University of Glasgow Pet Practice

23/11/2024

Angiostrongylus Vasorum - that’s “lungworm” to most of us!

This little critter was found in a poo sample of a patient at the small animal hospital - the video is what 💩 looks like under the microscope 🔬

Lungworm has an interesting lifecycle: baby worms are passed out in dog poo and eaten by slugs and snails which are in turn eaten by dogs. The worms travel from the dog’s gut to the lungs where they stay until they are adults. Here, they lay eggs which hatch into baby worms (larvae). The dogs cough up and then swallow the larvae, which pass out in the poo ready to infect the slugs and snails again. 🐌

A particular problem in the UK is that foxes are infected too, and because they aren’t being wormed, they become infected and stay infected - keeping the cycle going 🪱

Lungworm was first found in France in the 1980s and since then has spread to southern England, and then into Scotland (which was previously lungworm-free).

Lungworm can cause various signs of illness in dogs, from coughing and vomiting to uncontrolled bleeding and heart failure.

If your dog enjoys a quiet life indoors away from slugs and snails, you might not need to worry about this worm. However, if your dog goes outside, especially if you live in an area where you see foxes, we are happy to discuss whether it is worth treating your pet. It’s worth mentioning that most of the wormers you can buy from the pet shop without a prescription don’t treat lungworm.

If you are registered with us, get in touch with your lungworm questions - we want to help you keep your pets healthy 🩺

Video credit: Anais Farges
Photo 1: https://www.vettimes.co.uk/article/the-
importance-of-preventing-lungworm/
Photo 2: https://www.esccapuk.org.uk/uploads/docs/
4ide6c4_0988_ESCCAP_UK_Diagnostic_Recommend
ations__Canine_lungworm_v2.pdf

16/11/2024

Health Plan, Pet Plan, Pet Club, Pet Insurance… what do these terms mean?

We offer our clients the chance to sign up to the Pet Practice Health Plan. This is a monthly direct debit of £25.99 which covers all your pet’s vaccinations and parasite prevention, as well as nail trims, weight checks, a**l gland expression and - this is the part our clients love the most - any consultation fees with the vet or qualified nurses!

You might see other practices offer similar plans with slightly different names (pet health club, healthy pet club, pet health plan) - these are offered by the individual practices and the cost and what they cover will vary.

Pet insurance is something you as a pet owner would purchase from the individual insurance companies. These policies typically cover you for bigger bills for new illnesses that happen after you’ve taken the plan out. Most plans have an excess of £60-100, and some also have a “co-payment” which means you might also pay a certain % of what you claim. Ultimately, the responsibility for claiming rests with the client, but we can walk you through the process. We can help by generating the relevant invoices and sending your pet’s notes over to the company.

We have made the graphic below to help highlight the differences between what health plans and insurance is and what they cover. If you want to pay a monthly fee to have both routine and emergency costs for your pet covered, you might choose to take out both plans.

If you are registered with the Practice and you have any questions about the plan or how we can facilitate insurance claims, please get in contact 📞

03/09/2024

The Pet Practice is growing and we are looking for some awesome new team mates.

✨️ If you have a passion for customer service and would like to be involved in an animal care setting then please check out this opportunity to join our fabulous reception team.
https://findajob.dwp.gov.uk/details/15157762?utm_campaign=google_jobs_apply&utm_source=google_jobs_apply&utm_medium=organic

We have amazing facilities, a fantastic and supportive team, wonderful students and gorgeous grounds to be explored. Applications close 23rd September.

We’d like to use a**lytics cookies to collect information about how you use our services. This helps us to make them better.

28/08/2024

A few of our lovely Pet Practice patients 🥰 see if you can spot your wee one...

15/08/2024

Our phonelines are down at present, please call us on 0141 674 9225 or email us at [email protected]

11/07/2024

A little reminder to our clients that we are closed on Monday 15th July for the Glasgow Fair bank holiday. Normal service will resume from 8:30am on Tuesday 16th July.

Please let us know ASAP if you need are going to run out of your pet's medications over the weekend 💊

From all of us here at the Pet Practice, we hope you and your pets have a lovely bank holiday ❤️

10/07/2024

Did you know that an estimated 1 in 6 pet rabbits in the UK suffer from dental disease? 🦷🐰

Let us introduce you to Coco, who came to see us after struggling with his wonky front teeth. They had already been trimmed down by his previous vets, but they had grown back quickly and were affecting Coco's ability to eat 🥕

After discussing the options with Coco's owner, we decided to remove the overgrown incisor teeth. You might be surprised to learn that rabbits actually cope really well without these! Coco also had some issues with his molars as he had not been able to wear them down by chewing properly because of his incisors 🩺

As you can see - these teeth in bunnies are HUGE! They have a very long root, so we have to be extra careful when we are removing these to get them out in one piece. We also used a special diamond burr to smooth off the sharp points where his molars had become overgrown 🦷

It's been a few months since Coco's procedure, and Coco's owner sent in these photo of him looking happy and healthy - reporting that he is not missing his crooked teeth one bit! ❤️

Not all dental disease is as obvious as Coco's, a lot of rabbits have problem with the molars at the back of the mouth. To identify these problems, we need to look into their mouths with a little scope during their health checks. We recommend that bunnies are checked at least once a year so that we can screen for any issues. 🐾

Are you a rabbit owner in the Glasgow area? Give us a call to register your pets and schedule their health check today 📞 0141 330 6467 📧[email protected]

24/05/2024

🐾Bank Holiday Closure🐾

We will be closed on Monday for the bank holiday. We are open as normal today and tomorrow, and will open as normal on Tuesday. 🩺

Whilst we are closed, the out of hours service can cater for any of your pets’ urgent needs. Their number is 0141 330 6467 📞

We wish all our clients, pets and students a wonderful long weekend - please share your photos below, we’d love to see what you get up to 🥰

16/05/2024

You may have noticed some new faces around the Pet Practice recently! 🧑‍⚕️

We are now part of the compulsory rotations for our final year vet students. This means that when you come to see us during the week, you will see one of our lovely students first of all. 🩺

Here are Matt, Chelsea and Hannah with some incredibly cute puppies that were in for their first vaccines today! 🐶

We have been so pleased that our wonderful pet owners have been so generous and welcoming to our future vets so far, we are lucky to have such a fantastic clientele ❤️

Please help us to continue to make our students feel welcome, and make the most of this valuable opportunity to learn 🧑‍🎓

02/05/2024

🌼 Early May Bank Holiday Opening Hours 🌼

Saturday 4th May: 8.30am to 1.00pm
Sunday 5th & Monday 6th May: Closed
Tuesday 7th May: 8.30am to 7.00pm

Please let us know as soon as possible if you require medications for your pet over the bank holiday 💊

Should your pets require any veterinary attention over the weekend, our wonderful colleagues in the emergency out-of-hours service will be happy to assist you. Please call 0141 330 7690.

We hope this weather holds for you all and you have a lovely weekend.

27/04/2024

🐾 World Veterinary Day🐾

Today we are celebrating our veterinary staff and all the wonderful work they do! ❤️

We are so lucky to have a team of committed and passionate individuals who just love the veterinary profession: love all of your pets, love the impact we can have on you and your pets’ lives and love passing their skills and enthusiasm onto the next generation of vets and nurses 🩺

Do you want to shout out any staff that have gone the extra mile for you and your pets on World Veterinary Day? Let us know in the comments below 👇

24/04/2024

We have an interesting case to share with you all today - the case of the missing testicle! 🕵️‍♂️

We are so lucky in the Pet Practice to have the hospital's specialists close by to give us advice on tricky cases, and to have access to equipment we wouldn't normally have in a first opinion practice our size. 🩺

This patient had a missing testicle we were tasked with finding and removing. We knew it was going to be tricky as the last vet practice had struggled to find it at surgery. 🐱

Our ultrasonographer, Anselmo, kindly offered to assist us with this case. He used his skills and high-resolution scanner to locate the testicle and he applied some special blue dye to help us find it during surgery. 💉

We were able to take the little cat straight from ultrasound to surgery because our services are all under the same roof. 🏨

Enjoy this video we made by pulling together some clips from the ultrasound and the surgery - there is a warning for any of you that are squeamish! 🐾

16/04/2024

Last but not least in our team introductions is Lindsay, our longest-serving staff member and head vet:

Hello, I'm Lindsay and I qualified from Edinburgh Vet School in 2016. I worked in a few different practices across Scotland before settling in Glasgow and joining the Pet Practice in 2022.
It has been such a joy seeing the practice flourish and meeting our lovely clients and their pets. I'm now looking forward to taking on a bigger teaching role with the final year veterinary students as they come through the Pet Practice on their rotations. I love the variety of pets and procedures that fill our days in general practice - there is never a dull moment!
When I'm not working I can usually be found outside trying my hand at something new. Over the past few years I've completed my first triathlon, hiked to the base camp of Mount Everest, learned to winter climb in the Scottish mountains, and I'm currently training for my first marathon in September (if you have any tips - I am all ears!).

09/04/2024

To many of you, she will need no introduction! But for those of you who haven't had the pleasure, we would like to introduce you Ingeborg, one of the longest-serving members of our team. She has chosen to introduce herself in the form of a fairy-tale - because why not?
​
Long, long ago, in a land very near, a wee Scottish kid achieved her dream of becoming a vet at Glasgow Vet School. After graduation, she briefly crossed to the dark side to work, oops - meant the far side, AKA Edinburgh Vet School. She soon returned to Glasgow for a PhD, then it was off into the big wide world of the West of Scotland, working in 3 different practices. After many years she heard that Glasgow Vet School had birthed a new vet practice, to give the vet students more experience of everyday real life vet work. She joined the great team at the University of Glasgow Pet Practice and lived happily ever after. Despite all her experience she never managed to get rid of the spots on her dogs but it turns out that Dalmatians are meant to be spotty, at least her cat has no spots.

02/04/2024

Next up is our wonderful vet, Nina:

Hello! My name is Nina, and I'm one of the newest members of the team at the Pet Practice. I have joined the veterinary team after working previously in mixed practice all over the country. In my career I have looked after creatures great and small, including the odd shark!
Outside of work you will find me exploring Scotland with my dog Coll, and you will often spot us in the grounds around the hospital. Coll is also part of the teaching staff, helping out at the student teaching kennels.

26/03/2024

Now we move on to introduce our vets! We would like you to meet the lovely Ania:

Hi, my name is Ania and I am one of the veterinary surgeons working at the Pet Practice. I graduated in 2019 from University of Life Sciences in Warsaw, Poland and I have been working in the UK since 2020 and found it to be an amazing experience. Privately I own two chinchillas that are as cute as they are mischievous and enjoy playing guitar in my free time.

26/03/2024

🐣Easter Weekend Opening Hours🐣

Friday 29th March: Closed
Saturday 30th March: 8:30 - 13:00
Monday 1st: Closed
Tuesday 2nd April: 8:30 - 19:00

Please let us know as soon as possible if you require medications for your pet over the bank holidays 💊

Should you pets require any veterinary attention over the Easter weekend, our wonderful colleagues in the emergency out-of-hours service will be happy to assist you ☎️ 0141 330 7690

We wish all our clients and patients a lovely Easter weekend! 😁

19/03/2024

The next member of the Pet Practice we would like you to meet is our wonderful Head Nurse, Lissy.

I qualified as an RVN in 2016, a large part of my training involved placement at the Small Animal Hospital and I knew one day I would like to return. I spent my first 6 years in a lovely local vet practice, where I developed an interest in inpatient care and anaesthesia and went on to complete a certificate in emergency and critical care. When I spotted the opportunity to join the Small Animal Hospital and be involved with their first ever first opinion service, I jumped at the chance.
We have such a wonderful team and it has been a fantastic and unique learning experience to see the practice grow from our initial handful of clients to where we are already. I am loving the opportunity to support students with their training, while still being able to provide a high level of patient and customer care.
When not in work, it is the outdoor life for me, I'm normally found adventuring with my cockapoo Marty or submerged in a cold body of water somewhere....any excuse for a dook.