Services we offer
Our modern veterinary practice has much more to offer its patients than just the treatment of injury and disease.
Preventive medicine will help your pet to stay healthy and happy for longer.
Our commitment in this practice is to provide:
Total Health Care for your Pet -
- New puppy/kitten health checks.
- Vaccinations against the major infectious diseases (including the Leukaemia vaccine for cats*). All vaccinations include a free examination.
- Neutering and other routine surgery.
- In-house blood testing, including Leukaemia (FeLV) and FIV testing for cats.
- Health monitoring programmes (any age).
- Geriatric health care for the older animal.
- Dental care.
- Obesity programmes.
- Prescription diets and regular prescriptions.
- Worm and flea treatments; claw clipping.
- Full accident and emergency cover.
- Microchips, dental care, flea and worm treatments.
- ECG, endoscopy, ultrasound, practice laboratory.
- All X-ray , diagnostic and surgical facilities available.
- Well equipped practice laboratory for accurate and rapid diagnosis of illness
- Modern anaesthetic techniques and monitoring equipment providing a high standard of anaesthesia for our patients
- Veterinary Nurse training practice
- Home Visits by arrangement
- Fully computerised records and invoicing
The Woodborough Road Practice
Convenient, main-road location.
- Long-established veterinary surgery (over 40 years).
- Experienced staff.
- Full X-ray, diagnostic and surgical facilities.
- Fully computerised records.
Ask us about health insurance for your pet - it gives you peace of mind and is nowhere near as expensive as you might imagine. Nobody ever regrets having it! Our aim is to provide the highest standard of health care while giving the best possible value for money. Our fees are highly competitive.
Our commitment is to you too, to make your visits to the surgery as pleasant as possible. We have an efficient appointment system for consultations, and friendly, helpful and competent staff.
Vaccinations
Vaccination against the major infectious diseases is, of course, crucial for all puppies and kittens, and can be started at 8 and 9 weeks of age respectively. It is, however, just as important for the older animal, and annual booster injections are essential to maintain the protection. These diseases are often fatal, and if your dog or cat has not been vaccinated within the last 18 months it is at risk.
We now vaccinate routinely against 6 diseases in dogs and 3 in cats. We can also protect dogs against kennel cough (particularly important prior to kennelling in summer time)
Feline Leukemia is a very widespread infectious disease. It is not only extremely contagious, but, once contracted, invariably fatal. It is one of the commonest causes of death in cats and may affect cats of any age. Every cat over 9 weeks of age ought to be vaccinated against it.
Leukaemia (FeLV) and FIV Testing
Unfortunately cats may carry both FeLV and another fatal virus disease (FIV - the feline immunodeficiency virus) for several years without showing any signs of illness. Your cat could be infected without you suspecting until it becomes terminally ill. With the exception of kittens that have come from tested or vaccinated queen or kittens born to queens in healthy, single cat households; we test all cats for both diseases prior to vaccination against FeLV. There is, as yet, no vaccine against FIV. Where a cat tests positive we are able to advise what symptoms to look out for and about the control measures that should be taken to minimize the risk to other, healthy cats.
Health Monitoring and Geriatric Health Care
We are often asked by caring owners how they can know that their cat or dog is really well. Health monitoring is the answer. This enables us to detect problems when they are still at an early stage, and when they are more likely to respond to treatment. It can be carried out at any age.
In surgery, we perform a thorough physical examination and discuss any problems that may be apparent. A blood sample is taken and we run a series of tests on our own blood chemistry equipment to check the health of the major organ systems. In addition we ask you to bring a fresh urine sample (from your pet!) and test this also, examining it, where necessary, under the microscope. As a result of our examination and these tests we may advise further investigative procedures such as X-rays, ECGs etc. preventive measures such as tooth scaling, or corrective treatments such as courses of medication and/or special diets.
Health monitoring is particularly important for the older animal, when organ systems are starting to fail, and the early detection of disease can literally mean the difference between life and death. Our geriatric health care programme is similar to the health monitoring scheme detailed above, but is specially tailored to the needs of the older animal. We would recommend all dogs over 8 years of age and all cats over 10 years to undertake this programme. Either programme requires just a 15 minute initial appointment in surgery.
Dental Care
Looking after our pets' teeth is just as important as looking after our own, and is one of the simplest ways of preserving their health into old age. Dogs and cats do not usually suffer from dental decay like we do, but rather a build-up of tartar on the teeth.
Not only is this unsightly and a cause of bad breath, but it also leads to inflammation of the gums (gingivitis) and eventually the loosening and loss of teeth. The animal suffers mouth pain and may find eating difficult, often chewing on just one side or rubbing at the face after a meal. In addition bad teeth will cause serious disease elsewhere in the body, and the damaging effect on the heart and kidneys will shorten the animal's life. Examine your pet's teeth if you can. If there is a build-up of brownish tartar along the gum margin (often especially towards the back of the mouth), or if the gums are inflamed, then the teeth will need scaling.
Obesity Programmes
Another important way of safeguarding your pet's health is by controlling its weight. Obesity is dangerous. Overweight animals suffer from more physical ailments than those of normal body weight, and they usually die early. If the ribs of your dog or cat cannot be felt easily, it is probably significantly overweight.
Simply reducing the amount of food fed is seldom successful and can lead to serious dietary deficiencies. Our obesity programme links the feeding of a special prescription diet to moderate exercise. We monitor your pet's weight regularly until the target weight is reached. Even just a small loss of excess weight can help your pet to live a longer and happier life. If you think your pet may be overweight please telephone the surgery for an initial appointment with a nurse at which we will advise whether a weight reduction programme is necessary.
Health Insurance
In today's difficult economic climate health insurance for pets has become an especially attractive option. It is not always possible to cure problems quickly, and long and expensive courses of treatment may be necessary. Even if you only have to see us twice for any particular problem, with health insurance you would normally be able to claim back a significant part of the cost. Health insurance covers all illnesses and infections, accidents and emergencies, but not preventive procedures, such as vaccination, neutering or dental scaling, or chronic conditions diagnosed before taking out the insurance. It is thus advisable to insurers early as possible in an animal's life.
Administration is simple: at the end of the course of treatment we deal with all the paper work and send it direct to the insurance company for you. Ask us for the insurance leaflets and proposal forms. Nobody ever regrets it!
Further information about each of these items is available on request.
