South East Veterinary Services

21/07/2026

🐾 **Canine Leptospirosis Update – NSW Cases Confirmed in 2026** 🐾

Five cases of canine leptospirosis have already been confirmed in NSW between February and June year, with all affected dogs being unvaccinated. Sadly, three of these dogs died or were euthanised.

Leptospirosis is a serious bacterial disease that can cause kidney and liver failure and can also be transmitted to people.

Dogs are at increased risk if they have exposure to rodents, wildlife, or stagnant water, or if they live in or travel to known risk areas including Sydney, Newcastle, Wollongong, Liverpool, Tamworth, Narrabri, and Southern Highlands.

💉 Vaccination is the best protection. If your dog may be at risk or you're planning to travel to these areas, please contact South East Veterinary Services to book a leptospirosis vaccination or discuss whether it's recommended for your dog.

07/07/2026

Cattle have four stomachs: the rumen and reticulum (responsible for breaking down food), omasum (responsible for removing water from the food) and abomasum (true stomach responsible for digestion). Occasionally, often due to low dietary calcium, high grain diets and peak energy demand, cattle will displace their fourth stomach from the front right side of the abdomen to the upper left side (LDA) or even twist on itself to the upper right side (RDA).

This often leads to reduced transit time of ingesta, lower milk yield and poor appetite. This condition has traditionally required on-farm standing exploratory abdominal surgery: performing a significant abdominal incision, disinfecting our arms and physically replacing and suturing the stomach back to its original position before closing the incision site. I was fortunate to learn this technique from some very skilful veterinarians in dairy practices throughout Victoria, however, still involves significant risk of infection and subsequent surgery healing time.

Today we performed our first standing laparoscopic LDA. Comparatively this technique utilises two very small (10mm) port holes, we confirmed the displacement with a camera/scope, used various 8mm rods to attach to the stomach and replace and affix to its correct position then confirmed replacement with the camera. Whilst we acknowledged there were a number of tricks learnt and prosthetic toggles can break, it was very successful, resulting in rapid replacement with minimal infection risks and better prognosis.

Though we should not mention the farmer, we appreciate their trust and confidence in our knowledge and skills to advance our skills in veterinary medicine 🩺💊💉🐄

19/05/2026

Today we had the pleasure of working with Matt & Jacinta's and their bulls for their pre-purchase Veterinary Bull Breeding Soundness Examinations (VBBSEs), evaluating physical conformation and structural soundness, reproductive soundness, and semen evaluation. We will provide more info on this soon, however, we follow a rigorous standardized procedure and use the latest technology to objectively assess their performance ability. We usually dont publicly provide confidential health results, however, we were very pleased these bulls all passed their exams!

A reminder of their bull inspection on 13th June, and sale on 19th June, at the home of Flash-Jax Limousin's, 900 Greendale Road, Bega.

The bulls all passed the tests today.
Thanks Ben for coming out.

07/04/2026

Have a horse or pony with ongoing issues with (suspected) laminitis, struggling with bodyweight at pasture, or have regional fatty deposits over the neck or tail base?

Diagnosis of Equine Metabolic Syndrome/Insulin Resistance (EMS/IR) has always required sending samples to the lab and waiting up to a week for results.

We have recently invested in a stall-side insulin meter, allowing us to perform dynamic, serial testing with results available with 15 minutes!

Should you have any concerns about your horse/pony with suspected EMS/IR, please give us a call!

The Wellness Ready™ Insulin Test is a new stall side blood test that allows veterinarians to instantly determine a horse’s risk for laminitis. Vern Dryden DVM, CJF, explains the growing need for instant diagnostics in the veterinary field.

02/04/2026

Dr Ben was awarded the Australian Cattle Veterinarian's (ACV) Coopers Rural Practice Scholarship in 2020, awarded for his passion for rural practice and was presented at the ACV Conference in Adelaide.

We again attended the ACV Conference last week in Brisbane which focused on cattle reproduction. In particular, we were inspired by Dr Cedric Wise's life story on 'Lessons in building a veterinary business within the cattle industry', Dr Amelia Rentz's presentation on IVF in cattle, and Lisa Blair OAM's story on resilience and mental agility after being the first woman to sail solo around Antarctica and numerous other world records.

Professional conferences are always very social, and was an invaluable opportunity in networking, catching up with friends from university, fellow colleagues from across the country and industry experts.

We apologise if you required our services during these few days we were away, however, is important in keeping up to date with the latest medical knowledge; and we return inspired, motivated and excited about the future of cattle medicine and the services we aim to provide our community in the coming future 🐄🐂🩺🔬

23/03/2026

A small piece of history! We were very saddened to hear of Makybe Diva's passing recently.

Did you know our portable radiography machine was used by Flemington Equine Clinic and radiographed Makybe Diva as a yearling?

From minor OCD fragments (small pieces of bone present at birth in horse joints) to major fractures on any animal, our relatively state of the art radiology suite allows us to radiograph and interpret anatomy on-farm within only a few minutes! Give us a call if you need any radiography done!

24/01/2026

We were given opportunity to be attending veterinarian at the Eurobodalla (Moruya) Show and Rodeo today. These events showcase animals in peak performance and a true highlight seeing them and their owners doing what they love. Thanks to the Eurobodalla Agricultural Show and Moruya Rodeo committees for the opportunity and trust in us to provide the best possible care to their animals 🦬🐃🐂

21/01/2026

13/01/2026

Happy New Year everyone!
I hope everyone had a wonderful holidays.
I'm back from my holidays and I'm available for appointments. I am booking up fast. I currently have NO availability in January. If you would like to arrange an appointment send me a message and we can look into time.
Look forward to hearing from you all