Please click here for more information!

Thursday 13th June 2019 

Venue: The Petersfield School, Cranford Road, Petersfield, GU32 3LU 

Doors open 7pm for food & drink / Prompt 7.30pm start 

The digital cushion and its relationship with the external hoof 

Jay Tovey FWCF 

Various methods of measuring the depth of the digital cushion (DC) to an assumed external reference point above the heel bulb are being used in a belief that different farriery or trimming techniques can alter the depth, health and composition of the DC and thus improve the strength and depth of the horn in the heel area. 

Jay qualified in 1996 and has been competing in farriery competitions since he was an apprentice. He has represented England as an apprentice and also as a qualified farrier competing at many international competitions all over the world. He became a Worshipful Company of Farriers judge in 2008 and was on the farriery team at the London Olympics 2012. He passed the AWCF in 2013 and then went on to pass the highest exam possible, the FWCF in 2017. In 2018 he was also appointed as a WCF examiner. Jay is passionate about farriery education and runs his own farriery tuition business and is also a tutor for BFBA’s AWCF and FWCF course. 

Flexural and angular limb deformities in foals & yearlings 

Jane Boswell MA VetMB CertVA CertES (Orth) DECVS MRCVS 

RCVS and European Specialist in Equine Surgery 

This presentation will provide an overview of the causes and clinical signs of flexural and angular limb deformities in foals and yearlings. It will review the conservative treatment and management of these conditions and provide guidelines for when surgical intervention is required. 

Jane is an an RCVS and ECVS Specialist in Equine Surgery. She joined Liphook Equine Hospital in 2000 as one of the surgical team, and became a partner in 2006. As well as surgery, she has a particular interest in magnetic resonance imaging and lameness diagnosis. She has been invited to lecture extensively on these subjects both in the UK and abroad. Jane has been an examiner and chief examiner for the RCVS Certificate in Equine Surgery and for the ECVS Diploma in Equine Surgery and is a Regent on the Board of European College of Veterinary Surgeons. 

To book your place, please contact our reception team on: 

01428 727200, or via email to tasha.wilson@theleh.co.uk 

WE ARE NOW FULLY BOOKED! Please email tasha.wilson@theleh.co.uk, if you would like to be added to the waitlist

Liphook Equine Hospital are pleased to announce the date of our first Equine Veterinary CPD of 2019. The event will take place on Tuesday 19^thMarch at Liphook Equine Hospital, and is very kindly supported by Boehringer Ingelheim. To book your FREE place, please contact our hospital reception team on: 01428 727200, or via email to tasha.wilson@theleh.co.uk. Numbers are limited!

Please click on the following link for more information:

CPD 19th January 2019

Everyone will no doubt be aware of the increasing number of ‘flu outbreaks in the UK this year and, more concerningly, reports from Newmarket involving infection in vaccinated horses. Given recent history it is assumed that the recent outbreaks involve Florida clade 1 virus.

In view of the evidence of infection in vaccinated horses, it is crucial that an accurate message is given to horse owners to avoid loss of confidence in vaccination which will make the situation even worse. In this respect it is important to realise that it is not simply a case of vaccine failure, and we should point out that:

This event is now fully booked! We do have a wait list. Please contact tasha.wilson@theleh.co.uk

Do you have any members of the practice that would be interested in attending our Essentials of Equine Practice course?

This is a 3-day residential course held at West Dean College, Chichester, and at the Liphook Equine Hospital. The course is aimed for recent graduates and more experienced colleagues wishing to refresh their knowledge of general equine practice. The course is also suitable for final year veterinary students. The course focuses exclusively on what you need to know in ambulatory equine practice and has a very practical emphasis.

There is a charge of £495 which includes 2 nights’ accommodation, food and entertainment for all 3 days.

For further information please click here.

If you would like to book a place (or places), please complete a booking form. For further information please email tasha.wilson@theleh.co.uk

Do you have any members of the practice that would be interested in attending our Essentials of Equine Practice course?

This is a 3-day residential course held at West Dean College, Chichester, and at the Liphook Equine Hospital. The course is aimed for recent graduates and more experienced colleagues wishing to refresh their knowledge of general equine practice. The course is also suitable for final year veterinary students. The course focuses exclusively on what you need to know in ambulatory equine practice and has a very practical emphasis.

There is a charge of £495 which includes 2 nights’ accommodation, food and entertainment for all 3 days.

For further information please click here

If you would like to book a place (or places), please complete a booking form. For further information please email tasha.wilson@theleh.co.uk

There is no doubt that molecular biologic technologies such as PCR testing have dramatically increased the sensitivity of diagnostic tests designed to detect the presence of several infectious pathogens including Streptococcus equi subsp. equi (Strep equi), Salmonella sp., CEMO and Dermatophytosis. Following on from an outbreak of strangles it is important to establish freedom from infection in all affected animals before “a line is drawn” under the outbreak and horses are free to mix and attend shows. Evidence suggests that guttural pouches are the only logical target for post-outbreak sampling with latest research indicating a greater than 50 times chance of detecting the presence of Strep equi in the guttural pouches of carriers compared to their nasopharynx (Boyle and others 2017). Furthermore, recent studies indicate that around 40% of culture-negative strangles submissions may be positive by PCR (Boyle and others 2017; Pusterla and others 2018).

However, the main drawback to reliance on PCR testing is that the technique simply detects the presence or absence of the DNA or RNA of the organism in question, whether or not that material is present in live or dead organisms. Indeed one recent study indicated that less than 20% of PCR positive and culture negative samples contained viable organisms (Pusterla and others 2018). It has been suggested that the lack of mucociliary clearance mechanisms in the guttural pouch could facilitate retention of DNA from dead Strep equi organisms leading to positive PCR results that do not actually indicate any risk of contagion.

A new PCR assay has been developed at Liphook which can distinguish live from dead Strep equi organisms. Use of this PCR will enable much greater confidence in the clinical relevance of positive PCR results. Results from examination of 10 washes, 5 of which had been boiled to kill the organisms, is shown in the graph below. The PCR was able to distinguish the live from dead organisms. Further validation in greater numbers of samples is ongoing.

In order to avoid the possible confounding effect of death of organisms between sampling and testing, it is important that samples are shipped in chilled saline (ACTH chiller packs for example), as previous evidence indicates that viability of Strep equi is excellent in cold and wet conditions (Durham and others 2018).

BOYLE, A. G., STEFANOVSKI, D. & RANKIN, S. C. (2017) Comparison of nasopharyngeal and guttural pouch specimens to determine the optimal sampling site to detect Streptococcus equi subsp equi carriers by DNA amplification. BMC Vet Res 13, 75

DURHAM, A. E., HALL, Y. S., KULP, L. & UNDERWOOD, C. (2018) A study of the environmental survival of Streptococcus equi subspecies equi. Equine Vet J

PUSTERLA, N., LEUTENEGGER, C. M., BARNUM, S. M. & BYRNE, B. A. (2018) Use of quantitative real-time PCR to determine viability of Streptococcus equi subspecies equi in respiratory secretions from horses with strangles. Equine Vet J 50, 697-700

How does the seasonal influence on the pituitary gland influence the diagnosis of PPID at this time of the year?  And how does it impact follow-up blood samples in cases that were previously under control?  What happens if you try to start pergolide treatment in July or August?

Let us take the stress out of managing your PPID cases – download our latest (free) podcast with Victoria South and Andy Durham who discuss what happens to our basal ACTH reference intervals at this time of the year, and chat through some common case scenarios that are affected by the pituitary hyperactivity observed at this time of the year – Seasonal PPID Podcast