South East Veterinary Services

16/10/2026

Hi Everyone,

Just a courtesy announcement that Ben will be away for the following two weeks to attend a course. We appreciate being unavailable for routine and urgent/emergency jobs during this period will be inconvenient, however, necessary to ensure we can provide veterinary services well into the future.

Ben is generally available 24hrs per day, 7 days per week for our valued clients and only unavailable for 2 weeks continuously once per year, and have coordinated this unavailability to occur 12 months following our last major unavailability (our honeymoon in November 2025!).

We will still have our receptionists available to triage cases, process medication requests and book in routine appointments when we return. Ben will be available in limited capacity should he be personally required to assist remotely.

We apologise for any inconvenience.

19/09/2026

🦷🐴 WHAT DOES AN EQUINE DENTAL BY A VETERINARIAN ACTUALLY INCLUDE? 🐴🦷

“I just need his teeth floated.” 😅

But a veterinary dental is SO much more than filing down sharp points!

When your veterinarian performs your horse’s dental, you’re getting a health assessment, sedation, monitoring, a complete oral examination, dental treatment, and the ability to address medical concerns that may be discovered along the way.

Here’s what that looks like 👇

🩺 HEALTH EXAM FIRST
Every dental includes a general health assessment. This helps identify underlying problems that could affect sedation or the procedure. Sedation isn't one-size-fits-all — knowing the patient matters.

💉 PROPER SEDATION
Your horse is assessed and an appropriate sedation protocol is selected based on the individual patient and procedure. Proper drug selection, dosing and administration technique all matter.

❤️ MONITORING & EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS
Your horse isn't simply sedated and left to stand there. Veterinary professionals are trained to monitor sedated patients and recognize and respond to complications — whether that’s an unexpected reaction, excessive sedation, cardiovascular or respiratory concerns, or another emergency.

And if something DOES go wrong, a veterinary professional has the training, medications and equipment to intervene appropriately.

🦷 COMPLETE ORAL EXAM
We're looking at much more than just the obvious sharp points:

✔️ Incisors, canines, premolars & molars
✔️ Gums & periodontal tissues
✔️ Tongue, cheeks & palate
✔️ Tooth alignment and occlusion
✔️ Retained caps, loose or fractured teeth
✔️ Hooks, ramps and abnormal wear
✔️ Diastemata and periodontal disease
✔️ Other abnormalities or oral disease

⚙️ DENTAL CORRECTION
Sharp points, hooks, ramps and other abnormalities can be appropriately corrected using hand or powered instruments.

The goal isn't to make every tooth perfectly smooth — it’s to restore function while preserving healthy tooth structure.

🔎 WE CAN IDENTIFY PROBLEMS THAT NEED MORE THAN A FLOAT
Sometimes we find periodontal disease, fractured or loose teeth, retained teeth, severe abnormalities, tooth-root concerns or other conditions that require further diagnostics, treatment, extraction or referral.

💊 PAIN MANAGEMENT WHEN NEEDED
If we find a painful dental condition or perform a more involved procedure, your veterinarian can assess the need for appropriate pain management and prescribe or administer medications when indicated.

📋 VCPR = ONGOING VETERINARY CARE
Because a veterinarian is performing the dental and examining your horse, a Veterinarian-Client-Patient Relationship (VCPR) is established.

That means if we discover another medical concern, your horse is already a veterinary patient — allowing appropriate veterinary advice, diagnosis and medication when medically indicated.

🐴 AND THEN WE MAKE A PLAN!
Not every horse needs the same dental schedule. Age, previous dental issues, diet, use and individual tooth wear all matter.

❤️ SO WHAT ARE YOU REALLY PAYING FOR?

You're not just paying someone to float your horse’s teeth.

You're paying for someone who can:

🩺 Assess your horse's overall health
💉 Safely administer and manage sedation
❤️ Monitor the patient and respond to emergencies
🦷 Thoroughly examine the entire mouth
⚙️ Perform appropriate dental corrections
🔎 Recognize disease and abnormalities
💊 Address pain when necessary
📋 Provide veterinary advice and ongoing care

Because your horse's dental health matters — but so does the horse attached to those teeth. 😉

🦷🐴 It's a LOT more than just a float!

Dr. Josee Marcoux, DVM
True North Veterinary Services
📱1-780-837-0083

17/09/2026

🤩 After lots of planning and preparation, TOMORROW is the 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 𝗚𝗿𝗮𝗱𝘂𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗚𝗼𝗹𝗱𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗶𝗻 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝗸 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲 and we are honoured to be celebrating another exciting year with you.

If you have any questions about any of the sale lots, please contact Craig on 0407 822 397 or any of the selling agents.

Nutrien Stud Stock - Southern Region
☎️ Peter Godbolt - 0457 591 929 | Tim Woodham - 0436 015 115

South Coast Livestock
☎️ Stewart Smith - 0408 286 312 |️ Jason Gannon - 0474 066 409

📍𝐒𝐀𝐋𝐄 - 𝐅𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝟏𝟖𝐭𝐡 𝐒𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔, 𝟓𝐩𝐦 𝐀𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐏𝐥𝐮𝐬

📘 https://bit.ly/2026SaleCatalogue
🎥https://bit.ly/2026GraduatesofGoldsteinParkSale
💻https://bit.ly/2026AuctionsPlus

🧬https://bit.ly/2026AngusAustraliaSaleListing
🧬https://bit.ly/2026AustralianLimousinSaleListing

Nutrien Ag Solutions Bombala & Delegate

14/09/2026

Many followers will understand our passion for equine dentistry being performed by experienced and trained veterinarians in our pursuit to provide the horse with a high standard of treatments and welfare outcomes.

We are excited to hear the Equine Veterinarians Australia (a subgroup of the Australian Veterinary Association, AVA) has now developed a Dental Subcommittee! We look forward to seeing their great work!

🦷🐴 EXCITING NEWS – DON’T LOOK A GIFT HORSE IN THE MOUTH! 🐴🦷

📢 EVA is delighted to announce our Dental Subcommittee, which quietly came together a few months ago and has already been getting its teeth into some important work! 😁

🧠 Think of it as an equine dentistry mind hive: 10 talented and passionate equine veterinarians from across Australia with a serious amount of dental knowledge and experience around the (occlusal 😊) table.

Between them, the group includes 2 specialists, 3 PhDs and 6 ANZCVS Equine Dentistry Membership qualifications, backed by extensive training and hands-on experience in equine dentistry.

In other words… these people know horses’ teeth! 🦷🐎
They pretty much eat, sleep and breathe equine dentistry.

These are their aims~

❤️Promote equine veterinary dentistry to consumers
💜Promote & support equine veterinary dentistry to the industry
💛Advise on policy relevant to equine veterinary dentistry

So, what have they been up to?

🦷 Assisting with AVA submissions for reviews of Veterinary Surgeons legislation (NSW and QLD)
🦷 Tackling current issues affecting equine dentistry
🦷 Reviewing the latest scientific literature and evidence
🦷 Developing reliable, practical information for horse owners
🦷 Helping support high standards in equine dental care

And they are only just getting started…

👀 Watch this space! You’ll be seeing plenty more dentistry-focused content from the EVA Dental Subcommittee, including information for horse owners, updates on current issues and the latest evidence in equine dental care.

21/07/2026

🐾 **Canine Leptospirosis Update – NSW Cases Confirmed in 2026** 🐾

Five cases of canine leptospirosis have already been confirmed in NSW between February and June year, with all affected dogs being unvaccinated. Sadly, three of these dogs died or were euthanised.

Leptospirosis is a serious bacterial disease that can cause kidney and liver failure and can also be transmitted to people.

Dogs are at increased risk if they have exposure to rodents, wildlife, or stagnant water, or if they live in or travel to known risk areas including Sydney, Newcastle, Wollongong, Liverpool, Tamworth, Narrabri, and Southern Highlands.

💉 Vaccination is the best protection. If your dog may be at risk or you're planning to travel to these areas, please contact South East Veterinary Services to book a leptospirosis vaccination or discuss whether it's recommended for your dog.

07/07/2026

Cattle have four stomachs: the rumen and reticulum (responsible for breaking down food), omasum (responsible for removing water from the food) and abomasum (true stomach responsible for digestion). Occasionally, often due to low dietary calcium, high grain diets and peak energy demand, cattle will displace their fourth stomach from the front right side of the abdomen to the upper left side (LDA) or even twist on itself to the upper right side (RDA).

This often leads to reduced transit time of ingesta, lower milk yield and poor appetite. This condition has traditionally required on-farm standing exploratory abdominal surgery: performing a significant abdominal incision, disinfecting our arms and physically replacing and suturing the stomach back to its original position before closing the incision site. I was fortunate to learn this technique from some very skilful veterinarians in dairy practices throughout Victoria, however, still involves significant risk of infection and subsequent surgery healing time.

Today we performed our first standing laparoscopic LDA. Comparatively this technique utilises two very small (10mm) port holes, we confirmed the displacement with a camera/scope, used various 8mm rods to attach to the stomach and replace and affix to its correct position then confirmed replacement with the camera. Whilst we acknowledged there were a number of tricks learnt and prosthetic toggles can break, it was very successful, resulting in rapid replacement with minimal infection risks and better prognosis.

Though we should not mention the farmer, we appreciate their trust and confidence in our knowledge and skills to advance our skills in veterinary medicine 🩺💊💉🐄

19/05/2026

Today we had the pleasure of working with Matt & Jacinta's and their bulls for their pre-purchase Veterinary Bull Breeding Soundness Examinations (VBBSEs), evaluating physical conformation and structural soundness, reproductive soundness, and semen evaluation. We will provide more info on this soon, however, we follow a rigorous standardized procedure and use the latest technology to objectively assess their performance ability. We usually dont publicly provide confidential health results, however, we were very pleased these bulls all passed their exams!

A reminder of their bull inspection on 13th June, and sale on 19th June, at the home of Flash-Jax Limousin's, 900 Greendale Road, Bega.

The bulls all passed the tests today.
Thanks Ben for coming out.

07/04/2026

Have a horse or pony with ongoing issues with (suspected) laminitis, struggling with bodyweight at pasture, or have regional fatty deposits over the neck or tail base?

Diagnosis of Equine Metabolic Syndrome/Insulin Resistance (EMS/IR) has always required sending samples to the lab and waiting up to a week for results.

We have recently invested in a stall-side insulin meter, allowing us to perform dynamic, serial testing with results available with 15 minutes!

Should you have any concerns about your horse/pony with suspected EMS/IR, please give us a call!

The Wellness Ready™ Insulin Test is a new stall side blood test that allows veterinarians to instantly determine a horse’s risk for laminitis. Vern Dryden DVM, CJF, explains the growing need for instant diagnostics in the veterinary field.

02/04/2026

Dr Ben was awarded the Australian Cattle Veterinarian's (ACV) Coopers Rural Practice Scholarship in 2020, awarded for his passion for rural practice and was presented at the ACV Conference in Adelaide.

We again attended the ACV Conference last week in Brisbane which focused on cattle reproduction. In particular, we were inspired by Dr Cedric Wise's life story on 'Lessons in building a veterinary business within the cattle industry', Dr Amelia Rentz's presentation on IVF in cattle, and Lisa Blair OAM's story on resilience and mental agility after being the first woman to sail solo around Antarctica and numerous other world records.

Professional conferences are always very social, and was an invaluable opportunity in networking, catching up with friends from university, fellow colleagues from across the country and industry experts.

We apologise if you required our services during these few days we were away, however, is important in keeping up to date with the latest medical knowledge; and we return inspired, motivated and excited about the future of cattle medicine and the services we aim to provide our community in the coming future 🐄🐂🩺🔬