Rupert Trembath dons a protective apron as he prepares to X-ray a horse with a swollen ankle in a pen outside his vet practice in the Northern Territory town of Katherine.
The handheld, yellow machine produces a crystal-clear image on a nearby screen.
Luckily for the horse, everything looks normal.
A horse is given an X-ray. (ABC Katherine: James Elton)
“That’s the articular surface of the joint, all nice and smooth, perfectly rounded, no problems there,” Dr Trembath said.
The technology in large-animal vet care has come a long way since his father, Peter Trembath, started Katherine Vet Care.
“When he started you were still doing film X-rays,” he said.
“It’s progressed rapidly in one lifetime, really.”
The horse’s X-ray shows no sign of injury. (ABC Katherine: James Elton)
Some things never change
Dr Trembath’s work has taken him beyond his Katherine practice to remote cattle stations all around the Northern Territory and beyond.
The 29-year-old got his pilot licence a few years ago to turn exhausting drives into much shorter flights.
A horse gets a break in the paddock after a check-up. (ABC Katherine: James Elton)
He said the stomach-turning feeling of remembering a forgotten tool mid-air had remained through the generations.
“My dad got caught out once,” Dr Trembath said.
“He went out to do 30 or 40 horse dentals at a station, and he actually packed my stick welder instead of the dental unit. They’re in similar boxes.
“There’s not a worse feeling.”
Dr Trembath checks a range of animals at his clinic in Katherine. (ABC Katherine: James Elton)
Valued work
Dr Trembath’s work with cattle earned him recognition as Katherine’s most recent young citizen of the year.
Katherine Town Council chief executive told an Australia Day ceremony Dr Trembath pregnancy tested more than 400,000 head of cattle.
Cattle are mustered with a helicopter at Lake Nash station in the Northern Territory. (ABC Katherine: James Elton)
“There is nothing, apparently, he can’t do,” she said.
Dr Trembath missed the ceremony because he was running a remote vet clinic on the Gove Peninsula in the north-east corner of Arnhem Land.
He said the 400,000 pregnancy tests over about seven years was “a pretty big slog”.
“It’s a lot of days in cattle yards,” he said.
“But it’s a lot of days spent out there with good people, who like to be outdoors in remote areas of Australia, which is always great.”
A learned skill
Dr Trembath said pregnancy testing involved a procedure known as a “manual rectal palpation”, which he would perform on as many as 1,500 cows in a single day.
“You feel it. It’s a learned skill you have to practice,” he said.
He said pregnancy could be detected at five weeks from conception by a skilled vet.
Dr Trembath travels to remote properties around the Northern Territory. (ABC Katherine: James Elton)
But he said the test could could also detect infections and aborted foetuses, as well as cows that could be infertile, or even freemartins, a heifer that did not develop a reproductive tract.
They have been vital insights for station owners looking to increase the fertility of their herds.
Northern Territory chief veterinary officer Rob Williams said Dr Trembath‘s pregnancy testing record had been a massive contribution to the industry.
“That’s an incredible number,” Dr Williams said.
“In fact, what I do like about that is that Rupert has probably pregnancy tested nearly a fifth of the Northern Territory’s whole cattle herd.
“So I congratulate him on that. That’s a big number.”
Fertility secrets
Dr Trembath said the stations with the best herd fertility were often getting the basics right.
“The biggest thing is record-keeping,” he said.
Dr Trembath said the industry had gone from pen-and-paper logbooks to digital systems with “lifetime data” on each animal, including which paddocks they had been in and which seasons they fell pregnant.
He said stations with the best results often sorted their pregnant cows into smaller calving groups, rather than just separating pregnant animals from “empties”.
Ringers sort cattle in the yards at Lake Nash station. (ABC Katherine: James Elton)
“Where it is possible to maintain good fences and have the paddocks on your property, I definitely notice a great improvement,” he said.
Buffalo, turtles, lizards
Dr Trembath has not spent all his time with cattle.
He said all sorts of creatures came through the door of his practice.
“Just this morning I was dropping a horse off, and someone walked in with a bird,” he said.
“We get, obviously, dogs and cats.
“[But also] birds, poddy calves, poddy buffalo, lizards, turtles — anything.”
He said it was the reason why the Northern Territory was such a good place for young vets to come to work.
Dr Trembath takes blood to check a horse for infections. (ABC Katherine: James Elton)
“I think it’s good for the veterinary industry, for these vets to come out of uni and come up to the NT.
“We believe that you don’t get the variety like we do in in most Australian clinics.”
