Veterinary Resources

Client Letter

General Information 

Grand Strand Equine is a one doctor ambulatory equine (horse and donkey) only veterinary practice. Our base of operations is Horry County, SC but we also serve some of the surrounding areas of SC and NC. Our regular business hours are Monday through Friday from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm. We are closed on the weekends and most major holidays. The office is located in the Venture Office Park at 1320 Highway 501 Business Unit H in Conway, SC. The best way to reach us is through the office at 843-603-1070. You can call or text this number. If we do not answer when you call please leave a message and we will call you back. This is most likely not the number you have saved in your phone so please update it. If you call after hours this number will put you into the phone tree where you can choose to leave a message for the office or be transferred to the emergency line. 

Current Client/Patient 

We strive to provide the highest level of care for all our clients and patients. In order to provide exceptional care, each patient will need to receive a wellness exam and the core vaccinations at least once a year. During 2025, to establish as a new patient, we will require the wellness exam and core vaccinations from a veterinarian. Our current clients who have a wellness exam but do not have the core vaccinations will stay current though their wellness exam. The wellness exam and vaccines will establish a legal veterinary client patient relationship or VCPR. Having this relationship will allow us to provide telemedicine services, prescribe medications without a visit if appropriate, and refill chronic medications. A VCPR is defined in the American Veterinary Medical Association’s (AVMA) Principles of Veterinary Medical Ethics as “the basis for interaction among veterinarians, their clients, and their patients.” This partnership is based on open communication, trust, and a shared commitment to the horse’s health and well-being. More information from the AVMA on VCPR’s can be found here; https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/pet-owners/petcare/veterinarian-client-patient-relationship-vcpr-faq .

Annual Wellness Exams 

Wellness exams are healthy horse exams that establish the legal veterinary client patient relationship. During these exams we are looking to establish the healthy baseline for each horse and identify any small problems that could impact their health. Horses are exceptional at hiding that they are ill until they can no longer hide it and the problem is much more involved to treat. A wellness exam includes checking their eyes, mucus membranes, lymph nodes, skin, heart, lungs, GI tract, and so much more. Wellness exams are healthy horse exams and can not be done during a sick or emergency visit as this is not the horse’s baseline and would not provide the baseline information we need. These exams are also the time to discuss any concerns you may have about your horse. We encourage owners to be present during this exam, but if that is not possible, to let us know any concerns they may have prior to the appointment. During this exam we can also discuss if there are any other baseline tests we would recommend like a fecal egg count, metabolic testing, or baseline blood work that would be valuable for your horse. 

Vaccines 

The core vaccinations are the diseases that all horses should be vaccinated for, no matter what. These guidelines are established by the American Association of Equine Practitioners and we fully support these recommendations. The core vaccines are Eastern Equine Encephalitis, Western Equine Encephalitis, West Nile Virus, tetanus, and rabies. Grand Strand Equine and the AAEP recommends vaccination for Eastern Equine Encephalitis, Western Equine Encephalitis, West Nile Virus, and tetanus twice a year because we are in the South and have continuous mosquito activity. If owners choose to vaccinate for the mosquito diseases only once a year, we recommend vaccinating in the early Spring to have the best coverage during the time when the mosquitos are the worst. 

There are also risk based vaccines that may be needed based on each individual horse’s situation. Grand Strand Equine will help you determine if these vaccines are needed for your horse. Horses that travel or are near horses that do, are at boarding barns, are under the age of 5, or pregnant need to be vaccinated against Equine Influenza and Equine Herpesvirus 1 and 4. Strangles is also a risk based vaccine that is required at some barns/shows and is generally recommended for horses that travel or reside at boarding barns. These are general guidelines for the most common risk based vaccines, but each horse is an individual that needs its own vaccine program tailored to fit its needs. 

More information about vaccines and the disease they prevent can be found here; https://aaep.org/guidelines-resources/vaccination-guidelines/ 

If you have current vaccines from another veterinarian we will be happy to accept their records as proof of our vaccine requirements. Owner administered vaccines will not be considered because their efficacy can not be guaranteed, they are not backed by the manufacturer, and legally you can not vaccinate your horse for rabies in the Carolinas. Benefits of veterinarian administered vaccines are a guarantee that the vaccines have been handled correctly, that the manufacturer will pay for diagnostics if we think they have a disease they have been vaccinated for, and that the manufacturer will pay if your horse gets a disease that it has been vaccinated for. 

Telemedicine

Patients with a valid VCPR are eligible for telemedicine services. If you would like a telemedicine consultation please call or text the office. These consultations are perfect for when you have a question about something new with your horse, management of a chronic disease, or if you are not sure if they need to be seen. These will be phone calls or video calls we schedule the same as on the farm appointments. Current patients get one included telemedicine appointment a year that renews at time of their wellness exam. If during your telemedicine appointment it is determined that a farm call is needed the cost of the telemedicine call will be applied to the farm call. 

Emergency Services 

Emergency services are only guaranteed to our current patients. Our emergency services will be expanding and using our colleagues to provide coverage as well. Dr. Elizabeth will personally be on call as much as she possibly can, while still taking care of herself and her other responsibilities. We understand how stressful an emergency can be and that you would prefer your regular veterinarian, and we will do our best to be there.  If she is not available then we will coordinate another veterinarian to visit your farm or refer you to a haul in clinic. We will continue to do our best to provide on the farm emergency care, but sometimes it may be necessary to haul. If you have an emergency please call 843-603-1070, select the emergency option, and leave a message. Please do not text as it may not be seen until the next business day and we want you to get the care your horse needs. Please call as soon as you think you have an emergency, prompt treatment improves outcomes! Emergencies are treated as such on both a Saturday or a Tuesday and there is no benefit in waiting until business hours to call with an emergency. 

Hauling

Hauling to a facility for routine and emergency care is becoming a necessity for some cases. We recommend that all horses are able to load and travel in a variety of trailers and surroundings. All horse owners should either have their own truck and trailer or have access to one. We have a list of people who are willing to help others who do not have trailers if needed. If you have your own trailer please make sure that it is ready to go to prevent scrambling when you need to use it.  We will have more information about haul in appointments soon to help serve our clients. 

Payment

Payment is required at the time of service. We will no longer be billing clients (allowing invoices to be paid at a later date). Please be prepared for the office staff to confirm payment arrangements for every appointment at the time of scheduling. If you are not going to be at the appointment please make sure payment is arranged beforehand, if not we will not be able to provide services. We accept all major credit cards, cash, checks, All Pet Card, and Care Credit. We are not able to process All Pet Care for balances below $250 and Care Credit for balances below $200. For the convenience of our clients, we are able to keep a debit or credit card on file to run at the time of service. When we transitioned to Dr. Elizabeth owning the practice all the cards on file were deleted for security reasons as she created a new account. If you have not given your card information to us since November, please provide it as we do not have it saved. Please understand that payment at time of service will help us keep prices from rising to account for the hours spent trying to collect payment. 

If there is an extenuating circumstance where you do not pay at time of service there will be a 10% late fee applied as soon as the invoice is due. 

Online Pharmacy

We recommend that clients utilize our online pharmacy to make sure they consistently have the medications they need at the most economical price. Our online pharmacy can be found at: https://grandstrandequine.myvetstoreonline.pharmacy/shop. The medications found in our online pharmacy are guaranteed to be the same quality as the medications we sell in our office, and not diverted products. We encourage clients with horses on daily medications to set up auto-ship with this service. This will ensure that your horse stays current on its medications, and that you get the most affordable option. Medications in our office are priced higher than the same products available from our online pharmacy due to the convenience and higher cost to have them in the office/truck. If your horse is on a compounded medication we can set you up with a compounding pharmacy as well. Prescriptions from both the online pharmacy and compounding pharmacies will require payment from the owner and will ship to the address you provide. We do not approve outside prescription requests from third-parties like Chewy, AlliVet, ect. We will not approve these as we can not guarantee the quality of that medication. If you would like to use a different pharmacy, we are happy to provide a physical written prescription for pick up. Outside prescriptions will be subject to a $35 record review and administrative fee.

Appointment Scheduling 

Please make appointments by calling or texting the office at 843-603-1070 or emailing us at grandstrandequine@gmail.com. When making an appointment we will verify we have your horse/s correct information, what services your horse needs, and any medications that need to be brought to the farm. If you are not going to be at the appointment, additional questions may be asked. Having this information helps us to best prepare for your appointment by scheduling enough time and ensuring we have the correct resources for your appointment. If you find the need to add services after your appointment has been made, please inform us as soon as possible. We may need to extend or reschedule your appointment in order to provide adequate care. If additional services are requested during your appointment we will try to accommodate them; however, an additional appointment may become necessary. We do our best to get you scheduled promptly but please allow two to three weeks for wellness care during our busy season. If you have a sick visit we will get that in as soon as we can but it may need to be seen as an emergency or urgent visit. 

Farrier Sedation Appointments 

We know that several patients need sedation for their farrier visits to make sure everyone is safe. This can be a one-time need or ongoing. The cost for this service will be a Farm Call fee, sedation, and professional time. If you would like to try oral sedation we are happy to discuss options like Dormosedan gel, which can be administered without the veterinarian present.

Medication Administration Appointments

We understand that the owners in our practice have varying comfort levels in regards to giving injectable medications to their horse(s). If your horse requires injectable medications and you would like us to administer them for you, it will be subject to a lower Farm Call fee and a medication administration fee. This does not apply to medications given during routine or sick visits, but to visits where we travel to the farm solely to administer a medication.

Late Policy

Owners are expected to be present and ready at their appointment time. If you are late, you may be subject to a late fee. Please make sure to have your horse(s) caught and pulled up before their appointment. If your horse is dirty, please groom them so that the veterinarian may examine them thoroughly. While we do our best to be on time to appointments, the nature of us commuting to each horse owner and working with animals may cause delays in our arrival time. If you are flexible with your appointment time, let us know and we are happy to give you a call when the veterinarian is on the way.

Referrals

We greatly appreciate positive word-of-mouth recommendations and referrals to our practice. Please encourage friends that would like to use our services to contact our office and schedule a wellness visit as soon as possible. 

Quarantine Recommendations for New Horses

The Veterinarians at GSE recommend that any new horse brought to a property containing any other horse be quarantined for fourteen to twenty-one days. This includes horses that have had a pre-purchase exam. Even if a pre-purchase exam has taken place, the horse may still develop clinical signs that were not present at the exam. There are several highly contagious diseases that can easily cause an outbreak if not properly quarantined. Our practice has observed several instances of such illness in the last year, and feel it necessary to remind our clientele of quarantine guidelines for horses entering a new environment. 

Resources 

We want to help connect our horse owners with non-veterinary services they may require. We have lists of people who can help haul horses, people who have heavy equipment to bury horses when that time comes, and farriers in the area. If there are other resources you need please reach out and we will try and help coordinate. 

Things to Come

In order to better serve our patients and continue to elevate our standard of care we have some exciting new things coming in 2025. Dr. Elizabeth will be attending chiropractic school this year and will be certified later this Summer. We will also be getting balance blocks, shockwave, and a PEMF unit with heat and massage. Courtney will be getting trained in how to use the new equipment and will be attending massage school. Can not wait to share more with you soon. 

Thank you for your patience and understanding in executing our policies. These policies provide the elevated level of service and quality veterinary care that you depend on from Grand Strand Equine. As you are now aware, there is a shortage of equine veterinarians across the country. While we are excited that Clemson will have a veterinary school opening soon, graduates will not be in practice for another six years. We would love to add another veterinarian to our practice, but at this point there are more job openings than veterinarians willing to fill them. We look forward to continuing to build a lasting relationship with you and your horse(s). Please let us know if you have any comments or suggestions on how we can better serve the Grand Strand by giving us a call at (843) 603-1070, or email us at grandstrandequine@gmail.com

Sincerely,

Dr. Elizabeth, Kristen, and Courtney
Grand Strand Equine