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Monday 8:30am - 5:30pm Tuesday 8:30am - 5:30pm Wednesday 8:30am - 5:30pm Thursday 8:30am - 5:30pm Friday 8:30am - 5:30pm

Vectis Equine Vets

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A team of experienced equine vets providing veterinary services to horses, ponies and donkeys.

Vectis Equine Vets are the longest standing, island based equine veterinary practice. It has a great team of experienced equine vets and staff, resident on the Island, committed to playing an active part in the community. Both vets have post-graduate qualifications and continue to keep up to date with the latest techniques and medications. The whole team are committed to continuing to provide excellent veterinary care to horses, ponies and donkeys on the Island. They maintain close professional ties with the consultants specialists at The Liphook Equine Hospital who provide support, guidance and hospital facilities when required.

10/07/2026

The sustained outbreak of Equine Influenza in the UK is continuing with more cases reported in Hampshire this week, including cases within the free roaming New Forest ponies. So far there have been no confirmed cases on the Island but it is important to remember the influenza virus is airborne and can travel distances of up to 3 miles on the wind. Therefore even the solent can't protect us fully!

There have been 166 laboratory confirmed cases since April, affecting 53 different counties.
🐴65% were in unvaccinated horses (10% in vaccinated)
🐴66% involved horses that had travelled prior to infection.

The increasing geographical distribution of outbreaks
suggests that movement-associated transmission
continues to introduce infection into previously
unaffected areas. Therefore we urge everyone to carefully consider risks associated with movement while influenza activity remains high.

Vaccination reduces the severity of symptoms in affected animals and we recommend vaccination in all horses, donkeys and ponies. Please check your horse is up to date!

At this moment we also suggest any animals that are travelling to shows or for training, or that have known other respiratory conditions, such as equine asthma syndrome, receive a booster vaccination if they have not had a vaccination in the last 6 months.

🏠 Take home messages 🏠
* ensure influenza vaccines are up to date - consider a booster if not done in the last 6 months.
* Monitor temperatures and watch for respiratory signs
*Be particularly vigilant if your horse has recently travelled to a show, competition, sale or gathering
*Isolate any horse showing symptoms and contact us for advice

Please see the factsheet below for excellent advice regarding symptoms and ways to reduce the risks
https://equinesurveillance.org/landing/resources/EIDS_what_to_do_with_equine_flu.pdf

Photo Credit: TI media

22/06/2026

We have successfully completed our move so you will now find us in our new home.
Unit 4a, Carisbrooke Business Park, 21 Whitcombe road, PO30 1YS.

19/06/2026

‼️ URGENT - PLEASE READ ‼️

Good morning, we are in the middle of an office move and our phone line is experiencing issues.

🚨For any emergencies please call 07825747419🚨

We ask that any non-urgent queries are sent by email ([email protected]) or wait until Monday. Our phone lines will be back up and running as usual (01983533799) by Monday morning.

We will update you with our new address later on today ☺️

16/06/2026

UPDATE
The ponies have been found and are now safely at home!

We have been informed by a client that their four ponies (2 highlands, one thoroughbred, one New Forest x) have gone missing from Stag Lane, off the Cowes to Newport road. The gates have been damaged and it is not clear if they have escaped or been stolen. Please be aware and report any sightings of loose horses to us so we can let the owner know. Thanks for your help.

11/06/2026

🩺 CLIENT EVENING REMINDER 🩺

We look forward to seeing everyone who got a place tonight!

✨Those who got a place have been sent emails to confirm their place, please let us know if you cannot attend any more so we can let someone on the waiting list know.

✨To those who missed out, you should also have received an email. Please don’t worry, we are putting some further dates in the diary so you won’t miss out.

If you have not got an email or are unsure if you have a place please let us know!

11/05/2026

🐴 CLIENT EVENING 🐴

We are back again with another client evening, focusing this time on Equine First Aid ⛑️
Further information regarding our first aid kits, which will be available to buy on the night, will be following soon! ⭐️

Spaces are limited, if you'd like to attend please fill out the google form linked here : https://forms.gle/jDby8SCwzKBkTYaN7

02/04/2026

🐰Happy Easter & Happy Bank Holiday weekend!☀️

Please note the office is shut over the bank holiday from Friday 3rd April, with normal service resuming on Tuesday 7th April.

📞 As always, a vet will be on call for emergencies and urgent advice. Please ring the usual office number if you need us!

Fingers crossed for some sunshine 🤞🏼

09/03/2026

TOP TIPS FOR WEIGHT MANAGEMENT (Part 2)

Our first part focused more on laminitics, in this second part we'll look more at horses that aren't laminitic but need to shed some pounds!

Similarly to us, it's diet and exercise that are the two factors we need to make some changes to.

🌱Limiting calories consumed when grazing
Grass can be a rich source of calories and is often higher than hay/haylage, it is also likely to change dependent on area and time of year. It's estimated that a 500kg horse out for 8 hours can consume between 0.7%-1.4% of their bodyweight in dry matter (grass is 80% water). This means we need to remember to account for grass when thinking about diet and forage restriction.

So, how can we restrict calories when grazing :

🌾Utilising small paddocks that have been overgrazed or poor quality
An easy way to limit a horse's intake but still provide turnout time. Whilst the grass can contain higher sugar content due to stress, the total amount your horse eats will still be lower than if it were longer grass.

🐴 Muzzles
We appreciate these are not always an owner favourite, but they are a genuinely great tool when used correctly, that can facilitate weight loss with turn out time. A study conducted in 2012 (A.C Longland et al.), found that dry matter intake was reduced by an average of 83% in ponies wearing muzzles for turnout, than those that were without muzzles.

🥕Strip grazing & Track systems
Strip grazing involves using electric tape to separate a larger paddock, providing controlled amounts of fresh grass and encouraging movement. Whilst also allowing areas of the field to rest.
Track systems are fantastic ways to encourage movement by increasing exercise, allowing those that may otherwise require restricted turnout time to have as much freedom as possible. There's many fantastic examples online, some including steps, poles and other obstacles.

🍎Hard feed 🍎
It's really important to review your horse's hard feed when concerned about weight and consider whether they actually need it! Most good doers will only need a lo-cal balancer to ensure they are receiving all the needed vitamins & minerals. We'd recommend taking a look at the sugar & starch content of your feed to ensure it is below 5%, don't be caught out by chaffs - we've seen some with 16% sugar!

🏋🏼‍♀️ Exercise
We know it's hard, particularly in the winter months, but just like us humans, exercise really will be a major factor for weight loss. For those horses carrying extra weight we'd recommend low impact exercise initially, long walking hacks with hillwork are perfect, alongside in hand poles or walking. The lighter evenings are fast approaching so hopefully many of you will feel inspired to be back in the saddle!

06/03/2026

⭐️TOP TIPS FOR WEIGHT MANAGEMENT⭐️ (Part 1)

Following on from our previous post about body condition scoring, we've now got some tips for you on lowering that BCS if it was a little high!
For those that guessed the BCS of Toby & Todd - Toby was 4 & Todd was 3!

To help us give these tips we have the adorable Toffee, treated in May last year for laminitis and whose owners went above and beyond in ensuring his management was perfect for him. Toffee needed to lose some weight and lower his insulin, his owners did the following to achieve this :

⚖️Ensuring Toffee's daily hay ration was weighed
Toffee was fed at the minimum forage requirement, which is 1.5% of the horse's body weight in kilograms. So, for example, a 300kg pony needing to lose weight would have a daily hay/haylage ration of 4.5kg.

💧Soaking hay / feeding appropriate forage
Initially, Toffee's hay was soaked for at least 8 hours to remove water-soluble carbohydrates (sugars) decreasing calorie content. Whilst for many equine's this will be appropriate it was found that despite soaking Toffee's hay must've been high in sugars as it kept increasing his insulin. Therefore the switch was made to bagged haylage that had a combined sugar & starch of less than 10% alongside introducing straw. Straw is low sugar & starch and great for incorporating into a weight loss diet but you do need to ensure it's suitable for your equines and introduce it slowly. We will give some further information on incorperating straw in another post!

⏰Increasing consumption time
It is inevitable that when you weigh out your ponies daily hay ration for the first time, the words 'this is nothing, it won't last an hour' will come out! Therefore, increasing consumption time to ensure gut health is a priority. Toffee's owners fed him from small holed haynets (yes, ANY equine will eat from these!) and hung his haynet in the middle of the stable so difficulty to eat increased. Alongside using things such as hay pillows and tyres, not only did these slow him down but provided enrichment whilst he had to be kept off grass.

🍕Ensuring hard feed was appropriate
Whilst normally Toffee might not have needed any feed, he was given a small feed to ensure he got his daily medication and his vitamin & mineral needs were met. His feed consisted only of a small handful of chaff and a lo-cal balancer. We try to keep to feeds with a total starch and sugar content below or as close to 5% possible in these cases.

🏃🏽‍♀️Exercise
Once Toffee was comfortable, we started low impact exercise. In-hand walking is a perfect low impact exercise for obese equines that will still burn those calories whilst preventing joint damage and for those needing a gradual increase in work load. It's important that ponies being treated for laminitis are cleared to start exercise by a vet.

👀Keep your eyes peeled for part 2

17/02/2026

⭐️WEIGHT MANAGEMENT⭐️

As we (hopefully!) start coming in to spring it's important to take note of our equine's body condition scores (BCS).
In 2025, a survey conducted by a feed manufacturer revealed that around 75% of horses and ponies in the UK could be overweight, a worringly high number.

Obesity in horses, ponies and donkey's can lead to serious health conditions like the following :
- Orthopaedic problems such as arthritis
- Laminitis
- Equine Metabolic Syndrome
- Increased strain on the heart & lungs
- Increased risk of hyperthermia

🩺It can also cause complications in the treatment of certain conditions where steroids are warranted such as ; intra-articular steroid injections for joint disease, inhaled or systemic steroids for equine asthma.

🐴Assessing your horse's BCS is a simple thing to do! Luckily, the BHS have a great step-by-step guide on how to do it, which you can find here: https://www.bhs.org.uk/horse-care-and-welfare/health-care-management/horse-health/fat-scoring-horses/

🫏Donkey's BCS are evaluated differently to horses & ponies, The Donkey Sanctuary have put together a helpful chart specific to donkeys to help owners which can be found here :
https://www.thedonkeysanctuary.org.uk/for-owners/owners-resources/donkey-body-condition-score-chart

🔎To help you all start training to become pros at body condition scoring, pictured below are two horses. Comment below your guess of their BCS - answers will be revealed in our next post which will be all about tips & tricks to get those pounds off!

Address

Systems House, St Cross Lane
Newport
PO305BZ

Opening Hours

Monday	8:30am - 5:30pm
Tuesday	8:30am - 5:30pm
Wednesday	8:30am - 5:30pm
Thursday	8:30am - 5:30pm
Friday	8:30am - 5:30pm

Telephone

+441983533799

Website

http://www.vectisequinevets.co.uk/

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