Large Animal Services

We want to be your partner in your animal’s care. Yearly exams provide an opportunity for you, as the pet owner, to communicate with us concerning any current issues along with preventative measures to prevent sickness or injury with your animal. For our equine patients, we offer on-farm consults as well as haul-in options. For our cattle clients, we offer farm calls to evaluate your animals. For our small ruminant clients, we offer haul-in options to exam our patients. Please call the clinic today and speak with one of our technicians to decide what option is best for you and your animal.

We use our in-house laboratory often to aid in our ability to diagnose problems when working with our large animal and equine clients. We have the ability to get test results back within 30 minutes, which is crucial during emergency situations such as colic, extreme infection, dehydration, electrolyte imbalances, and exercise-induced muscle cramping. We have the technology to run in-house progesterone, which is useful for breeding purposes and decision-making in late-term mare pregnancies. In-house cortisol levels to check for equine Cushings, foal iGG, and active intestinal bleeds are just a few of the other capabilities of our in-house lab.

Before purchasing a horse, a pre-purchase exam is conducted to identify any preexisting problems that may hinder the horse’s future performance and reduce buyer risk. We offer different levels of pre-purchase exams that we can tailor to your specific needs. Our typical baseline pre-purchase exam is very thorough and sometimes takes a few hours to do. This usually involves listening to the horse, palpating all the joints and tendons, and watching the horse move with or without a rider. Often times we will use our mobile digital radiograph system to take whatever rads you and our veterinarians have discussed based on the horse and the potential discipline for which the horse is being purchased. Sometimes we will also run baseline bloodwork, drug testing, endoscopy for ulcers or breathing issues, or tendon ultrasounds. All of these options are available if desired. Please talk with one of our staff members today if you’re interested in a pre-purchase workup of a new potential horse.

X-rays are an important diagnostic tool used to identify what is going on with your animal. An X-ray allows us to look within the body for abnormalities that we would not be able to see otherwise. In horses, radiology is most commonly used to: 

• Help diagnose joint disease.
• Evaluate and monitor navicular disease
• Establish proper bone alignment to assist the farrier when working together
• Identify disease in the lungs of foals and some adult horses
• Diagnose dental problems in horses.

We utilize the latest technology of ultrasound every day when working with our large animal patients. Our most common use is for pregnancy diagnosis and to check the reproductive cycle in horses, cattle, and small ruminants. We have various different probes that we can use at different stages of the pregnancy. We also commonly use the ultrasound to check for soft tissue problems, such as tendon injuries, fluid buildup in the lungs, colic exams, and even some bone abnormalities in the neck, back, and hip areas. The ultrasound is non-invasive and non-painful for the patient. It uses sound waves to examine these internal structures and is safe to use in all circumstances to aid in the diagnosis of a problem.

The class 4 laser is the most potent, cutting-edge laser technology. It is used as a non-invasive, non-painful way to help manage pain and inflammation. It is also used to speed up the healing time for wound care by promoting healing at the cellular level. We use the laser regularly in our comprehensive approach to rehab our equine patients and even some of our ruminant patients in order to get them back to their regular level of comfort faster. Please call today to help establish a rehab or wound care program for your animal.

Shockwave is another tool used frequently when establishing an individualized rehab program or pain management program. It is a non-invasive method of therapy that stimulates healing in the joints, soft tissue, and muscle. It is frequently used in back pain, SI pain, arthritis, and tendon injuries. It also drastically increases the speed of wound and bone healing and soft tissue swelling. Shockwave can be used before shows and sales to maximize the comfort of your horse and help it to perform at its best.

Lameness exams are available for both on-farm and haul-in. We encourage working as a team and many times are able to include your farrier in the evaluation and planning process in order to get your animal sound as quickly as possible. During a typical lameness evaluation, the doctor will do a full physical exam, including palpation of the soft tissue and joints. Following this, we will see how the horse moves with and without a rider depending on the circumstance. In some cases, we may strategically use numbing medication in certain areas to help rule in and out where the pain is specifically coming from. This helps the doctor establish where to take x-rays or use the ultrasound. Injections may be one form of treatment used in a lame horse. Depending on what the issue is, we will work together to go over what therapy is the best option. We offer various steroid (anti-inflammatory) and hyaluronic acid combinations we well as PRP and IRAP injections. We have also added polyacrylamide gel as a more recent joint therapy.