Equine Clinic

Many of our operations are carried out by our Claire Phillips, our Clinical Director, and where appropriate other visiting surgeons with specialism in their chosen area. Nic Harries and Rachel Hurley are responsible for the General Anaesthesia and monitoring of our patients. We also have a number of visiting specialists where specific expertise is necessary. This includes:

• Surgery for joint infections
• Back surgery such as Dorsal Spinal Processes
• Suspensory surgery
• Keyhole Joint Surgery
• Castrations
• Laser Sarcoid Surgery
• A range of common soft tissue surgeries

Mark Tabachnik and Nic Harries are both qualified Equine Dental Technicians. As such, we are perfectly placed to provide your horse with all their dental healthcare requirements, from routine rasping to more complex corrections and extractions. We also deal with referrals from vets and other equine dental technicians.  We have an oral endoscope and regularly treat special cases such as diastemas and fillings.

• Fillings
• Diastema widening
• Extractions
• MTE

We offer a wide range of reproduction services; pre-breeding examinations; mare management; artificial insemination; pregnancy diagnosis; in-foal mare management; detection of reduced fertility in the mare and post foaling checks. 

We offer a wide range of reproductive services both at the clinic and at your yard. Somerford Park is a BEVA approved Artificial Insemination (AI) clinic for frozen semen.

In most cases it is preferable/ essential to bring your horse into the clinic to carry out a full lameness investigation when the reason for the lameness is not immediately obvious, eg. Abscess. However, if this is absolutely not possible, we can discuss how best to approach this at your yard.

Claire, Nic and Anna are our senior orthopaedic team and have all undertaken additional qualifications to become Advanced Practitioners in equine orthopaedics. They are available for lameness investigations in clinic and support our other vets working up cases in clinic or on farm

A full lameness investigation would involve:

• Physical examination
• X rays
• Gait assessment - walk and trot on hard surface, lunged/ ridden on a variety of different surfaces
• Ultrasound Scans
• Joint / Nerve blocks - this involves using local anaesthesia to localise the source of pain
• Imaging - we have radiography and ultrasonography machines available to provide high grade images for assessment by our specialist team
• Treatment - our experienced team will recommend the best and most appropriate treatment options for your horse and are able to offer a range of options that can be tailored to your and your horses individual needs

As part of the ongoing treatment and to aid the recovery of a horse particularly after certain orthopaedic procedures we will carry out a series of therapeutic treatments – including shockwave, H-wave, Indiba and ultrasound therapy.

All of these, excluding Indiba which is a clinic only therapy, can be done either at the clinic or on farm. The therapeutic ultrasound equipment can be hired out to allow you to complete this treatment yourself following appropriate instruction. Find out more about the treatment options here.

Our endoscope and gastroscope equipment are portable allowing them to be used on yard and in clinic. As this procedure requires 2 personnel there is an additional visit charge when we carry out these procedures out on yard. Many clients opt to bring their horse into the clinic to avoid this cost which also has the added option of us being able to perform the starvation part for the gastroscopy if the horse stays the night before with us. We often find this is less stressful for the horse as they are away from their normal environment and routine. These can be used to assess:

• Breathing difficulties/issues – 1.3m video endoscope to image upper respiratory tract, larynx and trachea
• 3m Gastroscope - Used to image the oesophagus, stomach and very first part of the small intestines

Video / images can be seen on the laptop and stored to aid diagnosis.

Worming your horse is an essential part of maintaining its health. Many owners use regular worming throughout the year to control the levels of worms in their horse’s gut. We offer a variety of worm control options, checks and worming. The cost of a worm check is about £10 and groups of 10 or more will receive a 10% discount.

We also have a strategic worming plan, that for an annual fee will provide you with everything you need to correctly manage your horses’ monitoring and treatment for worms, including Worm Egg Count kits, annual wormer, and tape work saliva test, as well as unlimited advice from our Veterinary Nurses/ SQP. 

Please contact the office on 01260 280800 and speak to Louise Pailor for more information on this.

From time to time specialist clinics are held at our clinic and on yard. 

These will be advertised via social media and our newsletter and will take place at relevant times throughout the year. 

• Gastroscopy clinic
• Performance Clinic
• Winter MOT clinic

There are a number of ways to pay for your visit / monthly invoice:

• Payment can be made online via the website
• Credit card/ Debit card/ Applepay (sorry we do not take AMEX) over the telephone or face to face
• Cash

Invoices are processed twice monthly and payment is requested within 14 days. Failure to settle your account within the required time period will result in administrative surcharges.

If, following discussion with your vet, you decide to make an insurance claim, we can help you with this. It is your responsibility to be familiar with the details of your horse’s cover in your policy, any exclusions etc.

We will talk you through the claims process and ensure that your insurance company receives all the relevant information from us in a timely manner, keeping you informed at all times of where your claim is up to.

All you need to do is open the claim with your insurers, complete and sign the relevant form and give this to us, pay your excess and the £20 administration fee and leave the rest to us.

We are able to undertake 2 stage and 5 stage Pre-Purchase Examinations with or without radiographs in clinic. The facilities at Somerford Park Farm and within our clinic provide the perfect setting to ensure a thorough assessment of your potential purchase which will leave you well informed to make your decision.

Our vets are very experienced in Pre-Performance Examinations and will discuss any findings on a risk basis and assist you in making an informed decision regarding purchase. Where necessary we can provide a rider for the ridden assessment. Please see our Pre-Purchase Examination information sheet for more information.

We are also happy to discuss your requirements over the phone.