New equine hospital to service central Queensland

Maraboon Rural Vet Services veterinarian Dr Indiana Conway said it would be a full hospital on Talafa Rd with an inside intensive care unit, outdoor stables and full breeding facilities for fresh and frozen AI.

"We'll have the ability to do dentistry work and people will be able to bring their horses to us rather than us having to go out to them where they pay for (our) travel," she said.

In September last year, the Emerald veterinary practise, Maraboon Vet Surgery owned by veterinarian Dr Angela Sutherland, expanded its work of treating small animals to open a large animal ambulatory service.

"It's an avenue in this area that just made sense as there's lots of demand for more horse and cattle work for us and there's lots of people that need more vets so we're just providing that to the community," Dr Conway said.

"It also means that we're able to hire vets that want to work in a mixed practise rather than one that just treats small animals."

Dr Conway said it had been a slow build as they got more clients on their books and got to know the area in the large animal space.

"We will travel as far west as Alpha, we do Capella, Tieri, Middlemount and then out to Blackwater and down to Springsure and Rolleston - that's generally our radius, but we'll make exceptions if it's necessary, but that's usually where we go," she said.

"At the moment, we're doing preg testing...hopefully we will start to do a bit more bull testing in the August/September period."

Dr Conway said it was mainly routine work with cattle at the moment in the big animals space after an outbreak of black leg in Clermont not so long ago.

"We've just finished up where we went to Capella, Alpha and Rolleston for some field days where we did a meet and greet with the cattle community and did a free information night about vaccines and how to improve one's breeding facilities, and how to be more profitable," she said.

She said feedback had been really good as people had struggled to get vets out quickly because there was such a high demand for large animal vets in the region.

"So far, we've had pretty positive responses from people," she said.

The practise, Maraboon Vet Surgery and Maraboon Rural Vet Services, employs 41 staff.