Culburra Veterinary Clinic

01/01/2022

Be careful with your animals. Last Thursday morning in Culburra Beach a person was putting a bit extra garbage just before the collection truck arrived and were surprised to find a cat had been put in their garbage bin. The Culburra Veterinary Clinic managed to track down the owner who lived near to where the cat was discovered and said they last saw their pet when they fed her about 2 hours before she was found in the bin. Some sadistic person must have placed the cat in the bin which, had not the people found her led to a painful death for the much loved pet.

25/09/2020

There are lots of ticks about so make sure your pets are protected. There has also been some parvovirus and kennel cough in the Shoalhaven so make sure your pets are up to date with their vaccinations and be careful mixing with unknown animals.

21/07/2020

We are now back from our 2 week holiday and operating as normal at Culburra Beach. Please ring and make appointments so we can try to socially distance people without too much disruption or delays for clients. Due to the increased risks with the flare up in cases during the last couple of weeks we will continue to only open at Culburra Beach. Hoping you all had a relaxing school holiday period.

18/06/2020

We will be taking a short holiday leaving Friday 3rd July and returning to work on Tuesday 21st July. Unfortunately the person I had organised to mind the clinic for us is stuck interstate and cannot work here and return home without having to self quarantine. Consequently both the Culburra and Callala clinics will be closed while I am away. I have organised for the Nowra Veterinary Hospital 209 Kinghorn Street Nowra. Phone 44215370 to see my clients and do my after hours calls while I am away.

For routine work please organise to come in before we leave or after we return.

I apologise for any inconvenience this causes our clients.

03/06/2020

The Culburra Veterinary Clinic, recently treated a dog that escaped briefly from its owners yard and ingested poison of some sort. This is probably an accidental poisoning but pet owners should be careful not to let their pets escape from their yard and wander around the local towns and their environs.

05/05/2020

Please be aware there have been a number of recent cases of parvovirus infection in the Shoalhaven. Most of these seem to be in East and South Nowra but they also have been reported in other parts of the district. Please ensure your dog is up to date with its vaccinations and be very careful about dogs you let your pet mix with especially in parks and off leash areas. Parvovirus is a tough virus and can live for many years in the environment.

The most common signs of parvovirus are fever and bloody diarrhoea but some dogs present initially with vomiting. In puppies or other animals with little or no immunity sudden death can be the first sign of infection .

Treatment of parvovirus infection can cost thousands of dollars with no guarantee of a successful outcome like with tick paralysis and heartworm prevention is much better than having to attempt treatment.

If your dog does develop signs please ring your vet first and arrange a time to be seen and do not just turn up at a veterinary clinic seeking treatment. Social distancing is not only important with Covid19 it is also extremely important with parvovirus and anywhere the infected dog has been has to be thoroughly disinfected.

10/04/2020

Wishing you all an enjoyable Easter. We finally have our phones working normally. The Culburra Veterinary Clinic will be open on Saturday morning from 10.00 a.m. until midday. Please ring for appointments.

06/04/2020

Due to a delay in porting due to the corona virus Telstra has not switched our land line over to the NBN hence our landline is not working, please ring on my mobile 0458473851. We are open sorry for any inconvenience.

04/04/2020

Hoping you are all staying safe. With the arrival of the NBN this week we have been having all sorts of problems with our phone and internet. If you cannot get through on the clinic number please try me on my mobile. 0458473851
I apologise for any inconvenience. I have been told the problem will be rectified ASAP.

27/03/2020

Just a short note. There is no evidence that Covid19 effects dogs so dogs won't transmit the disease. Good hygiene, staying at home and keeping a decent social distance when in public are the best ways to decrease the risk of exposure.

In the current situation we are not operating at the branch clinic at Callala Bay but are open in Culburra Beach. Please ring and make appointments as we are trying to spread out consultations to minimise risks to staff and clients alike.

Stay safe and keep your spirits up Australia will get through this current emergency.

24/12/2019

With the recent bush fires in the district have come a number of hazards apart from the obvious ones like smoke, ember attack and falling trees and branches. A lot of birds and animals have been displaced from the burnt areas and many of these are short of food and water. It is a good idea to put out some clean water that can be accessed by these displaced animals. Foxes are likely to be more common inside the local townships presenting a danger to pets such as poultry and other birds as well as guinea pigs and rabbits. Make sure if you have these pets they are kept in a safe area especially at night. A lot of kangaroos have been displaced and will be more common along the roads and inside townships. Many of these kangaroos will not be used to people, dogs and cars making them a potential hazard to drivers on our local roads. If you find kangaroos in your yard please keep your dogs away from them, they may need water but be careful leaving food out for them as foods that they are not used to can cause serious illness. Wild kangaroos can be dangerous if cornered so keep young children away from them. If we get some much needed rain they will head back to the forest but will still graze along the sides of roads as the runoff from the road means that is often the first area with any grass to eat. If we do get some rain over the Christmas and New Year period the large numbers of juvenile paralysis ticks hiding from the dry under leaf litter will emerge causing a surge in numbers of pets and people picking up ticks. Have a safe holiday period.

24/12/2019

Wishing all our clients and visitors to the district an enjoyable and safe Christmas and New Year from John, Jennifer and Arthor at the Culburra Veterianry Clinic

20/12/2019

With all the smoke from fires a lot of pets are getting irritated eyes and some, especially those with heart problems, are having breathing problems. You can clean you pets eyes with contact lens saline and even use moisturizing drops if needed. Try to keep them away from wind and dust and smoke as much as possible and some where cool as the lung irritation can make it hard for them to lose body heat.

11/10/2019

For several years now there has been demonization of grains such as wheat and corn in social media pushed by people in the alternative medicine world. This is despite there being no scientific evidence of any health benefits of feeding pets a grain free diet. Pet food companies have jumped on the band wagon and started pushing supposed benefits of feeding “premium” grain free diets.
In the USA since 2018 vets have been seeing increasing numbers of Golden Retrievers that have been fed commercial grain free diets that supposedly contained all necessary nutrients presenting with a serious cardiac condition called dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). In Golden Retrievers his has been traced to a deficiency of the amino acid taurine.
In 2018 the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning about the potential for grain free diets to cause DCM. Since then there have been several large studies into the incidence of DCM in Golden Retrievers and other breeds.
In Golden Retrievers there seem to be gentic factors making them more prone to taurine deficiency. Diets high in legumes and some forms of insoluble fiber have been shown to decrease taurine absorption in the gut. However these studies also found that there were also a large number of animals of other breeds presenting with DCM. Some effected animals showed improvement in their condition when put onto a more “normal” commercial diet which contained grains.
In June2019 the FDA released an update into their ongoing investigation into animals developing DCM. They had received reports of 560 dogs and 14 cats with DCM. Of those 199 dogs and 5 cats died of the condition. The FDA found the common thread in these cases was the use of diets containing legumes or pulses (the edible seeds of legume plants such as peas and lentils) in place of grains in diets. The commercial brands of food involved also tended to use unusual and uncommon meats as their main protein source. Homemade grain free diets were also fed in a number of the reported cases.
The FDA is continuing to monitor and investigate this condition and will make further releases as the investigation continues. In the meantime pet owners should be cautious with any fad diet that purports to be healthier than other diets without proper scientific backup.
I have attached the link to their June 2019 release.
https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/animal-health-literacy/questions-answers-fda-center-veterinary-medicines-investigation-possible-connection-between-diet-and

FAQs about FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine investigation into a possible connection between certain pet foods and heart disease in dogs.

06/09/2019

For our second jungle adventure it was off to Tangkahan, another small village adjacent to different part of the Gunung Leuser National Park. It takes two and a half hours to drive there from Bukit Lawang over rough potholed roads that pass through local villages as well of course thousands of acres of land that has been stripped of its natural jungle vegetation to make way for the ever present palm oil plantations.
The elephants we were visiting were mostly rescued from illegal logging operations or had otherwise been mistreated. Some of the elephants have been reintroduced into the national park and roam there freely. Others are kept to help educate people about the elephants and also to help raise funds for elephant and other wildlife conservation. Even these ones spent much of their time roaming freely in the jungle. Being in a very remote area this organization does not receive the publicity and funding that some elephant rescue organizations such as the Elephant Nature Park in Chaing Mai, Thailand receive and rely on visitors such as us paying to wash and feed elephants and walk with them in the jungle to raise the funds needed for their conservation efforts.
At 9.00 a.m. the elephants and their mahouts appeared out of the jungle and crossed the river to the waiting tourists. They go to the toilet area where they poo and p*e before returning to the river to be washed. One mischievous baby decided that was no fun and so did a tour of its own through the tourists as well as checking out a local market and restaurant before returning after being summoned by its mother calls.
Then it was into the river to scrub the elephants clean, a big job with a small nail brush. It is only when you get up close to them that you realize how big adult elephants really are. I removed a couple of small leaches that had attached to the elephant I was washing as well as a couple of ticks in the folds of its lips. I scored a good elephant that lifted its legs so I could give them a good scrub and rolled over on command so its other side could be washed. Once washed the elephants were commanded to stand and give the people who had washed them a shower using their trunks.
Next came feeding time. We were each given a bag with a mixture of bananas, sugar cane and other vegetables and fruit. The elephants would take food from your hand with their trunk. Some were quite greedy holding several pieces in their trunk and the corners of their mouth so they scored more than their fair share of the food. My elephant was well trained and on command would open its mouth so you could put the food directly into its mouth. Elephants have quite small mouths considering their size and large soft slimy tongues. After washing and a photo session with the tourists the elephants re-crossed the river and returned to the jungle.
There I had organized to do a jungle walk with the elephants. I was lucky and scored a female elephant and its one year old baby and it was extremely interesting watching the mother teach the baby what to do in the jungle. At one point we came across a few trees with fruit on then, the mother smelt the trees before picking one to shake, some of the fruit fell and she fed it to her baby. On closer examination she had picked the tree with the ripest fruit. Mud rolls, dust baths and elephant made fly swats followed. At one point the mother, with baby in tow, suddenly veered off the trial and crashed into the jungle. I asked the guide what she was doing and he said “I will tell you when I see what is after she leaves”. After they emerged we walked in to investigate. About 20 meters into the jungle there was a spring where fresh clean water was seeping out from amongst some rocks, she had smelt the water and was showing the baby how find clean water to drink.
The long teaching time with mother and offspring is one of the reasons elephant rescue organizations have to invest years of work with orphaned baby elephants. I visited and elephant orphanage in Nairobi a few years ago where most of the elephants were ones whose mothers had been killed by poachers. There each baby elephant has two “parents” one of whom is with it at all times for the 10 or so years it takes to teach them enough to allow them to be released into the Nairobi National Park.
All too soon it was time to go. Another amazing day spent in the jungles of Sumatra.

07/08/2019

Bukit Lawang is a small town located in the highlands on the Indonesian Island of Sumatra. It is located next to the Gunung Leuser National Park. This National Park which in surrounded by massive, ever encroaching, Palm Oil plantations and is threatened by illegal logging is one of the few places where the Orangutan, arguably the most intelligent of the great apes and one of our closest relatives is still found in the wild. Orangutan means “people of the forest” in Indonesian. During our recent stay at the Batu Kapal Guest House, located in the forest on the edge of the National Park a 45 minute motorbike ride (no roads) from Bukit Lawang we had the great honour of meeting some of these magnificent creatures.
My day started with a cold shower, not a problem with the 7.00a.m.temperature hovering around 30 degrees. While showering I watched, through the large viewing window in the bathroom, the long tailed macaque monkeys playing in the trees next to our accommodation. We had a simple breakfast of tea, omelet and banana pancakes and then a 1 hour motorbike ride to the NP office where we were signed in and commenced our day long trek.
We started a slow ascent up into the mountains. Almost immediately we came across a noisy troop of Thomas Langur monkeys feasting in a large durian tree. Various other sightings of these monkeys, as well as macaque monkeys and a variety of birds gave us good excuses to have breaks, welcome in the hot humid conditions. Then our guide, Holanda, spotted the first evidence of wild orangutans, several fresh nests high up in a tree. We were told that the orangutan builds itself a fresh nest to sleep in each night. We asked if there were any tigers in the national park. Holanda proudly lifted his t-shirt revealing an impressive tiger tattoo, it was the only time we saw a local Indonesian with a tattoo. He said he was lucky to be one of the few people to have a close encounter with a tiger in the national park saying that one night when he was on a multi-day hike through the jungle a large male tiger visited the camp, looked at the people, pi**ed on a couple of trees and then merged back into the jungle. The tattoo was in honour of the tiger.
Eventually we arrived at the area where rangers used to take rehabilitated orangutans to prepare them for release into the jungle. One of the orangutans that was rescued and then used in a captive breeding program still makes this area her territory. Hence we got to meet Mina and her 5 year old son. Holanda asked us to sit down and have a snack as he said it was much better if Mina approached you rather than us chasing her. A rustling of bushes and Mina appeared out of the jungle about 50 meters down the track, she slowly made her way up the hill and took over the log we had been sitting on. She checked us over carefully and then accepted a couple of bananas from Holanda and then sat there grooming herself. For the next 15 minutes we had Mina to ourselves before another large group of tourists arrived.
Holanda asked us if we would like to meet Mina’s baby. Arthor and I eagerly followed him down the hill while Jennifer stayed up with Mina. We found the bub playing and wrestling with a couple of other rangers, they all seemed to be having a good time.He was a very active 5 year old and even leapt onto my backpack, much to my surprise. After about 10 minutes he seemed to notice his Mum wasn’t there and decided to go up the hill and find her. Over 5 minutes he crashed and bashed his way through the jungle and joined Mina. The meeting was affectionate; much like a human mother would greet a young child she hadn’t seen for a while. After their greeting mum sat on her log and watched while he bounced and swung around the smiling visitors.
Finally Holando managed to drag us away. We walked through more jungle trails and when we stopped for a rest were joined by a hulking short tailed macaque who in a surprise attack tried to steal all our snacks and lunch. Luckily he only managed to make off with a bunch of bananas which he defiantly ate while sitting above us in a tree. Holando explained that he would have been the dominant male of a troop but had been defeated by another male and banished to a solitary lifestyle. Later we came across another of these scarred bachelors who still had wounds from his recent clash.
I was hoping to see some truly wild orangutans and was happy when Holando spotted one up in a tree. Unfortunately it was about 50 meters up in a tree with only its backside protruding over a branch like a big orange pompom. We came across several peacocks of both sexes and other groups of monkeys but it looked like we were going to miss out on a decent encounter with wild orangutans that unfortunately tend to spend their time up in the tree tops.
Then it happened as we were descending towards our exit point. A massive crashing and shaking of branches just above our heads which we all thought were more monkeys. However the bright orange hair gave them away. A female orangutan was sitting on a branch playing with her tiny baby that was only a couple of weeks old. She was probably staying close to the ground in while her adventuresome but uncoordinated youngster learnt to master life in the treetops. She also had with her two older juveniles of about 5 and 10 years of age. The older one being of the age (7 to 10 years old) when young orangutans are weaned by their mothers and live life by themselves in the jungle.
We had another long delay while we watched them play before we continued downhill to the Borohok River where we jumped onto a raft made of four large inner tubes lashed together and rode the rapids that snaked between the National Parks towering peaks and overhanging greenery and waved at the monkeys having their evening drink as we headed back to Bukit Lawang. There over a couple of cold beers we reminisced about an incredible day in the jungle.

23/07/2019

Back to work. Had a fantastic time with the orangutans and rescued elephants on Sumatra plus a but of a relax in Thailand. Finally got to snorkel at Koh Tao, much better than the snorkelling at Koh Phi Phi.

02/07/2019

Jennifer and I will be on holidays until the end of the July school holidays. Our other nurse, Sidney should be at the clinic from 9.00am to 5.00pm on weekdays and 10.00am till 12,00 midday Saturdays. He can do counter sales, refill scripts and give scheduled arthritis injections. Please ring on 44473851 to organise a time to see him. I have organised with Nowra Veterinary Hospital in Kinghorne Street Nowra to do any emergency or serious calls while I am away. Their phone number is 44215370 after hours 0408428540. We apologise for any inconvenience this causes.