Cornwallis Veterinarians Ltd

08/26/2024

Dr. White will be in Truro area on Saturday, August 31st! He still has some scheduling availabilty that day for anyone between Kentville and Truro. Call us at (902) 678-2731 to book today! 🐴

08/22/2024

*not our original graphic* but an excellent one!

Life would be easier if every dog was okay with all these things but it is perfectly acceptable that there are dogs who are not. If your dog is coming into our clinic overstimulated, barking, reactive, nervous, etc. there is no need to apologize or feel guilty for the imperfect pup you may have - because who the heck is perfect anyway?! But let's talk openly about it. We may be able to help!

Behavioral concerns are real. A muzzled dog is not a bad dog, a muzzled dog is a safe dog, however, we also have medications and supplements available to help ease anxiety and stress, if you feel adding something would be beneficial to your dog before visiting the clinic, ask us.

It is also important to remember that acknowledging your dog's needs and working with them is step one. So whether that be through training, medication, supplements, or just not putting your dog into situations that aren't right for them - your dog is allowed to feel their feelings and we are here to support you and your dog by any means necessary. 🐾💙✨

08/21/2024

Safe to say our staff is on a sugar high this week (just the way we like it). Thank you so much, Dixie's Mom! ❤️

08/20/2024

TEAM TUESDAY ✨ Jess ✨

Jess grew up in the Valley and has always had a love for animals (especially horses) and a love of medicine so becoming a Registered Veterinary Technician made perfect sense for her.

In her free time, she enjoys riding horses and mounted archery, spending time with her kids, and doing anything creative. Jess recently started practicing her sketching skills by drawing portraits of staff members pets and is a true artist!

08/19/2024

Let's refresh on what our no show fee policy is.

Our schedule is extremely busy and we have no time to waste!

Call us as soon as you see something, we can schedule you within a timely manner and if things resolve - great! You can always cancel.

We do not charge you for your pet getting better and we understand life happens.

❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹 We only charge a NO SHOW FEE if you actually NO SHOW. If do not show up to your scheduled appointment time and we do not hear from you prior to your scheduled time. ❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹

Life gets easier when we all work together!

08/17/2024

You may have noticed the last few weeks our equine team had a visitor with a very thick accent! We were lucky enough to have David visiting from Quebec City to work with Drs. Hansen, Pyke, and White. David is entering his 3rd year at the University of Montreal's Veterinary College. We tried to expose him to all aspects of equine medicine. We wish him well, he will make an excellent equine veterinarian in the near future!

08/16/2024

Some super special deliveries from some super special clients today for our staff!! Newcombes corn 🌽 & a beautiful card + cake from "Tosh". 🐾

Thank you for making our day. 🩷
We truly have some of the very best clients!

08/14/2024

To follow up our post from Monday, we wanted to take a moment to discuss our schedule.

We understand how easy it is to see your individual pet in discomfort or feeling unwell and not see the entire picture of what's happening at our clinic. This graphic is a stack of euthanasia consent forms for the month of July alone. There are 83 papers here. This is 83 time sensitive appointments that were scattered amongst our schedule that our clients and staff went through together.

We generally book in 30 minute appointment slots but since we are experiencing a surge of very sick and very complicated cases lately this means, a patient may end up taking 60 mins, 90 mins or even longer for their appointment. Diagnostics take time. Research and discussions amongst vets take time. End of life appointments, take time.

So, what does that all mean? It means that we may be booking a few days to even a few weeks out for appointments. Especially routine wellness appointments. We have highly knowledgeable and trained receptionists that you can trust know how to triage appropriately. When scheduling appointments, will not leave an animal in a situation for an unreasonable amount of time.

Please be kind to our front desk, everyone is doing their best to work with the availability we have!

08/12/2024

We have been experiencing a high number of walk-in situations and we would like to remind everyone that we are not a walk-in clinic.

Please, ALWAYS call ahead before coming to our clinic. Even if you are experiencing a true emergency that cannot wait, if you call ahead we are able to get life saving tools prepared and staff ready to jump into action.

Nobody likes to see their pets in any kind of discomfort but it is important to stop and think "is this a true *emergency* or can it wait"?

We need to be using the word *emergency* correctly and remember that not all clinical signs/illness we see are emergencies.

We do ask for 24 hours notice if you need to cancel your appointment when possible, but if the discussion is had, we have the option to book an appointment ahead of time and cancel it if things resolve - instead of waiting for things to become urgent. We can be proactive and all work together to accommodate *illness* during business hours.

If you are ever unsure where your pet falls on the scheduling urgency, call your veterinarian team and ask their advice. This graphic in no way replaces speaking to our team, but it does serve as a useful tool.

Thank you for your cooperation!

08/09/2024

It's Friday, let's paw-ty!! 🥳
Join us in wishing staff pet, Keira (known to her family and friends as Mama) a very Happy 14th Birthday! ❤️

08/07/2024

Harvey was offering up snuggles and our staff accepted with open arms of course! 🥰

08/06/2024

TEAM TUESDAY! On international cat day, so today we will highlight one of our many "crazy cat ladies" we have employed here at CVL.

✨ Breanna ✨

Breanna grew up in the Gaspereau Valley and has always loved animals. She had a special needs cat, Astro, for 12 years, who had many vet visits, which inspired her to help other pets with medical needs by pursuing a path in veterinary medicine.

She graduated from the Maritime Business College Veterinary Assistant Program and joined the Cornwallis Vets team in the spring of 2020 as a VA.

Breanna currently has two kitties Oscar & Dusty who recently "allowed" a Great Pyrenees puppy, Raena, to join their home. When not watching her cats chase a laser pointer, Breanna enjoys spending time outside gardening, baking and collecting colorful eggs from her hens!

08/03/2024

Otis would like to remind everyone we will be closed on Monday. Enjoy the long weekend with your families and stay cool! ☺️

⭐ If you are experiencing an after hours emergency please call: Coastal Care Veterinary Emergency & Referral Hospital or Maritime Veterinary Emergency and Specialty Centre - MVESC ⭐

08/01/2024

Happy Purrrrrrs-day! 😻

07/31/2024

Join us in saying big CONGRATS to Jemma, RVT!

Jemma worked at our front desk and in the treatment area before heading to tech school. Yesterday she passed her final exam and is officially a Registered Veterinarian Technician!! We are so excited she has chosen to come back to the CVL team to put her new skills to use.

Way to go, Jemma! 😁🎉

07/30/2024

TEAM TUESDAY ✨ Denise ✨

Chances are you've encountered Denise at one point or another during your visit at the clinic. Over the years Denise has worked at a children’s’ equestrian camp, taught therapeutic riding, and as an RVT in mixed animal practice, in a feline specialty clinic and with a large animal practice.

With many years of such a variety of experience under her belt, Denise currently our lead RVT here at CVL - keeping the treatment area running like a well oiled machine and keeping Alexa on track, always choosing the best playlists!

In her spare time, Denise volunteers in the Women’s Society. She also enjoys horseback riding, reading, singing in the choir and spending time with her kids.

07/29/2024

A special senior, Buddy!

Buddy visited the clinic for sedated X-rays. X-raying animals can understandably be a really scary thing for even the nicest of pets - they're flipped in funny positions, asked to hold perfectly still, and a lot of the time they are already sore in the areas we are touching. Often when having to manipulate really sore joints and muscles to get the perfect shots, we use sedation to help make the process as pain free (and fast) as possible. This allows us to get the very best diagnostics for that animal.

Buddy was a super star patient and we hope he is on the road to feeling more comfortable!

07/26/2024

You never know who you might see in the lobby! 🐐

Angus and Carl stopped in to use the weight scales before heading out back to our large animal exam area.

This super friendly duo made our morning. Happy Friday everyone!

07/25/2024

Oh sweet little Sadi was soaking up ALL the post surgical snuggles she could...Speedy recovery, Sadi. 🥰

07/23/2024

Team Tuesday ✨Erin ✨

Erin grew up in the Windsor area and always knew that she wanted to work with animals in some way. She graduated from the Veterinary Administrative Assistant program at Eastern College in Halifax in 2006 and began working at our Three Mile Plains location the same year, becoming a fundamental part of our Windsor Team!

Erin has 2 black labs and 2 cats. In her spare time she enjoys camping, hiking, gardening, skiing, and spending time with her family and friends.

Thanks for everything you do to keep our Windsor clinic running smoothly, Erin!

07/22/2024

It is corn season in the Valley! Although this is great news for us humans, just a friendly reminder that...

🌽❌ Cobs of corn are *NOT* to be fed as a treat to your dogs! ❌🌽

Corn cobs can create intestinal blockages that need to be removed surgically or can ultimately be fatal.
Do your dogs a favor and ensure corn cobs are disposed of properly and please do not give them to your dogs to chew on, play with, or potentially eat.

07/19/2024

ATTENTION SOUTH SHORE LARGE ANIMAL OWNERS:

In response to the recent announcement from South Shore Veterinary Hospital concerning the temporary or complete reduction in large animal veterinary services, Cornwallis Veterinarians wishes to provide the following options and guidelines for providing Large Animal Care.

We thank you for your co-operation and understanding and look forward to working with you to care for your animals!

~Staff and Management of Cornwallis Veterinarians

07/17/2024

Sweet Mabel 🤎 Your daily dose of cuteness. ✔️

07/16/2024

Today's edition of Team Tuesday is a little bit different. Today we wanted to shine a spotlight on a member of the CVL fam we said goodbye to last week as she embarks on a new chapter in emergency medicine.

✨ Lynn, RVT! ✨

Lynn started at Cornwallis Vets in 2004! Animal care has always been a passion of Lynn’s since growing up on her Uncle’s Farm near Bouctouche , NB and owning many pets of her own.

When not driving her two boys to hockey practice Lynn enjoys nature, gardening, and yoga. Around the clinic she was well known for her laugh (which was contagious!) and you'd often catch her spontaneously burst into dance when Alexa played the right tune.

Lynn was an incredible addition to Cornwallis Vets and will be missed dearly by staff, clients, and patients. As much as we will miss her, we are extremely proud of her for taking on a new challenge by heading to work with neonates and in the ER.

We wish you the very best and more, Lynn!

07/15/2024

The heat wave continues - don't forget, farm animals get hot too! 🥵

With these extremely hot temperatures it's important to make sure you are keeping your horses and livestock cool.

🌞Ensure animals have a shady place where ALL can access shade and are in a well ventilated area.
🌞Have plentiful clean water available.
🌞If animals seem warm, hose off all animals with room temperature water *not ice water* and stand wet animals in front of a fan.
🌞Make sure you are avoiding hot times of the day to exercise them.

If you notice any signs of heat stress please don't hesitate to call us - we are happy to help!

07/09/2024

ARE YOU MISSING ME??

**UPDATE: July 10th @ 11:00 am - she has been taken to the Kings SPCA. Please contact the Kings SPCA if this dog looks familiar to you. **

This girl was brought to our Kentville Clinic, found running in downtown Kentville the afternoon of July 9th.

Please share! Let's get this girl home! ☺️

07/08/2024

We have a heat warning out today!!! 🥵🥵

All breeds of dogs are at risk of heat stroke when faced with hot temperatures but it's important to remember that Brachycephalic dogs aka "squishy faced" dogs have an even greater risk.
With their shortened noses, brachycephalic dogs aren't so great at panting. This means that in hotter weather, they can overheat quite quickly compared to breeds with longer snoots.

If you have a brachycephalic dog it's really important that you take extra care of them in the heat of summer and know the signs of heat stroke:

🌡Excessive panting
🌡Excessive drooling
🌡Difficulty breathing
🌡Vomiting
🌡Incoordination or stumbling
🌡Weakness or sudden collapse
🌡Seizures

If your dog is experiencing any signs of heat stroke, contact your clinic ASAP!

07/04/2024

Here is an important link to check for all the doggie paddlers out there! 💦

"This list includes potential blue-green algae blooms. Look out for the signs of blue-green algae before using these bodies of water."

https://novascotia.ca/blue-green-algae/ -algae

If you suspect that your dog has ingested water containing blue-green algae, contact your veterinarian as soon as possible. This toxin works very fast within the system and the sooner you seek treatment the more likely a positive outcome.

Signs of blue-green algae toxicity include:
- Seizures
- Panting
- Excessive drooling
- Respiratory failure
- Diarrhea
- Disorientation
- Vomiting
- Liver failure
- Ultimately death

*Remember the list in this link is only the potential places so always stay alert and do your own checks before swimming so you can still have fun while staying safe this summer - best of both worlds!*

Blue-green algae information and reports for Nova Scotia. Watch for blue-green algae from May to October. Blue-green algae (also called cyanobacteria) occurs naturally in surface waters like lakes, ponds, rivers and streams.