Little Rock Equine Vets

01/09/2024

We see so many posts on social media about eyes. Eyes are vital to horses and any changes with them should be thought of as seriously as a colic. Eye sight can be lost very quickly. If your horse or pony has an eye that is swollen or is half closed or is tear stained then you should seek help as soon as it is spotted.

Most of the time at this time of year, it will be a fly issue, conjunctivitis but occasionally horses will bang their heads and this can lead to something called a Hyphema (bleeding into the eye) or if the eyeball has been punctured can lead to a stromal abscess.

Luckily we do not see these often but when we do they are of major concern. If you have any questions about eye issues, please feel free to phone us on 01782 898102

30/08/2024

Morning our Little Rockers - we have loved your comments about your farriers. They have made us laugh and smile a lot over the last few days. It is obvious that they are a strong part of your horses story and it's lovely to see the support you have for them and they for you.

Its been hard making a choice but Danielle Lovatt, your comment about your farrier -

"My Farrier is the best because even when I ring him to say we've lost a shoe, he says it's ok and he will be there that day or the next.........he puts up with horsewomen every day and thats good going"

You have won the four passes to Chatsworth - we will drop them off today - enjoy your weekend.

28/08/2024

Hi Little Rockers - we are proudly supporting the farrier tent at Chatsworth Country Fair again this year. We love the farriers we work alongside, Their knowledge and expertise is vital in keeping our beloved equines on the road.

We would like to celebrate our farriers by giving away four tickets to the Chatsworth Country Show being held from the 30th to the 1st of September 2024. So What makes your farrier the best farrier in Staffordshire? Best answer (judged by our office) wins these tickets. Show us your farriers doing their best job in the comments below. Close of competition Thursday 29th August at 2pm.

28/08/2024

Best of luck to our clients who are competing at futurity classes tomorrow. We wish you all the best and look forward to hearing how you got on

26/08/2024

It's been a great bank holiday weekend for some of our clients. Congratulations to Claire Howie who won racing at newmarket on Saturday, this was a professional race and she and Mac won by 20 lengths having come from well down the pack. Some members of the North Staffordshire pony club have had an amazing weekend competing at the pony club national champs in dressage, showjumping and eventing. Well done Pip Mayer, Reeva Mason Sophie May Schonau and Saffy Vincent.

Sarah Birchall has been doing well with Simba and Willow this week on the showing circuit. We know how hard you all work to get to the results you get.

It was the Caverswall & District 50th anniversary show and by the sounds of things was a tremendous day for a lot of you.

It is fabulous to see you all out and about enjoying yourselves. Hope everyone has had a great Bank holiday weekend......for us it's back to normal tomorrow and the office will be open from 845 as usual.

21/08/2024

Hope you are looking forward to a long weekend. This coming Monday (26th August) our office will be closed, it will reopen on the 27th August at 845am. If you have any issues over the weekend, then please phone the office number on 01782 898102 and Shelley will be happy to help you out.

Here's hoping you all have a lovely weekend and you get some much needed time off.

20/08/2024

Our case of the week this week is Wallace.

We were called to see Wallace on a sunday morning because he waas struggling to eat. When we arrived, we found Wallace to be struggling to eat food when it was offered. We sedated him and had a thorough examination of his mouth and found some baler twine wrapped round the base of his tongue which we removed.

This improved things but didn't resolve the issue, so an appointment was booked for the following day to take xrays. As you can see from the xray, he had a tooth root infection of his 109 molar. This is one of the oldest teeth in the horse and is usually the first to be worn down. We organised to remove this tooth and Wallace is now back to his happy big self. He was signed off on his 25th birthday.

Teeth issues are common in the more mature and young horses. Issues such as broken teeth, tooth root infections are commonly seen. Regular dentals and dental examination are paramount in horses and can catch issues early and prevent big problems from arising.

If you have any questions on this topic, please give the office a call on 01782 898102.

Happy mouths, make for happy horses and happy riders.

19/08/2024

Itchy horses:

We've seen a lot of itchy horses over the last few months. The horse flies have been especially vicious this year. and with the shortage of deosect on the market keeping the flies and midges off our horses and ponies has become more difficult.

Ways to minimise contact time with these beasties:

- avoid the warmer parts of the day
- use a good fly rug
- breezy areas are better when grazing as the flies can't land if the wind speed is increased.
- use of fans in stables can help with comfort when horses are stabled.
- use of a good fly spray

If you have any further questions about this topic, please give us a call on 01782 898102

16/08/2024

Looking forward to supporting the Ashbourne local riders ring. We have been busy organising sweets and had some amazing rosettes and sashes made. Best of luck to all of those competing tomorrow.

13/08/2024

Case of the week -

Patchie is a horse Shelley met for the first time on a routine vaccination. Patch's owner mentioned that Patch was struggling with performance issues in front and was mildly lame. When his foot balance was examined it was found to be suboptimal and Shelley thought this might have an impact on his performance.

Patch had xrays taken that showed medio-lateral imbalance, long toe and an under run heels in both front feet. Shelley and a local remedial farrier soon set to work to correct the issues highlighted in the xrays. We are so pleased that Patch is back sound and back to work. He is throughly enjoying getting back to dancing and so is his mum Louise. Whilst a lot of balance correction can be done by a good farrier just by looking at the foot and how it is placed in relation to the horse's body. It is vital in cases of performance horses to ensure that the balance of the feet is correct. The old saying no foot, no horse is so very very true even in this modern age.

If you have a horse you are struggling with, then please phone the office on 01782 898102 and one of our vets will be happy to discuss options with you

11/08/2024

We have had a lovely day at the High Peak Pony Club show. It was very well supported and looked like a great day was had by all.

11/08/2024

The sun is shining and chatsworth is glorious. Come and say hello if you’re here competing today.

10/08/2024

Really fabulous day at Manifold Show 2024. Lovely to see lots of familiar faces and thanks to everyone who took part. Big thank you to Sue, Sarah, Kate, Neil, Debbie and Lee for giving up their time to organise and judge today. Was a great day out and I hope you all had an amazing time

10/08/2024

Great morning at Manifold

09/08/2024

Looking forward to the Manifold show tomorrow. See you there

08/08/2024

We are very much looking forward to this Sunday and sponsoring the High Peak Pony Club show. As past members of pony club, we fully support the education and friendships formed by this important society. We will be there as main sponsors of this show, come and join us for the day in amazing surroundings.

07/08/2024

We are so excited and looking foreward to the Manifold Agricultural show this Saturday. We are proud sponsors of the Dressage, inhand Showing and Ridden Showing. We will be there so if you see us, please come say hello.

06/08/2024

This is Harry Brown or HB for short - when we met him on a yard (whilst looking at another pony), his owner wasn't sure what to do with him. He is a chronic laminitic who was on medication but he was dead behind the eyes and lacked the ability to go out and graze for more than 30 mins at a time. He had fat pads in all the usual areas (behind the shoulder, over his bum and above his eyes. His owner was concerned that because of the inability to be able to ride him coupled with his limited grazing, that they would have to think about his quality of life longer term.

We examined HB and took blood tests that showed he had a very high insulin count. He was already on medication to treat this (metformin) but it obviously wasn't working anymore. He also has Cushings disease which was being well controlled by using prascend. We swapped HB from metformin onto a drug called Ertugliflozin. This drug alongside his prascend has helped HB to get back to riding and they even had a little jump a few days ago. He has gone from a pony just existing to one who now tries to escape from his paddock and is according to his owner back to his cheeky wee self.

We are so pleased that HB is back on form, and living his life to the full. Routine examinations of horses and ponies is so very important, thats why we do these routinely at Vaccination time. It helps us to keep your team working together.

If you have any questions on this case or on treatment for laminitis, please do nto hesitate to phone us 01782898102

04/08/2024

This weather has been lovely and very much needed. However, with the rain overnight the last couple of days will have helped the grass flush again. We have seen an increase in gassy and spasmodic colics over the last few days. All fields have been the same with very short grass on them.

Short grass after weather like we have experienced, will have a high concentration of fructose/Glucose, as the growing conditions (warm soil and a bit of rain) are ideal to help with grass growth. These sugars cause a sugar overload in the gut which then causes the bacteria (good and bad) to have a bacterial bloom. The bacteria then produce methane gas and this fills the intestines which leads to pain.

9/10 colics will resolve with medical treatment, but 1/10 don't and require surgical intervention. It is vital when you see signs of colic to phone your vet for advice and to get your horse or pony seen. Colics can change quickly and can be serious.

If you have any questions on this or how the sunny weather can affect your horse or pony, please do not hesitate to contact us on 01782898102.

02/08/2024

‘We love to see our little rockers in the wild’ consider yourself spotted 🎉👍🏻

27/07/2024

Having a great day catching up with familiar faces. Great to see so many of you out and about at Leek Show

27/07/2024

Great to see some happy faces at Staffordshire Saddlery this lovely summer morning. Hope you all have a great day at Leek & District Show.

Get yourself a vet like ours thanks Shelley Cook from Little Rock Equine Vets for the brekkie this morning bacon butties all round at Leek & District Show ❤️❤️

19/07/2024

Steph's off to pastures new. We are all so very proud of you and that Steph has gone for her dream job. We are all going miss her loads. Wishing you the best of luck for the future Steph!!

08/07/2024

This handsome boy is Sunny. Sunny presented to us after his Equine Dental Technician (EDT) (Sam Oakes) found a broken wolf tooth.

Wolf teeth are small remnants of when their equine ancestors had extra cheek teeth. They usually sit in front or to the side of the front cheek teeth in the upper jaw. Not all horses will have wolf teeth.

For many, these little teeth do not always cause a problem, but due to their location they can cause discomfort when bitting some horses.

As Sunny’s tooth was broken, it was decided it best to remove both of his wolf teeth. Vet Steph (with assistance from Vet Student, Beth) did this with Sunny under standing sedation.

Local anaesthetic was placed under the gum line around the tooth to minimise any discomfort for Sunny from the procedure. Then, she carefully used special dental tools to gently loosen the gum attachments from the teeth and the periodontal ligament which holds the root in place. Thankfully, Sunny’s wolf teeth had very short roots and so came out very quickly and in one piece!

In some horses, the roots can be quite significant which makes removal a little more challenging (please see the last picture)

Sunny received pain relief before his procedure and was prescribed 5 days of oral pain relief afterwards and two weeks without a bit. After this, he was feeling fabulous and ready to continue with his education!

If you would like more information about wolf tooth removal, please contact us on 01782 898102 to speak to one of our vets.

25/06/2024

With the warm and sunny weather we are having at the moment it is common to see weepy eyes in our horses.

Uveitis is inflammation of the internal structures of the eye - it can either be anterior (front chamber of the eye), posterior (back chamber of the eye) or both! It is a painful condition that can often start quite quickly, and may become a recurrent problem known as Equine Recurrent Uveitis (ERU). Most cases are thought to be immune-mediated (the immune system attacking the cells of the eye), but sometimes can be seen as a result of blunt trauma to the eye.

Clinical Signs:

- Closed eyes
- Excessive watery discharge
- Miosis (very small pupil)
- Light sensitivity
- Cloudy/blue haze over eye
- Rubbing face/eyes
- “Not quite right”

As with all eye cases, these should be seen urgently (ideally same day). To diagnose uveitis, the vet will perform a detailed ocular examination with an ophthalmoscope. In some cases where the pupil is very small or there is a lot of cloudiness (oedema), it may be necessary to examine a day or two after administering treatment to be able to see all chambers of the eye. Ultrasound of the eyes can also be a useful tool in these cases.

Treatment consists of topical steroids to relieve the inflammation, plus oral pain relief.

In recurrent cases, immunosuppressive treatments may be warranted to better control the condition; these can be in the form of implants which slowly release the medication directly to the eye.

Chronic inflammation within the eye can predispose to development of cataracts and glaucoma, and ultimately blindness, so it is important to treat uveitis in the acute stages to reduce the risk of blindness as a consequence.

If you have any concerns about your horse’s eyes, please contact us on 01782 898102.

23/06/2024

Hot weather is here now for the next few days. We are expecting temperatures to get into the high 20's. Horses, ponies and donkeys; don't cope well with sudden changes in their environment. The most common Vet emergencies we see in weather like this is Impaction Colic, Laminitis and heat exhaustion.

How to ensure you don't have vet related issues over the next few days:

- If exercising your horse make sure you do this in the cooler part of the day, either early morning or late evening.

- Make sure they have access to water at all times. Fresh water is best and sometimes throwing some ice into the water helps to keep it cooler

- Watch with rugging, whilst the flies are viscious at the moment, rugging even in a light weight can make your horse or pony uncomfortably hot. Therefore if needing to use a fly rug, it might be more advisable to put them out at night to graze rather than during the heat of the day.

- If you see a reduction in poo's, call your vet sooner rather than later. A small impaction is easier to sort than a large one.

- If your horses are out, ensure they have plenty of shelter or put them out at night rather than during the day if you are struggling for field shelter.

- Keep an eye on those who have had laminitis before, regardless of the reason behind it. Due to the changeable weather we have been dealing with it has allowed grass to grow fast and it now contains very high levels of sugar. Restrict grazing either by taking them off the grass, reducing the time they are grazing for or use a grazing muzzle.

If you have any concerns, we are, as always here to help. Give us a shout on 01782 898102, we are happy to help

21/06/2024

We love what we do

19/06/2024

With the warmer weather appearing and flies starting to make an appearance, it's important that we check our horses and ponies out for any lumps and bumps that might cause issues. Take a look at tonights blog for more information.

https://littlerockequinevets.co.uk/lumps-and-bumps-sarcoids-and-melanomas/

As always we are available to discuss this or any other matters on 01782 898102.

17/06/2024

Best of luck to all of you who are competing at Cheshire Show and Hickstead this week. We hope the weather gods are kind and that you have a great few days. We would love to see what you have got up to.