Sunnyside Veterinary Clinic / New Clients Horse

A Message to Our New Clients

(and to those who are thinking
about becoming new clients)

Thank you for taking the time to check out Sunnyside Veterinary Clinic. We appreciate your interest. If you are looking at this web page, you are probably trying to decide whether or not you want to bring your horse in to see us. To help you make your decision, I'll cut to the chase and list the things that I believe set us apart from the other clinics in Idaho Falls. If you are in a hurry, just read the big red headings. For more information, please read the fine print, and for more than you probably want to know, click the links.

We do all the regular stuff: vaccinations & deworming, lumps & bumps, sprains & strains, lameness, breeding, you name it.   But there are some things that we feel we are particularly good at. These are the things that set us apart.

We are leaders in pain management.

We believe that animals feel pain just like humans do. Many practices now are realizing that dogs and cats feel pain, but not many practices apply these principles to horses.  We do. That is why we cut no corners when it comes to pain management. Whether it is an older horse with arthritis, a young colt being gelded, or an injured horse of any age, we employ a variety of innovative, potent pain control techniques, such as pre-emptive pain medication, multi-modal pain management, pain patches, pain drips, and local blocks.

We believe that every surgery patient deserves excellent post-op pain control, so we use potent pre-op medications, and we believe every surgery patient should go home with enough medication to make them comfortable while they heal. We don't believe a single injection can cover all the bases.   For more information,   Click here  for more than you ever wanted to know about pain management. All of these principles can be applied to horses. We don't use every trick on every patient, but we have the clubs in our bag, so to speak.

We do dentistry right.

Dr. Nield has been doing Advanced Equine Dentistry since 1996. That's a long time. Long enough to know what is normal and what is not. Long enough to be able to treat the problems safely and effectively. There are a lot of folks out there doing dentistry. Some hold themselves out as specialists of varying sorts. But when your only tool is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail. Dr. Nield's broad background in equine medicine, surgery, and equine dentistry makes him uniquely qualified to treat the problems and to leave the normal stuff alone.

We follow the new AAEP vaccination guidelines. There is some exciting new stuff in the field of equine vaccinations, and not every clinic has joined the 21st century. We may break with "tradition," but that's what progress is all about. So don't ask us for a "4-Way" for your horse. That went out with Disco. The new AAEP (American Association of Equine Practitioners) recommendations cover all the bases, but add a few things, and do it in a different way. And since many of the lameness problems we see are actually due to long-term shoeing, trimming, and conformation problems, we recommend an annual physical exam for your horse too.