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:

1. Provide a den or a hiding place that is comfortable and warm that can act as a retreat for your pet. Sometimes an old tee-shirt that fits snuggly can be fitted to your pet to provide some comfort and security. Remember to remove it afterwards though.
2. Muffle the sounds of fireworks by playing music, turning up the TV and closing doors and windows and curtains.
3. Keep them inside – no pet wants to go for a walk with fireworks exploding around them
4. Don’t over-fuss them
5. Stay calm yourself and don’t get angry – our pets can sense our moods, so no matter how frustrated you are with the effect of the noise on your pet, it’s important to stay relaxed and calm for your pet.
6. Prepare for unusual behaviour and don’t be alarmed if your pet changes it’s usual routine
7. Talk to us about your worries, as there are a number of products that can help in different ways, such as:

i)        Medication – there are a number of different drugs that can be considered and that have helped many of our patients in the past. It is however very important to use these drugs correctly and many are best used a week or so prior to the onset of fireworks.

ii)       Dog appeasing pheromone

iii)     Diets have also been formulated that claim to calm pets down

Long-term protocols.

The best solution for all pets is to try to get them to a point where they are no longer scared of loud noises such as fireworks. The main strategy available to us is the use of sound desensitisation therapy in the form of DVD’s. Combined with other products like pheromone therapy, these have achieved good success if used correctly.

Correct use of sound desensitisation programmes should start early on in the year and take many months to become effective. The ideal time to start such programs would be in early February, continuing on through the year.

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.

This is Mikey’s eye with the conjuntiva sutured directly onto the cornea, around the edges of the ulcer using very fine sutures aided by special magnification eyewear to help us place the sutures correctly.

This graft was due to stay in for six to eight weeks, but alas a few days ago Mikey managed to scratch his eye & pull the graft off! Fortunately we were able to operate again and place another graft. This will stay on for a minimum of 8 weeks, whereafter we will remove it. Despite Mikey’s travails, in the long-term we expect his vision to be unaffected.

Needless to say, owners Anita & Hannah are very relieved to have a really good pet insurance policy that will cover all the costs of Mikey’s treatment, which have cost a few thousand pounds.

Notes from Mikey’s owners Anita and Hannah:

Hi ,

Mike was born on the 16th October 2001 and is a blue colour point Persian. Sadly, his brother Rory passed away in March this year. Where Mike is a very placid cat Rory was up to mischief all the time. About 6 weeks ago I noticed a black dot on Mike’s eye. After one week it started to bother him, so I took him to see the vet. It turned out to be a form of ulcer, which was very serious.

After his second operation to put a graft on the eye, he has done very well. The graft has been a great success, and today (21st September) he has had his stitches out. We are pleased to say he was very good for this. He is due back on the 19th October to have the graft trimmed and then that is it, all done! Mr Sharratt has been very good with Mike, and I am very happy with the service that I have received, so I would like to say a big thank you to you all.

Anita & Hannah

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.

Previously a blood test was required 30 days after the rabies vaccination; with pets only being allowed back into the UK 6 months after the blood test was taken. This is no longer required.

Also, for pets coming from non-EU countries that aren’t part of the Pet Passport scheme, 6 months quarantine is no longer required, providing certain criteria are met.

There are a few details which are still to be announced so for a complete set of guidelines go to http://www.defra.gov.uk/wildlife-pets/pets/travel/

Furthermore, quarantine laws have also been reviewed, and as of January 2012 it appears that the ’6 month quarantine rule’ for pets coming into the UK from non-Pets Passport member countries may also be changed. Pets from certain countries will be able to be vaccinated & blood tested in their country of origin, and if clear will be allowed into the UK without quarantine. Watch this space about this as more details emerge.

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.

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. In 17 years as a Vet, I have never seen such a nasty looking pancreas and was certain this was some form of cancer. Unbelievably, the biopsies revealed no evidence of cancer, which was a huge relief to us all. George remained very ill and was seemingly making little progress in the hospital, so we discharged him to see how he would do at home for a few days. Beyond everyone’s expectations George began to improve quickly on his strict new low-fat diet and was soon back to his normal friendly self.

We saw him very recently for his booster vaccinations and once again, George thoroughly enjoyed his trip to see us, despite all the needles he’d recently had!

Finally, I’d like to thank the McDermott family for ‘hanging in there’ with us while we got to the bottom of George’s problem. It was a period of great anxiety for the whole family, which I’m glad to say, has ended very happily. George is also now a walking advertisement of for the benefits of having pet insurance.

Notes from the McDermott family:

We found George, a 2 year old Wire Fox Terrier, at a rescue centre one Sunday in 2002. We brought him home with us and he settled in immediately. Within days it felt as though he had always been with us. He has a lovely temperament, real character and has brought us immeasurable joy over the years. Like all terriers he enjoys helping in the garden, loves food – his own and everybody else’s. He thinks our beds are his and all seats are his. He is an expert flycatcher and plays with the insects before eating them.

Other than a few minor ailments over the years, George has always been a fit and healthy dog. However in May we noticed some peculiarities in his behaviour. He began to try to hide his food behind the kitchen and appeared to be trying to bury it then after a couple of days of this he just wouldn’t eat at all. Very quickly he stopped wanting to go for walks, stopped jumping on furniture and laps and seemed to have great difficulty lying down. We took him to see Haydn and this perked him up a little as his favourite place other than home is The Pets Practice! Our emotional rollercoaster had begun.

After a thorough examination Haydn suspected that George had pancreatitis, took some blood for testing and prescribed medication. Of course George refused to take his medication and his condition deteriorated. He was then kept in the surgery for a couple of nights and more tests but still no improvement. Finally it was agreed that Haydn would carry out exploratory surgery to see what was really going on. We really feared the worst and we tried to prepare for losing our beloved boy. Our home had become a desperately sad and empty place without our dog. However nothing unexpected was found other than a nasty pancreas confirming Haydn’s initial diagnosis but we were warned that he was not out of the woods. Four days later we took our very sorry looking George home and we tried to make him as comfortable as possible. A few days later completely out of the blue there he was looking to share a sandwich. What joy! Within a couple of days he had really rallied, he was eating normally again and was displaying all his usual traits except for jumping on the furniture as his wound was still a bit sore.

George is now back to himself again and was placed 4th in the Best Dog category at the annual Fox Terrier Funday at the weekend. He is on a permanent low fat diet and it is difficult not to give him his favourite little treats (cheese) but we just tell him it’s for his own good. I don’t think he sees it that way!

Words cannot express our gratitude to Haydn, Kylie, the nurses and reception staff at The Pets Practice for taking such great care of George and giving him back to us. He is a major part of our family and we love him dearly. We hope to have him for many more years even though he is an old man of 10 now.

With deepest heartfelt thanks.

The McDermott family

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.

Common signs of skin allergies are repeated ear infections, licking & biting at the feet and base of the tail, and scratching at their sides.

There are many causes of allergies, but the most important is an allergy to flea bites (Flea allergy dermatitis). It is therefore very important to keep you pet treated monthly with a quality spot-on to keep flea numbers controlled both on your pet & in your house. Importantly though, flea allergies are not only confined to summer. When it gets cold in winter & we switch on our central heating, this provides a cosy environment into which flea larvae can hatch and the either bit your pet or yourself.

Other causes of allergy are:-

• Allergies to things that are breathed in e.g. pollens
• Things that our pets come into contact with such as house dust mites, storage mites, grasses & other greenery
• Allergies to foods our pets eat.

So, if your pet is shaking it’s head, biting its paws or is just generally itchy, please contact us and we can help.

Also, our Pet Health Plans provide a simple & convenient way to budget for all your pets’ preventative healthcare needs, including flea prevention, worming & vaccinations.

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.

Since he had been vomiting, we placed Charlie on a drip to rehydrate him. We then anaesthetised him and passed an endoscopic camera down his throat and into his stomach to look for the suspected blockage. What we found surprised us all! The endoscope revealed a sewing needle that had lodged in his upper oesophagus and had a long length of string attached that had gone down into his stomach. With great difficulty and care we were able to remove it.

Charlie recovered from his anaesthetic well and over the following few days was treated with medication to settle his stomach and minimise any permanent damage from the sewing needle.