Riverside Veterinary Clinic

Preventative care here at Riverside is more than just giving a 5-way and some Zimectrin.  We offer a complete  health assessment and management evaluation of your horse for his or her particular activity.  For the competing horse we like to see them in the "pre-season" period so as to avoid unnecessary "lay off" during the most demanding periods of work.

Vaccines

Our vaccine protocols are based on the use of your horse, whether out on a performance circuit or just hanging out at home with friends or neighbors.  Our most comprehensive program for the traveling performance horse includes Eastern and Western Encephalomylitis, Tetanus and West Nile, a modified live Rhino and a modified live Flu; the latter two recommended at 6 month intervals.  Other vaccines such as Strangles or Potomac fever are specifically case based.  While not routine in the past for us, rabies will be recommended for horses traveling into high risk regions of the United States.

Parasite Control

Deworming is dealt with in the same way with risk assessment being the key to our decision process combined with appropriate fecal evaluations.  We find that many horses in our area do not require the ever common 4x a year deworming and, under most circumstances, can get by on one deworming in November with a product effective against bots.

Dental Care

Dental evaluations of your horse ideally begin at 1 and 2 years of age and we evaluate them annually.  We make recommendations for dental prophylaxis as needed for the current lifestyle and life-stage of your horse.

Nutritional/Supplement Evaluation

Poor feed leads to poor performance whether running down steers, cutting one out of the herd or running the clover leaf pattern.  What used to be thought of as just 4 flakes of hay in a day and some water has been transformed into caloric needs, vitamins and mineral requirements.  We'll help you sort through them all and develop a program that works for you and your horse/s.

Podiatry Consultation

The old adage continues today, "No feet, no horse."  As part of his lameness interests, Dr. Robinson thoroughly enjoys working with local farriers to improve the form and function of your horses feet.  Complemented by radiographs,  we'll look at angles, sole depths, landing patterns and more to help determine a good base for your horse.

Blood Analysis

As part of the overall picture, we recommend regular blood work.  We assess liver, kidney and muscle health, as well as, look for indications of inflammation in the body.  We also send blood to Michigan State University for selenium analysis because of the inherently low selenium levels in the northwestern United States.  They also serve to help us evaluate additional vitamin and mineral values when we need more specific information regarding nutritional, supplementation programs.  And of course, for those travelers, don't forget your Coggins testing/paperwork as required by your state or country of destination.