There was suspicion that Rex had been playing with a stick and we thought that was how the injury was caused. We needed to explore the wound to see where it went and what damage had been done. It was a complete surprise when we found this still in the wound.

No wonder he was so uncomfortable. We suspected that Rex had landed on the stick with force and as the stick was wet and rotten it had snapped. This left us with other worries how far had the stick gone, what actual damage had it done and were there any other bits of stick present. Any little splinters could cause future problems. Thankfully after flushing the wound continuously for several minutes we able to perform a CT scan. The results were excellent and exactly what we hoped for. We were able to rule out any damage or any lingering pieces.

And in case you want to know what the specialist saw on the CT?

There is a poorly defined region of hypo attenuation and focal swelling within the root of the tongue on midline (Figure 1, red arrowheads). Numerous small gas foci are present within the tongue and geniohyoid/mylohyoid muscles with subjective enlargement and presumed contrast enhancement of rostral aspect of the layer. There is fluid accumulation in the le retropharyngeal space and overlying subcutaneous space (Figure 2, green arrowheads). Rostrally, numerous small gas foci are seen between the le aspect of the tongue and digastricus muscle (Figure 3, yellow arrowheads)

What is Osteoarthritis?

Osteoarthritis is a long-term condition where the cartilage in the affected joint deteriorates, leading to pain and lameness. This can be especially debilitating for dogs. Stem cell therapy is a novel and cutting-edge treatment that is showing increasing effectiveness in combating osteoarthritis.

What are stem cells?

Stem cell therapy is relatively new in both veterinary and human medicine. However, its use for treating osteoarthritis (OA) is more advanced, especially in cats and dogs, where arthritis is very common. It is estimated that 20% of dogs suffer from OA, and globally, tens of thousands of dogs have been treated with stem cells. In successful cases, the stem cells are injected into the joints, alleviating pain and allowing pets to walk without lameness.

How do stem cells work?

The process involves taking a small fat sample from your pet under general anaesthesia, from which stem cells are isolated and cultured into millions of cells. These cultured stem cells are then returned to your vet for injection into the arthritic joints. Additionally, some cells are stored frozen for future use, ensuring they are always available if needed.

Stem cells offer natural anti-inflammatory pain relief for your dog, with noticeable effects within a week to 10 days after injection. These benefits include improved mobility, reduced stiffness, and pain-free movement. The relief typically lasts for a few months and can last for up to a year, after which a follow-up injection may be necessary. Following stem cell treatment, dogs can often live pain-free with reduced or even no medication for an extended period of their lives.

Is it safe?

Yes, the stem cells are isolated from the same dog, making the procedure safe and eliminating the risk of rejection or adverse reactions. However, there may be risks associated with the injection process itself, and pet owners should discuss these potential risks with their veterinary surgeon.

If you want to know more about stem cell please visit The Veterinary Tissue Bank

Testimonial from Brody’s mum and dad …

Brody is now 2 days post stem cell injections and he is happy and his usual cheeky self! He’s just having short lead walks to help the stem cells settle and do their job.

Brody was diagnosed with osteoarthritis and elbow dysplasia at 8 months old. At the time we were told it was so severe that if we did nothing, he’d be lucky to get to 6 years old. Last month we celebrated his 11th birthday! He’s been having stem cell therapy for about 5 years and it’s been truly life changing for him. It gives him the ability to be active again and enjoy life pain free.

We want to say a massive thanks to everyone at Mochdre Vets for looking after him so well and for being able to carry on this amazing treatment for him.

Debbie, Phil & Brody

We are very lucky to be able to offer scoping facilities at the practice and it has meant we have been able to pass a camera up noses, down stomachs and sadly for our very own Bert up bottoms too!  Well to scope does mean assess or investigate something. On Friday March 22nd it turned out to be cavalier scope day with three of them booked in.  Harvey had an endoscope passed down to his stomach a procedure called gastroscopy. For those that have a strong stomach you can click on the description to see some photos!

A gastroscopy is a procedure that involves passing a thin, flexible tube (an endoscope) with a camera at one end into your mouth down into your stomach and the first part of the small intestine the duodenum.

No one wants to hear their pet isn’t well but thanks to the camera Harvey was diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease and we are able to start him on specific treatment.We could also reassure his mum there wasn’t anything more sinister going on. We were able to see that he had ulcers that were healing.

Mylo had a rhinoscopy where the thin camera was passed up his nose. Cavaliers can have a condition called Brachycephalic obstructive airway syndrome and as we were investigating episodes of sneezing we wanted to know if his anatomy was the problem or something else, thankfully despite having a lump in his nasal passage biopsies showed it was just a polyp.

Becky had a bronchoscopy and rhinoscopy so bless her she had cameras up (her nose) and down (her windpipe). That in itself is fairly amazing as the dog lung has four bronchiole systems, dorsal, lateral, ventral and medial, on either side.  Each measuring less than centimetre! In Becky’s case an x ray would have missed some of the changes going on and although cavaliers can get a cough due to heart disease this was definitely not the case for Becky!

If you have a pet that you think would benefit from further diagnostics including scoping then please contact the practice on 01492 546112. 

Scoping procedures with biopsies start from £750 upwards depending on what your pets requirements are.

We are more than a little bit thrilled to announce we have won Practice of the Month for Agria Pet Insurance! We are the winner for the WHOLE of the UK and it was based on customer feedback and the level of service we provide so a huge thanks to all those who have supported us and we are so proud of this achievement! Jo even managed to drag Rhian out of her cupboard to celebrate!

A huge thankyou to everyone that left us feedback and to all the staff who we could never do this without!

The Cat Friendly Clinic is a worldwide programme from the International Society of Feline Medicine, the veterinary division of International CatCare. We recognise that because of their unique nature and needs, taking a cat to a veterinary clinic can be very stressful, both for the cat and also the owner.

As you are aware we are the only practice in the local area that achieved the International Society of Feline Medicine (ISFM) Gold award for our standards in cat care.   As Mochdre Vets is a new practice we had the fortune to design it from the beginning with a view of making it friendly for our cats and never had to compromise because we were trying to shoe horn it in to an existing clinic.

We have to thank our head nurse and cat advocat Claire Williams for all her hard work and enthusiasm who has been involved right from the beginning when we were still drawing up plans for the building.  She ensured that we achieved and continue to maintain the standards required, there was never a point during this process where ‘good enough’ was good enough!  Though obviously she did have Clive cracking the whip!

We asked Claire to write about her experience in helping design Mochdre Vets with a feline friendly view in mind …

I have always had an interest in feline behaviour and had some knowledge of their welfare within the veterinary practice so when Sarah Heywood decided to open Mochdre Vets I was invited to help plan the lay out with our feline friends in mind.

Right from the start we decided that everything should be separate from a feline hospital ward to the waiting rooms and consult rooms.

Starting with the waiting room this is completely separate from the dogs and can be accessed easily without having to come in to contact with any dogs. The room was picked to give the maximum space away from dogs and the room was next to the hydrotherapy pool so it would naturally be the warmest room. The consult room itself is the smallest and darkest of the consult rooms which is an environment preferred by cats than dogs. To reduce stress within the waiting room there are plug in devices which help to relax cats, there is a high level stand to place the cats in their carriers. There are towels to cover the carriers to help make it less stressful and these are sprayed with the stress helping pheromones. We also operate cat only consulting times and I myself am doing the ISFM certificate in feline behaviour so I offer a lot of free consults to cat owners. This is again to help minimise stress when owners are introducing their cats to new situations. I even offer consults for just the owners the idea longer term is to try and minimise the stress for a cat coming to the vets, studies have shown animals that are stressed will show higher levels of pain and take longer to recover from any illness or operations.

For any hospitilised patients we have a separate ward with ISFM approved cat condos.These are different to your usual veterinary metal cages as they have plenty of space. There are perches so the cats can sit up high, there are hiding areas to give them a sense of control and safety. The design of the cages means we can monitor patients easily, they are warm and easily cleaned which can help with infection management. As they are not metal it means cats won’t catch their reflections which can be seen as a threat. The condos allow for the cats to be on drips and still be able to move round freely.

All staff have undergone further training in cat handling and detecting signs of pain and I regularly do training with the nursing team. As vets and nurses we have to do a certain amount of continual learning each year and a lot of this is feline based so that we can maintain our gold standard and keep improving. We also provide a variety of diets and have dedicated staff to sit with any poorly cats grooming them and helping them relax.

ISFM have a categorised feline friendly status which are marked Bronze, Silver and Gold. To achieve the highest Gold standard we have to be judged against a wide range of criteria including:

• Veterinary Clinic Premises – exclusive cat wards, isolation facilities, waiting rooms and consult rooms
• Facilities – raised shelves and benches for cat baskets with vertical barriers and a high level of laboratory equipment.
• Services – minimum consult times, all our consults are 20 minutes for all clients
• Staff – All staff , receptionists, vets and nurses need to have an understanding of the needs of cats including how to hold and approach them.

To achieve and maintain standards a Cat Friendly Clinic should have an dedicated person that holds all the values for felines with the upmost importance, called a cat advocate and at Mochdre Vets that is Claire.

If you are interested in the complete list of requirements for CFC accreditation you can read the ISFM’s criteria here.

Claire works Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays but can always be contacted by email info@mochdrevets.co.uk and would be delighted to help you with any cat related issues you have. Claire has almost completed her certificate in feline behaviour and the sessions are FREE and already we have had some very positive outcomes to nervous cats.

The saying is life in the old dog yet well how about life in the old cat yet!

Our November dental offer if going well but I think our biggest success story will be Angelica. Angelica came to us as a second opinion as she had a dental abscess that had stopped her eating but at 18 and a half it was recommended she just had antibiotics for the rest of her life. This obviously wasn’t ideal as certainly wouldn’t do anything for her pain. We discussed the anaesthetic risk with her mum and the things we could do to help support Angelica and tailor the protocol to her and her mum was keen. Angelica ended up having 5 teeth out not just the one that had caused the abscess. From our perspective Angelica was a fantastic patient and within an hour of waking up was already eating a bowl of food.

Our bespoke cat condos are designed to have the best comfort factor for cats and within a couple of hours Angelica had jumped up on one of the shelves and was happily grooming herself.

Angelica has been back for her post op checks and so far all is going well.  She has a great appetite and has even put on a little bit of weight so we are delighted.

Without a crystal ball we don’t know whats round the corner but even if it buys her 6 months thats the equivalent of 3 and a half years to us!   And most importantly we hope it will be a 3 and a half pain free years.

Ruby came to us as a referral client after seeing a member of our extended family – Dugie Gemmill who is our expert Orthopaedic  and Laparoscopic Surgeon who regularly refers cases to us for rehabilitation.  Ruby has luxating patellas which means her knee caps move out of place and Dugie recommended for her to try treatment on the underwater treadmill to build muscle to support her knees in the aim to avoid surgery.

On Ruby’s initial consultation we took some measurements of her muscles. We found she was over- muscled in her front legs due to her weightbearing more through them. This was a clever way her body had adjusted to avoid putting extra weight through her knees. Ruby was quite lame on her back right leg and had a significant difference in the muscles of her back legs. There was a 7cm difference!!!  Ruby was also on pain relief at the time of starting her treatment.

After a treatment programme of 10 sessions, coming twice a week, we repeated the measurements and found that Ruby had lost a small amount of muscle from her front legs, confirming the treatment was helping her to balance better and that she had gained 2cm of muscle on her left hind and 7cms on her right hind!

With now only 1cm difference between her back legs, no longer on any pain medication, moving better and much happier in herself, what a difference a few treadmills made! Ruby continues to be treated by our rehabiliation team at Mochdre Vets – what a success story!!

AMAZING WEIGHT LOSS GUARANTEED THIS DOG LOST MORE THAN A STONE IN 24 HOURS! JUST LOOK AT THE BEFORE AND AFTER PICTURES!

Well as we have learnt there are no miracle diet cures and these photos were actually taken at the same but genuinely Coco did loose more than a stone in 24 hours – in fact she lost 29 stones in 24 hours bit they were all from her bladder!

Coco was seen urinating inappropriately, spotting and passing blood after treatment for cystitis didn’t work we took some x rays and no was prepared for what we found!

Coco’s x ray lying on her tummy

You can see which part are Coco’s back legs, they attach to her pelvis which is a square and just above the pelvis on the left hand side are multiple circles (the marker showing a r is the right side so opposite side to that).

Normally the bladder is solid and black

Coco laying on her side

Coco’s bladder zoomed in to focus what was abnormal

You can see which part are Coco’s back legs, they attach to her pelvis which is a square and just above the pelvis on the left hand side are multiple circles (the marker showing a r is the right side so opposite side to that).

From the x rays it could be seen Coco had multiple bladder stones and it was these causing the problems urnating and the blood. Bladder stones (or the scientific name urinary calculus or uroliths, or cystoliths). Coco would be unable to pass these so she needed an operation to surgically remove them. This is a serious op but is more serious in males as their penis is narrow and the stones can block and then obviously in cats which are smaller these stones can be more serious.

Thanfully Coco’s op went well and all the stones were removed. We originally thought there was 19 but we actually removed 29 and then flushed the bladder through. Here are a few of the stones that were removed.

The stones were sent to the lab to find out what exactly they were made of . In Coco’s case it was made up of

• Major constituent: 95% Triple Phosphate (Struvite)
• Minor constituent: 5% Ammonium Urate

In female dogs the most likely cause is an underlying infection but longer term dietary change is required that will dissolve the crystals therefore making it unlikely to form stones.  Generally speaking, struvite stones / crystals will form when the animal’s urine PH becomes neutral or alkaline (PH 7 or greater) and urine is concentrated. Carnivores (dogs and cats) that eat a fresh red meat based diet naturally produce acidic urine which prevents this crystal formation. The food itself has a natural water content of 60-70%, which assists in preventing dehydration and excessive concentration of urine.

Thankfully Coco likes her new diet and we are pleased to say she is doing well!

For dietary information for your pet you should seek veterinary advice as every animal has different requirements.  Learn more about diets.