Magnolia House Veterinary Clinic

28/01/2025

Meet Trevor the gorgeous bulldog puppy - he was super brave for his vaccinations! 🫶🏼🥰

17/01/2025

Great work from Wildlife In Need.
Happy to help!

An owl which found itself stuck inside a log burner at a house in Upwey is on the road to recovery

09/01/2025

Food, glorious food!

Kibble, raw, canned, fresh, cooked, high protein, insect-based, cold-pressed…when it comes to choosing a diet for our dogs and cats, the options are mind-boggling, and getting past the attractive marketing gimmicks and understanding the true quality of the food in question can be incredibly difficult.

As a practice, we do not subscribe to any particular diet dogma. There simply is no single best diet for every pet - just like people, different animals have different individual dietary requirements and sensitivities. So while I may personally think that fresh is best and variety is important, I also don’t think that there is anything wrong with kibble - it’s nutritionally complete, convenient, not too messy, lots of choice out there at the moment in terms of quality ingredients, and it sure has been a factor in increasing our pets’ life spans over the many decades we’ve been feeding it. Our own dog is fed half kibble (convenient, we’re a bit busy!) and half fresh, most of which is cooked and some is raw or cold pressed. And she gets plenty of variety!

There is so much research into nutrition (human and animal) and especially the gut microbiome going on right now, and our diet recommendations and choices will continue to change and improve with time and further knowledge.

We are however noticing a concerning trend in the raw food manufacturing space, of producing nutritionally incomplete and unbalanced dog diets, and usually without quality control. Unfortunately anyone can put together a dog diet and sell it, they do not have to be a nutritionist or even have any nutrition training at all. There is also a large amount of incorrect information available online when it comes to food, and there are even nutrition “courses” which provide the attendees with “certification” but are actually meaningless from a professional standard and barely scratch the surface of animal nutrition, let alone everything needed to know for purposes of manufacturing a diet.

We’ve seen two cases recently which have prompted us to raise awareness, a very sick dog with liver failure and a puppy with joint problems who will likely be affected for life, both fed an incorrectly formulated raw diet (purchased from who on the surface appeared to be quality manufacturers) which caused the problems.

Contrary to the popular narrative, as vets we are NOT against raw feeding, but we are against incorrectly formulated and unsafe raw feeding, because we see the problems it causes. A raw diet can be a great diet option, but it has to be nutritionally complete and fed in a safe manner. There are plenty of raw and cold-pressed options available that are nutritionally complete and quality controlled, there are ways to put together a nutritionally complete home-cooked recipe from scratch, and not all kibble is made equal either!

You can also access our feeding guidelines via our website:
https://www.magnoliavets.co.uk/nutrition/

So our take home message is, when choosing a diet for your pet, come and talk to us! Let us help you avoid the pitfalls, learn about deciphering a**lytics and ingredient lists, and let’s find your pet a diet that works for them and keeps them in tip top health! Get in touch, make an appointment, and let's talk food!

Have a great (almost there!) weekend everyone!
Dalya

PS For any cynics out there, no, we do not sell pet food 😜 (except to a handful of clients for their convenience) and I’m still waiting for that yacht in the Caribbean that Big Kibble apparently owes me! 🤣

01/01/2025

2024 has been quite a year! We welcomed Jenny to our vet team, Laura has expanded the nursing team, and Anna and Molly have joined the friendly faces at the front desk! We've had team CPR training, a pilot pet first aid class and a pilot Dachshund rehab class (cuteness overload!). There has been much heroic saving of lives, an abundance of wildlife patched up and rehabbed (with the help of the fab folk at New Milton Hedgehog Rescue and Wildlife In Need!), there have been some dubious Secret Santa gift choices and exchanges of soulful looks with dragons, some fancy operating theatre wear (who doesn't love a bit of Frozen?), and many late evenings fuelled by Mrs L's amazing cakes. We've got to know many new pets (and their humans!), but also had to say sad good-byes to a few old friends.

2025, we have big plans for you!! The renovations are almost done and we're hoping to unveil our third consult room really soon, we've just overhauled and improved our health plans, Becky's brilliant puppy classes are starting up again, we're setting up some fantastic online courses, there will be lots more group classes, and we're launching the Robin to Magnolia House Vets' Batman - Paws the Pain, a dedicated veterinary rehabilitation, arthritis and pain clinic!

Thank you all for the incredible privilege of choosing us to be your furry and feathered and scaled family's doctors! We hope you will continue to share our journey, and that 2025 brings you much health, happiness, and continued boundless love and affection from the many critters sharing your lives!

From all of us at Magnolia House Vets ###

24/12/2024

Wishing all our lovely clients and their pets a very happy holiday season, from all of us at Magnolia House Vets! xx

17/12/2024

💊Please could we ask that all medication requests for the Christmas period are made by Thursday afternoon of this week (19th) 💊
Many thanks and Happy Christmas🎄

03/12/2024

CHRISTCHURCH FOOD BANK CHRISTMAS RAFFLE 🎅🏻🎄

This year we have decided to raffle off three of our brand new BEST LIFE plans (previously known as the vip plan)

We have up for grabs:
🎁1 x ESSENTIALS plan
🎁1 x NEXT STEPS plan
🎁1 x ULTIMATE plan

(Pets already signed up to the plan are still eligible)

£1 donation for a strip of raffle tickets which can be purchased at reception.
All proceeds will go to Christchurch Food Bank!
(We will also match the amount raised to make our own donation to the food bank as a clinic)

Winners will be drawn on Monday 23rd December🤞🏽

To find out more about our best life plans, please visit our website: https://www.magnoliavets.co.uk

To make your own donation to the food bank please visit https://faith-works.org.uk/locations-across-dorset/christchurch-food-bank-dorset/

Merry Christmas 🎅🏻

11/11/2024

For anyone purchasing YuMove joint supplements from Amazon: please be aware there are counterfeit products in circulation!!
https://yumove.co.uk/pages/amazon-faqs/

Veterinary Medicines Directorate, a government organisation in charge everything to do with veterinary medicines, maintains a list of registered and verified online medicine retailers. And while this is a supplement and not a medicine, the legitimacy of the online pharmacy in question makes it less likely for counterfeit products to sneak in: https://www.vmd.defra.gov.uk/register/online-retailers

10/11/2024

After 3 years of hard work, final exams are over, and Dalya is now a Certified Canine Rehabilitation Practitioner, one of only a handful in the UK 😊

Rehabilitation has similar principles to physiotherapy, and is a process of managing pain, restoring musculoskeletal function, improving mobility, and improving fitness. It encompasses diagnostics (such as thorough joint and soft tissue examination, gait a**lysis, x-rays, musculoskeletal ultrasound), pain management (including acupuncture), therapeutic exercises, physical therapy, hydrotherapy, modalities such as laser and therapeutic ultrasound, and regenerative medicine (stem cells and platelet-rich plasma injections).

Who can benefit from rehabilitation?
- arthritic pets
- pets who've had orthopaedic surgery
- pets with non-surgical cruciate injuries, medial patella luxations, elbow or hip dysplasia
- pets with back/intervertebral disc problems
- pets with other neurological conditions, e.g. vestibular disease, degenerative myelopathy, muscular weakness
- puppies and adult dogs with abnormal conformation
- sporting dogs
- dogs with cognitive dysfunction/senility

If you'd like to know more or think that your dog could use some rehabilitation to help them enjoy their best life, please get in touch!

02/10/2024

BEST LIFE PLAN: PUPPY EDITION
We are so excited about this one! Everything you could possibly need to set up your puppy for a healthy life! All the usual preventative care suspects (vaccines, parasite treatment, teeth brushing, social visits) are included, but we also have:
- GENETIC TESTING via a simple cheek swab - this is such a massive addition to your toolbox as a dog owner! The Wisdom panel tests for 250 different genetic markers to assess your pup's risk for different problems, and if any are identified then we can talk about decreasing the risks, prevention and long term management, this is HUGE!
- musculoskeletal assessments as your puppy grows, let's decrease the risk and impact of things like hip dysplasia and abnormal conformation early on, so we can delay and even prevent problems later in life
- nutrition assessments and changes to requirement as your puppy grows
- puppy classes, including some behaviour one-on-ones with our clinical behaviourist

This puppy plan is AMAZING value and really showcases what a positive impact we can have on long term health! Our standard Puppy Pack remains available, but if you want to supercharge your puppy's start in life this is the plan for you!

02/10/2024

BEST LIFE PLAN: ULTIMATE
This is the new kid on the block - the ideal plan for older pets, or pets who are living with chronic disease and need regular check ups and blood tests. This plan includes everything in the Essentials plan PLUS ALL consultations, ALL in house blood tests + urine tests + blood pressure checks, 2 musculoskeletal assessments per year (perfect for our arthritic patients, and for detecting arthritis early), and more!!

As with all our plans, the following rules apply (for full T&Cs please see our website or contact the clinic):
- behaviour consults, rehab consults, pain clinics and consults provide by visiting clinicians are excluded unless otherwise specified
- sedation is charged in addition if required for nail clips/a**l glands
- all routine blood panels are included (inc baseline thyroid, pancreatic lipase, FIV/FeLV), more specialised assays (eg TSH, cortisol, BAST) are excluded

02/10/2024

BEST LIFE PLAN: NEXT STEPS
The next level plan, perfect for those who might need to visit us a bit more often and want the peace of mind of knowing their consult fees are covered!
Includes everything in the Essentials plan, plus all vet and nurse consult fees, nail clips and a**l gland expressions.

As with all our plans, the following rules apply (for full T&Cs please see our website or contact the clinic):
- behaviour consults, rehab consults, pain clinics and consults provide by visiting clinicians are excluded unless otherwise specified
- sedation is charged in addition if required for nail clips/a**l glands

02/10/2024

BEST LIFE PLAN - ESSENTIALS
This is the baseline preventative care plan and replaces the current VIP plan. Really helpful for spreading your pet's preventative health care costs through the year!

As with all our plans, the following rules apply (for full T&Cs please see our website or contact the clinic):
- behaviour consults, rehab consults, pain clinics and consults provide by visiting clinicians are excluded unless otherwise specified

02/10/2024

We have some super exciting news - as part of the greater mission to re-imagine and improve preventative care, our Healthy Pet Club is changing, and for the better! Have a look at the series of posts below to find out what is included in each of the 4 different plans and contact us if you'd like to sign up or upgrade your plan!

If you would like to sign up online, you can do so via our website here:
https://magnoliavets.easydirectdebits.co.uk/signup/welcome

30/09/2024

STRAY CAT🐈‍⬛
We have had a young female tabby cat handed in to the practice who is unfortunately not microchipped
She was found near mollys den in Christchurch
If you think she could be yours then please contact the clinic on 01202 499622 📞
Proof of ownership will be required

25/09/2024

TRAFFIC ALERT🚦🚗
There are major roadworks on the stony lane roundabout so if you have an appointment with us this week then we would advise leaving a bit earlier!
Thank you

15/09/2024

Dogs + sticks = trouble!

Most of us know by now that throwing sticks for our dogs to fetch can result in some dangerous injuries, but we'd also like to raise awareness that simple stick chewing can also lead to trouble!

This little guy got a piece of stick stuck between his upper molars, causing him a lot of discomfort, but luckily no serious damage, and we're pleased to report that he's recovering nicely!

If your doggo is a relentless chewer, opt for hardy toys (Kongs are great, especially when filled with their favourite tasty treats!), rawhide strips (but make sure they are not swallowing large chunks) or dental sticks, and remove them when they show signs of splintering.

13/09/2024

We've been a bit busy destroying the practice 😆
You've probably heard a bit of noise - there's a team of builders hard at work creating another consult room to give us all a bit more space! The work is expected to take a couple of months, so please bear with us - we're trying to keep the noise to a minimum, but if your pet finds the noise in reception upsetting, please ask to wait in the car until you're called in.
We're all excited to share the new room with you soon! 😊