Comprehensive Equine Services
Preventative Healthcare
Countryside Veterinary Service offers comprehensive equine services. We offer plans customized for your needs to ensure the overall health of your horse and minimize emergency situations.
We offer:
- Vaccinations
- Equine Lameness Evaluations and Treatment
- Equine Dentistry
- Nutritional Needs
- Preventive Care
Wellness Exams/ Appointments
We have limited our farm calls to large groups and medical emergencies in which the animal cannot be safely hauled. Our farm call availability is extremely limited, and it is important to have transportation pre-arranged to bring animals to the clinic for medical emergencies. Please call us for more details.
Farm Calls – Comprehensive Equine Services
We get it! It’s not always possible to bring your horse in. For this reason, we offer farm calls and see your animals at your facility. There are many challenges in caring for an animal that cannot be moved from its location for one reason or another. Please let us know of any specific requests or conditions that will require special attention.
Dentistry
Countryside Veterinary Service provides comprehensive dental care for most equine needs. Horses at any stage in life benefit from annual dental examinations. This routine care can reduce the amount of tooth loss, prolong the lifespan, and prevent other medical conditions such as choke and colic. At our clinic, we manually float teeth as well as use power equipment. This aids in the precise and complete correction of dental problems. These services are offered both at our clinic or on your farm for the comfort and convenience of your horse. Horses have 36-44 permanent teeth, with variation in the presence of canine and “wolf teeth”. The incisors (front teeth) are designed for clipping grass. The molars (or cheek teeth) are designed for grinding roughage into digestible particles. Since horses do not have a rumen which is found in cattle and sheep, chewing is one of the most important parts of their digestive process. A horse’s tooth is like a file in how it is continuously worn down as they chew. The root, which is approximately 4 inches long in young horses, continues to erupt from the gum line throughout life. Because of this, the teeth are continually growing even though the surface is wearing down. The wear of the uneven surface causes sharp points that can slice into a horse’s cheek and tongue as it eats. Equine dentistry is aimed at preventing the source of pain as well as correcting abnormalities.
Vaccination/ Coggins Services
Countryside Veterinary Service uses the best quality, most up-to-date vaccinations available. We store and transport our vaccines properly, so there is no need to worry about the quality of your vaccines. Our doctors are more than happy to discuss vaccination pros and cons. Though it may seem like a good idea to buy your own vaccines and administer them yourself, most manufacturers only guarantee the safety and efficacy of their vaccines when administered by a veterinarian.
Internal Parasite Control
Internal parasites, like many other things, have become more and more resistant to dewormers. This is a growing concern to all livestock owners, including horses. With no new wormers like to be available anytime soon, it is more important now than ever to ensure that deworming protocols are effective and do not promote parasite resistance.
As part of our comprehensive equine services, we recommend a targeted, evidence-based approach to parasite management called strategic deworming. Strategic deworming utilizes fecal egg counts (FEC) and fecal egg count reduction testing (FECRT) to create a deworming protocol specifically designed for your horse and your farm. This program is relatively new to Central Illinois but has been common practice in many parts of the country for more than a decade.
If you are interested in strategic deworming, give us a call and talk to one of our staff members. This may be a program that can help you provide a higher level of care for your horse while helping to maintain the effectiveness of the available anthelmintics for all horses. If Strategic Deworming is not an option for you, we can still evaluate whether your current deworming program is effective utilizing fecal egg counts.
Equine Lameness Evaluation
Hoof care is extremely important in equine care, and our veterinarians perform lameness evaluations. Our clinic offers a complete and thorough evaluation, including X-rays, to assess the source of the problem. Lameness can be caused by a variety of issues, including:
- Injury to bone, muscle, tendons, or ligaments
- Diseases
- Overworking
- Infection
- Neurological Disorders
- Farrier
- Horse Conformation
If you are planning to buy a horse, contact us regarding an equine pre-purchase exam. An important component of this exam is a thorough lameness examination to rule out any existing unsoundness.
Equine Reproductive Services
Countryside Veterinary Service offers extensive equine reproductive services including artificial insemination and reproductive ultrasounds. We won’t stop once your mare is in foal. For your convenience, we will send out reminders when pregnancy-related vaccines and other procedures are due. Our doctors are here to help for any foaling complications or questions.
Equine Artificial Insemination
At Countryside, we provide equine artificial insemination services with cooled semen. Breeding mares with cooled semen requires that all parties involved (mare owners, stallion managers, and veterinarians) coordinate semen shipments with the mare’s ovulation before shipping semen.
Equine Reproductive Ultrasound
The use of reproductive ultrasound for breeding evaluation, as well as insemination timing, increases the likelihood of pregnancy in broodmares. Pregnancy diagnosis can be performed at or around 16 days post-insemination. This allows a sufficient amount of time to reorder semen if needed. The technology of reproductive ultrasound is safe and relatively low in cost, making it a necessary tool for the equine breeder. Our veterinarians offer skills and experience in the use of reproductive ultrasound.
Lab Services
For us to be able to diagnose health issues in-house, we have the capability to perform a wide range of laboratory tests on blood, urine, feces, and biopsied tissue. Without results, we can’t diagnose!
Though we do offer some laboratory diagnostics, we can’t offer it all. For those instances, we must mail samples off, we do so in a timely manner and get results as soon as possible.
Soft Tissue Surgery
Countryside Veterinary Service performs some soft tissue surgery with standing sedation. We do have the capability of performing surgery if the horse must be laid down. A few examples of the surgeries we do are castrations, wound repair and reconstructive surgery, eye removal, tumor biopsy or resection, and removal of many other varieties of lumps and bumps.
We can perform on a variety of ailments including curbs, warts, skin lesions, melanomas, and sarcoids.
Digital Radiography
A nice thing about digital radiographs is the image quality. Not only are better images obtained due to the immediate feedback that is received, but digital technology produces a much clearer, more detailed image.
Digital radiographs can be emailed or saved to a disk and given to you as part of your personal medical records for your horse. Images can also be shared quickly via email too.
Cold Laser Therapy
The Drug-Free, Surgery Free Solution
As part of our comprehensive equine services, Countryside Veterinary Service offers Class IV Laser therapy that delivers specific red and near-infrared wavelengths of laser light to induce a therapeutic effect within the body. These include increased circulation, decreased swelling, reduction of pain, and enhanced tissue repair. Common uses for the laser include chronic wounds, ligament injuries, incisions, and many more!
There is no patient sedation or restraint required and the experience is usually pleasant and comforting to them. Each treatment lasts around 1-4 minutes, but the length and frequency of treatments vary with your horse’s condition. Even though improvement may be seen after the first visit, most patients require several treatments for the greatest benefit, and we recommend a multi-visit treatment plan. Your veterinarian will recommend a treatment plan specific to your horse’s conditions.
To learn more about our cold laser therapy, please watch our video!
