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.

One of our most positive stories during lockdown was meeting Gloria.  Gloria is a beautiful black cat that was brought in as a stray by the RSPCA. Even to the untrained eye Gloria’s back leg was swinging freely in the wind after she suffered a fracture.

She was called Gloria after the song I will survive …

“I will survive
Oh, as long as I know how to love, I know I’ll stay alive
I’ve got all my life to live”

This summed up Gloria no matter how much pain she must have been in she just wanted a big cuddle, some fuss and some food and was just adorable.

Being a charity the RSPCA was limited to what funds they had available for Gloria so it was agreed that we would take her on and be responsible for her treatment. Thankfully we have a good relationship with the RSPCA and they were on board so we arranged for her leg to be fixed. Here are her before and after x-rays.

We kept Glroia at the practice for 6 weeks to let the leg heal so she became a great friend to the staff constantly miaowing for attention when they walked past. Thankfully she had no complications so at 6 weeks we re x-rayed her, spayed her, microchipped and vaccinated her.  We have two good frrends of the practice Katy and Petra and they had a suggestion of who would Gloria a fantastic new home and she was off.

It was great to be able to help Gloria in such a tough time as corona but Gloria showed us that even when things aren’t going your way being happy and making the most of life gets you a long way!

EVERYONE KNOWS FROZEN AND HOW ELSA SANG LET IT GO WELL THIS ELSA SANG EGGGGG IT GOOOOOOO!!!

Elsa is a four year old gecko and her mum noticed that she was putting on weight even though she wouldn’t eat her food. When Elsa was examined it was seen that she was physically swollen in her abdomen and an x-ray confirmed why. As you can see from the x ray and the invert contrast Elsa appeared to be egg bound.

It could easily be seen from the x-rays the area that appeared to be egg shaped was far bigger than the area of the pelvis that Elsa could pass.   We did have medical options which were not successful so we were left with one option to spay her.

I had never spayed a gecko before so I was honest with the owner and said I would give it ago – hey, I never spayed a cat until I did my first one so after a lot of research, advice from peers and even old fashioned book reading we were ready.

Thankfully the op went well amazingly Elsa had four large eggs removed and she was spayed so hopefully no future problems. After the spay we weighed the eggs and they were 1.6g and Elsa weighed 3.4g so nearly half her body weight in eggs (see in the above photo how skinny Elsa was and then swollen in her belly).

From the x-ray I was only expecting to remove two large eggs so had a surprise when there were more of them.

The eggs are outlined in blue (I know who knew the other side was worse!). The shaded yellow part is Elsa’s lungs which meant that not only were they occupying all her abdomen meaning she didn’t want to eat they were starting to compress her lungs so she was struggling to breath.

As more of Elsa’s reserves would go into her eggs it was only ever going to get harder for her.

We don’t make any claims to be exotic experts but we do believe every animal deserves a chance and will happily work with you to provide the best for your creature great or small. If you would like any advice you are welcome to contact us