Features

The Philip Leverhulme Equine Hospital is a world renowned centre providing care and treatment for horses.

The centre, which is part of the University of Liverpool, was visited by Princess Anne on Thursday, 21 May, who opened a £1.5 million pound development phase including the north west's first equine MRI scanner.

The centre treats horses that are injured at nearby Aintree racecourse during the Grand National.

Scanning a horse

"This is a teaching hospital, we look after the fourth and fifth year of the five year course of Veterinary Science and we see over 2000 cases a year of all shapes and sizes," says Peter Bowling Clinical director and Head of the university’s equine division.

"At the moment we’re trying to develop the equine hospital.

The main benefit will obviously be to learning and research.

"As a spin off to that the facilities will also benefit the referring vets that we have in the area."

"We provide a service to all the local vets that they can send cases in and the experts that we have within the hospital will deal with those cases.

The centre looks after 2000 cases a year

"As a consequence of that the local horse owners in the North West of England will have that benefit."

The centre, one of the top three equine hospitals in the UK, is looking to develop a Colic prevention centre and has recently built a new reception area, an equine MRI unit and upgraded the stable facilities.

Colic is a term used to describe the behavioural signs associated with abdominal pain that arises from distention of the intestine.

The condition is the single most common cause of the death in horses.

"The university has acquired a piece of land right next door, which is two and a half acres," Peter Bowling explains.

"We are looking to develop that site with new facilities for the hospital.

"We’re looking at having facilities for orthopaedic examination and we’re wanting to set up a colic research centre and that will help our research efforts and hopefully progression to future treatments."