Bishopton Equine Veterinary Services

18/09/2025

We are delighted to announce our new vet, Elif Caynak, who joined the team at Bishopton last week.
Initially from the UK, Elif grew up riding horses in the US where she obtained a bachelor’s degree in biology whilst competing on their riding team. She then moved back to the UK and graduated from the Royal Veterinary College. Since then, Elif has spent the past 12 months completing an internship at an equine hospital in New Zealand. Outside of work, Elif enjoys baking, travelling and unwinding with a good book.
We are delighted to welcome Elif to the team at Bishopton Equine. To book an appointment with Elif, please call the office.

11/09/2025

Neil’s getting gloved up - it’s snip time (or should we say crunch time) for one youngster ✂️

Very lucky to have such great equine vets Bishopton Equine Veterinary Services to the yard at least weekly.

09/09/2025

Even our smallest clients need their teeth checking routinely! Well done vet Georgia for doing such a great job with Emma's minis!

A bit of routine dental work for Lexi, a light sedative to ease the job and keep her comfortable, not an easy job when your only small, found a bale helped support her head, thanks Bishopton Equine Veterinary Services for doing such a great job with the mini’s not the easiest 💪

13/08/2025

You can lead a horse to water......

With temperatures hitting over 30 degrees in our area today it's important to make sure your horses are staying as cool and hydrated as possible and here are a few ways you can help them.....

🫗Encourage drinking - as well as their normal fresh cool water, try tempting your horses to drink more by adding more water to their usual hard feed, soaking their hay and offering extra temptations such as electrolytes, a splash of apple juice/peppermint tea or water from your mash feed to their water...... they may surprise you what they like and dislike!

⛱ Shade - make sure they have adequate shade particularly through the hottest part of the day, this may mean changing their routine and bringing them into the stables for the afternoon when it is hottest out

🚿 Keeping them cool - keep hosing and sponging your horses down through the day to help them cool down..... don't scrape it off let them air dry! Take care with fly rugs as even those designed to be breathable may still be too hot in the sun so they may have to be naked today!

🐎 Adjust exercise timings - avoid riding in the hottest part of the day and reduce their exercise intensity if your horse isn't acclimatised to exercising in the heat!

❗️Heat stroke and colic - we know our horses are sensitive creatures, and rapid changes in temperature can affect them quickly so if you are worried about your horse showing signs of colic or heat stroke (lethargy, high respiratory rate or profuse sweating), please contact us immediately!

We hope you all enjoy this lovely sunshine, but if you've any worried about your horses in the heat, give our office a call or speak to one of our vets!

P.S. remember the suncream on white noses too! 🥵

30/07/2025

People often increase their biosecurity when Strangles is in the area, yet new research reveals that nearly two-thirds of outbreaks in the UK between 2015 and 2022 were linked to other cases in a different part of the country. One chain of transmission moved between all four UK countries in just six months!

These and many other vital insights are shared in a new open access paper by researcher and fantastic SAW Collaborator Dr Abigail McGlennon. The paper brings together Abbi’s work tracking lab-diagnosed Strangles cases for the last decade to provide a wealth of new information and recommendations to help us better protect our horses from this uniquely challenging infection.

Find the link to the paper in our comments.

29/07/2025

As many of you will now be aware, outbreaks of strangles have occurred in our area this summer! It is always a difficult and stressful time for those affected and we are fully committed to helping them wherever we can.

Strangles is a highly contagious infectious disease and in a recent study by RVC, acutely infected or recently convalesced short term carrier horses are playing a bigger role in the transmission than long term carriers than previously thought.

We have been championing the latest strangles vaccine since the start of the year and have really appreciated the support and uptake we have had already!
The vaccine has been showing promising results in studies by reducing horses shedding the bacteria and protecting those exposed from developing clinical signs. Because of this, we are now starting to use it to help those on affected yards to try reduce the spread between horses, something that has always been a priority in an outbreak but difficult to achieve until now!

Of course, prevention is better than cure so if you would like to vaccinate your horses for strangles, please speak to our office or one of our vets and let's try stamp out this disease from our area as soon as possible!

🐎 A novel study by the RVC has revealed new insights into how the highly contagious disease strangles spreads amongst horses in the UK. This research marks a significant step forward in understanding how owners and veterinarians can more effectively manage and prevent outbreaks of this devastating equine disease, through targeted interventions and outbreak management protocols.

Photo: Redwings Horse Sanctuary

➡️ Read more: https://rvc.uk.com/new-genomic-strangles-study

23/07/2025

Congratulations to Quercus and all his connections!
Fantastic achievement! 💪🎉

14/07/2025

Share your views on rugging!

Hopefully no one is thinking about rugging up in this heat! 🥵 but the University of Anglia Ruskin could use your help investigating different rugging practices as part of a study they are conducting.

The survey can be accessed via the link below and takes about 5 minutes to complete, is completely anonymous and will be used as part of a final year students' research project.

For more information on rugging and clipping options to best suit your horse, speak to one of our vets on your next visit!