Southkent Veterinary Hospital - Farm Services

18/06/2024

Attention Clients!🚧
On Tuesday June 25th- Wednesday June 26th the Village Council of Caledonia will be having road construction done from Glengarry Dr. through North Rodgers Dr. SE (back behind our building). The owner of Caledonia Cross Roads 8980 and 9021 North Rodgers buildings has offered the back parking lot to our clients for parking. Please follow the cones and signs for parking. The entrance of North Rodgers Dr. SE by Metro Health will be very busy. Please plan ahead and allow for more time when coming to the office. We appreciate your patience in advance. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact us. Thank you!

07/05/2024

Barry County 4-Hers! We will be selling the swine flu vaccine once again this year. The 1st dose needs to be given May 20-24 and the 2nd dose will be given June 10-14. We are using a new vaccine this year under the direction of the fair vet, and since it is a killed vaccine you will be able to pick both doses up at the same time. This means we will only have it available May 20-24. You are welcome to call ahead (especially if you need a large number of doses) or you can stop in and get it during our business hours 7am-4pm. The cost is $7.50 per dose so $15 per pig. Please pass this information along to anyone who needs it!

13/03/2024

Tis the season for adorable kids! Which means tis the season for dehorning 🐐 we typically recommend having goat kids dehorned at 7-14 days of age (we try to do buck kids by 10 days old) so if you are having kids born it’s best to call when they are born to schedule an appointment! We can come to your farm or if you can transport them to the clinic we can do them here as well. It’s important for us to provide proper pain control for these kids and we see much better results and less re-growth of horns if they are done at the proper age. Call the clinic today to schedule an appointment (616)891-9073

16/02/2024

Please save our new email address! If you typically email our office for anything please use this email address in the future.

14/02/2024

Happy Valentine's Day! ❤️

29/01/2024

And great reminders for calving season!

We had 3 dystocias last night and the owners did a great job getting them to us! The best possible outcomes when you act quickly!

29/01/2024

A few great tips as we enter lambing & kidding season!

The key to success at lambing and kidding time is timely intervention by your veterinarian!

27/07/2023

We are accepting new patients! If you are looking for great veterinary care call us today to schedule you pets first appointment with us!

A little bit about us, our office has both a small animal and farm services department. The small animal office is currently a three doctor practice that cares for dogs, cats, and pockets pets. Our doctors and staff strive to provide quality and affordable patient care. We treat you and your four-legged friends like family! Southkent has been apart of the Caledonia Community for over 70 years and continues to grow. We are looking forward to seeing you and your pets at their upcoming appointments!

15/07/2023

Since fair season is in full swing we thought we would do a little throwback! Dr. Colleen & Dr. Meggan have deep roots in the 4-H program and have been loving on livestock for many years. We love seeing our clients succeed in the show ring and enjoy helping out with their projects when we’re needed. Good luck to all of our youth this summer! 🐮🐷🐑🐐

12/07/2023

Happy belated national cow day from our farm docs to you!

30/06/2023

It's fun to see our farm calls come full circle. Starting with a CIDR synchronization program on a heifer, artificial insemination, and finally the delivery of her calf. Give us a call for breeding synchronization protocols or artificial insemination. 616-891-9073

24/05/2023

Just a reminder to Barry County 4-H pig showman! Your 2nd dose of the FluSure vaccine needs to be given this week! We have not had a lot of doses picked up this week so please remind others to stop by and grab it, thanks! 🐷

23/05/2023

12/05/2023

This poster has been going around and we've seen the social media panic, but if you have a Veterinary Client Patient Relationship (VCPR) already with a veterinarian, this change won't effect you.

If you don't have a vet, call and set up a VCPR now. Don't wait until you have a sick animal at midnight to start calling veterinary clinics. A VCPR at our clinic starts with a once a year farm visit. We just need to know about your farm and purpose of the livestock. Our clients with a VCPR call when something pops up with their animals, we chat about it, and we get meds around that they need. Sometimes we still need to go to the farm to assess the animal if they are severely sick and possibly need IV fluids or other emergent care. But for routine treatments, we can chat about the animals symptoms, move forward with a treatment protocol, and have you pick up meds from the vet clinic to administer yourself.

A visit once a year isn't too expensive and once you have a relationship with a vet, we can help you out easier if an emergency arises. Yes the government is in charge of these programs, but it's less about control and more about making sure there is oversight so antibiotics are used properly. You might be saying, "But I already know how to use them properly". The problem is not everyone does. Those that aren't using them properly are causing antibiotic resistance. We need antibiotics to work when we need them to. If people over use them when they aren't needed, or under dose animals they are treating, those drugs won't work for us anymore.

To keep our licenses we have to follow the rules too, and vets are here to help you. We know these new laws are a pain, and change sucks, but there is a good reason for these changes. This is not a ploy for veterinarians to make money. This is not the government taking your rights away. This is about judicious use of antibiotics to help keep the medications we have available working like they should.

So call your vet if you haven't in the last year and schedule a herd health visit. We like these visits because it gives us a chance to make suggestions to clients to improve their herd or management protocols. It's your opportunity to pick your vet's brain, assess body condition condition, check FAMANCHA scores and/or run f***l samples to keep our livestock healthier and prevent the need for medical treatment in the future. Prevention is much cheaper than treatment. Let's think of raising our livestock as a team effort and let your vet be one of those team players for your farm.

If you are in the west Michigan area and looking for a veterinarian to help with your cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, llamas, or alpacas, you can give Southkent Veterinary Hospital a call at 616-891-9073. Already a client with us? Feel free to refer your other farm friends that are looking for a veterinarian.

28/04/2023

To all of our Barry County 4-H kids & parents with pigs! Next week is the week to pick up the 1st dose of the swine flu vaccine required for your pigs. We will have it ready to go Monday morning for you to pick up. A couple friendly reminders:
-The Farm Services office is open Monday-Friday from 7am-4pm. You will not be able to get the vaccine through the small animal office so please plan a time to pick it up during our business hours.
-The first dose is to be given May 1-May 5 and the second dose is to be given May 22-May 26. We will not backdate invoices if you are late in picking up your vaccine.
- We will not be giving out both doses when you come to pick up the first dose. This is a vaccine that is mixed up and has a limited shelf life so the 2nd dose needs to be mixed up during the week that it is given.
-Please be kind to office staff as they help you!

Feel free to share this with other Barry County 4-H participants!

14/04/2023

Sun’s out, tongue’s out! ☀️ We hope you enjoyed this beautiful Friday!

27/03/2023

Fishing in abdomens doesn't lead to as exciting prizes as real fishing 🎣 But we hooked it and reeled it out 🙂 Success is gratifying 👌

Cryptorchidism is a failure of one or both testicles to descend into the sc***um. Bilateral cryptorchidism results in a sterile animal. However, unilateral (one-sided) cryptorchidism is more common.

This animal had an abdominal testicle with an inguinal hernia. Cryptorchidectomy is recommended in companion animals because it predisposed them to testicular cancer.

In our food producing species, cryptorchidectomy is also recommended because otherwise they can still be fertile, produce male hormones, and exhibit normal mating behavior. Which can lead to safety risk of farm employees and risk of pregnancy for female pen mates.

10/03/2023

Last day to register!
Small ruminant education opportunity tomorrow

Dr. Freeland will be presenting about small ruminant quality assurance

https://events.anr.msu.edu/2023SmallRuminantsforSmallFarms/

09/03/2023

24/02/2023

We are adding in another vaccine clinic! We will be hosting drive through vaccine clinics on:
Saturday April1, 2023
Friday May 5, 2023
From 8:30 am- 12:00 pm
This will be run like our drive through heartworm clinics. Once you arrive you will park and we will come get your pet! Pet's will be examined by the doctor, vaccinated and brought back out to you. We are ONLY doing heartworm tests and vaccines at this time. Any other health concerns will NOT be addressed at this time
In order to attend the clinic pets must:
🐾 Pet has to be seen previously in our office! No new patients please!
🐾 Healthy- no other health concerns addressed at this time
🐾 Cats must be in a carrier, dogs must be leashed
🐾 You must be in line by 12:00 pm in order to be seen.
** This is not a free event and prices vary based on vaccines**

21/02/2023

Dear valued clients: We have a big announcement!
For many years Southkent Veterinary Hospital has had two locations one in Caledonia and another in Byron Center. Southkent Veterinary in Caledonia is now its own entity and we are no longer affiliated with the Byron Center Office. After much thought and discussion both locations mutually decided this was best to service our clients and patients with excellent care.

The Byron Center office has taken on a new name and is now called Hometown Veterinary Care of Byron Center. We wish them all the best in their upcoming adventures. Please remember to have patience with them as they work through these changes.

Our doctors, Dr. Therese Burns, Dr. Becca Kursch, Dr. Keith Salmon, Dr. Reed Baker, Dr. Allison Koetsier ,Dr. Meggan Freeland and Dr. Colleen Potter, as well as our staff will all stay the same. One small change is, we are no longer able to call in medications to the Byron Center location. This will not affect the services or care we provide for our patients and their families.

If you have any questions regarding this please feel free to contact us here or at the office at (616) 891-9070. We appreciate everyone's understanding and support as we continue to navigate through this. We always strive to provide the best veterinary care for all of our amazing patients and clients.

14/02/2023

Thanks to all of the participants!
The pages are beautiful 😍
First place: Kinsler DeMann
Second place: Haley Woodmansee
Congratulations 🎊

❤️❤️❤️CONTEST TIME!❤️❤️❤️
Happy Valentine's Day!
To celebrate we're having a kids coloring contest.
To enter, print off and color the Samson the Baby Pygmy Goat coloring page (follow the link at the bottom to print the pdf).
Post a pic of the finished colored page to this post, like our page, and this post.
Tag a friend with kiddos!
We will pick winners on Friday afternoon.
1st place receives a hard cover children's book of Samson the Pygmy Goat and stuffed animals Samson and Brita the Barn Cat. 2nd place gets a soft cover book and a stuffed Samson.

www.samsonthepygmygoat.com

14/02/2023

Happy Valentines Day from a few festive friends we have found ❤️

09/02/2023

Tis the season for continuing education! Veterinarians are required to get a certain number of hours of continuing education every year in order to renew their license. This helps us to keep up on the latest and greatest advances in animal health and allows us to practice the most up to date medicine!

Dr. Keith attended the National Mastitis Council meeting in Atlanta last week, Dr. Meggan attended the Veterinary Meeting & Expo in Orlando a couple weeks ago and Dr. Colleen is at the AABP Recent Graduate Conference in Knoxville this week. Make sure you ask them what they learned when you see them 🐮

17/01/2023

Twinning Tuesday! See if you can spot the double trouble in this ultrasound video, these 2 little peanuts were stacked right on top of each other 🐮

05/01/2023

We are working on getting things a little more organized in our office for the new year! With that we have decided to start only running our in-house f***l tests on Tuesdays and Thursdays, this allows Jessa to do them as a large batch and makes things a lot easier and more organized. Please plan ahead when you are collecting f***ls for your animals for routine checks and have them dropped off on Monday or Wednesday to ensure timely results. (We haven’t established a time cutoff for tue/thur but we may in the future)

If for some reason you need the test ran on an “off” day there will be an added fee. The exception to this would be for a sick animal you are in communication with one of the doctors about, in which case the doctor can waive the fee.

As always we are working to provide the best care possible for your animals and trying to make our office run as smoothly as possible. If you have any questions please feel free to reach out!

27/12/2022

For our small ruminant clients who could not make it to Dr. Meggan’s meeting, we have Small Ruminant Record books made up to help you keep track of your herd. It’s a super helpful tool for recording health events and managing your animals! They are $5 a piece and are available at the office 🐐🐑

25/12/2022

Merry Christmas from all of us at Southkent! We hope that you and your animals stay safe and warm today 🎄

21/12/2022

Santa loves all the little critters 🐮🥰

Thank you Zeinstra Farms for bringing in this sweet little guy!