Dr Belinda Beynon Veterinarian

30/12/2024

One of my regular casual gigs is at Warnbro Vet Hospital in Warnbro.

Just LOOK at the amazing work they do finding homes for needy kitties!!

Next time you need/ want/ must have a new cat please consider contacting Warnbro Vets. They are a privately owned hospital run by the kindest people with big, big hearts ♥️♥️♥️

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BNx3Uv9Qy/?mibextid=wwXIfr

2024 has been a huge year for our Cat Rescue/ Adoptions program.

This year we have re-homed a total of 83 cats !!!(77 kittens, and 6 adults)

This wouldn’t be possible without our amazing volunteer foster carers, who always open up their homes; and of course our dedicated vet nurses who have had countless sleepless nights bottle feeding and caring for orphaned neonate kittens throughout this year.

A huge thank you also to our Facebook community for helping to share our adoptions posts and spreading the word to help find our fosters their forever homes!

27/12/2024

I received an excellent reminder on what it’s like on the other side of the consult door yesterday.

Yesterday was Boxing Day, and one of my dogs was envenomated by a brown snake in the morning. Sadly (for the snake) she inflicted some significant harm to it and I doubt it will survive (I spent a few hours trying to locate it yesterday but failed).

Brown Snakes are an elapid species, naturally avoidant but will strike if cornered/ hassled- ie by dogs and cats. They have tiny fangs and have to work quite hard to envenomate. But if successful it’s serious. Their venom contains powerful neurotoxins and pro-coagulants and is frequently lethal, causing respiratory arrest or, if they survive that, potentially fatal haemorrhage. In South Western Australia Brown Snakes are also known as Dugites.

I have a lot of experience treating envenomated dogs and cats after 12+ years in university ER and many years in semi-rural practice after that. However this is my first personal experience.

I was in bed drinking tea and I heard odd sounds (but no barking) from outside and investigated. I didn’t see the snake at that point, but saw blood on the wall and some on one of my dogs, my Frenchie x Pie.

The other two dogs went to their room when directed but she was focussed on a bush by the house. I locked her in, located and did try and capture the snake (which was clearly chewed) but I was only aggravating it, so I just encouraged it out of the garden and then focussed on the dogs.

I keep expired antivenom at home, so I grabbed two bottles and carried her to the car (the venom is spread by lymphatic flow so if you keep them still you can slow down the spread of venom to the bloodstream and hence peripheral nerves-this can buy you more time to get to a clinic before/if respiratory arrest occurs).

By the time I got to the front gate she had become very quiet and a bit floppy. I gave her one of the bottles of antivenom IM (it’s usually used IV) and hit the road.

It’s 30minutes to the specialist/ER centre that I refer to-both owners of the ER are emergency and critcal care specialists and their team is awesome. I worked with them both at the University and their care is second to none (big shout out to WAVES).

I carried her in to the treatment room, and left her with them and joined the very quiet clients in the busy waiting room. At this point I was strongly suspicious of envenomation but by now she looked (and felt) so much stronger that I was doubting myself.

But I should not have doubted because it turned out that her clotting times were both off the scale. She stayed with WAVES and had a second vial of antivenom yesterday morning, but by 9pm her values were STILL off scale. Happily and luckily this morning they have normalised and I will pick her up today.

Australians, especially those of us on farms, dread snakebite in our pets. I have had two snakes safely relocated this season (one professionally and one myself) already, and knew there was another dugite near the chook pen (front of the house), and I’m sure this was the same one- he had just gone around the back.

I feel really bad that the snake is injured and suffering, but it IS mobile as I couldn’t find it yesterday evening.

I found a dead Tiger snake this time last year and I thought Pie was the culprit-so did snake avoidance training with her- which seemed very effective at the time, but obviously just can’t overcome such a strong prey drive.

I’m not sure what to do now. I think she can’t be left outdoors unsupervised in the spring, summer and autumn- that much is clear.

All this to say- it’s a great reminder to be the client in an emergency situation, to feel all the feels, to be anxious and confused (well not confused- but heightened emotionally). I signed every damn thing on the admit form WITHOUT even reading it!

And I am so grateful for both her pet insurance and for vetpay. Snake bites, even when they don’t require manual or mechanical ventilation are very pricey and I don’t have a lot of financial flexibility at the moment.

And I am very much reminded of my colleagues who are working when the rest of us are on holiday- whether we are with family, or alone and just chillaxing, they are hard at work keeping peoples (and occasionally our) pets alive and well.

So Here’s Cheers to our emergency vets and their teams. You guys rock big time.

Pics are of Pie on a less stressful drive ❤️❤️

08/12/2024

Hi all, an international Vet colleague is looking for people to help with her study.

Please use the QR code if you can spare 15-20mins of your day 🙂

Deets below….

“The study is being conducted online as part of a Residency Training Programme for Specialisation in Veterinary Behavioural Medicine. The aim of the study is to understand some of the factors that influence dog owners’ decisions about where, when, how and why they walk or do not walk their dogs. The outcome of the study may provide greater understanding to veterinarians about the challenges dog owners face when modifying walking routines, influence how veterinarians discuss recommendations and tailor treatment plans to suit individual dogs and their owners.”

26/09/2024

Word 😎🤣

05/09/2024

Such a super, enthusiastic team, at Harrisdale Vets, and I always enjoy working with, and for them.

Highly recommended 😎♥️💕

PS; and Archie is a hoot!

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=122157725546059457&id=61551783731375

19/03/2024

I have been asked to share this from my private page. For those of you who are on both, I have edited this a bit more tightly than my early pre-caffeinated ramblings of the morning.

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At Christmas time I was given a massive and incredible gift.

Every day I am grateful for the incredible kindness of two humans who have never even met me in person, and the difference that they have made to my life.

Since then I have looked for ways to pay it forwards.
I have found small things.
A coffee here.
Paying for someone’s shopping, when they couldn’t, there.
I am not of great means, but I do what I can, when I can.

Yesterday I had a very very sad case at work. Other Vets will understand- a young blocked cat.

His owner was beyond devastated.

She simply couldn’t afford the treatment- it is not cheap- and was going to lose her cat, because blocked cats (for the non vets) are an ‘all or nothing’ emergency treatment, and require lifelong management.

And so, for this cat, we had to euthanase.

Prior to euthanasia we provided kickarse pain relief and the client was with us for well over 2 hours while she tried to find some funds for a deposit to use Centrepay (not many clinics do, but my current main job offers it).

She tried SO hard to save her cat. She was sobbing all the time. She was distraught. We offered water, we offered tea. We proffered tissues.

She could not afford private cremation for her cat. She had two small kids at home, and this was also really distressing her….that her cat would never go home again.

So I offered to pay for the cremation. So her cat could come home again. My manager then chipped in too and we did it together.

If I could have paid to fix her cat, and send him home, I would have. If I still had my own hospital, this is certainly one case I would have done as a charity. But I don’t so I couldn’t.

Later in the evening I was asked ‘why’ I did that small kindness, when there are so many people who have to make so many hard decisions, and I don’t offer THEM financial help, and the answer was very clear to me.

And it shows that I am NOT a selfless human being in any way.

In this job, if you do it for long enough, the clients can often feel like the enemy. We do it for the pets but, truthfully, the clients can give you the sh*ts. On a good day the interactions, on balance, are neutral.

People, on the whole, suck big ones. And I say this after 33 + years of trying to pretzel myself in to a shape that clients like. Sometimes I am hated, sometimes I am adored.

But this client, through all of her distress was honest. She was grateful. She apologised over and over for taking up my time. And NOT ONCE did she blame me, or my profession, for the fact that saving pets lives costs money, and, sometimes, lots of it. She just kept sobbing and asking me if she was a bad person because she had no money. And I did my best to reassure her that she wasn’t.

And so I paid a little bit forwards for her, to (hopefully) soften her pain and help her kids.

And one of the nurses drove her home so she didn’t have to catch the bus, still sobbing. And this owner DONATED her cat carrier for someone ‘less fortunate’ than her…..

Occasionally I am reminded that my profession, of which I am alternatively proud and hate strongly, can offer true difference to those in need.

But my god it’s easier to do when the people at the other side of the table are kind.

I do believe that having pets is a privilege, not a right. I know that’s not popular. Ideally I believe that you should be able to provide basic funds in a predictable emergency.

But if you can’t, and many can’t, I believe you have to own that choice and you make the hard decisions without blaming the staff who are trying to help you and your pet. Sadly that rarely happens.

But yesterday it did. The woman’s life is hard, through no fault of her own. But she made the hard decision to prevent her cats suffering. And she didn’t blame me for it.

And that makes ALL the difference.

Pic of Pie, who I come home to.