Oh no, it’s Firework season again…

Posted on October 20, 2011 by haydnsharratt

Fireworks season is upon us and once again will be a period of great anxiety for pets and their owners. Some figures state that 80% of pets are scared of fireworks, so there is a good chance your pet is one of them

The good news is that help is at hand, so if you have any concerns please contact one of our Veterinary Nurses, who will be pleased to help.

It is very important to take a long-term view when thinking about controlling this fear in our pets, but unfortunately we are too close to the season for these plans to be put into place and be effective. However there are a number of things we can do to try to alleviate our pets’ fears during this time, even at short notice: Continue reading →

Posted in News

Featured Pet – Mikey

Posted on October 20, 2011 by haydnsharratt

Mikey recently came to see us after he developed a black spot on his right eye. Examination revealed a condition called a corneal sequestrum – a serious condition causing a type of ulcer on the eye globe. If left untreated, this could have lead to eye rupture and the removal of his eye.

Initial medication wasn’t successfull in resolving his condition so he was treated by gently cutting out the dead corneal tissue and his third eyelid was pulled over and stitched to his upper eyelid to act as a kind of bandage.

After a 10 days this was removed. The eye looked great and the cornea appeared to have healed, but unfortunately a few days later the ulcer had returned.Mikey then underwent a delicate procedure where a graft of tissue from the edge of the eye was sutured directly onto the eye globe – called a conjunctival pedicle graft. Continue reading →

Posted in Featured Pet

Pets Passport changes

Posted on September 8, 2011 by roffy2k

Simplified Pets Passport from January 2012

From January 2012, DEFRA have made travelling abroad with your pets a whole lot easier and a lot cheaper…

For pets travelling to Pet Passport member countries, pets now only need to be microchipped and vaccinated against rabies. They then wait 3 weeks before they can travel & return to the UK. Continue reading →

Posted in News

Did you see a slug this morning?

Posted on September 8, 2011 by haydnsharratt

Having had one of the coolest and wettest summers in the last few years, it’s time to think about what implications this has for our dogs?

Put simply, this means an increase in the numbers of snails and slugs. Slugs and snails mean potential lungworm infections. We have a very interesting video on our Facebook page featuring Joe Inglis that talks all about this topic.

Fortunately, Lungworm is easy to prevent with a monthly spot-on aclled Advocate. The great news is that Advocate does more than just lungworm, controlling fleas, worms and a number of different skin and ears mites such as foxes mange mite.

Concerned about the cost of applying a monthly spot-on? Why not consider spreading the cost out by taking out a Pet Health Plan?

 

If you have any questions about this topic please feel free to contact us.

 

Posted in Uncategorized

Featured Pet – George

Posted on July 27, 2011 by roffy2k

‘George’ McDermott

George is a Wire Haired Fox Terrier full of character, who absolutely loves coming to the Practice! Recently however, he developed a potentially life-threatening illness called pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas).

George underwent many diagnostic tests, ranging from extensive blood tests to ultrasound scans, which all pointed towards a problem with his pancreas. These results were so abnormal that we feared he had developed a tumour of his pancreas, so we decided to take him to surgery to examine his abdomen & take biopsies to confirm our suspicions. Continue reading →

Posted in Featured Pet

Is your pet itchy?

Posted on July 21, 2011 by roffy2k

The warm summer months mean long sunny walks, lazy barbeques………and itchy pets!

As Vets, we see many more itchy pets in the summer than we do in winter. Why is this? The simple answer is skin allergies.

Like humans, our pets can also develop allergies. Instead of sneezing & getting runny eyes, the main allergy symptoms our pets show is itchiness of the skin. Needless to say, but when their skin is itchy, they will scratch. The scratching causes a skin infection which makes the skin more itchy, so they scratch more, get more infected skin, scratch more and so it goes on. Dogs with itchy skin are generally very uncomfortable and irritable, as you would be with constant itchiness. Continue reading →

Posted in News

Charlie

Posted on June 1, 2011 by roffy2k

Our current Featured Pet is Charlie, a German Shorthaired Pointer.

Charlie was brought into the clinic by his owners after spending the morning vomiting/retching and acting out of sorts. On examination Charlie was slightly subdued and tender in his abdomen. As dogs can have a habit of eating things they shouldn’t, and Charlie is no exception, we were quite concerned he may have a foreign body blockage of his intestines. We took some X-rays to look for any foreign bodies and while none were visible there were some changes in his stomach that suggested a blockage. Continue reading →

Posted in Featured Pet