treatment

Preventative healthcare

Preventative healthcare can help your pet enjoy a healthier life and avoid potentially serious diseases. We offer straightforward advice on healthy routines, preventative treatments and controls to reduce the risk of your pets contracting these diseases.

Buying pets in the UK

We see many more sick puppies and kittens bought through 'free-ads' services from newspapers or the Internet than those from registered breeders. Whether pets are bought in the UK or overseas please encourage responsible pet breeding by only purchasing animals from establishments that are clean and well run, where the parents are obviously well looked after, and where correct pre-purchase healthcare has been carried out by the breeders. Our nursing team can offer advice on this.

'Saving' animals from shabby establishments only encourages them to continue breeding for profit. If you are concerned about a breeding establishment please contact the local RSPCA inspectors who will carry out an investigation.

healthcare cat

It is extremely important to make sure your pet is up to date with preventative worming treatment. Please contact us to discuss your pet’s needs and the parasite control necessary for their lifestyle.

Pets can catch some types of worm that are secondary to fleas, or by eating raw meat if they are hunting or scavenging. These worms don’t just infect pets, they can also infect people and in certain circumstances cause blindness. Children are at a higher risk of being infected.

Roundworms and tapeworms

These are the most common and preventable types of worms that your pet can contract.

Both parasites live in the gut with the potential to cause diarrhoea or other health problems. Animals can pick up these worms whenever they sniff ground where other animals have been.

Lungworms

Another worm of particular significance for dogs is the Lungworm, Angiostrongylus vasorum. There has been an increasing incidence of this type of worm over the last few years. Symptoms range from coughing and difficulty breathing, effects on the central nervous system, or inability to clot the blood. Because the worm targets body systems that are essential to life and do not repair themselves well, the effects of this parasite can lead to permanent damage or even death.

We recommend the use of a licenced product on a monthly basis to remove the risk of contracting this parasite.

Adult fleas live on the skin of pets. However, a staggering 95 percent of the flea population is found in the environment (in carpets, bedding and soft furnishings) as eggs and larva. Fleas can spread diseases such as tapeworms, but can also cause severe skin irritation, infection and allergies. Even animals that live completely indoors can become infested with fleas.

Treatment involves spot-on drops (for dogs or cats) or tablets (for dogs only), household sprays can also be used to break fleas’ lifecycle.

We strongly recommend neutering all pets not intended for breeding. This can prevent or reduce the risk of a number of potentially serious diseases in both male and female pets. Neutering is a straightforward process. It requires a general anaesthetic so your pet will need to stay with us for the day.

Females are usually speyed from 5-6 months of age. Apart from preventing unwanted pregnancies, this can reduce the risk of mammary cancer and prevent false pregnancies and a potentially fatal womb infection called Pyometra.

Males are much less likely to stray or get into fights if they have been neutered, reducing the risk of associated injuries. Neutering will also prevent them from developing testicular cancer, prostatic problems which can lead to difficulty going to the toilet, hernias and tumours around the bottom.

If you would like to find out more about neutering your pet, please contact the surgery.

All pets are at risk of developing dental diseases that can cause problems from smelly breath to rotten teeth. Daily tooth brushing is the best way to prevent this, but is not always practical for some animals and/or their owners. Special diets, chews and treats are also available to help delay the progression of dental disease.

Routine vaccination protects your pet against life threatening and often incurable infections. It also protects other pets in the area by minimising the risk of an outbreak.

Dogs

Vaccination protects dogs against parvovirus, distemper, leptospirosis, infectious hepatitis, and parainfluenza. They need two injections, two to four weeks apart then yearly boosters to maintain the correct level of protection.

Dogs can also be vaccinated against Kennel Cough, a very contagious virus of the respiratory system. We recommend this vaccine for any pet that meets other dogs out on walks, at training classes and dog shows, or stays in boarding kennels.  It is separate to the routine vaccinations and is administered up the nose.

Cats

Cats are protected against the flu viruses and feline enteritis. There is also a vaccine against feline leukaemia virus, which is important if your cat spends time outdoors.

Rabbits

Rabbits can be vaccinated against myxomatosis and viral haemorrhagic diarrhoea. This needs to be repeated every year and can be started from 5 weeks of age.

Vaccination for foreign travel

Both dogs and cats that travel abroad need to be vaccinated against rabies. However this is not necessary for animals only living in the UK. Please see Travelling section for further information.

Arranging vaccination

Please contact the surgery if you would like to make an appointment for your pet's annual vaccinations. All pets get a thorough health check to make sure they are fit, and receive the appropriate vaccination combination for their life style.

In April 2016 a law came into effect that all dogs over eight weeks of age must be microchipped. Up to date details are held on the microchip database for identification purposes. Failure to have your dog microchipped could result in a finee and /or legel proceedings.

A microchip is a tiny implant less than the size of a grain of rice and is inserted into the loose skin at the base of the neck in between the shoulder blades (the scruff). This tiny chip has a unique number which is obtained when the animal is scanned using a hand held scanner. This helps veterinary professionals and pounds/rescue centres gain access to the registered owners contact details through one of the countries microchip databases.

As well as dogs we recommend all cats are microchipped as they have a greater tendency to wander than dogs. The majority of animals can be microchipped for added security and peace of mind.

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