Mobile Equine Diagnostic Service

At

The University of Florida
College of Veterinary Medicine

MEDS Mission:

Currently, the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital provides many services to horse owners
and referring veterinarians. These include diagnostic procedures such as endoscopy,
gastroscopy, radiography, ultrasound, neurologic testing, and echocardiography. Through state-
of-the art digital technology these diagnostic procedures can now be performed in the field while
maintaining the College's high standard of performance. In order to provide these adjunct
services to referring veterinarians, the Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences introduced
the Mobile Equine Diagnostic Service (MEDS) in the fall of 2004. This program is committed
to providing high- quality referral services in a farm setting. In addition, utilization of digital
imaging and satellite communications allows consultation between in-the-field clinicians and
specialists at the veterinary college. The MEDS program hopes to reinforce the College's
commitment to referring veterinarians (RDVM) and maintain its role as a primary referral center
by requiring all appointments to be made through a RDVM. MEDS also provides key clinical
training for veterinary students pursuing a career in high-quality ambulatory equine medicine and
surgery. Finally, MEDS hopes to maximize the quality of equine diagnostics provided in the
field to referring veterinarians and horse owners.

MEDS Protocol:
MEDS will operate Monday through Friday (8am-6pm) via appointments and emergency calls.
Ideally, MEDS will organize calls such that the MEDS unit will be in a specific area (e.g.
Jacksonville, Ocala, Lake City, New Smyrna Beach, etc) for the entire day.

For appointments and phone consultation contact:

Michael B. Porter DVM, PhD, Dip ACVIM
Clinical Assistant Professor
Mobile Equine Diagnostic Service
Large Animal Clinical Sciences
College of Veterinary Medicine
P.O. Box 100136
Gainesville, FL 32610
352-392-4700 ext. 4036
Mobile # 352-258-3571
Nextel Direct connect 158*117*5065
Portermi(,mail.vetmed.ufl.edu

Services offered through MEDS include:

1) Digital radiography
2) Endoscopy
3) Gastroscopy
4) Ultrasound
5) Echocardiogram/echocardiography
6) CBC/Chemistry/Blood gas analysis
7) Clinical consultation
8) Equine sweat testing
9) Foal pneumonia screen
10) Equine neurologic work-up package
11) Equine poor performance work-up package
12) Equine chronic weight loss work-up package
13) On-site satellite referral to VMTH