EQUIVET AUSTRAILA - NEWSLETTER - SPRING 2006

Spring has sprung again and we are all fired up for another breeding season. More mares and more stallions than ever but fortunately we are back to full strength with our vets. Susanne has returned from her long leave and we are determined to throw her in the deep end again! We are bringing two Americans over this year, one after the other. Both are reproduction specialists and they will take over much of the Raheen work and anything else we can coax out of them. They will be based at Allora. Ron Friedman is a specialist from Oregon and Tom Little is the vet for Gainsway Stud in Kentucky. Eric has been back to Holland to attend a reproduction conference in August and has returned full of new ideas and enthusiasm. Vets from all over the world gathered at Utrecht to discuss the latest techniques. We were all quite envious!

By the time of the next newsletter the breeding season will be behind us again. Please be tolerant of us over the next few months if we are too busy; we will be doing our best to give you the top level of service you deserve.

All the best to you all for a successful breeding seaosn!!
Max

CATERPILLAR ABORTIONS
Robyn and Max went to England for their breeding season again and had a very busy season as Jonathan Pycock was called away for much of their visit. They were fortunate to be able to go over via Kentucky and catch up on the latest on the caterpillar Abortions. They have done an enormous amount of research and there is no doubt in Max’s mind that we have the same syndrome here. Recent trials at he Uni of Qld Gatton campus would seem to confirm this belief. Drenching pregnant mares with small amounts of caterpillar skin has led to rapid abortion.

BABY BOOMERS
For those of you who remember them, Hayley Hughes (Shorten) has had another baby, Lachlan as has Patrick Traill, a boy, Thomas. Sam Nugent and wife Rachel are expecting their first in December.

Seminar Day — We enjoyed another excellent seminar day at the end of August which was very well attended. Unfortunately, the day clashed with a Thoroughbred sale at the coast which kept numbers down and something went wrong with our mailing list and many did not receive an invitation. Please accept my sincere apologies if you did not receive your invitation.

After Hours Fees
I hate the very idea of it but we are forced to move into the second millennium. My vets now demand penalty rates for working out of hours and weekends. We have to have an after-hours fee. We have always had one of course but have very seldom enforced it. You will (except under exceptional circumstances) incur an after hours fee if you call us out before 7am in the morning or after 6pm at night and after noon on Saturday and all day Sunday. The rest of the world has been charging one for years, so perhaps I should not feel bad about it, but it goes against the grain of the quality of service we attempt to maintain.

Robyn and I returned from England through Germany where we visited my daughter Sally (you may remember she ran our surgery for many years) who is living there now. From there we visited two huge Embryo Transfer Centres in Belgium and Holland where we saw the latest techniques in ET and Embryo Vitrification (freezing). We are expecting a big year with the ET’s and Robyn was eager to ensure she was using all the latest techniques! It appears her results are up with the best in the world! We are constantly on the lookout for recipient mares for the ET programme so if you have any young healthy mares that would make suitable recipients please let Robyn know.

The damn drought just won’t seem to go away and our Breeding Centre looks like a desert. Of course, it has caused a marked increase in the cost of our hay as I am sure most of you will have noticed. We are trying not to let it affect our agistment rates but if the prices remain the way they are we will be forced to review our rates. These drought conditions can lead to an environment where parasites can build up to dangerous levels. Horses whose sole diet is lucerne hay eg stallions may develop mineral deficiencies unless supplemented.

Max