Equine Sports Medicine Heals Ailing Horses with Mobile Veterinary Hospital

Chris Howell NewsOn6.com

TULSA---At horse shows across the nation, such as the Reichert Celebration currently at the Tulsa Fairgrounds, you will frequently find veterinarian Alan Donnell and the team from Equine Sports Medicine. They travel to the horse shows in custom trailers to provide comprehensive horse care in a comfortable clean environment.

‘Doing medical work in a dusty barn and stall were not ideal, so that's the way the idea of the trucks came along,' said Donnell, ‘the truck is basically a NASCAR trailer that we've converted into a veterinary hospital, they've just refitted it with medical equipment.'

With the trailer the vets can see as many as 70 horses per day.

‘It can run anywhere from a horse who's developed hives from new shavings to a lameness that needs to be worked out,' said Donnell.

Whitney Ward from Florida appreciated the care her horse received from Alan Donnell and the folks from Equine sports medicine when her horse ‘stress-foundered'.

‘He was given the wrong medicine, not by a vet but by someone who might not have known the right dosage to give him,' explained Whitney, ‘stress-foundering is really bad on their feet so he almost died but they were able to get him through it.'

And as for her appreciation of the mobile facility and Alan Donnell, Whitney and her horse like them very much.

‘He's the one that he saw when he was sick, so basically they probably saved his life.'