MBG Equine Vets

MBG Equine Vets We are the Equine team of a mixed vet practice based in Droitwitch.

Whatever you and your horses think about fireworks, the season is coming. The best advice for avoiding issues is to prep...
20/10/2025

Whatever you and your horses think about fireworks, the season is coming. The best advice for avoiding issues is to prepare well in advance.
🔍Check where your local planned fireworks events are and the timing of the events, knowing this can help you plan your evenings
🏘️Keep to your normal routine as much as possible. Some horses will deal better with fireworks tucked up in their stables whereas others may feel trapped if they’re suddenly kept in.
🎆Check your field and fences. This is an important thing to do regularly but even more so when you know they’re more likely to be disturbed. Are there any damaged bits of fencing or sharp edges which could pose a danger if your horse became alarmed? Are there any deep puddles or muddy areas where they could slip or get stuck?
📻Use a radio, if your horses are going to be in, turn the radio on so that other noises are muffled- remember to start this a few days before the fireworks night so they’re used to the radio.
🧘If you want to use a calmer for fireworks night, it’s important to start well in advance of fireworks night. Nutritional supplements like calmers can have variable results and some animals will be more anxious on certain calmers.

It’s important to work out what works out for your horse in advance of any stress.
If you’re worried about your horse please give us a call and we will do everything we can to help you.

Everyone dreads going out to the field and finding their horse lame. Tendon injuries can be a particular concern because...
17/10/2025

Everyone dreads going out to the field and finding their horse lame.
Tendon injuries can be a particular concern because they take a very long time to resolve and may prevent your horse returning to the same level of work.
A horse with a damaged tendon may or may not be lame depending on the severity of the damage so its important to know other signs of tendon injury:
- Swelling or thickening of the tendon
- Heat over the tendon
- Pain on palpation of the tendon
- In very severe cases the position of the fetlock may become altered and drop

Feeling our horse’s legs carefully regularly is a good way to be aware of any changes, mild damage which doesn’t cause lameness may become much more severe if the horse works on the injury.

If you suspect your horse has a tendon injury, give us a ring on 01905773262, we will come and examine your horse, we usually examine tendon damage using ultrasound but sometimes we have to delay this or repeat the scan as the full extent of the injury is often not visible initially.
Whilst you wait for us cold hosing, box rest and supportive bandages can help reduce the swelling and make your horse feel more comfortable

Routine ChangeThe onset of winter with darker, colder nights and less food in the field produces a lot of changes to you...
13/10/2025

Routine Change
The onset of winter with darker, colder nights and less food in the field produces a lot of changes to your horse’s routine. Horses hate change. There are a few things we can do to make the transition easier for them:
Reduce turnout slowly, although not easy to do on every yard changing the time you bring your horse in gradually, 15 minutes or half an hour earlier each night over a week or 2 will be much easier for them to manage than you suddenly turning up 2 hours earlier.

Colder nights and feeding more forage can mean that your horse having a lower water intake. Horses don’t like to drink very cold water so may decide not to drink as much overnight. In addition to this forage like hay and haylage has a much lower water content than grass. This is one of the reasons we see more colic symptoms over the winter months. Adding water to your horse’s feed or soaking their hay and haylage can increase their water uptake and improve their digestion

The weather is changing every 5 minutes and when we’re changing in and out of our coats every 5 minutes, we’re all wonde...
10/10/2025

The weather is changing every 5 minutes and when we’re changing in and out of our coats every 5 minutes, we’re all wondering how best to rug our horses.
Hopefully this lovely picture from countryandstable will help you know which rug to pick!
As always, every horse is an individual so may need more or less than the horse next door.

Horses are much better at staying warm than us. The amount they eat means they are constantly metabolising food which in turn produces heat (an excellent excuse to eat lots over winter!) they also have a thick natural coat of hair which traps air and acts in a similar way to a down jacket. With this in mind, healthy horses with a full coat rarely need a rug for warmth.

Horses that are too hot in their rug will sweat, if the rug isn’t changed regularly these damp sweaty areas can be an ideal breeding ground for bacteria and fungi which naturally exist on our horse’s skin, leading to rain scald.

Older horses, thin coated breeds like thoroughbreds and arabs and horses that have been clipped deal with cold less well and may need a thicker rug to keep them warm.
🌧️
Wet weather can be much more problematic than cold weather as it stops them trapping warm air in their hair coat. Like having sweat patches constantly getting damp from rain can affect the natural protection of the skin and predispose your horse to skin infections.

Having fully waterproof rugs, a chance to dry off properly (legs and all) and regular checks to make sure there are no damp or sweat patches under the rug are the keys to healthy skin under rugs this winter.

This year we’ve had a bumper crop of acorns on many trees. With high winds over this weekend many of our clients have be...
05/10/2025

This year we’ve had a bumper crop of acorns on many trees. With high winds over this weekend many of our clients have been concerned about how to avoid and recognise acorn poisoning 🌳💨🍃🪾

Having oak trees doesn't necessarily mean that the field cannot be used for horses, they can provide natural shelter and most horses will not choose to eat acorns when other food like grass or hay is available. This means , luckily, cases of acorn poisoning are relatively rare.
Make sure water troughs and buckets are not in an area where acorns will fall into them and if you are providing forage do this away from the tree so your horse won’t accidentally pick up acorns when hoovering up the last bits.
After high winds we’d recommend , moving horses out of highly contaminated fields and clearing all fallen acorns or at minimum fencing off the area around the base of the tree where acorns may fall.

🌳 Symptoms of acorn poisoning🌳
Call a vet if you feel your horse has any of the following symptoms or if you notice they have been eating acorns .
Severity of symptoms often depends on the amount of acorns your horse has eaten. Sometimes you will find the empty husks
in their droppings.

Mild cases:
🌰Depression and lethargy
🌰Reduced appetite
🌰Dehydration- dark urine
🌰Mouth ulcers
🌰Constipation or loose faeces
More Severe signs can develop :
🌰Watery Diarrhoea
🌰Mild to moderate colic symptoms
🌰Constipation
🌰Red/ dark brown urine
🌰In-coordination and neurological signs

🤳If you have any concerns about your horse we are always available on 01905773262 ☎️

🐴Its Veterinary Receptionist Appreciation Day! ☎We are very lucky and grateful to have a fantastic team of receptionists...
01/10/2025

🐴Its Veterinary Receptionist Appreciation Day! ☎

We are very lucky and grateful to have a fantastic team of receptionists who do an incredible number of jobs in our office in order to keep you updated and (try) to keep our vets organised!

If you need a last minute appointment, to find out where the vet you're expecting has got to or to ask a vet to prescribe medications these are the people to sweet talk!

🥰🫀Happy World Heart Day🫀🥰Horse's have an excellent cardiovascular system, because of this they can cope well with cardia...
29/09/2025

🥰🫀Happy World Heart Day🫀🥰

Horse's have an excellent cardiovascular system, because of this they can cope well with cardiac (heart) conditions that would cause obvious symptoms in other species. However, because we sit on horses backs the consequences of unrecognised heart disease can be much more dangerous to those around them than in other pets.

The easiest way for us to monitor for signs of heart disease is for us to listen to their heart.

We listen out for:
❤️‍🩹 Arrhythmias: abnormal rate or heart rhythm indicates that the electronic signals that cause the heart to beat regularly are not passing through. Some types of arrhythmia are unlikely to cause problems and others will need more investigation
❤️‍🩹 Murmurs: Sounds other than heart beats indicating that some blood is moving in an abnormal direction within the heart. This may or may not lead to further development of heart disease.

We may recommend further cardiac work up if we notice either of these things in order to evaluate safety of continued work.

Signs of severe cardiac disease in horses include:
-Exercise intolerance
-Lethargy
- Swelling underneath the chest and abdomen (ventral oedema)
- Distension of the jugular veins
-Collapse

Call the office on 01905773262 to speak to one of our vets or arrange a visit if you notice any of these symptoms or if you would like to arrange a check up for your horse's heart.
Go to https://world-heart-federation.org/world-heart-day/ to learn more about heart disease in people.

❤️

Sharing on behalf of one of our clients, if you're looking for a deal on riding clothing head to sixways this weekend!
26/09/2025

Sharing on behalf of one of our clients, if you're looking for a deal on riding clothing head to sixways this weekend!

Don't forget our next clinic day will be next Tuesday 30th September at Dodderhill!Bring your horses to our clinic day a...
23/09/2025

Don't forget our next clinic day will be next Tuesday 30th September at Dodderhill!

Bring your horses to our clinic day at Dodderhill Equestrian Centre for vaccines, dentals, use of our weight scales, lameness exams and other treatments without having to pay a visit cost.
We will also be continuing to do reduced price gastroscopes on these days offering a scope for £200 including sedation.

We also have a clinic day planned for the 25th of November
To book in, call the office on 01905773262

Aside from the routine vaccinations there are other vaccines we may offer if we feel that your horse is at high risk or ...
22/09/2025

Aside from the routine vaccinations there are other vaccines we may offer if we feel that your horse is at high risk or during pregnancy.

The most common of these are Equine Herpes Virus vaccination and Strangles vaccination.

The pictures show up to date information on the number of cases seen across the UK for these different diseases from equinesurveillance.org .

Equine Herpes Virus is a highly contagious airborne disease which can cause a variety of symptoms usually depending on which strain of the virus is present. The main strains we vaccinate against in the UK are EHV-1 and EHV-4. The most common are respiratory, flu-like symptoms but we can see neurological symptoms and pregnant mares may abort.

Strangles is a bacterial infection with Strep equi. var equi. It is spread by horse-horse contact or contact with contaminated clothing, equipment and boots. The common symptoms are flu-like with high temperature, dullness and a snotty nose. Some cases develop increased submandibular lymph nodes which can become abscessed. In severe cases, where the infection is not fully cleared, it can spread to other parts of the body where the effects of infection can be more dangerous.

Both diseases can be vaccinated against using a course of vaccines given into the muscle. No vaccine is 100% effective but they will reduce spread and severity of disease symptoms.
If you would like to know more about vaccinating against these diseases please call the office on 1905 773262 to talk to our team for more information or to book in for a visit.

Thanks to broomfieldsofholt and all of you who came to listen to Becca discussing ulcers last night! We had a great turn...
20/09/2025

Thanks to broomfieldsofholt and all of you who came to listen to Becca discussing ulcers last night! We had a great turn out.

If you couldn’t make it last night but want to know more about ulcers or if you came and have thought up a question please get in touch with us.
Keep an eye out for our next client evening and feel free to suggest any topics you’d like us to cover

Address

MBG Veterinary Surgeons, Dodderhill Court
Droitwich
WR90BE

Opening Hours

Monday 8:30am - 6pm
Tuesday 8:30am - 6pm
Wednesday 8:30am - 6pm
Thursday 8:30am - 6pm
Friday 8:30am - 6pm
Saturday 9am - 1pm

Telephone

+441905773262

Website

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