St Arnaud Veterinary Clinic

20/10/2024

Rescuing Wildlife
At the Clinic, we get a lot of wildlife dropped off. It is fantastic to see that so many members of the community care and want to help. It is important to help wildlife because we can help them heal or if not possible, at least alleviate a slow, painful death. We are however getting an increase in the number of healthy animals, particularly juvenile birds, being dropped off. Unfortunately, rescuing a healthy baby bird will reduce the chances of it's survival. Most of the time the parents are nearby feeding it and teaching it to feed itself. Once taken, the birds likely will never learn to feed themselves and when released will starve to death. Also some species like magpies are very territorial and there is a high probability that when released the magpies in the area won't recognise it and will kill it.
Some important things about collecting wildlife.
1. Observe it for some time and see if it actually is injured and needs help.
2. To be released it needs to go back where it was picked up, so note the location precisely. About 20km out of St Arnaud towards Bendigo isn't good enough. Drop a pin on your maps app. Look for nearby streets, signs, buildings, anything to locate precisely where the animal has come from. It may be a mother feeding babies and it has to go back to care for them.
3. If you aren't sure what to do, call for advice first. Wildlife Victoria have a 24 hour help line and can give advice on what to do and where to take it. Call 03 8400 7300
Baby magpie season is in full swing, here is a handy explainer from the Berwick Springs Vets

The Problem A common problem during Spring in Australia is that people find baby magpies that appear to have fallen out of the nest and been abandoned by their parents. Most people respond by "rescuing" these "abandoned" babies and taking them to the local vet so that they can be cared for. Whilst t...

26/08/2024

Spring and summer are always very busy times for animals. With snakes starting to come out and an increase in other emergencies (e.g birthing difficulties), it makes for a very busy time. With only one vet, it is impossible to keep up with all the work in our area. We find ourselves having to reschedule appointments daily to accommodate emergencies. We’ve been trying to get a bigger team together to take on more of the work, but we are still too small, so we will need to reduce the services we offer to be able to keep up. We want to prioritise seeing the animals that most need our help. For many emergencies, travelling to another clinic is not an option – time is critical. We want to prioritise emergency treatment for all species in need. With bigger city centres like Horsham not offering large animal services, we are one of the few vets in this region that will travel to your property to see farm animals and horses. We believe it is important that we keep offering this service. Until our team grows, we will only be able to offer the following services:
- Emergencies for any species
Urgent cases that cannot wait and won’t survive traveling the long distances to another clinic.
- Euthanasias for all species
At home or in the vet clinic.
- Farm animal or horse appointments
On property or at the vet clinic.
- Treatment of ongoing small animal cases
Providing follow-up treatment for animals we are currently seeing for an ongoing illness/injury/repeat medications.
- Any appointment that is already booked in with us
- Nurse appointments
We will unfortunately not be able to provide routine services such as vaccinations and desexings until we can get a bigger team together.

08/10/2023

Little Maggie was very excited to go home today,
She came in at 1:30am Friday morning with a very bloated belly. Unfortunately she had a GDV which is where the stomach twists on its self and is fatal if not rapidly treated. She was rushed straight into surgery and the stomach was drained of all its contents and gas, then un twisted. The stomach is then stitched to the abdominal wall so it can’t twist again. It is a pretty major surgery but she bounced back well and is very excited to go home. GDV is something which happens mainly to deep chested dogs like German shepherds, standard poodles, Labrador’s, greyhounds many other breeds but dachshunds with their skinny waists are also at risk. If you notice bloating on your pet please get veterinary advice asap as if it is a GDV time is critical as the stomach twist cuts off blood supply which rapidly leads to death.

25/06/2023

We travel throughout North Central/Western Victoria for farm animal/horse visits, as well as euthanasia's of all species.