free to send them in!

04/02/2025

Did you know…❔

On average a horse has 205 bones vs humans who have 206 bones. 🦴

The only bone that humans have that horses do not is a clavicle (collarbone). Horses have muscles that act like collarbones, but there is no skeletal attachment of the front leg to the rib cage as in humans.

24/01/2025

Then VS now ⤴️ 🫏

Meet Milo the 8 year old Miniature donkey.

Milo had an unfortunate accident in his new field shelter, resulting in a nasty wound to one of his heel bulbs.

Milo’s quick thinking owner applied a light dressing and pressure bandage to stem the bleeding and protect his wound from further contamination whilst waiting for the vet to arrive.

Despite Milo’s wound he was walking well and the wound was assessed. The flap over the heel bulb was barely attached to the tissue below and the blood flow had been compromised, the skin flap was removed as it was no longer viable and Milo’s wound was left to heal by secondary intention.

With regular wound debridement, flushing, bandaging and manuka honey Milo’s wound healed very well and we are pleased to report he’s back out in the field with his best friend Pearl.

23/01/2025

Really good podcast episode featuring Alex Wood and B&W. It’s an interesting overview of the equine behavioural work Alex does.

On today’s Horse & Hound Podcast advertisement feature with CVS Equine, we talk to vet Alex Wood of B&W Equine Vets, which is part of the CVS Equine family. Alex talks about the challenges of dealing with vet-shy horses, and has some useful advice on how to retrain a horse who demonstrates undesirable behaviour to make the experience less stressful for all involved.