Rainbow equine hospital is fully equipped to offer a full range of internal medicine services.
The hospital is staffed with on-site vets supported by qualified veterinary nurses and recognised specialists in medicine and surgery. This enables us to provide a level of in-patient care that is unsurpassed in the region. All out-of-hours checks and treatments are performed by veterinary surgeons and intensive care unit boxes are constantly monitored via internet-linked CCTV. The hospital receives in excess of 150 colic referrals per year and has a formal system of clinical audit.
The hospital laboratory is one of the best equipped in the country with highly trained and experienced laboratory staff. This allows us to gather testing results rapidly enabling important decisions to be made within hours rather than days. All laboratory results are interpreted and reported by one of the Equine Internal Medicine Diplomats.
The hospital has an interest in cervical vertebral malformation and receives a high throughput of neurology cases. Where appropriate, cervical vertebral malformation cases are stabilised with Dr Barrie Grant DVM MS DACVS MRCVS consulting.
Our services
The hospital if fully equipped to offer a full range of internal medicine services:
- Investigation of upper and lower airway disease
- Overground endoscopy
- Gastroscopy
- Electro- and echocardiography, including exercising ECG and 24 hour Holter monitor
- Abdominal and thoracic ultrasonography and radiography
- Ultrasound and endoscopically-guided biopsy procedures
- Intra-dermal skin testing and immunotherapy
- Laser surgery for sarcoids and melanomas, plus Oncept vaccine for melanomas
- Full work-up for headshaking, including head CT, and PENS therapy
- Dedicated stand-alone isolation facilities
- On-site laboratory with the latest analysers available 24/7
Gastroscopy admission information
Travelling medicine service
A lot of our specialist medicine equipment is portable. In situations where your horse cannot travel, one of our medicine specialists can come to your yard for procedures such as gastroscopy, to investigate for gastric ulcers and colic; echocardiography (heart scan) and ECG, to investigate heart murmurs and irregular heart rhythm; abdominal ultrasound to investigate colic, liver or kidney disease; airway endoscopy and bronchoalveolar lavage (lung wash) to investigate equine asthma/cough etc. This is done in full collaboration with your own vet, to allow the best possible treatment options for your horse.
Ophthalmology
Ophthalmology cases comprise a significant proportion of the caseload in the hospital.
We can perform full ophthalmic assessment, including tonometry for measurement of intraocular pressure, and can provide intensive 24/7 treatment for acute ophthalmic disease, as well as medical and surgical management of corneal injury and disease
We also have strong links with specialist veterinary ophthalmologists from around the country who travel to us providing a dedicated referral service for advanced ocular surgical techniques, such as:
- Cyclosporin implants for uveitis and keratitis
- Phacoemulsification with intraocular lens placement for cataracts
- Endolaser surgery