Brenham Veterinary Hospital has expanded equine medical services to take care of your horses’ whole health needs.
Services
Diagnostics
Combined with regular wellness exams, equine vaccinations, dental care and parasite prevention form the foundation of your horse’s routine healthcare.
Preventive care ensures that your horse lives a long and healthy life. Our team will collaborate with you to develop a preventive care plan tailored to your horse’s specific needs, lifestyle, and potential risks.
Our horse friends can suffer from many dental disorders which can affect their ability to eat and perform.
Annual equine dental visits from our veterinarians at Brenham Veterinary Hospital include a thorough oral health examination and tooth floating (if necessary). This helps to ensure optimal dental health for your horse.
Our veterinarians can assess and treat your horse’s dental needs with comfort and safety by using sedation and full-mouth speculums during oral exams.
The pre-purchase evaluation enables us to gather and interpret the information necessary to assist you in selecting the horse best suited to your needs.
For us to fairly evaluate the horse, the animal should be fit, conditioned, and in training for its intended use. A horse that has been laid off for some time will be difficult to evaluate for lameness.
The examination is not meant to guarantee that the horse is sound but is an attempt, on the part of the examining veterinarian, to ascertain any preexisting problem or any potential problem that may affect future soundness (e.g., degenerative joint disease).
Whether it’s your first time breeding your horse or you are a seasoned pro, our reproductive management services can help you.
Our ultrasound-guided evaluations will follow your mare through her cycle to determine your best chance at breeding. We will help you hormonally control her cycle to optimize your breeding program.
At Brenham Veterinary Hospital we perform elective and emergency surgeries to help treat diseases and conditions in horses or to repair injuries sustained through trauma.
Our veterinarians routinely perform the following elective and non-elective surgeries:
- Castration
- Laceration Repair
- Hernia Repair
- Enucleation
- Mass Removal
Lameness can be quite simply described as any alteration in the horse’s gait.
The lameness exam will begin by gathering your horse’s medical and farriery history and work/exercise routine through a series of questions, conversations, and previous medical records. Please have any previous medical records and diagnostic history available.
We will conduct a visual appraisal of your horse at rest and then evaluate conformation, balance, and weight-bearing, and look for any signs of injury or stress.
From joint or tendon injuries to inflammation, arthritis, and other health conditions, horses can acquire a variety of conditions that need treatment.
Our team at Brenham Veterinary Hospital offers numerous equine therapeutic treatments designed to help manage pain, speed healing, and reduce inflammation and scar tissue that may impede recovery. Our treatments include:
- Corticosteroid Injections
- IRAP Injections
- PRP Injections
- Hyaluronic acid
- Stem Cells
Acupuncture in horses is a widely used complementary therapy that can provide several health benefits. It involves inserting thin needles into specific points on the horse’s body to stimulate healing and balance energy flow.
Acupuncture is often used in conjunction with traditional veterinary care and other therapies. It is a non-invasive, drug-free way to enhance a horse’s overall well-being. Dr. Hills’ treatments generally last 10-20 minutes and most horses do not require sedation.
We perform bloodwork, urinalysis, fecal egg counts, and more to make sure your equine partner is in good health. These tests also allow us to check for diseases and parasites before they become a problem for your whole herd.
At Brenham Veterinary Hospital, we understand how delicate your horse’s internal system can be which is why we believe that laboratory testing is an important part of your horse’s routine veterinary care.
Ultrasound uses sound waves to offer a non-invasive, painless, and radiation-free method of imaging your horse’s internal organs, tendons, and ligaments. Compared to radiographs, ultrasound highlights soft tissue changes such as tears in a tendon or ligament.
Ultrasound can also be used to guide technical joint injections such as cervical spine, lumbar spine, and sacroiliac joint. Ultrasound is also useful in diagnosing masses or lumps. This can be used not only externally but internally as well.
We are able to take high-quality digital X-rays in the hospital or in the field when necessary.
Veterinarians may instantly review images with our clients, allowing rapid diagnosis and treatment.
In complicated cases, our veterinarians may share the films among colleagues or refer to specialized radiologists.
Brenham Veterinary Hospital is equipped with a video endoscopy unit that is used to look inside the body. Endoscopes are long, thin tubes with a camera and light at the end.
They can be inserted through a natural opening or surgical incision to get a clear internal picture of a horse’s body to detect abnormalities in greater detail than other technologies.
Instruments can also be passed through channels to take biopsy samples (for microscopic examinations) or remove foreign bodies, cysts, or small tumors.
Dr. Cary Hills leads our BVH equine medical team. With over 25 years of veterinary experience, Dr. Hills brings a wealth of knowledge and enthusiasm for our equine clients.
