608 Equine Vets

16/07/2025

Solihull Riding Club are still accepting entries for the 608 Equine and Farm Vets sponsored Diddy One Day Event on Sunday!

Don’t miss your last chance to enter via Solihull Riding Club’s website! Entries close tomorrow.

💙 Delighted to be partnering with Solihull on this fabulous opportunity for any riders interested in getting started with eventing. Perfect for novice riders or inexperienced horses, these events are fun, friendly and well run. Hope to see you there 👋

608 Equine and Farm Vets Diddy One Day Event 💙🐎

Last chance to enter our Diddy One Day Event, this Sunday 20th July, kindly sponsored by 608 Equine and Farm Vets!

Our new series incorporates a brand new 70cm class, to help bridge the gap for those looking to take the step up!

Entries are closing tomorrow morning at 10am – so make sure you get your entries in to avoid missing out on this fabulous event!

✨ Friendly and relaxed (callers allowed for dressage for all classes)
✨ 40cm, 50cm, 60cm & 70cm
✨ Encouraging courses
✨ XC incorporating the woods!
✨ Rosettes to 10th

Book now here! https://www.myridinglife.com/eventdetails.aspx?id=511191

15/07/2025

☕️ Coffee and Cake Morning 🧁
📆 Tuesday 29th July 2025
⏰ From 9am
📍 608 Equine and Farm Vets, Quarry Farm CV35 7DD

Calling all our clients and friends: come and join us on Tuesday 29th July for our Coffee and Cake morning!

Held at our Practice in Rowington, Warwickshire, stop by and enjoy a lovely coffee, cake and catch-up with the team at 608.

We’re fundraising for the Farming Community Network, a charity supporting farmers and their families with any issues they may face.

The FCN runs a confidential, national helpline and e-helpline open every day of the year from 7am - 11pm, providing free support for anyone who is seeking help. They also run FarmWell, a website dedicate to providing useful information to anyone running a farm business.

Donations both for the FCN and cakes welcome. We’d love to see lots of you there 💙

28/06/2025

🥳 We’re very excited to be sponsoring Solihull Riding Club’s Diddy One Day Event series this year!

Solihull are the original home of Diddy three phase eventing, and we’re delighted to support them. At 608, we’re passionate about providing our local equestrian community with opportunities to enjoy their horses, and what we love about the Diddy competition at Solihull is that it makes eventing accessible to everyone, especially those just getting started!

NEW for this year is the 70cm class, aimed to bridge the gap between the Diddy events and the Unaffiliated One Day Events.

We hope you enjoy 💙

🎉 Exciting News from the 608 Equine & Farm Vets Diddy One Day Event! 🎉

We’re thrilled to announce a brand new class added to this year’s lineup: the Beginner’s 70cm! 🐎💨

This new class will offer a fantastic stepping stone for riders wanting to challenge themselves—featuring a mix of 60cm & 70cm fences, longer, more flowing courses, and a structure that mirrors the atmosphere and rules of a full one-day event.

🌟 The perfect way to build confidence and experience!

As always, we’re running all our much-loved classes:
✅ 40cm
✅ 50cm
✅ 60cm
✅ And now... Beginner’s 70cm!

A huge shoutout to our incredible sponsors, 608 Equine & Farm Vets, whose continued support makes events like this possible! 🩺🐴

Based locally, 608 offer outstanding veterinary care with a friendly and experienced team dedicated to the health and wellbeing of your horses and farm animals.

📅 Don’t miss out – entries open soon!

25/06/2025

🪰🦟 Fly season - know your flies! 🦟🪰

We spend all winter waiting for summer, and when it finally arrives we get approximately two weeks to enjoy it before the flies descend… sound familiar!? 🤪

Did you know that there are different types of flies in the UK, all of which pose their own individual issues to our horses during summer? Here’s an overview ⬇️

🪰 Horse flies
Perhaps the most annoying of all the flies, horse flies feed on blood and have a rather nasty bite. They can cause large, painful bumps to our horses (and us!) and irritation.

Horse flies are more of a general nuisance but occasionally, horses can experience more severe reactions to them. These can be allergic reactions leading to hair loss and skin irritations, infections if not treated, and transmission of blood-borne diseases.

Horse flies like the sun and are only active during the day. Stabling horses in the daytime and turning out at night can help to reduce their contact with horse flies. Fields with lots of shade can also help. Fly rugs also help to avoid your horse being bitten, as well as effective fly sprays and vitamin B.

🪰 Stable flies and house flies
These flies are attracted to horse poo, soiled bedding and other bodily secretions like sweat and wet eyes. They can cause weepy eyes and general irritation, as well as carry bacteria to any unhealed wounds.

Poo pick fields regularly and keep a clean stable to avoid flies congregating near your horse. Wash horses off regularly if sweating. Turning out in groups can help horses protect each other and fly masks, nose nets and fly rugs all help to prevent these annoying pests from bothering your horse.

🪰 Midges
We all know how annoying midges are - tiny little insects that bite. Midges also cause significant problems for horses, particularly sweet itch.

Sweet itch is caused by an allergic reaction to the midges’ saliva. It causes severe itching, with lesions that become more aggravated as the horse rubs them further - often scratching until the skin is raw.

Sweet itch requires treatment including creams and medications, but the ideal is prevention for horses who you know are susceptible. Stabling, field management, fly rugs and sprays are all ways to help. Effective management will greatly reduce the severity of your horse’s symptoms.

🪰 Bot flies
Bot flies are a concern for horses in the summer as the adult flies lay their eggs on the horse’s coat during the warmer months. These eggs are then ingested while the horse grooms itself or others, and the larvae hatch and move to the stomach. They then grow and feed here for several months, before being passed in the horse’s droppings and emerging as adult flies - continuing the life cycle.

Check your horse’s coat for bot eggs and remove them with a bot knife if seen. Using a dewormer with the active ingredient ivermectin or moxidectin will kill off bot larvae in the stomach - this is the wormer you would use at the end of autumn or start of spring.

Poo picking your horse’s paddock will reduce the pupation of the larvae and emergence of adult flies. Fly spray and fly rugs will help to prevent the flies laying eggs on your horse.

20/06/2025

☀️🥵 Are we allowed to say it’s too hot…!? 😂

Here are our top tips on how to look after your horse during the hot weather! ☀️

🐎 Exercise your horse during the cooler times of the day where possible. Consider your individual horse’s overall health and fitness and how they are likely to cope when being ridden in the hot weather.

💦 Cool your horse down using cold water. For the most effective cooling, start at the poll and work your way backwards, focusing on long cooling of the gluteals.

🚿 The most recent research suggests that there is no need to scrape the water off your horse when hosing down - leaving water on a horse will not cause them to be warmer. Continuous application of cold water is the most effective and efficient way to reduce body temperature quickly.

🪣 Make sure your horse always has access to clean, fresh drinking water. If your horse isn’t a big drinker, flavour their water with molasses or apple juice to encourage them, or give them a sloppy mash 😋

🚛 If you need to travel your horse, consider soaking your hay to keep up their water intake. Check the traffic before you leave and open all windows.

🌡 Watch out for signs of heatstroke, including high respiratory and heart rates, and an increased body temperature - a horse’s normal body temperature should be between 37.5 - 38.5.

🧂 Add salt to your horse’s diet, particularly if they are sweating - this can be via a salt lick, table salt added to their normal feed or electrolytes.

🌳 If your horse is out, make sure they have access to natural shade or field shelters where possible.

📞 If you need any advice, give us a call on 01564 783404.

18/06/2025

Always lovely to see our clients at Moor Farm Stables 💙 taking such good care of their cob horses in the hot weather! ☀️

12/06/2025

💙 Inspiring the next generation!

We love these photos of 608 vet Charlotte checking 24 year old New Forest Ginny’s teeth - and having quite the audience while she worked! 😅

The children loved watching Charlotte and understanding more about Ginny’s teeth and how we care for them.

🐣 Charlotte’s reward was getting to hold one of the new baby ducklings - a great experience for everyone 🥰

05/06/2025

Say hello to Chico 👋👵🏻🐴

Chico’s owners describe her as a precious legend 🩷 much loved by Lilith, this golden oldie recently had her teeth done by our vet Lauren.

Chico celebrated her 30th birthday at the end of April, complete with a special party and cakes to celebrate!

These amazing older horses give so much to their families throughout their lives and we just love seeing them so well cared for and doted on in their later years. Well done, Lilith 🫶

03/06/2025

🚨📣 Laminitis warning 📣🚨

After the sunniest spring on record, we’re now finally getting some rain - great for the ground conditions, but the perfect conditions for grass growth! 🌱☀️☔️

With the increase in rainfall comes an increased risk of laminitis, which can be triggered by intake of lush grass that’s high in sugar content.

Although horses with metabolic disorders like EMS or Cushing’s are most at risk, ANY horse can get laminitis - being aware and acting to prevent it striking is key.

Here’s our top tips for preventing laminitis:

🌱 Monitor grazing: avoid grazing overweight horses on lush grass, limit grazing time or use grass muzzles
🍔 Monitor your horse’s diet and reduce calorie intake where necessary
⚖️ Pay attention to their body weight
🐎 Keep your horse well-exercised where possible
💉 Test at-risk horses for insulin resistance or Cushing’s

📞 Laminitis is a medical emergency and early action is essential. Call us on 01564 783404 if you suspect it.

30/05/2025

Meet in-foal competition broodmare J’adore, young stallion Ed, 18 year old Riley, 27 year old Smudge and broodmare Gwen - five very different horses all owned by client Dani, and all treated by 608 💙🐴

Dani said, “A big thank you to Mat, Lauren and Robyn at 608 for all their help with my horses, especially J’adore and Ed this year.

Mat and Robyn have been amazing with my stud work - I had a really rubbish breeding season last year, but this year has been better with J’adore in foal for the first time. The advice I’ve had from Mat has been phenomenal, both for J’adore and another mare who’s proven difficult to get pregnant - after three years of issues, we’ve actually started to get some answers!

Mat has also been very good answering questions about managing my older show jumper, who is now 18 and still going!

Lauren was fantastic when my young stallion had an injury to his eye a couple of months ago, and she also dealt with my 27 year old pony’s teeth and was great.”

From stud work to geriatrics, when we say we treat horses and ponies of all shapes, sizes and ages, we really mean it! 💙

24/05/2025

💙 Our vet Anna is at Solihull Riding Club this weekend covering their British Eventing Official Horse Trials!

We’re always proud to support this event - the team at Solihull and BEDE Events always put in a super effort and it’s great to see so many horses and riders enjoying the sport!

🍀 Good luck to all our clients competing over the weekend.

🐶😴 These event days are hard work! Lucky’s found a good spot to snooze in Anna’s truck - not sure how comfy that looks, but these dogs are quite used to sharing their spaces with huge boxes of veterinary kit 😂