Bridge Referrals

24/12/2024

A holly jolly Christmas for our oncology patients! 🎄❤️

Just some of our lovely patients who have been spoilt by the staff over the last few weeks! 🎁

A special mention to Poppy and Poppy who have both completed their chemotherapy treatment! 💕🫶

Thank you so much -
❣️LickiMat
❣️Scrumbles
❣️Tug-E-Nuff

From all of us here at Bridge Referrals we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a happy new year! 🎉

21/12/2024

The lovely Wilma! 🩷🐾

Wilma presented to our soft tissue department a few weeks ago with lameness and swelling on her right forepaw. A CT scan of the paw showed evidence of a foreign body.

Alison performed exploratory surgery and identified and removed a grass awn. Wilma has been back in today for her re-check appointment and she is back to her normal bouncy self and Alison is so pleased with how she has recovered!

She enjoyed lots of cuddles and a few sneaky gravy bones at reception! 💕

20/12/2024

Another successful Craniectomy surgery performed by Bridge Referrals multidisciplinary team! 👏

Bridge Referrals recently had the privilege of helping lovely Luna, a charming feline who presented to them with concerning symptoms.

To read the full story, simply click on the link below! 👇

https://www.bridgereferrals.co.uk/blog/another-successful-craniectomy-surgery-performed-by-bridge-referrals-multidisciplinary-team/

Bridge Referrals Veterinary Centre is pleased to announce the team has successfully performed a second craniectomy surgery. This is a rare and highly specialised procedure that showcases commitment and ability to provide advanced care for pets in need. In this case a craniectomy was performed after....

19/12/2024

Bridge Referrals are now recruiting for January 2025! 🎉

🔹Internal Medicine Clinician
🔹Veterinary Surgeon - Hospital Clinician
🔹Referrals Nurse – Twilight
🔹Inpatient Kennel Nurse
🔹Referral Nurse – Ophthalmology

For more information, simply click on the link below! ⬇️

Bridge Referrals places team work at the heart of our ethos. We take pride in our dedication to offering the highest standards in veterinary care. We envisage developing a highly motivated team by investing in their training, career prospects, job satisfaction and wellbeing. We want to empower our s...

18/12/2024

A Goose for Christmas! 🎄🐾

A lovely Maine C**n, Goose, came to see Olivia in the ophthalmology department because he had persistently irritated eyes.

On his ocular examination, Olivia identified that Goose was suffering from entropion in his lower eyelids. This is where the eyelid margins roll in causing hairs to touch the surface of the eye causing chronic irritation and ulceration. This condition can be something that they are born with but in cats it is more often developed secondary to other causes of chronic ocular irritation.

Goose had entropion surgery, where we shortened the eyelid length and removed some tissue to allow the eyelid to sit back into the correct position, preventing contact of the hairs.

Goose is now a comfortable, happy and handsome cat! 🩵👏

16/12/2024

Meet Finley! 🐱

The handsome Finley was referred to us for further investigations of coughing and exercise intolerance which had been progressive since he was a kitten. He was starting to struggle with his breathing and was unable to meow normally. A diagnostic workup performed by Darren, one of our RCVS Advanced Practitioners in Small Animal Medicine, showed that his larynx (voicebox) was malformed and twisted and that there was a large collection of fluid in the side of his neck. Analysis of the fluid, together with the results of a CT scan, suggested that Finley had a cyst in his neck.

As the cyst was impacting on Finley’s quality of life, and draining the fluid alone was likely to result in rapid recurrence, he was also assessed by Mark (our EBVS® European Specialist in Small Animal surgery). After discussing the options with his owner a decision was made to attempt surgical removal of the cyst. This involved going into Finley’s neck from underneath and removing the cyst which was found to be invading his larynx, stuck to the blood vessels and nerves in his neck and going down into his thymus gland in the front of his chest. For fiddly surgery like this we use special headset magnification (loupes) and very delicate instruments typically used for eye surgery! It was possible to remove all of the visible cyst, along with a small portion of the larynx and thymus gland. Samples were sent away for testing and confirmed that this is a rare type of congenital problem, i.e. one that Finley has been born with.

Finley came back to see us recently, two weeks following his surgery. He is making great progress - his breathing is much easier, he can meow again, there is no fluid in his neck and his surgical site has healed brilliantly! 👏

Finley’s condition is very rare and cases like this highlight the importance of a multidisciplinary team approach in order to achieve the best outcome for our patients! 🩺 🐾

10/12/2024

We had the handsome Hank in for his initial ophthalmology assessment today with Sarah! 🩵🐾

10/10 good boy! 🩵

10/12/2024

BSAVA North East Regional CPD evening!

📆 Thursday 27th February 2025
⏰ 7pm - 9.30pm
📍 Bridge Referrals, 3 Brooklands Way, Boldon Colliery, NE35 9LZ

Numbers are limited and booking is now open via the link below ⬇️

https://www.bsava.com/education/cpd/regional-cpd/north-east/

07/12/2024

The lovely Tofu was in for BOAS surgery yesterday with our soft tissue surgeon Alison! 💕 her handsome brother Bob came along to support during her admission appointment! 🩵🐾

Don’t you just want to squish those cute little faces!? 😍🥹

06/12/2024

The lovely George completed his chemotherapy for a mast cell tumour yesterday and has done so well! 🩵🐾

George was very nervous at first but each visit he got more comfortable with our oncology team! He’s been such a good boy throughout his treatment and we are so proud of him! 🩵

Here he is with his early Christmas present and treats! We will see him again in a month for a check up to see how he is getting on! 🫶

05/12/2024

Thank you so much to The Big Dog Boarder (the generous owner of ziyka the dobermann) for creating such a lovely number of photos of some of our oncology patients (some of their companions and our oncology vet, Darren's, border terrier also snuck in for a quick pic). The patients were so well behaved and the results are fantastic.

Thank you so much for taking the time to give something back to these patients and their owners! Something they'll treasure forever! 💚💙

05/12/2024

Given that its December, Santa's little helpers are on the move! ❤️🎄

Here is the lovely Ziyka who was in today for a further chemotherapy treatment in her lovely elf outfit! 😍 She really is the sweetest dog! 🫶

05/12/2024

Meet the handsome Toby! 😍

Toby presented to our ophthalmology department as an emergency. He was playing with a hedgehog which unfortunately poked him in the eye! This caused a corneal ulcer and despite receiving topical medication from his primary care practice, the ulcer deteriorated. Toby’s ulcer increased in size and became deeper, he was at risk of losing his eye! (See photo 2)

Toby had emergency surgery to repair the ulcer by our ophthalmologist Sarah Harrison. A special graft using Toby’s own tissue was placed, it is a type of graft that harvests both healthy cornea and conjunctiva to transplant over the defect. This gives the ulcer structural support and improves the blood supply to the area to aid healing.

(Photo 3 is three days post surgery & photo 4 is the graft one month post surgery)

A corneoconjunctival transposition is superior to other grafts as it maintains transparency in the central cornea which is important for vision.

As you can see from the photographs, Toby is doing very well, is comfortable, and looks great! 🩵🐾

05/12/2024

Bridge Referrals are now recruiting for January 2025! 🎉

🔹Veterinary Surgeon - Hospital Clinician
🔹Referral Nurse
🔹Referrals Nurse – Twilight
🔹Inpatient Kennel Nurse
🔹Referral Nurse – Ophthalmology

For more information, simply click on the link below! ⬇️

Bridge Referrals places team work at the heart of our ethos. We take pride in our dedication to offering the highest standards in veterinary care. We envisage developing a highly motivated team by investing in their training, career prospects, job satisfaction and wellbeing. We want to empower our s...

02/12/2024

What a success! 👏 we’d like to say a huge thank you to all of the lovely donors and their owners who attended our donation session for Pet Blood Bank UK yesterday! ❤️

14 lovely dogs attended, resulting in 10 units of blood being donated! Meaning up to 40 lives saved!❣️🐾

Thank you so much! ❤️

28/11/2024

Upcoming Pet Blood Bank donation session this week! ❤️🐾

We are very excited to be welcoming the Pet Blood Bank UK team back to our venue on Sunday 1st December for our second blood donation session! 🐾

We’re looking for lovely dogs to come forward and donate at this session. If your dog meets the criteria below, they could become a lifesaving blood donor!

❣️Between the ages of 1 and 8
❣️Weigh over 25kg
❣️Fit and healthy
❣️Happy, confident, & enjoy meeting new people

To find out more and register your dog for our upcoming donation session, please visit www.petbloodbankuk.org/dogs ❤️