Dr. George Dyck, DVM & Dr. John Roueche, DVM

Dr. George Dyck, DVM & Dr. John Roueche, DVM Mobile veterinary services for equines and farm animals (goats, pigs, sheep, llamas, alpacas, cows).

Service area includes Santa Clarita, Acton, Agua Dulce, north SFV, and parts of AV.

07/03/2024

We're having a heat wave! (Ya think?)

Our SoCal heat has a nasty tendency to hit us like a blast furnace. There's no segue into slightly warmer weather. People feel, horses feel it. You may think it's fine to get on your horse because you have shorts and a tank top on. Your horse is wearing a hair coat, running a normal temp of around 99-100 degrees, and carrying you and your tack.

Please pay attention to the heat index and be considerate of your horse. He could end up dying for you.

05/31/2024

UPDATE: Fingers crossed, phone issue is fixed. If you have an after hours or weekend emergency, please call 661 465 4064 to be connected to the on call doctor.

We are currently having difficulty with our after hours emergency line. We are trying to get it resolved but it may take some time. Until further notice, if you are calling with an after hours or weekend emergency, please send a TEXT message to 661 481 1934.

Thank you.

05/06/2024

A hard reality in today's veterinary world is that vets just aren't as available as they were 15 years ago. Or maybe even 10 years ago. Times have changed and not for the better. If you pick up any vet magazine, there will most likely be an article about the shortage of vets. It's at the forefront of meetings and discussions.

But the fix is not easy or quick or forthcoming any time soon. In fact, things are likely to get worse and could signal a drastic change in the way mobile equine medicine is practiced in the near future.

Gone are the days when you had a selection of equine vets to call if you had an emergency. If you have farm animals, it's an even worse scenario. These days it's common practice for offices to restrict emergency calls to existing clients only. They may also restrict the geographical area they are willing to travel to. If you are in a rural area, it may take 45 minutes for them to get from 1 appointment to the next. Multiplied throughout an entire day, that's a huge chunk of time spent on travel alone. It's not a comforting situation for people trying to take care of animals.

So what can you do?

First and foremost, be prepared to take your horse to the hospital. If you don't have transportation yourself, make a list of people who will do emergency transport for you. They're out there.

Talk to your vet about medications that he/she might be comfortable leaving with you. Make sure that you are completely honest about your level of expertise and understand that whatever meds he/she might agree to leave are to be used only as directed.

Have your vet show you how to take vitals if you don't know already. These are a valuable baseline and can help your vet with treatment decisions.

When you call your vet, be prepared to give a factual synopsis of what the issue is and what, if anything, you've done so far. Short and sweet works. Or, as Sgt Friday used to say, 'Just the facts, ma'am.'

Emergencies will always exist. If you're competent enough to determine what is and isn't an ER, great. If you're not sure, call your vet and let him/her guide you. Earlier is better than later. Vets are required to have someone on call during non business hours.

Last, but not least, do not use an unlicensed 'veterinarian' for any reason or at any time. It is illegal to practice veterinary medicine without an actual license. And you may very well cause your animal more harm that a licensed vet will have to try and fix.

And as a side note, this vet shortage exists countrywide. If you are contemplating moving out of state with your animals, make sure you scout out available veterinary care beforehand. You may find an idyllic place for you, but if you are 4 hours from the nearest vet, it could be a nightmare for your animals. And if you make that choice anyway, be sure you are capable of doing whatever might need to be done to keep your animals from suffering.

04/19/2024

CUSHINGS/PPID

Once thought to be a condition of older horses, it has been documented in younger although that is not a common occurrence. PPID (Pituitary Pars Intermedia Dysfunction for those dying to know what the acronym stands for) should not be confused with what some people call EMS (Equine Metabolic Syndrome), or Insulin Resistance, or Insulin Dysregulation. Different conditions, treated differently.

Pergolide mesylate, the medication used to treat PPID in horses is NOT a one and done. ACTH, the hormone that is the litmus test for diagnosing, naturally/unnaturally rises and falls throughout the year. Once your horse is diagnosed, you and your vet will need to monitor how well the prescribed dose of pergolide is controlling the ACTH. The dose may need to be increased before the normal seasonal rise in ACTH to keep the control tight. It may also - likely - need to be increased as the horse gets older and the dis-ease progresses.

The same symptoms that probably prompted either you or your vet to test can also be useful in monitoring the condition. The correct dose of pergolide will help many of those symptoms. And the only correct dose is the one that keeps ACTH in a normal range year round.

Great info at ecirhorse.org.

01/23/2024

A word about prescription medications.....

CA law allows you to purchase veterinarian prescribed medications directly from your vet or from a licensed pharmacy of your choice. CA law also mandates that said prescription is only valid for 12 months from the date of the exam that initiated the prescription. During that 12 months, refills can be authorized without having to book another exam appointment. After the 12 months, a new exam will be required in order to continue the drug. This is designed to ensure the continuing health of the animal and to determine if the prescribed drug is still appropriate. Veterinarians can be and have been suspended for not following this protocol, so if your vet's office says you need a new appointment, please make it.

10/14/2023

Euthanasia - the conversation no one wants to have.....
...but it is part of the unspoken agreement you made when you took on the responsibility of caring for a horse (or any animal for that matter).

The AAEP has the following guidelines in place to assist both veterinarians and owners in making an ethical decision:

*A horse should not have to endure continuous or unmanageable pain from a condition that is chronic and incurable
*A horse should not have to endure a medical or surgical condition that has a hopeless chance of survival
*A horse should not have to remain alive if it has an unmanageable medical condition that renders it a hazard to itself or its handlers
*A horse should not have to receive continuous analgesic medication for the relief of pain for the rest of its life
*A horse should not have to endure a lifetime of continuous individual box stall confinement for prevention or relief of unmanageable pain or suffering

Your veterinarian cannot make the decision for you. He/she can definitely give you available options and a prognosis. But the final act of kindness is your responsibility and should be made with the horse's best interests firmly in mind.

Allowing a horse to suffer for any reason, when there is no hope of recovery or relief, falls into the category of animal cruelty. Allowing one to 'die on their own,' in pain, when a vet is available to end the suffering, is unconscionable.

Another casualty of refusing to end suffering and/or endless pain is the emotional toll on the doctor him/herself. They are in the profession to heal and cure wherever and whenever possible. They don't walk away from an owner making a bad decision and just forget about it. It stays with them.

You might be wondering why any of this even needs to be brought up.

The answer is.....because it still happens.

08/01/2023

Let's talk summer sores, shall we....?

The bane of every horse person's existence during the summer months. If you haven't had the pleasure....count yourself as very lucky! If you're one of the experienced ones......well, you know what you're in for. And if you're new to the condition, fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy ride.

Summer sores are due to a habronema worm life cycle gone astray. It's an ultimately unhealthy relationship between the habronema worms already living in your horse, the larvae that get passed out in manure, and the fly maggots that ingest those larvae. A complete life cycle involves those larvae getting re-deposited on your horse's lips and finding their way back to his stomach where they develop into adult worms and start the process all over again.

If there is damaged skin or mucous membranes on your horse, the larvae can get deposited there and set up the inflammatory reaction that becomes......voila!!!......a summer sore.

Summer sores live as fly season goes. They can start when the flies appear and most likely will not go away until the last fly has left the building, i.e., Xmas.

They are ugly. They are nasty. They are certainly uncomfortable for the horse. They require committed, persistent treatment. They require the ultimate in fly control: flyspray, Swat, fly masks, flysheets, area spray, fly traps. They are not life threatening.

Every vet has their own preferred protocol for treating these buggers so always check with them unless you've already found a plan that works. Starting a plan in the Spring is not a bad idea even if you aren't seeing a lot of flies then. They are nothing if not dependable and they WILL show up.

ADDED: And they are NOT the VSV virus currently roaming around CA, TX, and NV. There is a difference but we can still blame flies for both.

07/31/2023

A good visual for VSV cases. Specific locations cannot be disclosed for privacy reasons.

Note that it is also in TX and was just confirmed in NV.

07/21/2023

This really shouldn't have to be said, but I guess it does. Hot weather can take a toll on horses and humans. Excessive and dangerously hot weather can have dire consequences for a horse whose human thinks riding at any time other than EARLY morning or evening will be fine. Human has a choice, horse usually doesn't. You may be wearing as few clothes as you can decently get away with, but your horse is packing you, a pad, a saddle, hair, a thousand pounds more than you, and a normal temp about 2 degrees higher than yours.

Yes, when the heat index hits 120, a little trail ride could kill him.

06/19/2023

Message response to Kate Downing (FB is not allowing me to respond directly)

We do occasionally go out to Antelope Acres, but not on a regular basis.

06/05/2023

Monday morning PSA
If you pick up almost any veterinary magazine these days, you can find at least 1 article on the crisis in veterinary medicine today, particularly large animal practices. Older vets retiring = fewer vets available + very, VERY few new grads entering large animal practice = CRISIS. It is very real and is part of the reason there's a corresponding mental health crisis happening at the same time. The few vets that are left are scrambling to get to as many clients as they possibly can. They are working long hours on successive days and giving up home/family time. Still, the sad reality is that they cannot get to every one every time. Many offices will not take NEW emergency clients - you must be an existing client for them to do an emergency call.

Please keep this and the following in mind when trying to schedule an appointment:

To increase the odds of your animal getting treated, it is always a good idea to establish a relationship with more than 1 vet.

Under current conditions, living in close proximity to your vet or his office does not make it any easier to get an appointment.

Unfortunately, this situation does not have an end in sight.

06/01/2023

Just a PSA here......we are experiencing a heavy volume of calls, administrative requests, and questions. Please be patient with response times. Emergencies take priorities and those are always handled first.

05/31/2023

Welcome to the new page for Drs. Dyck and Roueche. It's a work in progress......so please bear with.......and/or ignore....the tweaking that may happen. I'm hoping to get to the helpful/informative posts 😉

Address

Santa Clarita, CA
91321

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 5pm
Tuesday 8am - 5pm
Wednesday 8am - 5pm
Thursday 8am - 5pm
Friday 8am - 5pm

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