Loch Leven Equine Practice

Wednesday's Weekly Case Study......Corneal Ulcers
A corneal ulcer is a sore, or a loss of the top layer of the eye which can be very painful. We use a specific dye which allows us to see the extent of the lesion as the dye only attaches to the damaged part of the eye and the healthy areas are left uncoloured. You can see from the first photo that there is a large green area of damaged tissue.
This horse had a large corneal ulcer that did not respond to initial treatment so h...e was brought to the hospital to get a lavage system placed which allowed us to intensively treat the ulcer with regular medication.
The ulcer was healing slowly, but as the eye was still painful even with pain relief and eye medication we decided to place a contact lens. This made him instantly less painful by providing a barrier in the same way that a plaster or bandage does.
After spending a long time with us at the hospital the lens was removed and when we re-stained his eye we could finally see that that the ulcer had healed. He was delighted to finally go home!
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MEET THE TEAM - LIZ
Job Title - Practice Manager
My favourite part of my job is - coming up with new and exciting ideas for the business and working with our brilliant team to implement them
... I least like - letting people down, I know how hard everyone works and how much they all care and when it occasionally goes wrong I hate feeling that we have let someone down. I usually end up stewing on it because I really care about what people think of our business.
Outside of work I love to - ride my horse Splash who is just BEAUTIFUL!!!! He’s my head space from work and puts a huge smile on my face every day. Oh and of course spend quality time with my boys big and small…..!
Most inspired by - Oh god so many people inspire me for many different reasons! Horsemen like Mark Todd and Andrew Nicholson who are just legends in eventing and pure class XC, my dad who has been given a new life due to a heart transplant two years ago, his donor's family and the team at the Golden Jubilee in Glasgow, my best mate who no matter what has the most amazing positive attitude to life and is always smiling, but ultimately my children are my inspiration, they drive me to get out of bed in the morning, and to keep pushing myself to be a better Mum and person.
I’d most like to go to dinner with - I should probably say Hugh but ……..Barack Obama (for the conversation) and Jenson Button (just to sit and look at….!!)
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**Exclusive Prize Giveaway for our Healthy Horse Club Members**
If you are thinking of joining our Healthy Horse Club to benefit from the fantastic savings on your horse's routine healthcare now is the time to join..... We have a fantastic prize giveaway of two all week members passes to Blair Castle Horse Trials that we are giving our club members the chance to win. The draw is on Saturday 18th and all you need to do is give the office a call and Cara will be able to get you signed up. Our existing members will be automatically entered into the prize draw.
In addition our HHC members are all invited to an exclusive course walk with Wills Oakden at Blair - time and day will be confirmed shortly so keep your eyes peeled 😀

We all have horses for different reasons but I think most of us would agree with this one 😂

Lots going on this weekend! Clients competing and vets covering at Central Scotland Horse Trials, Kinross Show is on today and some of our younger clients are down at the Land Rover Regional Championships for Pony Club in the Borders...good luck from all of us at LLEP!
We'd love to hear about how you get on, post us your photos and results! Don't worry if your not competing this weekend...we'd still love to see what your up to!

Karen and Jane are on duty at Dalkeith today! Good luck to everyone taking part today 🍀Kick on! We’d love to know how you get on!

We are really looking forward to our Open Day...let us know if you are coming along!

With the hot weather and dry conditions it is really important to keep your horses hydrated

**DENTAL OFFER**
Remember our dental offer finishes at the end of this month!
Receive £10 off your horses routine dental during August.
... Dental offer price including sedation - £55 Dental offer price excluding sedation - £36
To book your appointment, call the office and speak to Cara or Patty!
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Wednesday's Weekly Case Study..........****Warning photos may contain some graphic images!****
This lovely event horse had a very nasty injury to both her knees having gone down on the road whilst out hacking, this is not uncommon and we usually see several of these every year.
There was a large piece of skin that had been ‘grated’ away by the friction on the road but as we would expect with this type of injury, there was also a huge amount of contamination, grit, dirt and ha...ir in the wound and an even larger tear underneath the skin, leaving a huge ‘dead space’ that was filling up with fluid.
Unfortunately we also discovered that one of the wounds went all the way into one of the joints at the front of the carpus. She had emergency keyhole surgery to treat the infected joint, the cavities under the skin were debrided and flushed and special rubber drains were sutured under the skin to help the tissue fluid escape. Finally, even though there was a large amount of skin missing, Hugh was able to suture this closed with special ‘tension sutures’.
After a few weeks of careful bandaging initially at the Clinic and then at home, the sutures are now out and the skin has healed incredibly well – she has started her rehabilitation, including passive flexion and walking and will be ready to come back into full work in another 4-6 weeks.
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Calling all Healthy Horse Club members!...
With thanks to Blair Castle International Horse Trials and Country Fair, we are giving away 2 full week member passes worth £200 for our HHC members! Everyone on our HHC plan will be entered automatically and the prize draw will be drawn live on Facebook on Saturday 18th August, so keep your eyes on our page for the winner!
Want to be in with a chance of winning the tickets? Our new Healthy Horse Club plan launched earlier this year and costs £15 a month. Call the office and ask to speak to Cara for more information and to sign up!

Our fab vet Jane won July's Employee of the Month!
Jane was nominated by the team for dealing with lots of dental cases recently including referrals, working really hard and always helping others!
Well done Jane :)

Slightly random post this morning but we need your help please guys.....!
What are your favourite equestrian and country brands and which companies do you love shopping with?
Answers below......😀

DRUM ROLL PLEASE......We have a WINNER for our Perth Show Prize Giveaway. Kendal Young you have won two tickets for Blair Castle Horse Trials on both Saturday and Sunday. We will be in touch via email but if anyone knows Kendal and can tag her in the post that would be super 😀 Thank you to everyone that entered, it was great to see so many new faces on the stand as well as catching up with news from some of our regulars!

So this finally happened today.......💥💥🍾🍾 We are incredibly proud of Siobhan who after finding out she passed her exams at the beginning of the year has had to wait until now to be able to call herself a Registered Veterinary Nurse. It has taken a huge amount of hard graft, blood, sweat and the odd tear to get to this point and no one deserves it more ❤️ we already knew what an asset Siobhan was to our team but we are now allowed to publicly boast about our very own qualified equine veterinary nurse

It's show day at Perth Show and we are set up and ready and waiting! We are running a fantastic prize giveaway of two tickets for both Saturday and Sunday at Blair Castle Horse Trials. To be in with a chance of winning just come and find us on the stand 😀

We often get asked for tips on how to get our patients to eat their drugs. These are some of the things we recommend but we would love to hear your ideas if you have found something that works!

Fancy your chance to win a pair of weekend tickets for Blair Castle Horse Trials?
Visit us at our stand tomorrow and Saturday at Perth Show and get your free entry in!

Well in just two weeks lily has mastered cantering round the stubble fields and jumping a small course of jumps. Hope has just completed his first CCI one star. Neither horses would even be here if it wasn't for you guys at Loch Leven. I'm eternally greatful.

Welcomed with a friendly face, our horse shown to her stable for time we were to be there. Cup of tea or coffee for us and explanation of how the time there would be.

Every member of staff were lovely. Kept updated as to what would be done and how things were going.

Would highly recommend Listening ch Leven equestrian if your horse ever needs scoped �

This week I've commiserated with a friend who has lost a horse in much the same way as I lost mine. It reminded me of your expertise and kindness and how much I appreciated your calls, emails and the beautiful box of flowers you sent me afterwards. It has taken me seven years to own a horse again but I've called the office this week to update details and I'm looking forward to having your support again to keep my new horse healthy and happy. :-)

Since I am a vet myself (albeit small animals ) I only see my equine vets in dire emergencies or when it's time to say goodbye to one of my pony family. These vets have never let me down. They are professional, compassionate and also sympathetic to me in ' owner mode ' . Had to let my old boy go recently and cannot thank Jane enough for making things as easy as they could be and giving him a dignified end . The lady from the uplift service was also a star as on (too many ) other occasions. Could recommend the practice whole heartedly to anyone. And now I hope not to see them again for a good long while ! Thank you ��

Pete has been amazing with Kelso! He's had two kicks and Pete has done an amazing job healing them! Kelso also has really bad teeth and the difference Pete has made to Kelso in the last year or so is amazing! Kelso hasn't the best luck when it comes to health so very thankful for all the loch leven staff for their help with him

Lost my beautiful girl Amy on Friday and all I can say is it's the worse I have ever had to deal with, I can't thank peter enough, he's has been amazing, and thank you to all the staff for my beautiful flowers! Xxxx

It's the most difficult time for horse lovers when they lose their precious animals. Although Blake was not mine, he touched my heart in a special way and was there through his illness. I witnessed fantastic vet care , kindness and compassion for him as well as us. A special Thankyou to Hannah, Sarah, Jane and Pete and the vet nurses(names escape me) and Pattie.

I've been with loch Leven for about 5 years. They looked after Jake, my last horse, through his navicular until he was sadly put to sleep. They are now my number one vets for Mario. They are a great bunch of people and provide a friendly, professional service. Always happy to give phone advice at no charge and in my opinion the best vats around.

I recently had to call on hughs services after a trailer accident with my horses at Blair castle international horse trials where he was the on duty vet. So professional but friendly and kept me very well informed and he went out of his way to assist us with finding transport for the injured horse to the dick vet in edinburgh. Thanks to his prompt and expert attention she is expected to make a full recovery. My warmest thanks to you for assisting us.

I had to make the hardest decision last week for my old boy Murphy - Hannah was marvellous, so patient with me and sorting out the after bit for me as well as going through all my options for him. She really made it as easy as it was ever going to be - thank you xx

I had my horse there today and found the staff lovely and friendly super kitted out practice and great professional service 👍

I cannot recommend you guys enough. When your horse or pony is unwell you need to know you have the best for them so you can do the best for them. You need 100% trust in your vet that is why I use Loch Leven equine practice x

Have had a few horses seen by the team, can't fault them in anyway at all.

Had my boy down for investigations today and had a great service from Hugh and team. Very friendly, welcoming practice! Keep doing what you do guys, you are all stars! �

Brilliant practice, always helpful and supportive with great advice.

After Charmer had to come in for a stay last week, I just had to write a note to say how fantastic everyone was. I was so nervous about it but from the second we arrived everybody we came across could not have gone out of their way more to put us at ease and help us feel totally comfortable and reassured. Thanks so much to the vets who worked on him, everyone who looked after him and everyone who helped us feel so welcome to visit - it took all the fear out of it and made such a big difference to the experience. Thanks again! :)

A massive thank you to the whole team at the practice couldn't have asked for a better team to take care of my girl. don't no who got looked after more. there from 9 till5 and they were so welcoming and attentive . Would recommend to anyone I know. Thank you all so much made a ferry emotionally day bearable xx

A massive big shout out to karen whom came to see my boy berty as he had a nasty big tennis ball sized lump on his neck. (Absess) she was amazing and so kind and good with my old boy i cant praise her highly enough. Totally trusted her as did berty. What an excellent manner and so caring couldnt have asked for more. Iam very grateful to her for looking after my special boy.xx

Big scare with this old lady this week. Possible colic/ neck damage. Elliott was brilliant, very understanding and caring. As indeed we have found all you guys to be. It means a lot to have vets who you trust. She's no looking bad for a 35 yr old.