17/07/2020
Dear Equine clients
Since the last update in April we have working in the same way to provide you with full emergency and limited routine services at manageable risk to yourselves and to our Vets – it seems a very long time ago now! That service has been un-interrupted and thankfully we are working more normally now.
We felt it time to update you on the current arrangements. Because of the improving situation we are able to do more and this means that we can now do more routine appointments including dentals, lameness investigations etc and these are available to all clients. We can also make inroads into visits that have been delayed, and particularly the boosters, and the plan is to carefully bring more Vets back on duty , while still keeping a contingency plan in place, depending on the local situation.
We really do appreciate your continued understanding and patience with this rather slow process.
While we are working a little more normally now, the restrictions are by no means over for us. The situation in the country has been changing gradually and most recently there have been Government led lifting of restrictions of what businesses can open. For information about the general practice policies, please see our main CoViD19 notice on our website. While our Equine Vets are working mostly on their own and not in crowded internal environments their risk is lower, but they are not at nil risk , and nor are you.
We have to make a priority of protecting our Vets because of our need to provide you with emergency Vet cover all of the time, and so we continue to have contingencies in place to ensure this. We cannot just close if we are affected by infection, like many retail outlets can. We are following our professional bodies’ advice on how to conduct visits safely. Our Equine team have not physically met each other since mid March and have not entered our practice premises when others have been present, over the same period. The risks to any person of a Vet visit to your horse continue to require special consideration, and we both should carry out risk assessments carefully in order to reduce them as much as possible. For more information, there is useful self-help for assessing your horse’s problems is available at this link https://www.beva.org.uk/dont-give-your-vet-the-virus
Regarding boosters: If we have not recently contacted you by text and your horse is overdue by more than one month, please email us on [email protected]. Horses less than one month overdue will be contacted shortly, by text reminder.
We are not at present able to provide our free visit days because we don’t have enough Vets working to keep our emergency cover in place. This situation may change with the local risk levels. We are very happy to share visit costs between owners.
Please continue to phone 01737 242190 if you have urgent or emergency concerns about your horse. Otherwise, emailing us on [email protected] is very helpful to us because the phones are very busy and the non-urgent query can be answered, when there is time to do it. Thanks in advance for this.
Here are some details about vaccination that were sent to you before and still hold true.
For those horses not requiring official vaccination certification and which end up having missed their boosters by more than 3 months because of the restrictions of CoViD19, we will ensure the protection is re-established at no further cost to you, even if it requires more than one injection to do it.
At the present time we can arrange with you to dispense vaccinations to be administered by intramuscular injection provided there is someone competent to do so. Only owners are allowed to inject their horses, not yard managers. This is allowed under RCVS regulations for the current situation. However, in this case, you need to be aware that it will be impossible for a Vet to sign the horse’s passport. For horses that require official certification of vaccination [ Racing, FEI] a new vaccination course will need restarting if the annual vaccination will expire. Same rules will apply for foals, we can dispense the vaccine but we are not going to be able to sign the passport. Vaccinating foals against Tetanus is still in our view an essential need, and since the we are using combination vaccines , they will be getting protection against influenza at the same time. If foals have to travel, then we will consider visiting to carry out vaccination.
best wishes and stay safe
Maureen, Steve, Amanda, Pere, Carlos, Sophie & Corrado
During the COVID-19 pandemic you're likely to have more telephone based consultations with your vet. We've provided a range of resources and guidance to help you prepare to answer some of the questions your vet may ask you for.
