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 by the two present partners (Jim Vasey and Angus McKinnon) with a single combined receptionist / veterinary nurse. This year there will 12 senior and 5 junior clinicians (interns) supported by 21 full time staff. In 2006, 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 > 150 embryo transfers were performed in the season 2006. The hospital has a research/recipient herd of ~200 mares.

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.             

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.

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. Recently we brought out Ed Squires and Paul Loomis (Mr. Embryo Transfer and Mr. Frozen Semen). While they were here hosted a conference for Veterinarians as well as the annual breeders course.

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.

As a new feature we now have included a case of the week. Have a look and then later you can access previous cases.

Would you like to e mail us??

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.
Let us know your thoughts!!!!!!!!

Other contacts

Phone  0358 299 566
Fax     0358 299 307