Facilities and Visiting the Equine Referral Hospital
Accommodation
We have 35 stables available for patient accommodation during their stay and treatment. These stables include 23 general boxes, 2 holding boxes, 6 Intensive Care boxes, 2 Mare and foal boxes, and 2 isolation boxes. We have a dedicated Adult Intensive Care Unit and a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Our dedicated Isolation Unit is for horses with contagious disease. In addition we have a padded stable for horses with neurological disease. All stables are bedded with shavings (with the exception of the two holding boxes for day patients which are rubber matting).
In-Patient Care
Once hospitalised, your horse will receive the best possible care and attention from our dedicated clinicians, nurses and equine technicians. Water will be available at all times, and your horse will be fed at regular intervals as required - specialised diets will be provided as necessary. If appropriate, your horse will be walked at regular intervals throughout the day. At all times your horse’s welfare is our priority. The hospital is staffed 24 hours per day, 7 days per week and so there is never a time when your horse is not being cared for.
Overnight care of your horse
If your horse is admitted to the Equine Referral Hospital and stays overnight it will receive the highest possible standards of care from our overnight on-call clinical team comprising a specialist surgeon, a specialist physician, an anesthetist, two specialists in training (a Senior and Junior Clinical Training Scholar) and senior clinical students. The specialist in charge of your horse will formulate a dedicated overnight plan for your horse specifying how often it must be checked and when treatments must be given. Every horse receives individual care overnight and the out of hours plans are reviewed for each horse with the overnight clinical team each day. As a minimum, every horse is checked four times overnight at 8pm, midnight, 4am and 8am and more frequent checks and treatments are provided if required by the out of hours plan. Our team is able to provide hour-by-hour or even continuous monitoring of patients. If you would like more information about the overnight care of your horse, please ask when your horse is admitted and your academic clinical specialist (Team Leader) will be pleased to discuss this with you.
Visiting
You are welcome to visit your horse. All that we ask is that you arrange visiting times with the reception team or vet so that we can best accommodate you around busy times or treatments. We want you to spend quality time with your horse and so ask you to work with us to arrange suitable times.