Towcester Vets

🤕🤢 Symptom Saturday! 🤧🤒 🌟 Ataxia 🌟 🐾 Ataxia is a state of unsteadiness or lack of coordination that leads to a wobbly gait or difficulty walking. These little kittens are very wobbly and unsteady on their feet, but for them it is just a developmental stage as they learn to walk, much as we do as toddlers. When this continues beyond the first few weeks however, or presents in an adult animal, it can be a sign of a medical condition and veterinary attention should always be sought as soon as possible. 🐾 Some potential causes include: 🔺Cerebellar hypoplasia: young animals who continue to be ataxic as they grow might have a developmental condition where the cerebellum in the brain is underdeveloped. This is most commonly seen in kittens whose mother was infected with feline infectious enteritis during pregnancy, and so is much rarer today with good vaccination uptake. It can occur in dogs however, often without a known cause. 🔺 Toxins: just as humans under the influence of alcohol or some drugs become ataxic so do our pets. Ataxia may also occur with some medications. 🔺 Brain injuries/tumours: brain tumours tend to present with seizures initially, but any damage to brain tissue can result in ataxia. 🔺 Spinal cord disease: pressure on the spinal cord from an injury or a slipped disc can result in ataxia. 🔺 Vestibular disease: this condition which affects the inner ear and balance centres of the body can cause ataxia, often alongside dizziness and nausea. 🔺 Low blood glucose: animals with low blood sugars may demonstrate ataxia as well as lethargy. 🐾 If you notice any unsteadiness or lack of co-ordination from your pet please give us a call ☎️ #TowcesterVets #LovePets #trustintowcester #symptomsaturday #Ataxia #wobblycat

🐾 Pet of the Week! 🐾 🐕 This adorable fluffy boy is Barnaby, a lovely Pomeranian who has needed our help recently. 🐕 Sadly, Barnaby has hip dysplasia, a condition where the top of the femur doesn't sit fully within the hip socket of the pelvis. Both of Barnaby's hips are affected. 🐕 For Barney unfortunately his sockets were so shallow that they were providing minimal support to his femoral heads and sadly last December he suffered a dislocated hip. 🐕 Although dislocated hips can be replaced into the correct position, unfortunately they don’t often remain in place, particularly when the joint isn’t formed correctly as in Barnaby's case. To improve the success, surgical techniques ranging from capsule tightening to advanced referral techniques such as Total Hip Replacements can be performed. After discussion of the options the joint was stabilised using a suture from the pelvis around the femur, an iliofemoral suture. 🐕 Unfortunately in February the hip dislocated again and after discussion Barnaby's owners opted for a different procedure to try to prevent multiple reoccurances. The pain from the femoral head not sitting correctly within the pelvis or being completely dislocated comes primarily from bony surfaces that shouldn't be touching rubbing against each other. One way to prevent this is by surgically removing the whole of the top of the femur, a femoral head and neck excision arthroplasty or FHNEA. Although this sounds drastic, the muscles and ligaments around the pelvis are very strong and can provide support to the hip joint even without a central bone, and patients can regain surprisingly good mobility. 🐕 Barnaby recovered very well from the procedure, but sadly a few weeks ago his other hip joint dislocated. After the great success of the first FHNEA his owners opted to repeat the procedure on this leg too. 🐕 Vet Helen performed the second surgery which again went brilliantly. Barnaby has recovered exceptionally well. Th

😺🧻 Kitten Chaos! 🧻😺 🐾 Elf on the shelf pranks can lead to lots of fun for our youngest patients! Elves decorated the Christmas tree and living room at Veterinary Nurse Gill's house with toilet roll, much to the enjoyment of her son and her current foster kittens!! 🐾 Toilet paper, wrapping paper and cardboard boxes can provide excellent enrichment for kittens at this time of year, but take care with tinsel and Christmas light wires that can prove tempting to little ones but result in foreign bodies or electrocutions. 🐾 These gorgeous babies are being fostered by Gill currently on behalf of the charity Cats Protection. They currently have lots of cats and kittens looking for their forever homes so please check out their website if you have some kitten-shaped holes in your family 😻 https://www.cats.org.uk/northampton #TowcesterVets #LovePets #trustintowcester #kittenchaos #catsprotection #adoptme

🐾 Pet of the Week! 🐾 🐶 This gorgeous boy is Buster. Buster was rehomed when he was six months old to become a working Labrador. His owners say he was the best worker they have ever had! 🐶 Now an older boy of 13, Buster comes into our Weedon clinic every month for an injection to help his arthritis. As you can see it is keeping him very sprightly and he loves coming to see us! We love seeing him and his waggy tail too 🥰 🐶 If you are worried that your older pet is becoming stiff or sore please give us a call, we have lots of options available to help ☎️ #TowcesterVets #LovePets #trustintowcester #petoftheweek #arthritis #labrador

🌟 What We Do Wednesday! 🌟 🐶💉Dog Vaccinations 💉🐶 ❗Warning, injection shown in video ❗ 🐾 As a practice we strongly believe in the benefits of preventative medicine: the things that we can do to try to prevent health problems occuring rather than treating the illnesses that otherwise arise. 🐾 One of the major components of this is vaccinations. 🐾 The purpose of vaccination is well established: introducing immune systems to small doses of a carefully prepared virus or bacteria can allow the immune system to become prepared so that if they are exposed to the disease-causing organism later their immune system is able to fight effectively, resulting in no or reduced clinical signs. 🐾 The uptake of vaccinations in pet dogs has made a massive impact on the number of cases of infectious diseases that we see at Towcester Vets, but areas with lower uptake in this country and abroad sadly means that these diseases are far from abolished and so it is still important that we protect our pets. 🐾 What do we vaccinate dogs against 🔻Core vaccines in the UK (all dogs, all circumstances): 🔸Distemper: causes symptoms such as a cough, eye and nose discharge, diarrhoea, pad changes, tremors and seizures. It is a very serious disease, fatal in 80% of puppies. 🔸Parvovirus: Parvovirus is highly infectious and infected puppies and dogs become very poorly. The main symptoms are severe haemorrhagic (bloody) diarrhoea, vomiting, fever and anorexia, although the virus can also cause damage to the heart. Infected patients require intensive nursing and an extended stay in the hospital and sadly many don’t make it. 🔸Canine Infectious Hepatitis: Caused by canine adenovirus which usually attacks the liver but can also attack other organs within the body. The symptoms can vary depending on which organs are affected, but can include lethargy, reduced appetite, vomiting, diarrhoea, jaundice, bruising and seizures. The virus continues to be s

🌟 What We Do Wednesday! 🌟 🌀 Endoscopy 🌀 🐾 Endoscopes are long thin cameras that can be inserted into the body in order to provide visualisation of the internal surfaces of hollow organs. 🐾 At Towcester we have different sizes of endoscope to allow us to perform endoscopy of the nasal tract, airways and lungs, stomach and upper and lower intestinal tracts. 🐾 The procedure allows the vet to get good visualisation of the area of interest, but tiny ports next to the camera also allow tiny instruments to be passed alongside, so items can be grasped, biopsies can be taken or fluid can be flushed in and/or removed for analysis. 🐾 It is always particularly exciting when an animal has a foreign body - material which shouldn't be there - stuck within the stomach, nose, airways or lungs which will make the animal very unwell and we are able to remove it with the endoscope, reducing the risks of surgery and leading to quicker recoveries. 🐾 We posted about cheeky Ivan on Friday, the rescue cat who loved to eat things he shouldn't! An ultrasound scan had shown that he had foreign material in his stomach and the video below shows Certificate holder Vet Jen locating a piece within the stomach and managing to grasp it and remove it! 🐾 Our vets will happily talk through whether the procedure is right for your pet and their condition, please give us a call if you would like to discuss it ☎️ #TowcesterVets #LovePets #trustintowcester #endoscope #foreignbody #whatwedowednesday

🤕🤢 Symptom Saturday! 🤧🤒 🌟 Sneezing 🌟 🤧 Sneezing is the body's way of trying to rid itself of irritating or harmful particles. 🤧 Occasional sneezes might be caused by something irritating the nose at that moment, for example a strong smell, inhaling water or inhaling dust, but Veterinary attention should be sought if sneezing occurs frequently, persists or if the animal appears to be otherwise unwell. 🤧 Potential causes of frequent sneezing: 😿 Cat 'flu: Sneezing in cats, particularly when accompanied by inflamed eyes and nasal discharge can be a sign of viral cat 'flu. Cats normally require treatment to ease the symptoms and prevent secondary infections. 🙊 Kennel cough: Although, as the name suggests, the organisms that cause kennel cough normally result in a hacking cough some dogs instead present with sneezing as another or only symptom. 😷 Other respiratory infections: In both dogs and cats respiratory infections tend to result in increased breathing effort and coughing rather than sneezing, but sneezing is sometimes seen. 🤧 Allergies: Again, unlike hay fever and other allergies in people our pets tend to respond to allergens with sore, itchy skin, painful ears or gastrointestinal signs as opposed to sneezing, but in some cases sneezing might be seen instead of, or as well as, these signs. 🌾Foreign body: Foreign bodies within the nasal cavity (such as the impressive twig vet Jen removed from the dog's nose in the video) or behind the soft palate can result in intermittent sneezing, often with nasal discharge but not always. Blades of grass are commonly found behind the soft palates of cats and grass seeds get everywhere! 🍄 Fungal infections. Some fungal infections can result in frequent sneezing, again commonly alongside nasal discharge and sometimes nose bleeds. 😔 Masses or growths: less commonly, soft tissue growths within the nasal cavity can cause sneezing. ☎️ If you are concerned ab

🎩 Top Tip Tuesday! 🎩 🌟 Applying Flea Treatment 🌟 The last video to share is giving an oral product ☺️ If you would like to discuss your pets flea control with us or would like help with administration please give us a call.☎️ #TowcesterVets #LovePets #TopTipTuesday #fleas #fleatreatment

🎩 Top Tip Tuesday! 🎩 🌟 Applying Flea Treatment 🌟 The next video to share is applying a spot-on product ☺️ If you would like to discuss your pets flea control with us or would like help with administration please give us a call.☎️ #TowcesterVets #LovePets #TopTipTuesday #fleas #fleatreatment

🎩 Top Tip Tuesday! 🎩 🌟 Applying Flea Treatment 🌟 🗣️ You may have seen some discussions recently on whether medications used to treat parasites on pets are over used and contributing to environmental pollution. As with other potential causes such as pesticides used on crops or in people's homes and gardens it can be a tricky balance. Obviously no-one wants to cause environmental damage, but equally the damage the pests can cause can be huge. 🔎 With regards to flea treatment one suggestion made is that instead of routine preventative treatment, flea infestations are instead only treated once they arise. There are some huge difficulties with this however. As we have previously discussed flea infestations can be tricky to spot straight away and so by the time treatment is initiated the pet's bedding, home, car, other environments visited etc will all require treating with more of the chemicals we are trying to avoid, with the pet being treated for 3 months minimum. Some animals are allergic to flea saliva, meaning even a single bite can trigger distressing skin disease. Fleas and ticks are also associated with the transmission of some diseases. Many people understandably are reluctant for their pets to experience the discomfort and distress that can result from flea infestations even if just for a short period, while others are deterred by the idea of fleas in their home.😫 🧪Some of the chemicals implicated are able to be purchased without prescription over-the-counter, but unfortunately these preparations are often poor at fully solving a flea problem. This means more products being used, increasing the issue. Some people have suggested only effective, prescription strength medications should therefore be on the market. 💦 The chemicals in oral flea medications do not contamine water sources in the same way as spot-on products do and so might be a better option if your dog is a swimmer or requires regular baths (🙋 hands up for poo-rol

😱👀They ate what??!!👀😱 🚨Graphic footage warning 🚨 video is footage from a live surgery, but definitely worth a watch! As we have talked about previously, however careful we are as owners, pets love to eat things they shouldn't and at Towcester Vets we regularly have to induce vomiting or operate to remove foreign bodies. We consider ourselves fairly hard to shock, but this one surprised us all!! Watch as Veterinary Surgeon Cat removes this amazing foreign body from this dogs stomach! Luckily after being intensively nursed by both day and night teams the patient continued to recover well at home. Hopefully they will stick to eating food going forward! #TowcesterVets #poorlypets #foreignbodies #dogseatanything #amazingsurgery

🌟 What We Do Wednesdays! 🌟 💙 Microchipping 💙 A microchip is a tiny electronic device, coated in glass that can be inserted into an animal's body. It provides the animal with a unique identifying number that can be linked to a database with ownership details registered. It is so tiny it can fit in the middle of a hollow needle and so can be placed without anaesthesia. 💉 🚨In the UK the current law is that all puppies must be microchipped while with the breeder, before they turn 8 weeks old, with kittens needing theirs before they are 20 weeks old. Not complying can result in a large fine and a possible prosecution.🚨 Yesterday we told you about 1 year old Bramble whose puppy microchip failed (it's always the staff pets! 🙄🤣). The video shows her having a new chip placed by Veterinary Nurse Ruby. As you can see Bramble looked up from her snack briefly to see what Ruby was doing before returning back to her treat! 🥓 Did you know that as well as cats and dogs we can place microchips in a variety of other small species, including tortoises 🐢, rabbits🐇, guinea pigs🐹, lizards🦎, parrots🦜, ferrets and snakes🐍! If you would like an appointment for us to microchip your pet or litter of puppies please give us a call! ☎️ #TowcesterVets #LovePets #whatwedowednesday #microchipyourpets