The Tiny Vet

21/03/2025

It's Friday! On my to-do list:
💚Drink tea
💚Spend time with my own pets
💚Reply (properly) to all the messages I've had this week 🤩

17/03/2025

Super-friendly Frankie, the Syrian hamster, made me smile in my first visit this morning 🤗🐹
Despite being woken up and dug out of her cozy nest for her appointment, she was incredibly polite and friendly ❤️

13/03/2025

Chief Inspector of Trailers, Ivy, visited yesterday to perform a very important assessment of Tina's rat-proofing! We're pleased to say she passed the inspection with no advisories 😁
While she wasn't checking the doors for rat-sized cracks to squeeze through, Ivy was actually the first Tiny Patient to undergo surgery in Tina the Trailer! She had a general anesthetic and a mammary mass removed. Here are some photos of her recovering in the incubator, and of her being monitored by nurse Seb before her procedure began.
❤️❤️❤️

13/03/2025

🗓️What a month already! My feet have hardly touched the ground 😆 and we're not even halfway through March! Today I'm in my baggy joggers, fave tie-dye hoodie and my noise cancelling headphones taking a much needed admin day to catch up on case histories, blood test results, referrals, enquiries, sterilising surgical kits and I still need to put yesterday's order away!
🚗I have limited availability for appointments Wednesday and Friday next week and am around Saturday mornings if needed, so please get in touch if you need an appointment as they seem to be filling up fast.
🚑Please check back later today as I'll be posting about my first Tiny Patient 🥰 who had surgery in Tina the Trailer yesterday 🩺✂️💉🩹

07/03/2025

‼️Single dose vaccination appointments are now available for New Highly Virulent RHD‼️

Please get in touch if you would like this for your rabbit. The following information explains why this is being offered.

The side effects of this vaccine are very minimal and I have so far delivered nearly a hundred doses to rabbits at local rescues.

🐰🐰

27/02/2025

🌞What a lovely visit this morning! While the sun streamed through the rainbow catchers in the window (making me look like I'm off to a pride festival 🏳️‍🌈), I health-checked this newly registered mischief of four cheeky ratties 🐀🤗🥰
🌞Daisy scampered backwards and forwards across my shoulders before seeing if she could get inside my fleece jacket (she could) and Clara came out of her hidey box to check the information was correct on their consent form for off licence medications (it was).
🌞Shy girls Ivy and Marjorie returned to their hammock after being examined; they weren't keen on being in front of the camera.
🐭🐭🐭🐭

17/02/2025

🥳🥳🥳Tomorrow my new co-worker is coming to Tiny Vet HQ!!!!!!
See Instagram story for deets 🤩
Can't wait to introduce you all to Tina ✨✨
Good night all!

17/02/2025

Anybunny missing a rabbit?
Please get in touch with Shepton Vets if this boy is yours.

🚨Male(Entire) Rabbit FOUND in Collett Park this morning🚨
No concerns and no injuries, just lost.
Please ring 01749 343 955 if he belongs to you🐰

16/02/2025

Hope you all had a lovely weekend 😁 Next week is half term and I've kept my diary really light. My last available appointment has now been taken, but I'll be around for advice on the phone and emergencies. As always, if I'm unable to get to you quickly enough or your pet needs immediate hospitalisation, I will refer you to the wonderful team at Nurture Vet Hospital in Wells.
Lucy ###

13/02/2025

https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:eu:6ac0ea10-7e52-46ae-89a3-9ac0c7696b91

Rabbit Haemorrhagic Disease 2.... your questions answered! (hopefully)

Further to my previous post, here is a PDF of the text that was displayed in the pictures.

Lucy ###

13/02/2025

🚨🚨New Highly Virulent Rabbit Haemorrhagic Disease 2 🐰🐰

Single dose vaccination appointments are now available 🥳🥳🥳

For those of you waiting to get your rabbits vaccinated, please get in touch. This offer is available to all rabbit keepers within my catchment area. If you are not registered to The Tiny Vet and would like a home visit for this vaccine, please be courteous and speak to your own vet first.

£67 including visit fee for one rabbit;
£127.30 for two bunnies.

I have put some information together in the accompanying pictures which will answer most of everyone's questions about the virus, why we are concerned and why we are offering the vaccine. If its too small to read then you can use the alt text feature. I will also try to share it as a document link too.

Comment below or send me a message if you have further questions (the kind person who proof read this for me has already asked: can it be given at the same time as the triple vacc? answer: no, we recommend giving them two weeks apart).

Feel free to share, even if you're not local as this is intended to be educational/informative more than advertising my services!

Lucy ###

11/02/2025

✨ Here is my "Check Tiger's mouth" appointment from this morning 🤗🐢

✨ Tiger the Horsfields tortoise had a full health check and beak trim; you can see the difference between the first and last photos.

✨ This isn't my neatest beak trimming work 🫣 as despite being named after a tank, Tiger was incredibly shy and keep ducking into his shell despite our best efforts to hold his head still! I was reluctant to use my Dremel bur in this scenario so I got my favourite sharp little clippers out instead.

✨ The middle picture shows Tiger sulking in his shell when I was half way through the job, poor chap.

✨ The beauty of being a home visit vet is that I was able to take my time doing Tiger's procedure, without worrying that I was keeping my next patient waiting.

✨ Tiger's tortoise-friend Panzer, another Horsfields, also had a health check and a routine faecal test was carried out. We also reviewed their diet, housing and lighting which was all spot on!

✨ Please get in touch if you'd like to discuss routine health checks or poorly pet appointments for your tortoises 😊

11/02/2025

Ooooh, lovely little mention from the wonderful folk who make the best intensive care units 😍
(Ok, so they are just mentioning my mention, but I'll take it 😂)

What a wonderful post we've been tagged in over on LinkedIn. 💙 Thank you for sharing and we wish the very best to your patient.

11/02/2025

Check Tiger's mouth to be precise!
😱
I will report back later...

Have a good day everyone
Lucy ###

10/02/2025

Checking diary for tomorrow morning...

First appointment of the day:

"Tiger"
..

09/02/2025

✨🌛 What is everyone else doing this evening? I'm just sitting here learning how to do a caesarean in a python, y' know, just in case!

09/02/2025

Very informative post from The Guinea Pig Guru! If you have any further questions about spaying your sows or would like to discuss guinea pig neutering in general then please get in touch with me for a little chat 🤗

This is a procedure that I routinely carry out so do let me know if you are looking for an exotic vet to neuter your piggies ♥️♥️

Spaying female guinea pigs.

By the time female guinea pigs reach 18 months old they can develop ovarian cysts, these occur in approximately 75% of sows (that’s 3 in every 4 ladies). Most of these cysts are called rete cysts (around 80% in some studies) which are not hormonally active, meaning they cannot be treated with hormonal therapy. Cysts can be uncomfortable and are likely to cause some reduction in life quality. Therefore treatment for cysts in guinea pigs is often surgical removal. This is therefore one of the big reasons we are beginning to advocate for preventative spaying in younger guinea pigs. This is a much easier surgery and less risk to the piggie when they are younger. It will not only prevent ovarian cysts but also can help reduce the chances of uterine cancers, infections and other changes.

In most cases for preventative spaying, guinea pigs have one or two surgical incisions on the one or both sides of their body. The ovaries can be reached by these small incisions a little easier than a midline incision (near the bellybutton). Although it is also veterinarian preference and in some cases when cysts are already present the midline approaches are preferred. Surgery is usually less than an hour.

Ideally ladies should be spayed as young as possible (around 4-6months of age), but this can be performed at any age. The older the sow often the more likely cyst are already present.

If you are interested in spaying your ladies preventatively then we would advise finding a piggie savvy or exotics vet who is happy to do this surgery. Not all vets are yet familiar with the surgery. Be mindful that it can take a week or so for them to fully bounce back. It’s also important that we do not consider this in piggies with any signs of illness. Some mainstream pet shop bred piggies also have concurrent underlying respiratory issues so they should always be checked fully by a vet before any decision regarding aneasthesia is decided.

Some literature regarding the stats here:
https://www.vetexotic.theclinics.com/article/S1094-9194(13)00085-6/fulltext

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30502791/

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1040638716665429