Wishing you a very Happy Monday from one of our Chichester patients!
It’s definitely been a scorcher of a weekend and the temperatures are set to continue to rise this week.
Our two 24 hour hospitals have been pretty busy this weekend with all sorts of emergencies, including lots of summer related injuries such as grass seeds and dehydration.
We know you are all pretty well educated on the risks of heat with our pets but we will be posting a reminder later today.
Please also remember to leave water out for the local wildlife population. They really do appreciate it.
Enjoy our video kindly submitted by Clinical Director Laura Jenner.
#avg #arunvetgroup #vet #veterinary #hedgehog
This rather scrumptious little girl is Olive-Jade! We have previously mentioned her before, as she was named after one of our lovely student nurses Jade, who
works at our Pulborough clinic.
Olive-Jade has had rather a full life so
far, as 10 months in and she is already approaching her 12 week recovery
post- orthopaedic surgery.
With our smaller breeds, our physiotherapist Becky spends a great deal of time re-conditioning our patients to use their operated limb once more. Smaller patients can be notoriously difficult to persuade to do this seeing as their light stature means that they can "pop" around quite happily on
three legs. Olive however has always been a bit of an over-achiever, and has rather enjoyed showing off her trotting to Becky during her sessions.
Becky describes Olive- Jade as a 'delight to look after', and as a 'lovely confident girl' despite all the veterinary intervention she has had to experience so far.
Be sure to give her & her mum Claire a wave if you see them in Pulborough, as by now she is a bit of a celebrity in the village!
#avg #arunvetgroup #vet #veterinary #chihuahua #veterinaryorthopaedics #Pulborough
#AlabamaRot advise, feel free to share.
With the weather now feeling really autumnal and the need for us owners to dig out our wellie boots, we have had a few requests recently for information on Alabama Rot. Whilst it is really important to be well educated on this condition, as a practice we always like to emphasise the fact that fortunately this is still rare so please don't allow this to stop you having fun and enjoying the great outdoors with your canine friend. Fresh air and exercise are so important as are family walks.
Alabama Rot is the name given to a disease first discovered in America that closely resembles the disease that has been seen in the UK. The correct name for this condition in the UK is Cutaneous and Renal Glomerular Vasculopathy or CRGV. It has only been reported in the UK in the last decade with the first cases being reported in the New Forest.
The initial signs are lesions on the skin and sometimes in the mouth that resemble bites, stings, wounds or sores. Sadly some cases go on to develop life threatening kidney failure in spite of treatment and ultimately death. This typically occurs within 1 - 9 days of first noticing the lesion or ulcer.
Currently there is no known causal agent - although there may be a relationship to muddy walks in woods. This is merely speculative but it would be advisable to always wash your dog down thoroughly after a muddy walk. There are currently NO recommendations to avoid walking your dog in particular areas.
Despite several years of research, the cause of Alabama Rot remains unknown and it is still a mystery how it is spread, therefore it is extremely difficult for the veterinary profession to provide accurate and correct advice.
To date the number of cases in the UK is very small compared to the dog population at large so the risk is still very low that your dog will get the disease whatever the cause.
Specialist veterinary centre Anderson Moores have been leading the research into this potentiall
This is the second part of our Chichester tour.
VIDEO TOUR OF CHICHESTER.
In recent weeks we have been asked many times for the possibility of a video tour of our new hospital in Chichester. In all honesty we are all pretty camera shy and also rather amateur with a camera! However we do like to listen to our followers so myself (Louise) and Clinical director Claire Bounds decided to meet super early yesterday and plan how we could do this.
Before you watch we must apologise for a few details.
Firstly, apologies for our dreadful shaky voices, our loud feet, the poor filming and also and probably most importantly some of the scenes do feature flickering lights. Please do take care if this is a problem.
As we are so amateur, we hadn't realised we were restricted in length of video for Facebook so there are two parts to this video and the second part will be published separately.
We have a total of 4 consulting rooms at Chichester as well as many other rooms over the 3 floors so this video really is a snippet.
We are now off to hide behind our cushions but we hope you enjoy and don’t forget to continue watching in the second post.
This little chap was recently brought in to our Westergate clinic found covered in maggots and in a very bad way.
Lead vet Lisa decided to anaesthetise the hedgehog, bathing, removing all the maggots and treating all his wounds. Recovering very well from his anaesthetic, he was treated with antibiotics before an overnight stay at home with Lisa. The following morning he had recovered enough to be transferred to the fabulous Brent Lodge Wildlife Hospital to continue his rehabilitation.
We would always advise that if you find injured wildlife they are passed on either to a veterinary practice or to a reputable charity with qualified staff. Please resist the temptation to ask on social media or indeed try and care for them yourself as whilst offers from the public are kind, the local wildlife deserve treatment and care from qualified staff or experienced rescue organisations.
Well done to Lisa and her team.
#avg #arunvetgroup #vet #veterinary #hedgehogs #wildlife
An important reminder from our lovely locum vet Sarah Holmes.
Please ensure all pet foods are stored correctly - after she treated a dog whose food had been infested with bugs! Food should always be carefully stored in a cool, closed container but even more so in this hot weather.
If you choose to raw feed, please make sure your pet's food is thawed safely and correctly. Never leave out in a hot kitchen to defrost.
Merry says "It's Friday"!
We wanted to share this fabulous video of Merry sounding very chirpy in our cat ward in Storrington.
Merry belongs to long serving registered nurse and veterinary physiotherapist Becky.
Becky is normally found with our k-laser in her hand but recently Merry was feeling a bit unwell with some bladder issues resulting in a short stay with us - so a little time was spent chatting to her boy.
As you can see from our video our cat wards are super chilled areas. Strictly a no dog area, our patients are played classical music through our sonos systems to help them feel relaxed and 'at home'. Kennels are also 'no bars'. This creates a much more relaxed feel for all our patients.
This service obviously extends through to our night service South Downs Emergency Vets. At night we are able to carefully control lighting ensuring only patients that need it, have lights on. This is so important for a sick patient requiring hospitalisation. Rest is vital for a good recovery and bright lights left on should be avoided.
Our page has been a little quieter than normal due to work behind the scenes. Keep your eyes peeled though as our pages are soon to be flooded with news from our new Chichester hospital opening this summer!
If you've recently registered and are awaiting our Chichester hospital, we'd love to hear from you!
Have a great weekend.
#avg #arunvetgroup #vet #veterinary #chichestervethospital #vetsinchichester #rcvsaccredited #twentyfourhour #seamlessveterinarycare #chichester
We hope you've all had a great start to the week.
Following on from our previous posts on wildlife, we wanted to share this video with you.
Those of you who follow our page will know that we often work closely with the fantastic team at Sompting Wildlife Rescue Pete who runs the organisation is a qualified and registered veterinary nurse benefitting from a wealth of knowledge on wildlife.
AVG nursing manager Jenny, who lives locally, often allows Pete to release their rehabilitated patients on to her own private woodland.
This video shows a very special moment when a rehabilitated stoat was re-released back in to the wild on part of Jenny's land.
Stoats are related to the Otter and Weasel and are most commonly spotted in woodlands, heaths and grasslands.
Such a very special sight. Our grateful thanks to Pete and the team for all they do.
#avg #arunvetgroup #wildliferescue #veterinaryhospital #vet #stoat #springwatch @RescueSompting
Meet Glen. Glen is quite as astonishing case and is a patient of Colleen at our Worthing clinic.
Glen the Border Collie is 5 months off his 15 birthday and like most dogs or cats who are fortunate enough to reach their teenage years, Glen had become very arthritic. In fact Glens lameness had become such a problem that just 4 weeks before this video has filmed, Glen was hobbling about on 3 legs.
Modern veterinary medicine now means that we have a whole selection of different prescription medicines at our finger tips and being an independent practice our veterinary surgeons can pick and choose a drug most suited to the individual patient, even if this means we order a drug not usually stocked in the clinics.
In Glens case he has a few health conditions meaning our regular anti-inflammatory drugs were not suitable. Colleen recommended we tried a new drug which is given by monthly injection.
As you can see from this video, Glen is now enjoying a new lease of life and is back to using all 4 legs and enjoying a game with his Border Collie brothers and sisters.
We very much hope this will mean that Glen can continue to enjoy his twilight years pottering about with his family, pain free.
Many thanks to his family for sending us this video and allowing us to share his story.
#avg #arunvetgroup #vet #veterinary #osteoarthritis #lameness #geriatricveterinarymedicine #bordercollie
A little treat for you this morning on such a wet day.
The Storrington nursing team have been caring for this beautiful little creature who was recently brought in by a member of the public, weak and dehydrated.
Nursing manager Jenny and resident wildlife expert/registered nurse Abbey have been doing a fabulous job nursing this little chap back to health so much so that this little bat is now eating independently.
Bats are the only flying mammal with over 1,400 species worldwide. Bats are a protected species under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and Conservation Regulations 1994. This means it is a criminal offence to intentionally capture, injure or kill a bat. It is also a serious offence to disturb a group of bats or a bat in its roost. Its hard to imagine why anyone would desire to do such a thing bearing in mind how truly fascinating these creatures are. If you've ever been lucky enough to get up close to a bat then you will surely agree the bone structures of their little faces are an incredible sight to behold.
Sadly, bat populations have suffered in recent years due to traffic, building and development work, cat attacks, sticky fly papers (please don't ever use these under any circumstances, especially in barns or outbuildings) and chemicals treatments.
As previously mentioned earlier in this post, Abbey is based at our Storrington hospital and holds a wealth of knowledge on wildlife, regularly sharing her home with hedgehogs and other wildlife. We are also extremely fortunate to have Sompting Wildlife Rescue locally. Run by a qualified and registered veterinary nurse, Pete does a brilliant job of nursing wildlife back to health. If you ever find injured wildlife we would always urge you to pass the animal on to a recognised local animal charity or veterinary practice where the animal will be nursed back to health by people experienced in this difficult task. Like many ‘facts’ you read on social media, it is a complete myth that vets will
A bit of a sad story here but a very good educational on the benefits of microchipping and the negative effects of leaving your cat unneutered.
This lovely boy was brought into the Pulborough clinic yesterday after being found by a concerned member of the public on Sunday.
At first glance you could mistakenly think this entire male was a sick cat, however he is infact just elderly and showing the signs of a life of war wounds from scraps with other cats. With lots of teeth missing, he has adapted to eating his food using a paw.
Pulborough vet Amy immediately scanned him for a microchip and to our surprise and delight a chip was found. A telephone call later and his owners were found some distance away in Burgess Hill and we are told he had been missing a week.
It is of course a mystery as to how this chap arrived in Pulborough but we suspect he had unknowingly ventured into a car or van.
As well as ensuring your cat is microchipped, please get your cat neutered. As well as preventing many unwanted litters of kittens, you will also have a much happier cat who won't want to stray or end up in fights.
We do wish this lovely boy well and very much hope he will get to spend his twilight years taking it easy and it’s definitely not too late for him to be neutered.
If your cat is either not neutered or not microchipped, please call one of our clinics today to book him or her in.
*Please note treatment and neutering were offered but his owners chose to return to their own vet where they live. Unfortunately owners are not legally obliged to have their cats neutered in the UK and as a result vets cannot enforce this, just advise*
