Dr. Swerdlin and Dr. Gomez with foal courtesy of PBEC
Jorge Gomez, and Dr. Weston Davis - who rotate surgical Equestrian Sport Productions and also work out of an
duties. There is also Dr. Peter Heidmann, our boarded annex clinic on the horse show grounds at WEF where
internal medicine specialist, a boarded ophthalmologist, we can evaluate horses, do ultrasounds, radiographs, and
and a boarded radiologist. Those are some of the services provide emergency services and medications. Our goal
that make PBEC truly unique. there is to provide every service necessary to protecting
the health and safety of horses and riders.
How do the boarded specialists benefit the average
horse person?
We recently added an isolation wing to our Wellington
facility for internal medicine cases that are contagious. It is
We all know what the surgeons do, which ranges like a quarantine, but is designed so that every horse has its
from emergency procedures such as colic surgery to injury own isolation stall with separate air and cleaning systems.
repairs. One common specialty that we see utilized a lot Veterinarians enter individual rooms before entering the
at PBEC is orthopedics. One of the very interesting things stalls where they gown and prepare treatments. We can do
that we have now is a surgical pit. We get a lot of race a better job treating each horse and there is no chance of
horses being referred to us for our surgical expertise and anything spreading. Ten years ago, there was an outbreak
we can now repair common injuries such as condylar of equine herpes in Wellington and it killed a number of
fractures with the horse standing instead of going under horses. That is when I started dreaming about this isolation
general anesthesia. Dr. Weston Davis is also very good facility.
at endoscopic procedures, which can also be performed One of the other great things that we have now is
while the horse is standing. It does not require a midline standing computed tomography (CT) capabilities. Our CT
incision to open a horse up, but rather a keyhole incision machine takes 3-D images of a horse’s neck and gives us
that he uses to insert the instruments into the horse. That the ability to see things we were never able to see before.
procedure can be used to do things like an ovariectomy or It is an amazing technology that we will now see included
ablations of the nephrosplenic space. in pre-purchase examinations.
What new services will you offer during the 2018 As president of one of the most complex veterinary
season? facilities in the U.S., what services set PBEC apart
I am very excited about 2018. For the past 20 years,
we have been the official veterinarians of the Winter
and how does it feel to be a reference in the care of
horses?
Equestrian Festival (WEF) and now at the Adequan Global We have been so fortunate because of our clients and
Dressage Festival. We have a great relationship with the wonderful horses that we have been able to work
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