The XLVet national equine meeting took place at Haydock races on the 5th & 6th November 2009. click here to see the race card from the race sponsored by XLVets. A full write up and photos will feature in the next issue of XLVets news!
Video Compilation of all Three Eastnor Castle Meetings
October 2009
XLVet National Practice Management Meeting
October 2009
The XLVet national Practice Management meeting took place on the 14th & 15th of October 2009 at Eastnor Castle, Ledbury. Below are a selction of photos from the meeting, more photos and a full write up will be in the next issue of XLVets news!
XLVet National Small Animal Meeting October 2009
The XLVet national Small Animal meeting took place on the 7th & 8th of October 2009 at Eastnor Castle, Ledbury. Below are a selction of photos from the meeting, more photos and a full write up will be in the next issue of XLVets news!
XLVet National Farm Meeting October 2009
The XLVet national Farm meeting took place on the 1st & 2nd of October 2009 at Eastnor Castle, Ledbury. Below are a selction of photos from the meeting, more photos and a full write up will be in the next issue of XLVets news!
Great North Swim
Congratulations to XLVet member Anne Abbs from Paragon Veterinary Group, who took part in this year’s Great North Swim. The Great North Swim is a one mile open water swim in England’s largest Lake, Windermere. Thousands of swimmers of all abilities followed in the waves of the elites and took on the one mile open water challenge against the stunning backdrop of the Lake District National Park.Anne managed to raise a fantastic £180 and because she was unable to take part in her practice bike ride she added her sponsorship to the practice fund. Great Effort!
Paragon AMTRA Success
Congratulations to XLVet members Karen Richardson and Andrea Longcake (pictured below), both from Paragon Veterinary Group. Who recently passed their AMTRA examination for E-SQP ( Small Animal and Equine) at Harper Adams
Coniston Challenge
On Saturday 12th September, two teams of six from Ardene House Vets took part in the Guide Dog Coniston Challenge.The Challenge comprises a 17K mountain bike route round Grizedale Forest, a 3K kayak circuit of Coniston Water and then the small matter of climbing the Old Man of Coniston – the steep way!As well as training for the event we also raised over £5,500 for Guide Dogs over the summer from bag packs, plant sales & a race night.
Having been well warned about the weather in the Lake District – rumoured to be even rainier than Aberdeen – the Dippy Dolittles & Only Fools Without Horses awoke to bright sunshine which meant hastily swapping the waterproof gear for sun screen and shorts.
After a strenuous pedal round what appeared to be a course comprising only of hills going up, we took to the water for what was the most peaceful 30 minutes of the day.The lake was flat can pleasantly cool and we all successfully dodged the assortment of steam yachts, dinghies and ducks which were sharing the water.
A short refreshment break and yet another change of kit, we headed to tackle the Old Man which sits high, too high for my liking, above the village.The sun was at its hottest and we were getting a little tired by the time we got to the top which was, according to all the people we met coming down, ‘just round the corner and up a wee bit more’.The walk down was tough on what were now very tired legs but the though of a cold beer waiting at the end saw us through.
It certainly was a challenge and amid the mutterings of ‘never again’ was a great sense of achievement both in the completion of the day’s events and the fundraising effort. One Mountain – Many Happy Memories (and 24 rather aching legs)!
BEVA Congress
First for BEVA - First for XLVets
Thursday 10th September at the ICC Birmingham saw BEVA launch their inaugural careers seminar which ran alongside the commercial exhibition during “happy hour” at the Annual Congress. The seminar was an opportunity for large equine practices to answer questions from job-seeking under- and recent graduates. The XLVets stand was, arguably, the biggest, best attended and most informative of them all. Five XLVets equine forum members were available for two hours to proffer wine, beer and advice on what a job in an XLVets practice could offer. The table display contained latest newsletters as well as a flier on how the “5 Pillars” support and improve life and work in practice as a new graduate. Reassuringly, the vast majority of the students visiting the stand had heard about XLVets or had positive comments about their seeing practice experience within the XLVets Group. The XLVets members present at the seminar had a great time and enjoyed meeting enthusiastic young vets of the future but did find it very thirsty work!
Jon Huxley'sJohn O'Groats to Lands End Walk
Message from Jon Huxley 13/08/09: "I would like to pass on my sincere thanks to all XLVet members who either sent me messages of support or donated. The total is at £8.5k and still going up at about £100/day!"
This summer Jon Huxley walked the length of the country, from John O'Groats to Land's End to raise money for Cancer Research UK. The walk was in memory of his mum, "Gill", who died from a type of leukaemia in 2007. After 18 months planning and 9 months training he started on the 27th of June and finished on the 1st of August. He walked the 913 mile route over five weeks and averaged just over 29 miles per day; six days per week and in total climbed 69,000 feet (twice the height of Everest) and took approximately 1.6 million steps.
On Monday 13th July Jon reached the Carlisle leg of his walk, David Black and Bruce Richards joined him on his walk through the city, pictures below:
Pictures of Jon Reader, Kingfisher Veterinary Practice on Day 28:
The Wright and Morten Welsh 3000 Challenge
Member practice Wright and Morten, decided to raise money for Peter Potts, who was their maintenance man up to August last year. Peter suffered a cardiac arrest on the 3rd August, and as a result is suffering with a severe brain injury. Headway, a brain injury charity at Stockport is helping Peter’s family with all sorts of things, so some of the money raised will go to them also.
The challenge is described in the words of Sue Wilson, Practice Manager;
We arrived at the camp site in North Wales on Friday 19th June along with thousands of midges and prepared for our marathon walk. Gareth Harries S/A Partner and Damian Chapman (husband of head nurse Emma Chapman) left camp at approx 3.30am as they were up for the entire 15 peaks in the 24 hours! The mist was down and the rain came and made conditions pretty horrendous. The rest of us were in two groups; Bridget Taylor’s group, to do the Carnedds and Helen Worth and Mark Tabachnik’s group, to do the Glyders.
At 7.30 we were on our way. We walked for 10.5 hours with practically no visibility, total cloud white out and driving rain and a relentless side wind. But true grit, team spirit and determination and the first part of our challenge was over.
Back to camp that evening for our BBQ and to share our stories of the day.
On the Sunday we all indulged in bacon and eggs and several cups of tea before setting off for Snowdon. 2.5 hours up and pretty much the same to come down. Rain still coming down, but a great sense of achievement.
We are already over the £4,000.00 mark and the money is still coming in.
A fantastic weekend for everyone involved.
XLVets AGM
17th-18th June 2009
This year's XLVets AGM was held at Keswick, in the heart of the Lake District. The two day event covered the formal AGM and there was time for interaction and discussion between group members and a visit to Honister Slate Mine. Below are pictures from the event:
Thanks to Intervet Schering Plough who supported the XLVets AGM 2009
NSA North Sheep
Wednesday 3rd June 2009
This year’s North Sheep event was held at Laund Farm, Preston. The event was extremely well attended and the XLVets stand enjoyed a very busy day, with over 300 visitors to the stand.
The XLVets stand promoted farm health planning and held a competition to determine the extent of farm health planning being undertaken by those visiting the event. Of the 96 entries to the competition, 76% of entrants claimed they had a flock health plan, however only 56% of these farmers meet with their veterinary surgeon to review flock health management.
Many thanks to Iain Richards (Westmorland), Judith Lee (Westmorland), Ian Cure (Lambert, Leonard & May), Vicky Bushby (Paragon) and Lucy Hindmarsh (Paragon) who all helped on the XLVet stand at this years’ North Sheep event.
Beef Expo, Malvern
Thursday 21st May 2009
A very big thank you to Anne (Paragon), Bill (Belmont), James (LLM), Helen (Wright and Morten), Jo (Scott Mitchell) and David (Paragon) for their sterling efforts at this year’s Beef Expo held at the Three Counties Showground in Malvern in May. We had over 400 farmers attend the stand and it is very clear that the message of “quality veterinary service” attached to your brand is making its mark. Large banners and a newsletter which reported on the excellent case studies from the farm health planning projects were displayed and distributed.
The pre-Expo farm visits had been to two farm clients of XLVet member Belmont Veterinary Centre. The opportunity was taken to produce and display banners on these farms to coincide with the visits: many thanks to Matthew Pugh and Bill Main for their work in coordinating this.
The Expo also provided the opportunity to interact with a number of key players within the Industry, including breed societies, agricultural journalists and other agricultural suppliers. In addition, James Allcock and Andrew Curwen separately gave presentations as a part of the Seminar programmes that were running during the day, leading to coverage in the agricultural press.
NSA Welsh Sheep
Tuesday 19th May 2009
XLVet member Ben Pedley of Willows Veterinary Group attended and presented a bluetongue seminar at the recent NSA Welsh Sheep Event.
Ben commented: “The event was very well attended, despite the awful weather. I even met a couple of our clients there. The interest in BTV though is poor and I feel that this is mainly due to the lateness that Wales became a PZ and vaccination started last year. Uptake of the vaccine is minimal and I spoke to guys from Merial and Intervet to gauge the feedback they had received on their stands - they agreed with me.
“Despite the price drop last week, farmers still don’t feel it’s necessary. What they need is some evidence that it will affect their business. I showed them slides of the devastation in France when they didn’t vaccinate and also what happened to the number of cases in Holland when they did vaccinate. Perhaps they will have to wait until it’s evident again in the UK!!
“As regards the rest of the seminars there was a lot of interest in electronic ID which is coming in next year, and the advantages and possible swing to selling more in the markets at market price rather than direct to the supermarkets etc.
“A good show though,” concludes Ben
National Cattle Mobility Event
April 2009
The second, annual, National Cattle Mobility Event was held on the 26th March at the University of Nottingham Veterinary School.
The National Cattle Mobility Event is a registered charity, whose aim is to advance the education and training of farmers and allied professions in the subject of cattle mobility, with the aim of reducing the incidence of lameness in cattle in the UK, and thereby improving animal welfare.
The morning session consisted of two lectures, the first given by Dr Joep Driessen, from the Cow signals training company.
Joep gave a presentation en- titled “Claw signals- every foot tells a tale”, where he identified four key factors for good claw health.
· Reduce pressure on feet - decrease standing times, increase lying times, and optimise underfoot surfaces.
· Decrease infection pressure from the environment - improve building and foot hygiene.
· Early and appropriate treatment of lame cows and record what the problem is.
The second lecture was by Dr Jon Huxley, from the Nottingham University Veterinary School, on “Lameness and cow comfort in the modern dairy herd”.
The theme of this lecture was that the incidence and prevalence of lameness in some dairy herds has remained at an un-acceptable level, whereas great improvements have been made in other areas of the dairy industry, such as mastitis and cell count control.
Mobility scoring is currently the most widely accepted method for identifying lame cows and the four point scoring system was recently accepted as the “UK standard” at a cross industry meeting.
Based on the results of mobility scoring, the proportion of lame cows on UK dairy farms has recently been demonstrated as 30% by Jon Huxley. This figure varied on individual farms from 0% to 70%, the point being that lameness can be managed effectively on some dairy units.
The afternoon session was held at the University dairy unit, where the 240 cow, 9,700 litre herd is milked through four Lely astronaut robots and housed in buildings designed for the highest standards of cow comfort.
There was a series of workshops, around which the delegates rotated, covering mobility scoring, foot trimming demonstrations and practical sessions on Cow signals and Claw signals.
XL Vets had a stand in the trade hall and received a lot of interest during the day from farmers and their advisors. The professional, informative, fact sheets proved particularly popular.
Above: Pictured on the XL Vets stand are, left to right; Becki Hayes, Paula Wilson, Rose Jackson (All Scarsdale) John Cammack (Glenthorne).
XLVets National Equine Dental Awareness Month
April 2009
XLVets will be running its first national equine dental awareness month, covering horses across the country, from Orkney to Penzance, throughout April 2009.
The promotion will be offered by all equine XLVet member practices; to help to ensure that all horses and ponies have the opportunity to enjoy the best quality of life that they can and not suffer the discomfort of dental problems. The XLVet National Equine Dental Awareness Month will include a series of educational workshops promoting dental care in the horse, pony and donkey.
As part of the campaign there will be a focus on the condition Diastema, a problem that is rising in horses and particularly affects younger horses. The extent of Diastema in horses has been previously underestimated, it is a nasty condition that develops from food gathering in between teeth.
The importance of thorough veterinary examination to identify and treat this condition will be discussed with horse owners. With correct identification and treatment from your veterinary surgeon, good results can be expected.
For further information on Equine Dental Awareness Month please contact your local XLVets practice.
AMTRA success
Congratulations to XLVet members Zoe Pearson and Sally Jones (pictured below), both receptionists with Macpherson O'Sullivan, who recently passed their AMTRA examination for G-SQP (Farm Animals and Equine) at Harper Adams.
Semex Conference - 11-13 January 2009
XLVets attended the recent Semex Conference, held at Glasgow. An interesting and enjoyable time was had by XLVets delegates and the event provided a good platform to promote the activities of XLVets and to discuss future opportunities.
Thanks go to David Black, Paragon; Richard Knight, Westmorland; Philip Alcock, Bishopton and John Dawson, Willows for attending and representing XLVets at the conference.
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