Yorkshire Vets Pet Health Club.
We are rolling out a Pet Health scheme across the Group Surgeries. Keep your eyes and ears open for details, as this has great benefits for our clients and their pets.
Yorkshire Vets Pet Health Club
Reply
Thinking of getting a pet?
From Yorkshire Vets’ Rebecca Marchewka MRCVS.
As a pet owner myself I would hate to be without my animals. Currently I have 3 cats and 2 dogs who, along with two small children, ensure that there is rarely a quiet moment in my house. Animals can be our companions, our play mates and can offer children the chance to think about others and learn to care for another living being.
However, taking on the responsibility for a pet should not be undertaken lightly. No matter what species or breed you choose there is always going to be a level of work and responsibility associated with owning an animal. The trick is to be sure that you are choosing the right pet for the environment and lifestyle you have.
There are many excellent sources of information out there but there is also bad information and it is not always easy to know which you are looking at. If you look at a web site about a particular breed of dog it may tell you all the fantastic features of the breed but may fail to mention any health problems they suffer from or how much stimulation they really need. For example, if you like fell walking and early morning jogs before work then a border collie may well be the perfect companion for you. Alternatively, if your perfect weekend would be snuggling on the settee with a good book then possibly a cat or even a greyhound may be more suitable.
As vets we often see cases where, with the best of intentions, people have gone out and acquired an animal without being fully informed about exactly what they are taking on. This can result in serious problems in the relationships owners form with their animals and may even end with the relinquishment of a much loved but inappropriate pet.
Before you go ahead and buy or rescue an animal get in touch with us. Our vets and nurses can advise you on the pros and cons of different breeds of cat or dog. Should you take on a rescue animal or buy from a breeder? Would a rabbit really be the perfect pet for your children? Our team can advise you on insurance and the costs of routine veterinary care for different animals.
At Yorkshire Vets we know how important your pets are. We can help you to make an informed decision right at the beginning of what we all know can be a long and rewarding relationship.
A day in the life of a VN (Veterinary Nurse)
VNs are the masters of multi-tasking. Our job involves many different tasks and many different people. We are the support system for the vets, receptionists and most importantly pets and their owners.
Once your pet is in the veterinary environment then the VN is the person who looks after his or her basic needs, from food and water to cuddles and comfort. VNs are the people who provide comfort and reassurance to your pet during procedures and hospital stays.
A VN’s day can and does involve many different tasks, these include things such as monitoring anaesthesia, providing nursing care to sick and recovering pets, dispensing any medication authorised by the vet and organising diagnostic samples to be sent to the correct laboratory or processing samples through the practice laboratory.
Nursing care plans are what the nurse produces for every animal under their care, whether it’s done for a pet having a routine operation or a critically ill pet. Nursing care plans show what the patient needs during their stay, this includes what the vet feels is required in terms of drug therapy, intravenous fluids and clinical examinations. The VN will then look at the basic needs of the animals and provide any further care they need from regular walks for older arthritic animals so they don’t get too stiff in a kennel to hand feeding of inappetant pets. Each pet has a care plan and it is the nurses’ responsibility to make sure its needs are met and that the animal is as comfortable and stress free as possible.
It is also the nurses’ responsibility to make sure the veterinary clinic as a whole meets the different standards of cleanliness required for the different areas of the practice. Operating theatres need to be made as sterile as possible also the surgical equipment needs to be cleaned and sterilised for further operations. Reception and consulting areas need to be disinfected at the end of morning and evening clinics to make sure the area is as clean as possible since it is such a high traffic area.
VNs can also be found on reception answering phone calls, making appointments and speaking to clients helping the client in any way possible. Clients can sometime be confused about their pets’ problems and or have questions ranging from new puppies’ needs to older dogs’ dietary requirements. These are all questions a VN can help with answering and can help clients by giving advice on a number of different subjects.
VNs are also responsible for all the ordering of veterinary supplies, stock rotation and stock control.
As you can see a day in the life of a VN is diverse and challenging, but rewarding.
Socialising puppies
Some advice from Yorkshire Vets’ Becky Marchewka MRCVS who has a special interest in solving pets behavioural problems.
When puppies are very young they do not have the ability to be afraid of things. Everything they meet they accept as normal and file in their brain as ‘OK with me’. It varies between breeds and individuals but it is generally thought that this primary socialisation period lasts until pups are about 12 weeks old.
After the first 3 or 4 months of life if puppies come across something unfamiliar they may be frightened. This can be a real problem to dogs and their owners, leading to many problems including destructive and aggressive behaviours.
Much of the socialisation period is spent with the mother and siblings in the place where the puppy was born. If you want a dog who is well socialised you should visit the breeder and see where the pup has been living. The more experiences a puppy has been exposed to the more likely it is to be able to cope with things it meets in the future. Ideally the environment the puppy has come from should match your home situation as closely as possible.
You could also take a blanket and leave it with the breeder to use in the bitches bed. This means that you will have something to take home with you when you collect your puppy that he or she will find comforting and familiar.
If a puppy is born in a garage and the only human contact it gets is a female owner it may find it very difficult to adapt to family life where it has to cope with noisy children, men, a vacuum cleaner, bikes, cats, people with hats on etc.
Choose a puppy with as wide a range of early experiences as possible. This allows the puppy to learn that most things are OK and gives it the ability to cope better with new things in the future. If a dog is fine with bicycles and cars but has never seen a motorbike, the chances are that if it does meet a motorbike it will be similar enough to other things in the ‘OK with me’ file to be alright.
If you are going to buy a puppy from somewhere where its socialisation may be limited you can help it by taking it home when it is as young as possible. Depending on the individual some puppies may be fine to leave their mother from as early as six weeks old.
Once you get your puppy home you can do a lot during the first few weeks to make sure your puppy has plenty of socialisation. It is however important not to overwhelm the pup from the second you bring him through the door.
Make sure that your new puppy has calm controlled exposure to as many different people as possible. Make sure he meets men, women, children, people wearing glasses, with beards etc. The more varied the better.
It is fine for your puppy to meet healthy adult dogs who are up to date with their vaccinations even before he is vaccinated himself. So if you have a friend with a good natured older dog it is a really good idea for you to take your pup to meet it.
It is well worth a bit of thought and effort during the early weeks to help your dog to become the confident and well rounded adult you would like him to be.
Kennel Club introduces New Health Checks
In January 2011, the Kennel Club announced that all dogs of the fifteen high profile breeds which win Best of Breed at Crufts 2012 and at General and Group Championship Shows after that, will need to pass a health check by the show veterinary surgeon before their Best of Breed awards are confirmed and before they are allowed to continue to compete in the Group at the show.
There have now been 3 cases in which veterinary surgeons have disqualified dogs from either winning or entering Crufts Dog Shows due to their failing the veterinary health checks introduced on 1st March 2012.
Two dogs have failed strict new veterinary checks introduced by the Kennel Club, meaning that no dog representing the Pekingese or Bulldog breeds competed in Best in Group competitions at Crufts on March 8, 2012.
Clumber Spaniel fails Veterinary Health Check at Crufts
Subsequent to this, the Best of Breed award was not given to Clumber Spaniel, Chervood Snowsun, following its veterinary check, which was carried out by an independent veterinary surgeon.
You can download the Kennel Club’s Veterinary Guidance Notes here.
Timely injection saves Max from major abdominal surgery
Max is a 3 year old Shepherd dog and during the early hours of last Thursday, Max was enjoying his first walk of the day with his owner, Chris.
Chris noticed that Max had picked up what appeared to be a bright yellow football tabard that had been discarded onto some waste ground, adjacent to where Max was being walked. As soon as Chris attempted to remove the tabard from the dog’s mouth, it seemed as though Max was determined to hang on to his prize and responded by gulping frantically and succeeded in swallowing the garment whole.
The extraordinary foreign body !!
Chris realised that his dog had been placed in a potentially dangerous situation by ingesting the tabard and knew that an emergency phone call was needed to the Veterinary Hospital, Yorkshire Vets at Thornbury in Bradford.
Within a few minutes of receiving the news of Max’s dietary indiscretion, the Yorkshire Vets duty veterinary surgeon examined Max at 5.30am and it was immediately apparent that the foreign body could not be allowed to remain in the dog’s stomach. Failure to remove the offending item would likely result in serious consequences for Max.
Due to the prompt action of his owner, it was possible to for Max to be given an injection that would induce vomiting while the tabard was still in the stomach and hopefully prevent it from entering the dog’s intestines.
Shortly after administration of the injection, Max started to vomit and after a few attempts, the tabard was ejected from his stomach and landed on the floor. Without delay, Chris removed the item from Max’s reach, before the dog went back for seconds! Within a few minutes of vomiting up the garment, Max stopped trying to be sick and was ready to go home for some more TLC.
The injection that was given to make Max vomit is a drug used by doctors to treat patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease but has the unwanted side effect of causing nausea and vomiting in people. This unfortunate side effect of vomiting can be put to good effect in cases such as this, provided that the drug can be given soon after ingestion of the unwanted item, when it is still in the stomach.
The tabard would almost certainly have resulted in serious problems for Max had it not been possible to remove it, before passing into the small intestines. Invasive surgery is usually the only option in these cases.
Because of his owner’s quick thinking by phoning Yorkshire Vets, who are always available to respond in an emergency, even at 5.30 in the morning, Max did not require an operation to resolve what would have been a very severe case of indigestion.
Pet insurance axe huge blow to responsible pet owners
Veterinary associations are highlighting consumer guidance on pet insurance following news reports that thousands of pets have been left uninsured by Lloyds TSB and Halifax pulling out of the pet insurance market.
Lloyds TSB has stopped renewing policies from 1st February and Halifax stopped on 24th September 2011 leaving more than 50,000 policy holders looking for cover, according to reports.
The British Veterinary Association (BVA) recommends that pet owners whose policies are affected should speak to their own vets as soon as possible to discuss existing treatment, alternative treatment options, and future insurance cover.
The BVA is also refuting claims by the insurance companies that rising veterinary fees are to blame. Although pet insurance claims have increased over the years this is due to improvements in technology and medicines meaning that more can be done for individual animals. Veterinary inflation has remained relatively stable.
The BVA and its division, the Society of Practising Veterinary Surgeons (SPVS), worked with the Association of British Insurers (ABI) to produce a Pet Insurance Consumer Guide. The Guide explains the benefits of pet insurance, the different types of policy, and outlines a number of areas to consider.
Commenting, Carl Padgett, President of the BVA, said:
“This is a huge blow to thousands of responsible owners who have pet insurance but are having it taken away from them through no fault of their own.
“We advise owners to speak to their vet as soon as possible to discuss the treatment of ongoing conditions and, if necessary, alternative treatment options. Clients may also be eligible for support from one of the animal welfare charities.
“Rather than blaming veterinary practices for increasing the levels of treatment available, these insurance companies should do everything they can to ensure their policy holders are not left high and dry.”
Richard Holborow, President of the SPVS, added:
“Over recent years many insurance companies have come into the pet insurance market and there is a huge amount of choice for owners.
“Price comparison websites are not able to distinguish between the many different variables associated with pet insurance so owners should talk to their vet about the right type of policy appropriate for their pet before shopping around.
“The ABI Pet Insurance Consumer Guide is a good place to start.”
http://www.bva.co.uk/
Dogs at greater risk from Lyme disease: Bristol research (From Vetsonline)
Ticks infected with the bacteria that cause Lyme disease may be considerably more prevalent in the UK than recent estimates indicated, according to new research from the University of Bristol.
Researchers at the university used pet dogs as sentinels for human disease risk.
Transmitted by ticks, Lyme disease is a debilitating chronic infection that affects a number of animals, including humans and dogs. It is caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi. Clinical signs in humans include a characteristic circular red rash that spreads from the site of the tick bite, followed by a ‘flu-like condition.
In dogs, the symptoms can be much more vague and difficult to diagnose. If untreated, the disease progresses to neurological problems and arthritis; chronic forms of the disease can last for many years.
While only occasionally affecting humans, reported cases in the UK are thought to have increased more than four-fold since the beginning of the century – from 0.38 per 100,000 in 2000 to 1.79 per 100,000 in 2009.
In 2010, there were 953 reported cases in England and Wales, but the level of under-reporting is likely to be considerable.
To obtain a clearer picture of the prevalence of infected ticks, Faith Smith, of the University of Bristol’s School of Biological Sciences, and colleagues recruited vets from across England, Scotland and Wales to examine dogs selected at random as they visited veterinary practices.
Since pet dogs are largely said to share the same environment and visit the same outdoor areas as their owners, exposure to infected ticks in dogs is likely to provide an index for corresponding risks to humans, researchers believe.
Of 3,534 dogs inspected between March and October 2009, 14.9 per cent had ticks. Of the samples that could be tested, 17 were positive for the Borrelia bacteria. Hence, 2.3 per cent of ticks were infected.
The expected prevalence of infected ticks on dogs is 0.5 per cent, or 481 infected ticks per 100,000 dogs. This, say researchers, suggests that the prevalence of Borrelia in the UK tick population is considerably higher than previously thought.
Faith Smith said: “Lyme disease appears to be a rapidly growing problem in the UK, with important health and economic impacts in terms of loss of working hours and potential decrease in tourism to tick hotspots.
“Without considerably better surveillance and routine diagnostic testing, Lyme disease is only likely to become more prevalent. In particular, future warmer winters might well extend the period over which ticks are active seasonally, while growing wild reservoir host populations, such as deer, will allow the tick population to expand.”
The study is published today (January 25) in the journal Comparative Immunology, Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. The research was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council and Merial Animal Health.
The paper is called “Estimating Lyme disease risk using pet dogs as sentinels” by Faith D Smith, Rachel Ballantyne, Eric R. Morgan, and Richard Wall and is in Comparative Immunology, Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.
The figures on reported cases of Lyme disease in the UK came from the Health Protection Agency.
The amazing four-century history of Yorkshire Vets
A 1904 letter to clients informing them of the transfer of ownership of the practice.
This account has been pieced together over the years by our recently retired senior partner and now chief guru Mike Clark MRCVS -but even he wasn’t here at the beginning!
‘Yorkshire Vets is a modern, expanding veterinary practice but it is also one of the country’s oldest practices. We trace our roots back in two lines of continuous succession to the very beginnings of the veterinary profession.
William Harrison was born in 1647, probably in the Bowling area of Bradford. His great-grandson, Joshua, born 1748, was a tenant farmer on the Bowling estate. Younger sons of tenant farmers could not succeed to the tenancy and had to seek other employment : his son William, born 1781, became a blacksmith.
At this time the treatment of disease, and especially lameness, in livestock was entirely in the hands of blacksmiths, farriers, and quacks. The first veterinary school in England was not established until 1791.
William’s sons John (b.1819) and Benjamin (b.1827) both became blacksmiths and farriers. There was then a distinction between shoeing-smiths, who simply shod horses and mended farm implements, and farriers who would undertake corrective work including foot trimming and making special shoes, as well as providing other medication.
The 1881 Veterinary Surgeons Act provided that no-one could take the title of veterinary surgeon without having been instructed at a veterinary college and passing the examination of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. An exception was made for those who had for five years previously been working as veterinary surgeons : they were admitted to the Existing Practitioners List. Benjamin Harrison became an Existing Practitioner.
John and Benjamin appear to have worked from separate premises around Bowling Back Lane as farriers, but in partnership as veterinary surgeons – although John seems never to have applied to be registered as an Existing Practitioner! When Benjamin died in 1885, his elder brother John continued to practise in the firm of ‘J and B Harrison, Veterinary Surgeons’ until his death in 1890.
An invoice from 1890 for treatment of a cow 'taken with cold'
Benjamin had a daughter, Martha, who married a qualified veterinary surgeon, Harry Newsome. Harry had attended the New Veterinary College in Edinburgh which was set up by William Williams (a former Bradford veterinary surgeon) in opposition to William Dick’s school. Harry continued his father-in-law’s practice. During this time he employed a veterinary student, Arthur Huggan Watson. Arthur was from Pudsey, studying at the Royal Veterinary College, London. He qualified in 1902, and he bought the practice on Harry Newsome’s sudden and untimely death in 1904.
On the outbreak of the Great War, Arthur volunteered to serve with the Royal Army Veterinary Corps in France and Egypt. Naturally the practice dwindled in his absence, but on his return it quickly grew and he was in time joined in partnership first by Arthur Adams and then by Douglas Smith. Arthur Watson died in 1953.
The partnership continued to grow. In 1971 the practice (by now Adams, Smith and Morgan) merged with the practice of Archie Gracie in Thornton to create the foundations of the practice we have today.
Archie Gracie’s practice had an equally fascinating history stretching back to 1847. In that year Joseph Shepherd Carter, a farmer’s son from Coley and a former pupil of Hipperholme Grammar School, qualified from the Royal Veterinary College, London. He set up his practice in the centre of Bradford. Joseph and his brother John Henry both became veterinary surgeons, but John practised elsewhere.
Joseph had three sons who became veterinary surgeons. George William qualified in 1875 and practised in Keighley. Joseph Henry qualified in 1882 and practised in Burnley. Frederick Percy Carter qualified in 1883 from the New Edinburgh school and joined his father as a partner in the Bradford practice (then at the bottom of Little Horton Lane).
Joseph Shepherd Carter retired in June 1904, having practised until he was over 80. He died the following March. He and each of his sons were awarded Fellowship of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons for their outstanding contributions to the profession. Quite a family !
Frederick Carter took as a partner Frank Boyle Greer. Greer qualified from London in 1907 and came to Bradford from Newcastle upon Tyne. On Frederick’s death in 1920 he succeeded to the practice, and subsequently moved it to 14 Ashfield, Great Horton Road (roughly where the main entrance to Bradford University now stands). Greer died in 1944, having sold the practice to Brian Walker. Walker divided the practice into separate small animal and large animal practices. The small animal practice was bought by Paul Bottomley (qualified 1947) and remained in Ashfield until the University required the site : it is now Shearbridge Veterinary Hospital. The large animal practice moved to Thornton and was acquired by Mr Gracie, merging with Adams, Smith and Morgan in 1971.
So there you have it. Two very different strands of veterinary history. One presaging the origins of the profession itself through farriery, the other going back to the country’s first few trained and qualified veterinary surgeons. Both predating the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons’ charter (1844) and the first Veterinary Surgeons Act (1881).’
MH Clark BVetMed BSc MRCVS
Jan 2012
UK farm vets urged to remain vigilant for signs of new virus (Via Vetsonline)
Although not in our small animal remit, this is important enough to cross-post here as well:
UK farm vets urged to remain vigilant for signs of new virus
The BVA is urging farm vets and farmers to familiarise themselves with the clinical signs of the newly discovered Schmallenberg virus, particularly on farms where animals have been imported from affected countries.
BVA president Carl Padgett is calling for vigilance.The virus, of the genus Orthobunyavirus, was initially detected in cattle in Germany and, based on the geographic origin of the sample, was provisionally named Schmallenberg virus (SBV). Since the summer of 2011, clinical signs have also been reported on farms in the Netherlands.
Clinical signs include:
fever,
reduced milk yield (up to 50%),
inappetence,
loss of condition and, in some cases,
diarrhoea.
Clinical signs are generally mild and disappear after a few days but, where pregnant animals are infected, considerable congenital damages, premature births and reproductive disorders may occur.
Since DEFRA’s final report of 2011, Belgium has reported finding viruspositive lambs with congenital
deformities on 11 sheep farms in the North Western region of Antwerp, as well as deformities in a further eight cattle, three more sheep and on one goat farm.
With this in mind, and although no clinical signs or neonatal deformities have been reported in the UK, both DEFRA and the BVA are urging animal keepers to remain vigilant, particularly in areas where consignments of cattle that originated in the affected regions were moved to the UK during July – November 2011 (see map below).
Current countries affected by reports of Schmallenburg virus and recent consignments of live cattle (since July 2011).BVA president Carl Padgett said: “Farmers and vets should be extra vigilant where ruminants have been imported from the affected areas. The symptoms described in adults are quite generic but this disease seems to affect a few animals, not just one.”
He went on: “AHVLA is now looking for reports of signs in newborn ruminants and aborted foetuses of limb or brain defects such as arthrogryposis, jaw deformations and torticollis, and ataxia, paralysis and blindness. They are particularly interested if these offspring were born to animals where there is a history of importation from the Continue reading