Hospital

Goulburn Valley Equine Hospital

Your horse's health is our concern

The Goulburn Valley Equine Hospital was officially opened in 1989 by Dr. Davis McCaughey the then Governor of Victoria.

The hospital was built on an 85 acre irrigated farm in 1988 and was staffed initially in 1988/9 by the two present partners (Jim Vasey and Angus McKinnon) with a single combined receptionist / veterinary nurse. During the 1999/2000 year the hospital had 9 veterinarians supported by 10 full time and 3 part time staff. In 1999, over 725 surgeries were performed under general anaesthesia and over 1200 horses were radiographed. The practice services around 1800 broodmares (~ 70:30 Thoroughbred and Standardbred) for routine work. In addition frozen semen is held from over 50 stallions and 85 Embryo transfers were performed in 1999/2000. The hospital has a research herd of 100 broodmares.

The hospital is a centre for both routine and specialist care. It is also a referral centre for many veterinarians with difficult or unusual problems. The hospital, which is situated just north of Shepparton on the Goulburn Valley Highway, is in a unique position in central Victoria and routinely attracts cases from all around Victoria and southern NSW. However horse people are very discerning and we have had horses travel from Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia and even from New Zealand.

Broadly speaking we divide the Hospital into different areas of specialisation.

	Ambulatory services: This is where our veterinarians travel to see your horses. All the hospital veterinarians are available to visit horses on farm in our practice area.
	Lameness: We have specialised equipment and skills for diagnosis of almost all types of lameness's.
	Medicine: We treat all kinds of medical problems from critically sick young foals to horses that bleed during exercise.
	Reproduction: This unit is second to none and offers routine procedures such as artificial insemination as well as the most sophisticated services seen anywhere in the world.
	Surgery: Without doubt the surgical procedures offered by this hospital have been responsible for either saving the life of, or return to performance of, a very large number of horses.

Another unique aspect of the hospital is the associated 85 acres (34 hectares) of irrigated pasture that allows us to have large numbers of horses on site for some of the more difficult procedures such as embryo transfer and breeding with frozen semen. It also allows us to have large research herd and results from research have been written up in many international journals. For the year 2000 we received the RIRDC ~ Vetsearch equine research award.

Many of our veterinarians are registered specialists and have furthered their education with post graduate education and qualifications. This blend of practicality and research has resulted in the huge popularity of our annual reproductive shortcourses.

Research Assistants:

Lara Sava came to us from Gai Waterhouse's stables in Sydney. She is quite an amazing young women who seems to get everything she sets her mind to (even Mike). She has spearheaded the reproductive efficiency research program and after a whole year of entering data has got into veterinary school at Sydney University. Well done and good luck Lara!!!!