The most difficult part of our job is to guess how much help is required, not for your pet, but for you in dealing with your pet's problem. While the treatment for your pet may be obvious, what is acceptable to you regarding treating your pet at home, your pet's time away from home and financial constraints are not always obvious. A misunderstanding in these regards can lead to people having to administer treatments that they are not comfortable administering, or paying for 'in hospital' treatments that they are happy to manage themselves at home. While it should be understood that your wishes must be voiced, sometimes this is not the case, and this is what we try to encourage.

For example:- you bring in a cat with an abscess, and it is determined that the cat requires surgery. Surgery is performed, where a drainage tube is placed. Your cat will then require a further 7 days of antibiotic tablets, several days of pain relieving tablets, and the drain will have to be bathed for three days, until it is removed.

While the drain is an important part of the treatment, it is unsightly, and there is a discharge that comes from it (often a bloody -called serous- discharge). This needs to be bathed twice daily with a salt water solution. Some people are uncomfortable at seeing and dealing with this situation, and would prefer us to have the cat remain in hospital and for us to perform the treatment for the three days until the drain is removed. Other people, especially those that have dealt with the situation before, are quite comfortable to perform these treatments, and would prefer to have their pet at home.

Either treatment is as good as the other, and the abscess will heal very well either way. Therefore it is very much up to you which option you take.

We will always tell what is necessary with regard to your pet's treatment. However we can not emphasise enough that it is your choice regarding some treatments. We will not hospitalise your animal if not necessary if you do not want us to, and equally we will not force you to administer home treatments that you are not comfortable with. We have a great range of services, and a fantastic nursing staff that are eager to help in all aspects, especially in the care of your pet.

PLEASE LET US KNOW HOW WE CAN BEST PROVIDE OUR SERVICES TO YOU.

We provide most surgery, hospitalisation, dentistry, x-rays, ultrasound, ECG and in-house testing. Why are these things important ?

Surgery- by far the most common reason to do surgery is to cure problems. Unfortunately surgery is important for many problems, meaning that without being able to offer surgery, means we would only be able to offer a limited number of solutions.

Hospitalisation- unfortunately there are problems that aren't instantly curable. That is why we need to offer facilities to provide intensive care, or to provide comfort for your pet while a healing process is taking place.

Dentistry- excessive tartar on teeth is one of the most common disorders of middle aged to older pets. Not only does this cause mouth soreness and erosion of teeth causing teeth to fall out, but gives bacteria and toxins a way to get into the blood stream, causing septicaemia, kidney problems and a large array of other problems. This is why we will suggest your pets teeth be cleaned if tartar build-up is occurring.

X-rays- most obviously x-rays are needed to assess bone and joint problems. However they can also be very important to assess chest problems, abdominal problems, spinal problems- in fact x-rays can be useful with problems over the whole body.

Ultrasound- this is being used more and more with pets because it provides a lot of information and doesn't involve any discomfort to the animal. More common uses are for pregnancy diagnosis, diagnosis of heart conditions, assessment of organs such as liver, spleen, kidneys, bladder etc.. There are some conditions that can not be assessed properly (and therefore treated properly) without ultrasound eg. some heart diseases.

ECG- there is no other way of diagnosing and therefore correctly treating some heart conditions without ECG

In-house blood testing- sending blood away for testing often takes 24 hours. For emergencies, routine checks before surgery, or quite simply for fast answers, in-house testing is important.