Business South June 2021

| 95 SERVICES West Coast Vets On the Coast, for the Coast for 50-plus years T Kim Newth On farm: West Coast Vets tech, Ros MacCann, who recently won Virbac’s Rural Women New Zealand Animal Health Graduate Grant, for her commitment to the Coast. get your herd performance ready Registered pursuant to the ACVM Act 1997, No. A9374. Enhance immunity and improve fertility. Proudly available from West Coast Vets. V eterinary care on the West Coast evolved alongside the local dairy indus- try, with the earliest clinics operating in Hokitika and Reefton. West Coast Vets has a time honoured role in animal health care on the Coast and today offers a true mixed veterinary care service for the region. The history of veterinary care on the West Coast spans many decades. The story begins some 70 years ago, with Neil Bruere, then a young, newly graduated vet who, with his wife Betsy, had just accepted his first posting to Hokitika. Back then, there was no clinic so Neil’s place of work was out of the local cream factory. The first clinic was built at Gibson Quay soon after; it was a modest affair – just a small four-roomed building. The original directors – including Mark Wallace and Ces Meharry, both from Kokatahi – hailed from dairy farm country that, in those days, was concentrated in Kokatahi/Kowhiti- rangi, Harihari/Whataroa and Reefton. Hence, the early clinics were in Hokitika and Reefton (which opened in the 1950s, with Boyd Jones one of the early vets there). There was no clinic at Greymouth at that time as the Vet Services Council only provided funding for large animal clinics. Greymouth finally got its own clinic in the 1960s, with Reefton operating from then on as a secondary clinic until it closed in the mid to late 1970s. West Coast Vets has its origins in these earlier vet practices and is today proudly continuing the legacy of trusted veterinary care via clinics in Greymouth and Hokitika and an outreach service in Ikamatua (with pickup depot for basic supplies and weekly on-site vet visits). An exciting new development coming up is a new clinic in Greymouth, with design work now in its final stages. Catering to a large range of clients across the West Coast, the company has a dedicated and highly skilled team of vets, vet techs and vet nurses available to meet all production/ dairy, lifestyle and companion animal needs. Clinics are equipped with a full diagnostic suite including digital x-ray, in-house blood analysis, ultrasound, and modern anaesthetic monitoring equipment. West Coast Vets’ team of veterinary pro- fessionals takes pride in meeting day to day requirements as well as delivering a 24 hour emergency service. There are many pet lovers on the team, with the training and experience to ensure cats, dogs and other companion animals get the best care for common issues such as allergies or injuries of various kinds, as well as preventative health care, nutrition support, vaccinations, micro-chipping and dental health care. West Coast Vets is well-equipped to look after the needs of working dogs too. As in decades past, farming remains a huge focus for West Coast Vets. Services offered include lameness control, mastitis control and milk quality management, dairy reproductive services, trace element monitoring, gastroin- testinal parasite and liver fluke monitoring, body condition scoring, disbudding, drench programmes and dry off treatments. There are trained ‘in calf’ advisors in all clinics. Restricted veterinary medicine con- sultations are carried out yearly to provide a detailed review of the entire farm system. Monitoring for Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVD) and Johne’s disease is also available. The team of experienced veterinarians and technicians strive to provide farmers with con- sistent and efficient animal health service for all routine farm jobs, such as disbudding, teat sealing, body condition scoring, vaccinations, metri-checking and pregnancy scanning.