Dr Melanie Quick in Malmsbury, Victoria | Veterinary surgeon

Dr Melanie Quick

Locality: Malmsbury, Victoria

Phone: +61 417 010 519

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• Medical and health
• Alternative & holistic health service
• Veterinary surgeon
• Chiropractor

25.01.2022 Folks, all those who’ve complained to me about this problem, please sign and share. The only way for the FEI to change the rules of competition is for the local Equestrian (eg Equestrian Australia) bodies to forward a request. This needs to be shared all over the world and every local equestrian body needs to make a submission to the FEI as they’re the ones holding up the process of change because they don’t think there is a demand for it

25.01.2022 What a fabulous story of tenacity and courage, a good lesson for us to always remember there are those doing it way tougher, surviving, pressing forwards and he’s become a beautiful soft rider. So practice gratitude daily for the simple things that are going right in our world and remember there is great suffering out there but animals will always be kind to us so we must be kind to them because you never know when an animal will save your soul

25.01.2022 Dancing is one of the healthiest sports for mind body and soul, proven to help with Parkinson’s and Dementia as well!

25.01.2022 Rain has stopped, here comes the sun hope you’ve got your horses locked up in their skinny paddocks, cos I’ve been treating severe laminitis cases this year 3 months earlier than normal, and this week is gonna be the week that tips them all over the edge if y’all aren’t organised! Just remember, laminitis need not be a career or life ending problem. I expect my cases, no matter how severe to need literally no pain relief and return to full work within 7-21 days on averag...e, with the worst cases returning to work within 30 days. 80% of my cases who suffer penetration return to work, 96% of my non penetrated cases return to work. These are the statistics for people who follow my instructions to the letter. I've even had interstate clients who've battled for months with difficult cases turn their horses around within days of having a phone consult with me and getting their management problems sorted out. So it is achievable and often times very very rewarding. If you hear of friends who have horses struggling, I implore you to suggest they get me early, it’s far less traumatic for all involved, horse included, if I can sort them out quickly. There’s WAY MORE TO IT than just locking them up, and even finding a barefoot trimmer and putting boots on. If you hear of cases of horses living on bute for weeks, lying down most of the day, having multiple foot abscess, or being on so much nsaids they end up passing blood in their manure, THIS IS NOT OK, AND IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY. Sadly I regularly see horses who’ve been battling in terrible pain for 6-18months, and many of these just desperately need their management fine tuned and within days they dramatically improve. So spread the word folks, whilst it is hard work to fix them, it doesn’t have to be a nightmare for the horse and you. Good luck.

24.01.2022 Trimming made easier: Good tools make this job so much easier, buying cheap ones ends up leaving you finding the work unpleasant. Folks when trimming nice bevels onto feet the two brands of rasp which make life on your back and arms easier are the Heller Blackmaster and the Heller Red Tang. They both have finer teeth so they glide more easily especially on hard feet. My favourite is the Blackmaster because the coating on it stops it rusting. ... The Heller grip rasp handle puts the nicest balance on the rasp, so you can flick it around like Tom Cruise in Cocktail - ok, not important, but having balanced tools is much more comfortable For trimming bars I use a 28cm Toe knife which you tap gently with a hammer to do exquisitely accurate and controlled bar trimming even on the hardest feet. A light shoeing hammer is ideal to whack the Toe knife, or buy a small nicely balanced hammer from Bunnings. The Hoofjacks are the superior stands. GE clippers are currently still the best and well worth it. Although if budget is super tight the Mustad ones are ok but eventually you'll want some GE's. I usually use the 15in as they require less hand strength and muscle, take small bites and bite into the previous bite to make a smooth run around the foot. If the foot is like concrete get a friend to close the clippers for you making sure they're using their shoulders and body weight not their fingers and hands. If you've really got concrete feet, the Dymondback files do carve through the foot like butter, I usually use the medium blade, but be careful it's so easy to over-trim with these files, you have to have the softest hands to use it. Speaking of soft hands, if your file is chattering/grabbing, you're using too much muscle, or your brand of file has teeth that are too big and not cooperative for bevelling. They're designed for rasping flat walls like a farrier. And no I'm not sponsored, so I hope these companies enjoy the free plug! While we're thinking about trimming, are there any trimmers out there down Mornington Peninsula way who've done my course and are willing to be follow specific instructions for some of my clients?

22.01.2022 Laminitis: Sigh ... the grass is growing way more than usual this year, I see clients properties and lock up paddocks getting out of control compared to previous years, there are horses with laminitis posture literally everywhere I drive. So if you think your lock up paddock is no longer small enough, make some laneways about 3-4 metres wide to lock your horses in. Having them locked in a laneway means they continue to get plenty of exercise as you can put the hay down one... end and the water up the other. If you have a row of trees that's suppressing grass growth take advantage of that and put your laneway alongside so the horse has some shelter as well. Many people make their laneways too wide and too long, remember the point is to restrict grass consumption whilst encouraging exercise, if it's not tending to turn to dirt/mud you likely have too much length. Also remember, if they're locked up you need 24/7 access to low sugar grass hay (see previous posts about this). You can make a laneway all the way around the perimeter of your paddock (if the paddock is small enough), often it's called a paddock paradise system, but just remember, depending on the size of the paddock, it could still be too much grass. This is the code name for the electric treadin's I use: Treadin Tall 10mm x 1500mm Multi Lug EF38H Thunderbird, otherwise just google 1500mm electric multiwire tread in. I see shorter standard tread in's being used everywhere as that's the common size the farm supply shops sell, but bigger determined horses will jump out and smaller ones will go under, especially if they're wearing rugs! My horses have lived for 10 years in their laneway with these 1500mm tall treadin's with only a wire at the top and one in the middle. If you use star stakes as corner posts, please buy caps to go on top of them, they're super dangerous without a cap. You can also buy 2 inch rural poly pipe to completely cover your star stake to make them safe from collisions. Solar powered electric fence units work nicely for those with no access to power. If your laneway has turned to dirt/mud just remember, if your laneway is quite long and you live in the grass growing capital of Victoria, grazing grass along the fence lines can still cause problems, so you'll end up like me, mowing and whipper snipping the fence lines every 3 days . Gagh .. spent my entire life dreaming about having horses who didn't live on dirt, and now I live here, grass is my greatest nightmare ps. don't make the mistake of thinking getting laminitis has anything to do with fatness! Just lock them all up together, that way no one is sad and lonely.

22.01.2022 Handy, considering we all will be wearing masks!

22.01.2022 The marvel of technology . OMG just discovered my website has been a temperamental little maggot and some emails still weren't getting through despite me getting the issue fixed several times throughout the year. I've just had 250 emails I've never seen download So apologies to anyone who emailed who was wondering why I didn't respond. Best method to contact is telephone or text, cos even F'book messages are temperamental!

21.01.2022 I'm up in Tawonga VIC on Friday June 12th if anyone along the way between Taradale and Tawonga wants my uniquely skilled hawk eyes n hands to go over their horse. Any problem with feet, legs, backs, brains, & general mysteries are right up my alley. Xrays also available. You can see my skill set here, if it sounds like something you'd like to access for your horse send me a private message and we'll do some coordinating. Cheers Mel ... http://www.theproblemhorse.com/about-dr-quick/

21.01.2022 Solution to difficulties with riding/handling horses: I’ve been helping a few people re-start young or traumatised horses using John Chatterton Affiliative Horsemanship methods, and I’ve noticed something interesting, and when I ponder back through my 46 years of riding & competing, this theme has been there all along! To speak in traditional terms it’s all about contact. For those struggling with horses, it’s either due to too much or too little contact. Now this doesn’t...Continue reading

21.01.2022 Wonderful work from John Chatterton Affiliative Horsemanship as always. What saddens me greatly about all this, is when other trainers and instructors hear about his work and his results, they slam up their brick wall and refuse to listen or investigate and continue on their path of mediocrity causing harm to the psyche of horses and harm to their owners. I've always had the ambition to be the best, and so if I hear about others potentially knowing more than me I have a path...ological compulsion to go investigate to find out if that's true. I can't comprehend other riders and trainers not wanting to be the greatest at their jobs, why why why don't people want to at least look at new ideas??? It's so sad. So perhaps owners need to pressure the instructors more? Perhaps they should let them know that someone found a simple peaceful solution to their problem? I know it's confronting but we're not helping horses by staying quiet, aren't we all here because we love horses?? Sorry, my frustrations oozed out today! Hope you're all having a lovely weekend.

21.01.2022 I was trained to always ride in a neck strap particularly when jumping, people always wondered why I literally never fell off and why my horses always managed even with striding mistakes ... It's because with a neck strap YOU NEVER ACCIDENTALLY SMACK THEM IN THE MOUTH WITH YOUR BODY WEIGHT. I've seen so many horses pulled down and flipped into somersaults from riders hanging off the bit when they lose balance at the novice and all the way to olympic level. It's an unforgiv...able sin to hit the horse in the mouth when he's coming into, going over or landing after a jump due to your own imbalances. Watching elite riders swing off their horses mouths due to not having a neck strap is the main reason why I cannot watch any elite level jumping/eventing, it infuriates and sickens me. Neck straps also save you when you're riding an unruly horse, by using it you don't need to un-necessarily rely on the reins for security, so therefore you ride more softly and don't freak the horse out so much, win win. So please everyone, do yourself and your horse a favour, put away your neck strap bias and put one on. It's literally a seat belt for horses.

20.01.2022 Malingering laminitis cases: I write this with sadness as lately I’ve had people call me for advice to then tell me "their management is fine when the horse is lying on the ground panting despite prolonged massive doses of bute, or fine being unable to move because they believed that’s to be expected. Because after all they have laminitis and it's normal for them to be in a lot of pain for a long long time." One person had friends begging them to get me and they didn’t beca...Continue reading

20.01.2022 He figured out the solution faster than most people would!!

18.01.2022 Happy laminitis pony video: congratulations to his parents who met me 5 weeks ago with a pony in horrendous pain and they were considering euthanising him. He was Obel grade 4, heart rate of 80b/min, could not walk or lift his feet, all 4 feet had severe laminitis. (note - normal heart rate is 32-36b/min, most average laminitis cases have a heart rate around 50-60b/min, the worst ones are at 75b/min) His heart rate went up to 120b/min but his Mum and Dad worked super hard ...and here he is today, he’s off Bute and trotting without a head collar chasing his bucket of food. Note how soft and elastic his trot is showing lovely suspension despite the hard surface underfoot. This pony had one of the most severe and rapid declines into major trouble that I’ve seen in a long while. He’d been locked off the grass and had box rest yet despite that was deteriorating quickly. Horses with 4 laminitic feet are much more challenging to rehabilitate, however he shows yet again my 4 week rule. I aim to have all my cases willing to trot n bounce n buck by the 4th week. Lucky for this pony he has parents who are willing to work hard and they called me early on in his illness. With such severe symptoms I would have been gravely concerned at his chances of survival had they chosen the traditional path for recovery. Just in case y'all think this is a fluke, in my world I expect horses to have a full recovery to return to work, or they don't survive. I don't have any interest in cases malingering for months and years and only becoming paddock sound. There are to be no bed sores, minimal drug use, and almost no abscessing permitted. Laminitis is a cruel cruel disease, and recovery is long and hard, but the horses must always be able to be comfortable as possible so they spent 95% of the time standing and pottering around, no matter the size or bodyweight of the horse. Thus far my statistics show if they achieve the buck n bounce milestone by the 4th week I have a 96% return to work likelihood. If they penetrate I have an 80% return to work likelihood. I’m so pleased he’s progressing nicely as he is a delightful little man with super nice parents too

18.01.2022 I can highly recommend Graham, he's practical, logical, thoughtful, creative, tidy, and can think his way out of a bind if it gets tricky. He's also very easy going and even tempered, which makes it so much more pleasant!

17.01.2022 I see so many young horses with badly damaged necks from being hard tied to posts or trees by their breakers. This can set them up to develop club feet, or just leave them with a problem neck for the rest of their life. I'm commonly having to fix their necks after they've been to the breaker and the owner is given back a horse that pulls back, freaks out, and is generally difficult to handle. On some studs the breakers regularly kill a couple horses a year with them flipp...ing over backwards or lunging forwards and head butting the post and dying. Teaching horses to accept strange objects or even to be tied up is so easy, and can be done without ever risking their neck or sacro-ileac joints, or their life. I don't even own a hitching rail, my horses simply ground tie and wait for me for hours. If you want to learn how to have a horse like this then read John Chatterton Affiliative Horsemanship 10 steps book and purchase his DVD's. It could save you and your horse enormous grief and distress.

15.01.2022 Ain’t this the truth!!

14.01.2022 Just the best! : Francis Dumouchel

14.01.2022 Thoroughbreds have amazing temperaments: I attended a mare the other day whose spent her whole life till now misunderstood. She attacks farriers with teeth and hind feet and has always had to be sedated to have her feet done. She's now 12yo and hasn’t been able to have her hind feet picked up for years, so they’ve not been trimmed since she retired, and sadly due to the La Nina weather this year she too has joined the ranks of so many to get laminitis. As soon as the mare ...Continue reading

12.01.2022 More laminitis ... folks, the danger time is not yet over, and every time we get another 5-10-20mm of rain the risk escalates again. That's what a La Niña weather pattern is. We are likely to get a wetter than usual summer. If the horse foundered a couple months ago or even and few weeks ago, and has settled, that DOES NOT MEAN THEY CAN NOW GO BACK ON THE GRASS. If they've had a bad episode this year, they can't eat grass again while they're growing out a new foot. Some ...may never be able to eat grass ever again. Now I know it's more work to keep them off the grass, but you really are asking for a major amount of trouble, and malingering mediocrity in the health of your horses feet, if you wish to be attached to the romantic notion of horses living out in green countryside. This is because they are an animal who evolved to live in sparse desert like country and do best living in central Australia eating salt bush, trees and any scraps they can find. Humans modified their pastures heavily over the last 50 years, that's why they now struggle so much, consequently, if you don't want a chronically crippled or mediocre untalented horse, you have to make the effort to have them live on a track with minimal grass consumption and full time access to low sugar food with their minerals and salts being provided by you. This is especially relevant to La Niña years. Many people have been caught out this year, because we spend so much time in semi drought conditions in the last decade, and the horses were coping, but not this year, the constant showers of rain are keeping the grasses happy and the feet sad. So please do your horse a favour and resist the urge to put them back out, ESPECIALLY if there's a hint of green still out there. PS. Don't forget, they should improve rapidly with the right treatment, if your case is malingering you've got a management problem. That last little video I posted of the pony a few weeks back, he had the highest heart rate I've ever seen in a surviving horse (120b/min) and he had his first ride just over 2 months after he looked like he was definitely going to die. Oh and PPS. Watch out for the new season hays, a friend of mine cooked both of her horses on new hay, she'd worked hard to keep them off the grass only to lose the battle with a new bale of hay! If they like the hay, it's likely full of sugar (presuming it's not mould that's making them avoid it).

11.01.2022 This looks good! And Aussie made

09.01.2022 Well worth remembering this if you ever get a limb immobilised

07.01.2022 Every now and then something astonishing, completely unexpected but very beautiful happens ... They say you'll never know when being a good person can impact someone's life .. Here's a lovely story: I have a friend on the other side of the world, who knows nothing about horses but she is a genius writer, so I sent her this little video for inspiration and told her a couple little stories about John Chatterton John Chatterton Affiliative Horsemanship She wrote the most deligh...Continue reading

05.01.2022 Second video to go with previous post, owners were advised she was cruel for keeping him alive 1 month ago, he just needed his trim tweaked and he was back on the road to pain free recovery

04.01.2022 Prioritise myself ... wot dat mean?? Says me who broke myself driving miles to a severely laminitic horse, while I had severe intestinal colic, got home at 2am and ended up in hospital with pancreatitis the next day. I'm hopeless at saying no... If anyone has the answers feel free to enlighten us!! ps. nearly better now, MRI says no cancer, yay! Wonder if no days off for over a year caused the issue?????? Anyhoo, it's not about me, I'm just using it as an example of the sacrifices to our health, sanity and lives we veterinarians make on a daily basis for your animals, and still have to endure such daily resentment from people who begrudge paying for services which are 1/20-1/50th of the cost of medical expenses in the human field despite all the same machines used for diagnostics and treatment! Also just remember, if you want the best results for your animal, then be nice to the humans (nurses and vets) looking after them, because stressed brains don't perform as well as happy ones and that's a fact of life!

04.01.2022 Safest floats ever for your horses, definitely 100% anti-scramble, so lovey to watch the horses sleeping in the back with their eyes shut while travelling even through bad traffic and bad weather because they feel so stable due to the unique design of this float. I can’t express the magnitude of the relief you feel when towing your horses in this float through tough conditions knowing that the chances of them falling over is profoundly reduced due to the design!

04.01.2022 OMG, this is the funniest thing I've seen in a long while, I laughed so hard the cat on my lap thought I was having a seizure https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53me-ICi_f8

03.01.2022 This chick has set up cameras in her home to film her sleep walking antics, apparently she was dreaming she was at a pool party for this one! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20-tZh5JVhw

01.01.2022 Maybe not such a bird brain huh?! https://twitter.com/RexChapman/status/1283190223623663616

01.01.2022 Further to yesterday's post on laminitis ... it's also NOT OK to lock your horse up off the grass and only feed it 2 biscuits of hay a day. Horses must have 24/7 low sugar food to consume, meaning their hay cannot run out. See my previous posts about comments on hay. They also need to be fed minerals and salt every day. Horses and ponies SHOULD NOT BE STARVED when treating laminitis. You will give them stomach ulcers if you starve them. They can recover whilst having constant happy full bellies. You will give them stomach ulcers if you starve them.

01.01.2022 Laminitis rant: Traps for the unknowing I saw a horror case recently, a young TB whose been suffering for 3 years and his pedal bones are more than 50% completely destroyed, as in GONE So let’s debunk some myths: If your horse gets toxic induced laminitis, YES IT WILL BE SUPER SENSITIVE TO GRASS INDUCED LAMINITIS so you have to be ultra careful about the grass. Rehabbing horses on brick floored yards or conveyor belt lined tracks IS NOT OK, hard surfaces are excruciatin...Continue reading

01.01.2022 Congratulations to Timmy's mum for success in her harrowing journey to save Timmy. The dreaded impaction colic with unusual presentation threw him for a six, then followed up with a load of complications including the one which we knew would come, a flare up of laminitis, this time in all 4 feet, much harder to fix. Such a pity that had to happen as we had his feet near perfect . But hard work, and persistence and Timmy is back to his fabulous cheeky self. Thanks to my... big Loui for trying to die from the same issue earlier this year and forcing me to re-invent the wheel to save him (love how my horses think it's sporting awesome fun to make me think outside the box all the time), with some tweaking to that recipe we got Timmy back as well, minus a few grey hairs and nashed teeth on our part. Well done, great to see his face chirpy again