Hospital first over finish line
2007-07-19
Malané Bosman
WITH horse studs expanding and the value of equine stock rocketing in Paarl and surrounds, veterinary support systems are running a dismal last.
But now, with financial input from top South African horse breeders in the Drakenstein area, a state of the art veterinary hospital will soon be opening its doors and surgeries in Wemmershoek.
The hospital is the brainchild of veterinary surgeons Dr Jim Antrobus and Dr Ian Heyns, the two men who have been specialising on race horses in the Boland for years.
“We simply do not have the facilities and technology available to do justice to the valuable stock now in the Boland,” Dr Heyns said.
When the veterinary surgeons voiced their predicament, stud owners Gaynor Rupert (L’Ormarins), Mary Oppenheimer-Slack (Wilgeboschdrift), Graham Beck (Highlands), Dr Andries Jacobs (Main Chance) and Marcus Jooste (Klawervlei) were eager to make funds available.
Today the new hospital is being erected along the Paarl/Franschhoek road, between Pearl Valley and the Drakenstein Prison, on 25 hectares owned by the Rupert family.
Drakenstein Veterinary Centre will be the first animal hospital in the Western Cape to be equipped with specialised surgical equipment, digital ultra-sound, radiology and fertility apparatus.
What the surgeons are welcoming most of all, is not only the possibility of operating within minutes of identifying the problem, but the availability of aftercare.
The hospital will be housed in a Cape Dutch style building, with two theatres and two stable blocks to allow for isolation and sterilisation.
Intensive care stables will be erected for aftercare, as well as a treadmill and a sand track for horses to exercise post-operatively.
Also in the pipeline is a swimming pool for the rehabilitation of patients.
Accommodation will be built on site to house the staff.
“We will have all the facilities and staff in one place,” Dr Heyns said with satisfaction.
“And there will always be someone on site for emergencies.”
Also on board is the Western Cape’s expert on fertility, Dr Rachel Shuttleworth.
The facility will be headed by the internationally renowned Prof Sybrand van den Berg of Onderstepoort, and his assistant Dr Carol Furniss.
Dr Furniss will also man a mobile clinic equipped with ultra-sound, digital radiology and endoscopes.
The veterinary centre should be up and running by September, just in time for the foaling season.
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