If your horse needs help, call us first.
Call before you load. We will tell you what to do in the next few minutes, and the team will be ready when you arrive.
During office hours, you reach the practice directly. After hours, our answering service puts you through to the veterinarian on call. Anyone can bring a horse to the hospital, client or not. Our ambulatory veterinarians travel to established clients around the clock.
Three things that help most.
Do these while you are on the phone with us, or while you are getting ready to travel. None of them replaces the call.
Call before you move the horse
Some problems get worse with loading and travel. One minute on the phone tells us whether the horse should come to us, or whether we should come to you.
Keep the horse calm and still
Quiet, contained, and as still as you safely can. Do not give medication unless we have told you to, because it changes what we can read on arrival.
Take the vitals if you can
Temperature, gum color, and pulse, if it is safe to get them. Note when the horse last ate, drank, and passed manure. Every one of those shapes the first ten minutes.
What to bring
Grab what is close. Leave without it rather than hunt for it.
- Halter and lead rope
- Any medication the horse is on, in its own packaging
- Insurance information, if the horse is insured
- Your primary veterinarian's name and number
- A phone charger. Some days are long
What we will ask
Have these ready if you can. If you don't know, say so. That is useful too.
- What you are seeing, in your own words
- When it started, and whether it is getting worse
- Temperature, gum color, pulse, if you have them
- Last feed, last water, last manure
- Any medication already given, and when
2933 Route 22, Patterson, New York.
The hospital sits directly on Route 22, with room to turn a rig. Someone meets you at the trailer.
If you are travelling from Connecticut, Westchester, or Dutchess, tell us your route when you call, and we will tell you how long it takes at that hour.
What happens when you arrive.
The clinical work starts first. Paperwork waits.
We meet you
Someone is expecting you and comes out to the trailer. We unload the horse and take it straight in.
Examination
A veterinarian examines the horse on arrival, with imaging and in-house laboratory work as the case calls for it.
We tell you what we found
What it is, what we are still unsure of, and what the options are, including what each one asks of the horse.
Treatment
Medical management, surgery, or intensive care. The surgical suite and isolation unit are in the same building.