Fernside Vet

15/01/2025

15/01/2025

🐈 If you have one or two indoor-only cats between 6 months and 13 years of age, you can help researchers at the University of Edinburgh with a study about environmental enrichment! 😺

Feline expert Professor Danielle Gunn-Moore and her team are investigating the impact of environmental enrichment on the wellbeing of indoor cats. The study will compare four enrichment methods:

🐾 Daily playing using a wand toy
🐾 15 minutes of Cat TV per day
🐾 Installation of a Feliway Diffuser
🐾 Encouraging food foraging

Those who participate will be assigned one of these methods to try over 14 days.

Find out more and fill out part one of our survey 👉 https://app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/edinburgh/utilising-the-home-feline-stress-score-to-compare-the-impact-of

🗓 Part one will close on Friday 14 March 2025

11/01/2025

How is your dog coping with the cold weather? Norman believes firmly in blankets and central heating. Impressively athletic Pluto poses outdoors. Let's see some of your dogs in action/comfort please

11/01/2025

Meet Bailey a 12week old Schnauzer x Cavapoo.

Bailey is a very healthy shape. This may seem an odd comment , but dogs benefit from being moderate in design. Having a nose that sticks out allows good room for efficient chewing and quiet easy breathing. If the body height and length is similar ie a square side on profile vs rectangular, then we get strong backs. We like straight frontlegs as bowed ones get more joint issues with age . Bailey ticks all these boxes. He is though going to need a personal hairdresser appointment regularly.. He has lovely wavy silky fur . We gave him a little face trim today to clear his view. As a very rough guide small dogs between 8 and 15kg seem to be big enough to be robust and small enough to sit on your lap and leave you both comfortable.

Temperament is very, very important and there are strong breed tendencies. We expect Bailey to be clever , affectionate and fairly likely to bark readily . He is going to attend training classes which is also a lovely way for him to learn about how other dogs behave in a controlled setup. It may be very cold outside, but pups need to see the world.

It is ever so important a young pup is not frightened and overwhelmed by early handling. Rather than thinking of an outing as just a destination for a set time block, we want to encourage his curiosity and play opportunities. There are lots of IQ games for dogs to be found with internet searching. Between the ages of 6 and 14 weeks is called the socialisation window. Staying indoors, seeing one human and no other animals for this puppy life stage is strongly linked to fearful behaviour as an adult.

Getting him used to the vets will also set him up for future pleasant visits. Bailey loved our treats and showed what a tail wagger he is. Most of our patients know the routine of on the scales first and that the treat tin will be out for them before they leave.

04/01/2025

Happy New year

We were able to celebrate one of our student vet nurses getting her exam results just before Christmas. Yasmin is now a registered veterinary nurse (RVN). She started working at Fernside during Covid in 2020 to assist us manage patients. When owners had to stay outside the building we needed extra helpers so we recruited 'consultation assistants'. Yasmin had to meet the owners and collect the animals at the front door, help in the consultation room then do the handback. We all wore face masks and cleaned obsessively for 2 years, it was a tough time and required a dedicated team. From a Covid job taken because she liked working with animals , Yasmin has developed into a very able and multiskilled member of our team. She is pictured here with her beloved boxer called Scooby.

Being a RVN is a protected title and can only be used by someone who has studied a strictly regulated course for a minimum of 2 years. Yasmin studied at the College of Animal Welfare adjacent to the Royal Veterinary College in Brookmans Park.

24/12/2024

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine issues a "safety flash" about the dangers to children.

21/12/2024

Christmas dinner for dogs?

Christmas can be an exciting time for all the family, so it’s not surprising that people want to include their four-legged family members in the festivities. This may include feeding a few yuletide treats, but be warned, some of our favourite seasonal foods could spoil your dog’s day very quickly! Common Christmas foods can cause anything from digestive upset to serious, life-threatening toxicity.

Firstly, there’s absolutely no need to feed your dog anything in addition to their usual, complete food if it’s not right for them, or you’d prefer to play it safe. For example, those with sensitive stomachs, medical conditions such as pancreatitis, or requiring special food for nutritional support of a health problem should stick to their usual diet. If in doubt, don’t feel under pressure to feed anything different– your dog won’t know that they are missing out and you may help them avoid a poorly timed illness.— with Purina UK & Ireland.
If you do decide to feed treats, a small quantity should be given alongside your dog’s usual food. A completely different Christmas Day diet consisting mostly of human food is a bad idea.

Here are some common foods your dog might be sniffing out this Christmas:

✅Turkey: dogs can eat turkey meat, but it should be boneless and skinless. It’s best to avoid any meat that’s soaked in gravy, butter or seasonings and go for plain meat instead.
✅Other vegetables: small amounts of green beans, sprouts, parsnips, peas and
swede can all be given.
➡Potatoes: be careful. A small amount of cooked, peeled potato is fine, but the butter and cream added to mash or the fat that roast potatoes are cooked in could be a problem.
➡Cranberry sauce: be careful. Small amounts of cranberries are fine for dogs, but
other ingredients in the sauce could be toxic such as sweeteners (xylitol) and nuts. It
may also have a very high sugar content.
✅Dog treats: if you plan on giving treats other than your pet’s usual food, a safe option is to purchase some treats designed for dogs, produced by a reputable manufacturer.

❎Stuffing: avoid. Often contains onions, garlic and various spices. Plants in the allium family, such as onion and garlic can cause anaemia in dogs.
❎Gravy: best avoided. Gravy can be high in fat, sodium, and contain ingredients such as garlic
❎Bones: Avoid. Cooked bones from the turkey carcass, and other meats, can damage the gastrointestinal tract lining or get stuck.
❎Dairy products: best avoided. Often high in fat and containing lactose, these
products can be hard for dogs to digest and lead to stomach upsets and illness.
❎Macadamia nuts: avoid. Can cause weakness, wobbliness, vomiting, tremors, high
temperature and central nervous system problems.
❎Chocolate: avoid. Chocolate contains a chemical called theobromine that is highly
toxic to dogs. The darker the chocolate, the higher the levels of theobromine.
Chocolate can cause a variety of problems including gastrointestinal upset, hyperactivity, tremors, seizures and heart problems. Even chocolate with minimal
theobromine e.g. white chocolate can cause gastrointestinal problems due to its high
fat content.
❎Christmas pudding and mince pies: avoid. They contain several hazardous
ingredients, the most worrying being dried grapes (raisins, sultanas, currants).
❎Grapes can cause kidney failure in dogs.
❎Pigs in blankets: best avoided. High in sodium and fat, it’s a good idea to substitute these for some lean meat instead.

If you are concerned about the health of your dog or worried that they may have eaten something toxic, you should contact your vets immediately as prompt treatment may be needed.

It pays to be prepared for stomach upsets over bank holidays. See our post on acute
diarrhoea for more information and consider stocking up on any essentials in advance: https://www.vetvoices.co.uk/.../help-my-pet-has-diarrhoea...

21/12/2024

21/12/2024

Norman is looking forward to Christmas. He may well be dreading one of Robyn's 'good ideas' outfits. However, luckily for many of our patients they have more flattering style orientated dressers. We have here Willow posing beautifully in a very tasteful outfit. Please share some of your Christmas pet outfits

16/12/2024

28/11/2024

If you receive an email from Petchip.network advising that your pet’s microchip registration has expired and you need to pay for it to be updated – PLEASE IGNORE. THIS IS A SCAM. The email comes with a link taking you to a page showing your pet’s name, microchip number, your contact phone number and looks very convincing. PLEASE IGNORE.

There is a list of approved databases on gov.uk:

https://www.gov.uk/get-your-dog-cat-microchipped

Typically you would only pay a fee or first registering your pet or if you contact the company to update your details .

It is important to keep your pet’s microchip contact details up-to-date including if you move address or change phone number/ email address. Please contact your microchip provider direct to update your details.

23/11/2024

Is that puppy advert as it seems?

“The available estimates indicate that Europe’s pet trade (cats, dogs, exotic) is the third most profitable illegal trade in the EU, after narcotics and weapons,”

The crimes it encompasses are numerous and complex, including smuggling, tax evasion, market fraud, consumer fraud, animal abuse, and danger to individual and public health.

The volumes are staggering: some eight million new dogs are required annually to supply the European market, but only about 1.1 million are produced by official breeding facilities. A smaller portion are adopted from rescue shelters or acquired from acquaintances, but that still leaves a vast, secretive supply chain that supplies millions of dogs every year.

The sales take place primarily on the internet, and the hand-offs are made in cars parks, highway service stations, and rented houses. The markup value can be no less staggering as that in the drug trade: a Hungarian puppy farm can create a French bulldog for 20-40 euros that, in one month’s time, will sell to a British buyer for 5,000-8,000 euros.

https://www.occrp.org/en/feature/the-canine-connection-europes-illegal-dog-trade

The Dogs Trust has been investigating this for a number of years and the information is shocking.

Check out the latest report:

Key finding include:

❎The total number of imports found was 91 (England 78, Scotland 13, Wales 0)- This works out as 29% of adverts in England, 7% in Scotland and 0% in Wales
❎14% of all adverts reviewed were for imported puppies
❎At least 18% of the imported puppies were confirmed by the seller as being under the minimum 15 weeks of age. Many others were suspected of being underage
❎Adverts for imported puppies were found on all four of the classified websites
❎The youngest puppy advertised was only 7 weeks of age when it entered Great Britain, too young to legally leave its mum
❎None of the puppies confirmed as having been imported could be viewed with mum
❎Only two of the 91 adverts for imported puppies included a photo or video of mum
❎None of the original advert text stated that the puppy had been imported, this was only revealed by further conversation

https://www.dogstrust.org.uk/downloads/puppy-smuggling-report-2020.pdf

Read more here:

https://www.dogstrust.org.uk/about-us/what-we-do/our-views/puppy-smuggling

23/11/2024

Buying a pedigree cat has become more popular in the UK, see the Cat Protection info screenshot. A breed that few of you will have met is the Siberian Forest cat. Crystal was at Fernside recently and we got her to pose for the camera as she is both beautiful and good natured.

We have quite a variety of pedigrees coming through our door. Persians have been overtaken in popularity for long hair breeds by the very large Maine C**n, sweet natured Birmans and Ragdolls. The most popular short-haired cats are Siamese and we are hoping that one of our young breeders gets a litter next year from her more old fashioned Siamese. A big plus of the old fashioned type is that they are less likely to be cross eyed and spidery in build.

Please, please do not get a Scottish Fold. This cat sadly became more popular as Taylor Swift has a couple. They have a hereditary disease that damages their joints making life very painful for them. Cats do not cope well with intense genetic selection for unique shapes and colours.

23/11/2024

Tilly and Bandit came for a visit this morning wearing wonderful coats.

Update, these were purchased via Amazon from Morezi, called Greyhound winter coats

They have an almost waxy outer waterproof layer and fleece inside. Finding good winter coats is always a challenge as you want good cover without swamping your dog. It is a good idea to measure how long your dog is from the collar to the top of the tail so you can select a size accurately. In cold weather we don't want exposed bottoms!!

Note also, in elderly dogs you want to get coats they can easily step into. Avoid the need to scrunch up legs to fit them into such as upper leg wrap around types of jackets. Zips along the back are very helpful in tiny dogs.

13/11/2024

😻 Play is great enrichment for cats, so we’re bringing back these lovely illustrations by Lili Chin from our 2022 International Cat Day campaign!

There are many different ways cats can play, so take note of what your cat likes to do. 🪶 A wand toy is a good place to start – try wiggling it in short bursts along the floor or swooping it slowly through the air above them.

🔔 Give yourself a reminder to play with your cat for 5 minutes each day and you will also see how much it improves your bond with them.

Check out more ways to enrich your cat’s life at home and make your home more cat friendly 👉 https://icatcare.org/advice/making-your-home-cat-friendly/

Doggie Drawings by Lili Chin