Pre-Visit Checklist for Owners

Before your vet visit, make sure to gather the following:

• List of Questions: Prepare any questions or concerns you have about your pet’s health or behavior.
• List of Medications: Bring along a list of any medications your pet is currently taking.
• Muzzle (if needed): Consider muzzle training if your pet may require a muzzle during the visit. Guide to muzzle training.
• Short Lead: Use a short lead instead of a retractable one for better control.
• Blanket or Familiar Item: Bring a blanket or something familiar that your pet often uses or lays on.
• Food or Treats: If applicable, bring your pet’s favorite treats or food.
• Photos or Videos: Provide any photos or videos of your pet displaying symptoms, if available.

How to Prepare for the Visit:

• Stay Calm: Remember, your pet can pick up on your feelings too, so try to remain calm to help keep them at ease.
• Safe Transportation: Ensure your pet is safely transported to the vet and is accustomed to the mode of transportation.
• Stay in the Car if Preferred: If your pet is more comfortable waiting in the car, please notify us upon arrival. We’ll come out to you when ready, reducing stress, especially in busy waiting rooms. This also helps maintain a calm environment for other pets if your dog tends to vocalize.
• Handling Preparation: Handling plays a significant role in examining your pet, so please get your pet used to being handled in areas such as paws, tail, ears, face, and body. Guide on handling your dog.

Windy and her mum have been friends of the practice for a year and regulars in the rehabilitation department. We are exceptionally proud of Windy and her recent successes in the agility ring. She has tried a combination of treatments from physiotherapy, the under water treadmill, hydrotherapy and acupuncture.

Windy’s mum is always enthusiastic and passionate about her dogs fitness and well being. She initially started with the rehabilitation team to ensure Windy was performing at best and to highlight any injuries before they deteriorated. A few months ago this is exactly what happened when Windy was placing her right hind shorter on the treadmill than her left. This suggested there was some pain or discomfort when she was walking and after a closer examination we noted she was painful in her spine. Her mum took on board all our advice and started rehabilitation at home with regular visits to Mochdre Vets to see how we could help her. After 1-2 months she was much improved and back to swimming in the hydrotherapy pool. A combination of treatment and a very committed mum put Windy back on the right path and breezing over those jumps into first place.

Following this Windy still attends rehabilitation sessions to ensure she is in peak performance at all times.

Factors we focused on were:

Massage
to help ease any spinal tension building up and support her shoulders as they were being affected by compensatory changes.

Gait
Not only did we look at how she was walking on the under water treadmill but Windy is also fortunate enough to have her own land based treadmill at home. We made a program to work on walking much slower than she wanted to encourage even weight distribution and active flexion of each joint.

Acupuncture
She attended sessions with Sarah to ease pain and ensure she was managing any discomfort.

Physiotherapy
Providing advice on warm up and cool down exercise before and after entering the agility ring.

Laser
To manage any sudden bouts of inflammation within the cells

If you have a competitive athletic dog and need some advice on conditioning and regular muscular-skeletal health checks then you can book in by ringing 01492 546112.

Arthritis is the most common joint disease in veterinary medicine with over 200,000 dogs affected annually so we made January 2019 ‘Arthritis Month’ to raise awareness of this condition in our pets as well as what complimentary treatments are available to improve their lives.

Skip

This handsome chap is a 13 year old collie cross who was rescued by his current owner a number of years ago. He has mellowed nicely in his old age and his owner has worked very hard on his confidence with new people and strange things. Looking at him today you wouldn’t have known he had had such a difficult past. As with a lot of older dogs he is now struggling with arthritic changes, more particularly in his spine and hips.  His Dad, although initially sceptical about starting treatment on an old boy did the right decision and brought him for an initial assessment with us after enquiring at his veterinary practice.

We found Skip had lost some muscle in his hind limbs and was beginning to show signs of deterioration and struggled on certain walks and obstacles around the house. We opted to put Skip in the treadmill as opposed to the pool because he was weary of water and we wanted to maintain muscle mass by varying water height in the treadmill. Skip has quite high water for buoyancy and support. The higher water creates additional resistance compared to normal walking, which in turn helps maintain muscle mass as he drives through the water.

Skip has now attended multiple sessions including a physiotherapy session where his Dad was advised on exercises he could do at home and managing arthritis. His Dad feels he has improved and he is much happier in leaving Skip alone in the house, although he’d hate to admit it. Skip continues to come for weekly sessions to help maintain the muscle mass and support him through his senior years.

Bailey

This handsome man comes for fortnightly hydrotherapy sessions in the pool and loves it! He brings his little brother Freddie along for the ride and he watches as Bailey impresses him with his swimming. Bailey has arthritis prominently in his elbows and struggles to stand and walk for prolonged periods of time. When in the pool he feels completely weightless and enjoys showing us how well he can move. Hydrotherapy provides him with mental stimulation and exercise is a controlled manner where he isn’t likely to over work or flare up his arthritis.

The pool is more suited to Bailey than the treadmill as it he is weightless and the buoyancy of the water helps support his joints. The hydrostatic pressure of the water also helps reduce any swelling in his joints, which can benefit him for a prolonged time. He is currently coming for fortnightly sessions and finds he gains a lot of stimulation from coming and loves the gravy bones at the end.

He has recently been diagnosed with renal issues however this hasn’t stopped him Mum from coming to weekly hydrotherapy sessions now that they see what benefit he gets from the treatment. We plan on continuing on the pool with Max not only because of the enjoyment he gets but also because of all the added health benefits such as:

• Buoyancy – No pressure on his sore joints
• Exercise- keeps his heart healthy
• Resistance – Works him harder in a shorter space of time than on land maintaining muscle mass
• Mental stimulation – Older dogs often struggle to adapt to reduced exercise so this provides the perfect opportunity to play and enjoy themselves.

Tia is an 8 an a half year old staffie who was referred to us from Aran Vets in Llangefni.   Unfortunately Tia had a number of issues and had had ongoing spine and joint problems.  Her main presenting problem was something called intervertebral disc disease.

Intervertebral disc disease (IVDD) is a condition where the cushioning discs between the vertebrae of the spinal column either bulge or burst (herniate) into the spinal cord space.  These discs then press on the nerves running through the spinal cord causing pain, nerve damage, and even paralysis.

Tia is a lovely dog but had been on and off in pain for a long time she would get very anxious when seeing the vets.  Surgery is an option for intvertebral disc disease but involves long periods of cage rest.  Tia had previously ruptured her cruciate ligament and has not coped well with being confined so it was thought it was best to try conservative management.

Her general gait was poor she had very little spinal muscles to palpate.  Her hind limbs were poorly muscled and Tia couldn’t stand very well and was what we call ataxic which meant that she was , swaying when walking, could hear occassional scuffing as her feet bent over and dragged her claws.  This meant Tia was prone to getting sores on her legs and had boots to avoid sores. Tia would quite often knuckel which meant her legs gave way beneath her and her neurological exam showed she was very slow.

We are so lucky to have so many facilities that could be of benefit to cats and dogs with neurological problems and Tia was like a blank canvas where we had lots of options.  Initially Tia had laser therapy and the results were positive in that Tia was able to start standing square and the idea was to start building muscle tone.  Because nerves run down the spine it was thought that acupuncture could help.

While there is some debate over definitions, it’s generally accepted that acupuncture points (acupoints) concentrate clusters of free nerve endings, small blood and lymphatic vessels, and mast cells, part of the immune system.  Small, sterile needles are placed into specific points to stimulate muscles, nerves, circulation and the immune system.

Functional MRI’s reveal that acupuncture activates pain-associated brain stem regions.  The specific mechanism of acupuncture on IVDD has not yet been fully explained, but it’s surmised that it reduces local swelling, inflammation and pain; decreases cord compression, scar formation and tissue oxygen deprivation; and restores damaged nerves.

In medical and veterinary research there is a lot of published research into acupuncture as a treatment for IVDD.

This video was taken one week after Tia’s first acupuncture session and hopefully this will long continue but we couldn’t be prouder!