Celebrations as long-serving vet marks 30 years at Hampshire equine veterinary hospital
A vet who has treated thousands of horses and ponies in and around Hampshire is celebrating a major career milestone. Andy Durham is marking 30 years as part of the team at Liphook Equine Hospital, having joined in 1994 – the year the song Love is All Around famously topped the charts for 15 weeks and the Channel Tunnel opened.
Andy, who is a clinical director of the hospital in Forest Mere, heads up its busy laboratory and is a consultant for its internal medicine team.
In 1994, his first role at the practice was an ambulatory vet, visiting owners and their horses around Hampshire, Surrey and Sussex. Then, in 1999 he helped set up the laboratory, which processes samples sent in from vet practices all over the UK and over the past 25 years has developed some of the most sophisticated diagnostic tests that are used around the world to investigate equine diseases such as equine metabolic syndrome.
An RCVS and European specialist in equine internal medicine, Andy is a highly respected vet in the equine world and has written numerous papers and articles on equine health conditions and presented at veterinary conferences at home and abroad.
Andy said: “I have thoroughly enjoyed my 30 years at Liphook Equine Hospital and of the biggest changes I’ve seen is how the practice has grown. When I joined in 1994, we had seven vets and 12 stables for our equine patients. We are now one of the largest specialist equine veterinary practices with a team of 100, including 30 vets, and have 55 stables for in-patients. We also benefit from high-tech surgical facilities and the most sophisticated diagnostic equipment to help us offer the highest levels of care to our patients.
“I enjoyed being a road vet in the early days, but my role evolved and now I help horses and clients in a different way and my main responsibilities are interpreting lab test results, communicating these to our own and referring vets and handling medical queries.
“It’s a multi-disciplinary team here at Liphook and I enjoy working in a big, busy practice, where I’m working alongside and supporting the ambulatory and hospital teams.
“The highlight of my career has been seeing the lab take off, from running a few bloods in the early days to analysing thousands of samples every week. I’m really proud of the lab team – everyone does a great job so we can offer a high value service to our colleagues in other practices.”
Liphook Equine Hospital’s laboratory delivers a wide range of service to equine veterinary practices, including blood analysis, skin allergy testing and tests to diagnose liver issues and endocrine diseases.