Walking in the footsteps of local vet
Louise Fitzroy
As suspected cases of equine influenza continue to rise, vets are working tirelessly to test horses for the virus and keep the spread under control.
Andrews Speers, a private vet in the New England north-west, says he's had just two days off in the last month and is usually called out to seven properties a day.
"I would say that we're going to be seeing fresh cases for the next six to 12 months across the region."
He says the actual testing doesn't take long itself, but it's the paperwork and decontamination that makes each visit an hour long process.
"What we're going to do is take a blood sample from him and also take two nasal swabs, and it generally takes 48 hours for those test results to come back. At times we've been pushed out to seven days. You can notice that he's flaring his nostrils a bit.. it's generally just the first signs of seeing it. Sometimes they can get sore neck muscles, just because of the coughing and with discharge they can get a sore throat. We may be wrong, but I've sampled well over 100 and of those I've had three horses come back negative."
Mr Speers says the paperwork that follows the testing is crucial to find out if anyone's been onto the property, if the horse has left the farm or if any gear used by this horse has been taken elsewhere.
He says he's waiting to receive compensation for more than a month's work.
"We're having a little bit of difficulty, because we've been going for over a month now and we still haven't got any recompense for the work we've done. I did 19 days straight, then I had two days off, and now I'm back up to 11 days in a row. This morning I had to rush through five surgeries and a couple of consults to get out here, and just as I was leaving there was a mare that was foaling. I'm hoping that one of our other clinicians has been able to go and deal with it."
http://www.abc.net.au/rural
As suspected cases of equine influenza continue to rise, vets are working tirelessly to test horses for the virus and keep the spread under control.
Andrews Speers, a private vet in the New England north-west, says he's had just two days off in the last month and is usually called out to seven properties a day.
"I would say that we're going to be seeing fresh cases for the next six to 12 months across the region."
He says the actual testing doesn't take long itself, but it's the paperwork and decontamination that makes each visit an hour long process.
"What we're going to do is take a blood sample from him and also take two nasal swabs, and it generally takes 48 hours for those test results to come back. At times we've been pushed out to seven days. You can notice that he's flaring his nostrils a bit.. it's generally just the first signs of seeing it. Sometimes they can get sore neck muscles, just because of the coughing and with discharge they can get a sore throat. We may be wrong, but I've sampled well over 100 and of those I've had three horses come back negative."
Mr Speers says the paperwork that follows the testing is crucial to find out if anyone's been onto the property, if the horse has left the farm or if any gear used by this horse has been taken elsewhere.
He says he's waiting to receive compensation for more than a month's work.
"We're having a little bit of difficulty, because we've been going for over a month now and we still haven't got any recompense for the work we've done. I did 19 days straight, then I had two days off, and now I'm back up to 11 days in a row. This morning I had to rush through five surgeries and a couple of consults to get out here, and just as I was leaving there was a mare that was foaling. I'm hoping that one of our other clinicians has been able to go and deal with it."
http://www.abc.net.au/rural
posted by Horse Deals at
6:54 pm
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