Agwest Veterinary Group

10/21/2025

In spite of farmers best efforts to calve cows out in clean maternity pens and quickly move calves into clean calf suits and provide quality colostrum, some calves will still contract scours causing pathogens.

Diarrhea is the leading cause of mortality in calves in the first week of life. Often, these sick calves will stop nursing, reducing their oral intake while still loosing fluids through diarrhea. The actual cause of death is generally dehydration and electrolyte loss, not the bacteria, virus or protozoa that infected them.

Fortunately, mortality loss is mostly preventable! Quick intervention with appropriate IV fluid therapy can turn around dehydration and electrolyte loss and get calves up and nursing again. Your calves are valuable. Let’s work towards saving every one!

10/18/2025

Most of you probably only see these two Agwest Vets in coveralls and rubber boots!

For the past few days, Dr Jackie Wrigglesworth and Dr Lisa McCrea have been in Reno Nevada attending the Canadian Embryo Transfer Association’s annual conference. They’ve been learning about the latest developments in Embryo Transfer and In Vitro Fertilization so that we can provide our clients with the best advanced reproductive services possible - helping farmers improve their herd genetics and create high value replacements for their farms.

10/14/2025

Agwest Veterinary Group is incredibly thankful for our compassionate, dedicated, skilled support staff!
Our Registered Vet Techs and Vet Assistants are helping to care for our patients, assist with veterinary procedures & programs, run our lab, and manage our equipment, trucks and inventory.
These hard-working professionals are central to Agwest’s practice. Our veterinarians couldn’t do the work that we do without them on our team.
We invite you to join us in recognizing and thanking them for everything that they do for us!

09/08/2025

Agwest Veterinary Group is a team of vets who are providing farm animal veterinary service throughout the Fraser Valley & Vancouver Island;

Dr. Brent Fawcett
Dr. Lisa McCrea
Dr. Jackie Wrigglesworth
Dr. Melodie Ares-Monast
Dr. Blossom de Bruin
Dr. Tara Sweetnam

We have been committed to improving the health & well-being for cows, sheep & goats and farm profitability for farmers since 2004.

09/05/2025

Agwest Veterinary Group is happy to introduce the newest veterinarian to our team; Dr. Tara Sweetnam!

Dr. Tara Sweetnam is originally from a dairy farm near Winkler Manitoba and is a graduate from the Western College of Veterinary Medicine Prior to vet school she completed a degree in Agriculture in Animal Science at the University of Saskatchewan. During vet school she was fortunate to have great experiences learning from many progressive veterinary clinics in Western Canada and the USA.

One highlight of Dr. Tara’s vet school experience was attending the Summer Dairy Institute at Cornell University in 2024. Dr. Tara has a special interest in reproduction and preventative medicine and is looking forward to developing these skills further as an associate veterinarian at Agwest. Growing up, Dr. Tara was heavily involved in 4-H and was on team Manitoba for the Western Canadian Classic for 10 years.

Dr. Tara Sweetnam looks forward to meeting Agwest’s clients and working alongside her new colleagues at Agwest. We are certain that everyone will give her a warm welcome to BC!

06/16/2025

For Vancouver Island small ruminant farmers that have signed up for our “Goat & Sheep Emergencies” community meeting in Duncan, we look forward to seeing you tomorrow evening!

Where: Heritage Hall at the Cowichan Community Centre in Duncan.

When: Tuesday, June 17th at 6:30pm

For those of you that are signed up for our meetings on Salt Spring Island and Abbotsford, we look forward to seeing you next Tuesday evening, June 24th.

06/11/2025

You're Invited: Agwest Community Ruminant Rounds

Join us on Vancouver Island, Salt Spring Island, or the Mainland for an engaging evening focused on Goat and Sheep Emergencies: How to Recognize, Manage, and Prevent Them.
We'll cover practical, vet-led insights on:
• Parasites
• Urethral Stones
• Wounds
• Bloat
• Toxicities
• Emergencies in Young Animals

Light refreshments will be served, and attendance is free. Both Agwest clients and non-clients are welcome. It’s a great opportunity to connect with fellow sheep and goat owners who share your passion for animal care and doing things right.

🔹 Duncan – Heritage Hall at the Cowichan Community Center: Tuesday, June 17th, 2025 at 6:30 PM

🔹 Salt Spring Island – Exhibition Hall at the Farmer’s Institute: Tuesday, June 24th, 2025 at 6:30 PM

🔹 Mainland – Agwest Office: Tuesday, June 24th, 2025 at 6:30 PM

Space is limited—please take a moment to complete this quick form before Sunday June 15th to secure your spot!

https://forms.gle/ctPwdXxW3PAzbjLM9

If demand exceeds room capacity, you'll be placed on a waiting list. If you're unable to attend after registering, kindly email us at [email protected] so we can offer your place to else.

📸 Photos of each venue entrance will be posted in the comments—we understand it can be stressful going somewhere new!
We hope to see you there for an evening of learning, connection, and community care.

P.S. Feel free to share the good news with anyone who might be interested!

06/05/2025

Congratulations Dr. Tara! You have completed a big milestone following years of hard-work and dedication. The entire team at Agwest Veterinary Group is so happy for you as you transition from student life to a veterinarian. We can’t wait to introduce you to our clients 😊

04/26/2025

April 26th is World Veterinary Day. The World Veterinary Association has announced the theme for this year to be “Animal health takes a team”. Agwest couldn’t agree more!

Agwest Veterinary Group is based on a team of passionate, dedicated veterinarians who work together to help you improve the health and well-being of your animals.

We love what we do and are grateful for all of our clients who trust us to help with the care of their farm animals!

04/08/2025

Agwest is proud to work with BC Dairy farmers every day on their farms. We couldn’t be happier supporting these farming families while they are making nutritious food for our families and supporting our community.
We think this is a great initiative, supporting BC Children’s Hospital. Thank-you BC Dairy!

03/30/2025

Here’s a great sheep event on Vancouver Island that Agwest can get behind!

Proper sheep handling skills can improve the health and welfare of you flock. They can can also help to make your shearing and vet visits go smoother! We would encourage Island sheep farmers to attend to learn and practice some useful, practical skills.

Are you comfortable and knowledgeable in handling your flock for shearing day, hoof trimming, vet visits, etc…?

Join us! Sheep Handling 101
Sunday April 13, 2025
1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Parry Bay Sheep Farm
4335 Lindholm Rd Victoria BC

We will be covering as many aspects of sheep handling as we can fit into the day. These include: Moving a flock, penning a flock, flipping, halter use, hoof trimming, drenching, injection sites, fitting a ram harness...and much more. If there is something specific that you'd like to see, or need some more work on, please let us know prior to the event so that we can incorporate it.

These topics are a necessity for any successful shepherd, and ones that many of us could use a refresher on.

Hands on participation and practice is highly encouraged, so please dress accordingly. However, to respect biosecurity on the host farm, as well as your own, please wear clothes and boots that are well cleaned to avoid the spread of any infectious diseases.

This event is being offered by IISBA free of charge, and a light snack and refreshments will be provided. Please RSVP to:
[email protected]
so that we can finalize numbers.

Feel free to share this info to any contacts, or sheep groups that you may be a part of. We are welcoming all participants, regardless of IISBA membership status.

I hope to see many of you there!

Garrett Jolicoeur
IISBA President

03/29/2025

Congratulations to the winners of the Sumas Holstein 4-H Club senior speeches.

Dr. Lisa McCrea Hemphill enjoyed hearing all of the excellent speeches. Agwest Veterinary Group is always happy to support 4-H British Columbia clubs; what a great program to support our young farmers!

We would like to thank Megan Baars and Dr Lisa Mccrae Hemphill for coming out tonight to judge our clubs Senior speeches. Everyone did an excellent job and listening to the impromptus was the highlight of the night!

Congratulations to our winners-with the top 2 moving on to Districts next weekend.

🥇Olivia Dueck
🥈Kaycee Meier
🥉Jenoah Winkelaar

Well done ladies! Good luck at Districts Olivia and Kaycee.