Horse vets help with floods

WITH New South Wales impacted by recent floods, many across the country are doing their part to help, including two of the Shire’s horse veterinarians.

Doctors Jade Janssens and Clara Zalabardo from Golden Plains Equine headed north from Thursday, 17 March to Monday, 21 March, where they lent their care to horses and other large animals affected by the deluge.

The pair were able to travel to NSW coast via a support initiative by Vets For Compassion, who provided them with flights, supplies and accommodation.

Dr Janssens heard about the non-profit’s volunteer drive from a fellow vet and said the decision to lend a hand was a “spontaneous” one.

“She contacted me on the Monday before we actually left, and said they were really desperate for large animal vets,” Dr Janssens said.

“We kind of knew from pictures of friends who live up there what it would look like, but when we got there, it was just crazy.”

During their mornings and evenings, their work was based out of a triage at Bangalow Showgrounds, where they worked with a core team of five people to deliver aid.

Other volunteers would come and go, and Dr Janssens and Dr Zalabardo spent much of their time travelling to remote properties across the state as part of a mobile veterinary team.

The pair travelled to places like Lismore and Coraki and as far inland as Fairy Hill and Leeville.

Dr Zalabardo said every day was filled with “crazy stories” of both the devastation and what the community was doing to keep their animals safe.

“One place we went to, they put their horse on the trailer of a ute just to keep them dry. Other horses were found on a bridge that their owner had to swim them across to,” she said.

“We went to one farm where it always floods in the lower grounds but the house is on a hill, so it’d never had any water before.

“But it actually flooded, and two days in, they got to the rest of their property and found one of their ponies dead halfway up a tree, and horses don’t climb.”

The pair would treat horses mostly for general wounds and pneumonia contracted from swallowing the flood waters.

While they were there for four days, they said the core team was emotionally and physically exhausted throughout their time.

Dr Janssens said that while not wanting to take work away from the local veterinarians, they both would return if given the opportunity.

“We were a little overwhelmed by the fact that we were leaving these vets with all this work still to do, even though they were so grateful,” she said.

“You kind of start realising how big it is and that, although horses survived the floods, they’re still not healthy, and they still need all the help they can get.”