The
Goulburn Valley Equine Hospital was officially opened in 1989 by Dr. Davis McCaughey the then Governor of Victoria. Last year we celebrated two decades of veterinary service. As part of those celebrations we had a massive conferences (see below).
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.
The hospital was built on an 85 acre irrigated farm in 1988
and was staffed initially by the two present partners (Jim Vasey and
Angus McKinnon) with a single combined receptionist / veterinary nurse.
This year there will 12 senior and 6 junior clinicians (interns)
supported by 21 full time staff.
In 2008, over 1000 surgeries were performed under general
anaesthesia and over 1400 horses were radiographed. The practice services around
2500 broodmares (~ 65:35 Thoroughbred and Standardbred) for routine work. In
addition frozen semen is held from over 250 stallions and > 220
embryo transfers
were performed in the season 2008. The hospital has a research/recipient herd of ~300 mares. We have been so busy in the ET department that we have bought another 200 acres to mange the large number of horses.
Broadly speaking we divide the Hospital into different areas of
specialisation.
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Ambulatory services: This is
where our veterinarians travel to see your horses. All the hospital veterinarians are
available to visit horses on farms in our practice area although it is
harder to get some to leave the hospital environment than others......!!!!
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Lameness: We have specialised
equipment and skills for diagnosis of almost all types of
lameness. The advent of digital radiography and high quality ultrasonography
has greatly improved our diagnostic capabilities.
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| Medicine: We treat all kinds of
medical problems from critically sick young foals to horses with cancer to horses that bleed
during exercise. We have a team of dedicated medicine clinicians and nurses.
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| 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. Recently we established the company Select
Breeders Australasia which heads a network of clinics throughout Australasia,
in a chain that freezes and distributes frozen semen.
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|  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.
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Another unique aspect of the hospital is the associated
80 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. Recently we just purchased another 200 acres which was to help us house the larger numbers of horses resulting from increasing demand for Embryo Transfer.
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 short-courses. Every few years we host a conference
for Veterinarians as well as the annual breeders course. This years courses will highlight the the "Two Decades' of veterinary service that the hospital has provided.
Talk about putting a cat amongst the pigeons. Have
a look at our link to discussion on Embryo
Transfer in Thoroughbreds. Also there is a quick look at things like Artificial
Insemination and related topics
How about the birth of a donkey (especially an
endangered one) from a horse??
Have you ever heard of such a thing?? Have a look.
Would
you like to e mail Angus who looks after the web site or the main office??
Would
you like to meet our staff?
Our aim with this web site
is to have the best, most informative veterinary web site around (just horses of
course). If you would like to make requests or suggestions we would be excited
to work with you or just implement them.
There are many forms we use to manage the day to day work of the hospital. Some of the forms are absoutely necessary to fill in and they can be found on the "forms to download" page.
Let us know your thoughts!!!!!!!!
Other
contacts
Phone 0358 299 566
Fax 0358 299 307
Address:
905 B Goulburn Valley Highway
Congupna
Victoria 3632
