Equine Surgical Referrals

29/08/2025

A gentleman, teacher and mentor who will be sorely missed.

Get up to date with the latest news from the equine veterinary profession.

15/08/2025

Another laparoscopic assisted ovariectomy: this beautiful Clydesdale mare was not getting in foal. Vet Oliver Chaffey from Tower Equine Veterinary Surgeons examined her and found an enlarged (around 18cm diameter) right o***y. AMH (hormone) tests confirmed that this was likely to be an ovarian granulosa cell tumour. We removed this lesion with the mare standing and sedated using laparoscopic guidance to ligate and divide the ovarian pedicle before removing it via a flank incision. The final photo shows the mare the day following surgery, looking very contented to be fed again!

07/08/2025

24/07/2025

Our new article published in 'In Practice' written with Mel Kamps on 'Standing surgery on the yard'. P.S. it's not about rabbits I promise.... 😉

Background: In general equine practice, many minor standing surgical procedures are commonly done at the owner's or trainer's premises. The growing concept of contextualised care involves considering...

22/07/2025

This 18 y.o. Warmblood mare presented to the referring vet with changed (more aggressive) behaviour and was becoming difficult to manage. They diagnosed a very large (20x25cm) granuloma cell tumour of the right o***y - a type of tumour which secretes excessive amounts of testosterone. Under standing sedation, we used a Ligasure vessel sealer and divider under laparoscopic guidance to ligate and sever the ovarian pedicle and then aspirated over 2 litres of fluid from the o***y before removal via a small flank laparotomy incision. The mare has recovered very well and is back home with her owner, and reportedly the aggressive behaviour towards other horses has already ceased.

07/07/2025

URT surgery course with Drs Arianne Campos (Grosbois), Juan Munoz (Manilva, Spain) and myself - for ECVS/ACVS residents and established surgeons wanting to brush up on skills for laryngoplasty, tie-forward, guttural pouch disorders and sinus surgery. Leon, Spain, 13-14th November 2025. ulehvequidos@unileon.es

12/06/2025

I ran into this 18 y.o. polo mare again yesterday - over a year ago I removed a really huge SCC from the lateral eyelids - and did a reconstruction with some fancy skin flaps and a labial graft. Her eye looks fab now - a small defect there laterally, but the eye is fully functional, no problems with tear film spread and the owners are very happy. Working with Blackdown Equine Clinic on this case.🙂

15/04/2025

Alar fold collapse is a massively under diagnosed cause of expiratory obstruction in all types of performance horses. New science coming from Norway shows that it can really obstruct outflow of air from the lungs and upper respiratory tract. Resection of the alar folds can be performed with the patient sedated and standing, with the area effectively anaesthetised using bilateral nerve blocks.

11/04/2025

It's foaling time again... These pics came up on my photo reminders: an elective C-section I did with a couple of friends who came to scrub-in for the big day. The mare had a serious cervical stenosis after a tear the previous year thus could not be left to foal naturally without considerable risk of complications. After a lot of pre-op monitoring and planning it was a fun surgery with a lovely hospital team. Plus ended up with a healthy mare and foal. p.s. Nice sideburns NT....😄

18/03/2025

Our latest paper on objective gold standard post-operative evaluation of tie-forward surgery in TB racehorses published in Veterinary Surgery today. Well done to Tim B for being persistent and getting this one over the line. Sometimes I think certain reviewers can’t see the wood for the trees!

Objectives To compare overground endoscopy (OGE) findings and racing performance in horses before and after laryngeal tie-forward (LTF) surgery for the treatment of intermittent dorsal displacement ...

03/01/2025

https://thehorse.com/1133491/study-narrow-diameter-repulsion-pins-for-equine-cheek-tooth-extraction/

Researchers say this method of extracting horses’ cheek teeth could reduce complications during and after surgery when traditional extraction methods fail.

24/12/2024

Laparoscopic ovariectomy for a GCT discovered incidentally during work-up for PUO - performed with the team at Cliffe Equine Vets. Great to see her back on the road. 🙂