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Rosabrook Veterinary Services

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Australia
Margaret River, WA
Rosabrook Veterinary Services

Farm animal veterinary clinic based in the southwest corner of Western Australia. We treat cattle, sheep, goats, alpacas and pigs.

We are not an equine or small animal service.

22/02/2026

Meet the Team: 5/7

Dr Nigel Gifford:
"I grew up on a sheep and cattle property in Boyup Brook, and I graduated as a vet 26 years ago. After that, I worked for nine years in mixed practice in South Australia, before moving to Switzerland to work with Swiss dairy cows for three years. Returning to Australia in 2014, I worked in mixed practice for 2 years before dedicating myself to small animal care until 2021. In 2022, I returned to Switzerland, rediscovering my love for cattle in the Swiss hills. Now back in Australia since 2023, I work part-time with Rosebrook Vet Services, enjoying all aspects of cattle medicine and surgery and farm livestock. In the other half of my week, I also work as a small animal veterinarian at Busselton Vet Hospital.
My wife and i enjoy spending time outdoors with our three boys. I try to stay active in nature enjoying my Creator and his creation. I love a good adrenaline rush, spending time with friends and family, talking about more than the weather, and am slowly trying to get over my fear of emus."

04/02/2026

One of the true emergencies of farm animal vetting - a uterine prolapse. A uterine prolapse can occur after birth, and can be due to a number of reasons.

Heifers: often due to a large calf or a difficult calving, the uterus can start closing down over the calves hind legs and get delivered with the calf. More common to find them standing (compared to cows) unless down with exhaustion.

Cows: often due to hypocalcaemia causing poor skeletal and smooth muscle contraction. But can also be due to a large calf as above.

Hilly paddocks can also be a risk factor due to the force of gravity on the cows gastrointestinal tract/abdominal contents increasing the risk of the uterus prolapsing following calving.

Unlike vaginal prolapse, these are not a genetic issue and a pr*****ed uterus in one calving season does not predispose the animal to future prolapses!

01/02/2026

Something different to add to the workload over the next 10 months - day one of a Ruminant Nutrition course for me (Liz) through the University of Sydney. There is a lot to learn in this space and I'm looking forward to being able to gain some new knowledge and skills in this area.

31/01/2026

Happy Birthday Liz (I won’t reveal your age 😜) the boss is on a well deserved weekend off call, no doubt drinking good coffee and probably spending time under a barbell.
Have a fabulous day 🥳
This is how happy she is after a difficult calving, have you met someone who loves it more than she does?!?

28/01/2026

When your Mum is 500kg plus and a bit clumsy...

Whilst not super common, broken legs in farm animals happen occasionally. We've had a number of them over the last few years, mostly in newborn calves. All of these cases occurred with natural, paddock births and were found in the paddock with a broken leg - most likely the result of being accidentally trodden on by the cow. All of the cases I've seen have healed brilliantly, with no lasting issues.

For a break to be successfully treated, it should be below the red lines in the first image. This is due to the cast having to immobilise the joints above and below the break for complete stabilisation.

Sedation, pain relief and casting followed by 5-6 weeks in a cast 🙌

21/01/2026

Meet the team 4/7:

Francine 👋

1. What’s your role/what does a typical day look like for you? Vet Technician, a usual day starts off with bookings & then they generally get moved around in amongst all the emergencies.
2. ⁠what do you enjoy most about your job? Getting out on farm, not much of an office person.
3. ⁠what do you like to do outside of work? CrossFit, hockey, lunching, gardening.
4. ⁠Favourite animal? Kelpie
5. Tea or coffee? Always coffee, never Tea 🤮
6. favourite season on farm? One without flies
7. Beach or bush? Beach
8. Sunrise or sunset? Sunset with a wine
9. GPS or ‘I know this farm’? I know this farm

20/01/2026

The 5pm finish time went straight out the window today when a routine pregnancy testing job turned into a hip relocation. We started the day with a couple of lame cows, followed by a lame bull, a sick sheep and then on to this job.

This girl either slipped or got knocked over on the yard by another cow and managed to dislocate her hip! Some heavy sedation, pain relief and a lot of physical effort and we managed to get the hip back in and get the cow back up on her feet.

Hip dislocations are the result of trauma, and often happen when the cow is on heat (due to mounting behaviours between cows).

The most important prognostic indicator for hip dislocations is time between injury and replacement attempts. If the hip has been out for more than 24hrs, replacement is unlikely to be successful. So rapid assessment of down animals (we've also successfully treated a hip dislocation in a sheep) is always vital for the best prognosis.

As you can see in the first photo, the leg is obviously sitting out at an odd angle. Some animals are able to stand but are unable to bear any weight through the leg.

15/01/2026

Beef calving season may just be starting, but a calving call to a dairy farm can happen at any time of the year in Western Australia.

A case of tangled twins, the cow was noticed to have isolated herself from the group yesterday and just seemed uncomfortable. In some cases, like this one, this is the only sign the cow will give that something is wrong. This can commonly occur in breech calvings (bum first, no legs presenting) and with a twisted uterus. It can occur in any case where the malpresentation of the calf prevents the calf entering the vaginal canal after the birthing process has started.

In this case both calves decided to try and come at the same time, one calf right way up and one upside down - four legs and two heads together in a mess that was difficult to untangle, especially in a cow lying down on her side. But an epidural, l**e, a smooth muscle relaxant and a lot of effort and manipulation later and even the cow couldn't believe the two of them had fit inside her! She made short work of getting up and filling the space they'd left behind with some good tucker!

13/01/2026

One of my favourite parts of this job has to be its unpredictability! 7 years out of vet school and I had never needed to perform a blood transfusion - only to end up doing two in one week!

This case: 6 month old Persian ram lamb, noticed by the owner to have been quieter than usual and not quite himself. Mucous membranes were white and he declined rapidly over a Friday afternoon. 450mL of blood donated from an adult ram (as well as a novel worm drench) and he has made a full recovery!

Based on history, blood/Faecal testing and clinical signs a diagnosis of Haemonchus contortus (Barber's pole) was made. We have had a number of these cases in early summer this year due to the rainfall in late spring/early summer (requires warmth and wet to take off). This is not a scours worm and not all sheep present with bottle jaw, so it can be difficult to detect early. Check out FAMACHA scoring for an easy way to monitor this worm in your sheep flocks.

Another great resource for all worm types is the Worm Boss website, a great resource that has specific information for cattle, sheep and goats across the different regions in Australia.

12/01/2026

Meet the team 3/7

Tayla: veterinarian

Joined clinic: June 2025

Originally from: NZ (the accent is still strong)

Favourite animal: too hard to choose

Coolest job so far: blood transfusion in a dairy cow

Outside of work: love beach trips with my dog Sadie and watching NZ beat Australia in the rugby.

10/01/2026

Hi I’m Abby 👋
A vet assistant who joined the team in August last year. I love working with livestock and love having a chat with the farmers.

Originally from: Wales
Favourite animal: Labradors and cows are a close second.
Outside of work: You’ll find me on a soccer pitch or watching any form of sport. Also love a good coffee.

08/01/2026

Boys are getting a bit of bling in today 😜 girls are getting preg tested and they are all getting tattoos and Pestivirus tested. Big day in the yards and once again a big thank you Dr Liz and Abby from Rosabrook Veterinary Services.

Address

Unit 4/17 Minchin Way
Margaret River, WA

Telephone

+61429497791

Website

facebook.com

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