Bay of islands veterinary services - Equine

24/08/2025

***MARE BREEDING***
If you are thinking about breeding your mare this season, please register your interest with us asap via our page or call our Waipapa Clinic (09 401 6654).
We will be offering fresh and frozen AI this season.
Frozen semen numbers will be limited based of on-site grazing availability.

06/08/2025

⛔️ Warning to Horse Owners ⛔️

Calf pellets can be DEADLY to horses!!

We recently attended a case of four naughty horses who got into over 40kgs of Calf grower pellets containing Bovatec (lasalocid that is toxic to horses). The lethal dose for a standard sized horse is just 10kgs so we had to act quickly to save these horses.

Our vets Hilary, Nicole and Garth quickly attended to flush the pellets out of the horses stomach before too much toxin was absorbed.
Lucky for these horses, their owners and our team was able to respond quickly and start treatments.

They have since recovered well but serve as a great remind to be vigilant in not feeding Calf feed to horses! If you suspect your horse has ingested Calf pellets, call us immediately.

Video showing large amounts of pellets coming out of the horses stomach via nasogastric tube.

09/11/2024

If you have warmblood foals being born this season, or horses of any age, get in touch via our Waipapa branch to organize microchipping for your NZ Warmblood Registration

The following NZ Veterinary Clinics have agreed to join the NZWA as Preferred Suppliers and these vets now have the PASSPORT ID FORMS on file ready to go.

Now you can go straight to your vet and get your foal / horse microchipped and ID'ed even before you begin the registration process. If your vet is on this list, you can simply:

1) Get your vet to chip and ID your foal / horse
2) Take DNA if required
3) Fill out an Application For Horse Passport form (on our website)
4) Get your Service Certificate from Stallion Owner or Insemination Certificate from the Inseminating Vet at time of conception
5) Pop everything in the post to the NZWA

If your vet is NOT on this list, tag them in the message below and we can get hold of them again to see if they are interested in being a part of this initiative.

15/08/2024

How cute is this photo of young Billy, checking in to make sure our vets Nicole and Claudia are doing a good job of his mates teeth 😍😆

07/08/2024

A good collection of wolf teeth and a cap removed from a group of young warmbloods today by Nicole and Hilary.
Getting wolf teeth out while horses are young is important to prevent discomfort from the bit during riding. These 3 and 4 year olds also had extremely sharp teeth so their routine dentals were also performed.

19/06/2024

Power outage
All of our clinics are currently being affected by the Northland wide power outage.
If you need to contact us whilst the power is down, please message our page Bay of Islands Veterinary Services with your phone number and someone will ring you back as soon as possible. Alternatively, pop into your nearest clinic and our team can help you

21/05/2024

*** EXPRESSION OF INTEREST ***
We are looking at organizing a far north trip for one of our equine vets. This would be up to Kaitaia, or further if there is the work, and everywhere in between. At moment we would be looking at 29th and 30th of this month.
Services that are on offer:
- X-rays – please note this will require mains power a level concrete floor and out of the weather. We may be able to get multiple horses in one place for this if you don’t have these facilities.
- Ultrasound – tendons or reproductive. Note repro scans require mares to be in a purpose-built crush.
- Dentals
- Lameness exams
If you are keen to get booked in, please message this page with your contact details, the number of horses, location and what work is required, and we will add you to the list. Booking times will be finalized closer to the time once the trip is confirmed.
Disclaimer – this is a one-off service. Any ongoing care or emergency care should be sought from your regular veterinarian.
If there is enough interest, we would be looking to make these regular trips.

25/04/2024

GREEN GRASS !

We are all very happy to finally see a bit of rain but with the grass turning green our beloved ponies could be at risk.
Parasites love this warm wet weather and we are starting to see a rise in colic cases, which can be related to a parasite burden.

This is a great time to drop off a fresh poo sample for a f***l egg count to find out if your horses require drenching. This is a great way to ensure you are not drenching unless actually required and indicate if you have a serious parasite problem on your property.

Fresh poo samples should be kept in the fridge until you are able to get them to us.

*** Waipapa clinic only ***

18/04/2024

LAMENESS:

Our vets have had a few interesting lameness cases recently involving fractures. Luckily for this 6yo gelding, his owner opted for a comprehensive lameness work up early on.

What could have easily been mistaken for just another abscess, has in fact reminded us just how fragile our 4 legged friends can be!

After he suddenly showed a moderate lameness one day, that didn't resolve or worsen with a couple of days rest, our equine vets Nicole and Ingeborg performed a full lameness exam.

Nerve blocks were used to block the feeling to parts of his leg to pin point where the lameness was coming from. This indicated that the pain was coming from somewhere near the fetlock area.

X-rays of the fetlock area revealed a small fracture to the long pastern bone - can you spot it?

Thankfully, as it was caught early it didn’t get a chance to worsen, and is not serious enough to require surgical intervention. With box rest and time, the prognosis for complete recovery is good.

Sometimes lameness can be much more than the usual abscess or stone bruise. This case reminds us of the importance of a lameness exam for any non-resolving lameness issues.
We are grateful to have portable X-ray and ultrasound units that allow us to work up these cases in depth, right here in Northland.

If you have a horse with a non-resolving lameness, please do get in touch with our Waipapa clinic

**posted with owners permission**

07/03/2024

We are very excited to be adding a new piece of equipment to our toolbox - a power dental float.
Keep an eye on our page for a promo coming soon 👀 once our vets have had a chance to get comfortable with it
Pictured is our vet Nicole, testing it out.

04/02/2024

The start of February marks the breeding season coming to an end for us with just a few follow up scans to go.
It's felt like a long breeding season for our team with a lot of mares going to frozen semen, a few fresh and even some live covers to keep us on our toes.
We can't wait to see the products of our hard work next season including some foals of our own 😍 thanks to all our lovely clients who have sent mares to us this season, you guys have been great!