We aim to provide high quality veterinary care in a friendly environment. Our five branches offer a wide range of services and facilities for you and your pets.
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We serve Swansea, Neath and the surrounding area, including the beautiful Gower peninsula. All branches of St James Veterinary Group have been accredited by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. Our main Parkway branch has received Tier 3 Small Animal Veterinary Hospital status. St James Veterinary Group is the only practice in Swansea with this level of RCVS recognition and we join an elite g
roup of veterinary hospitals in Wales. EMERGENCIES: Out of hours emergencies: call 01792 200900
We are proud to be one of the only veterinary practices left in Swansea that still runs its own 24 hour emergency service. We do not rely on any other external party or premises for this. Emergencies out of normal working hours are seen at our Parkway branch. If you have a genuine emergency during working hours (9am-6pm) call your usual branch number. For all other emergencies outside of these times please call 01792 200900. Please have your surname, your pet’s name, and the branch at which your animal is registered available before phoning.
🐰 It's day one of Rabbit Awareness Week 2024 - Healthy Diet, Happy Bunnies!
They're diving straight into the importance of a healthy diet for rabbits!
Rabbits should be fed only a small amount of nuggets and the bulk of their diet should be fresh grass or hay!
***FOUND - UPLANDS***
Male, crossbreed, grey and white found in Uplands by Tesco last night.
He is microchipped but we have been unable to get hold of the owner.
If he is your dog please phone the practice on 01792 200900. The dog warden will collect him tomorrow (Monday).
Unfortunately we have had a deceased cat brought to our Sketty Hospital this evening. He was a neutered male, tabby and white, shorthaired cat. He was found on the A4067 near DFS Morriston.
He is microchipped but unfortunately the microchip is not registered in this country. From the number we suspect it is a Romanian microchip and as such he will have been imported (either with his owner or via a rehoming organisation etc).
If you think this could be your cat please call us on 01792 205000 (normal hours) or 01792 200900 (out of hours/weekend).
Belle was in a few of months ago for removal of a lump from her face. Unfortunately due to the position of the lump surgery can be quite complex, both to avoid other important structures but also having enough left over skin to close the wound afterwards.
Luckily Belle was able to see Gareth who is one of our vets with Advanced Practioner Status in Small Animal Soft Tissue Surgery. Surgery was performed and Belle has recovered well at home!
Here at St James Veterinary Group we are fortunate to have two of our vets (Gareth Field and Serena Walters) who have completed extra qualifications in Small Animal Surgery and are recognised by the RCVS as Advanced Practioners in Small Animal Surgery. This means they are able to perform and assist with both orthopaedic (fractures, cruciate disease etc) and soft tissue surgeries that can be more complex.
***FOUND - UPLANDS***
Tortoise found on Rhianfa Lane, Uplands. Unfortunately it is not microchipped.
If it could be your tortoise please phone our Sketty Hospital on 01792 205000. Proof of ownership will be required.
***FOUND - BIRCH GROVE***
Adult, male, crossbreed dog found on Heol Nant Bran in Birchgrove.
He is microchipped but unfortunately the details are not registered.
If you think he is your dog please phone the Sketty Hospital today on 01792 200900. The dog warden will be contacted to collect him in the morning if he is unclaimed.
***FOUND - BAGLAN/CIMLA***
Older, female, white shorthaired cat found on Bwlch between Baglan and CIMLA.
She is not microchipped or wearing a collar and has an old and progressive disease affecting her left ear.
If you think this is your cat please phone the Sketty Hospital on 01792 205000
Date for the diary!
Llys Nini's annual Fun Dog Show
🐶
A great welcome awaits you all to our Fun Day & Dog of the Year Show on 21st July 2024. Gates open at 10:00, the Show opens at 11:30 by our VIP & VID Davies aka Jiffy & his dog Barney. Joined by the Rock Choir. It's £5 entry per car.
The event will be compared & sponsored by Jonathan Williams & JCFC Entertainments.
Registration for the Dog Show opens at 11am - then the Dog Show hosted by Kev Johns start at 12.
For Families we have a Kids Play Zone with Crazy Characters, Gladiator Combat Giant Inflatable , a Fun Fair, Face Painting, 20 Local Retailer Stalls & a Prosecco Bar.
For the doggies: Chill Out Paddle Pool Zone, Have a Go Agility, Fastest Recall Challenge & a Doggie Ball Pit, Doggie Photo Booth plus of course you can enter the Dog Show.
Categories for Dog Show are:
MASSIVE thanks category sponsors for the dog show:
Golden Oldie ~sponsored by Caryl Thomas SPK Property Solutions
Precious Pup ~sponsored by The New Gower Hotel & Restaurant, Bishopston Linda & Bruce x LN Rescue
Scrumptiously Scruffy ~ sponsored by Bosco & Izumi
Waggiest Tail ~ sponsored by Castell Howell
Best Look-a-like ~ sponsored Datrys Business Solutions
Gorgeous Girlie ~ sponsored by Kev Johns
Handsome Dude ~ sponsored by Gower Coffee Limited
Llys Nini Rescue Dog of the Year ~ sponsored by St James Vets
Pontlliw & Tircoed Community
Benji & Friends
PGM Solicitors
Whats On In Swansea For Kids
It only happens in SWANSEA!!!
Gowerton Residents
Dunvant and Killay Community
Trades & Businesses, SWANSEA & Surrounding Areas
A1K9 Pet Dog Training
South Wales - Everything for Dogs.
Lead The Way - Group Dog Walks UK
MISSING DOGS TEAM WALES
Upper Killay Community Page
Whats on in Bont - Pontarddulais Swansea
Pontardulais M.O.T Centre
Gowerton Residents
Local Area Coordination in Cockett, Waunarlwydd & Gowerton
Swansea Online
Trades & Businesses, SWANSEA & Surrounding Areas
Swansea Bay Radio
The Bark Bites
South Wales - Everything for Dogs.
REUNITED 😃
***FOUND in taxi***
Adult, female, black and white longhaired cat was found under a seat in a taxi this morning.
She is in good condition so is likely to have tried to get a lift this morning from one of the following areas:
+ EMS cabs - Ammanford
+ Heol Llwyn Bedw - Hendy
+ Courtney Road - Llanelli
+ Llwynhendy
She unfortunately does not have a microchip.
She is safe in our Penllergaer branch (01792 895154) today and will get transferred to our Sketty Hospital (01792 205000) this evening if she has not been collected.
We are pleased to be one of the top 3 vets in Swansea for another year!
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/cuRSTggPj4S7krdS/
***REUNITED***
This little lady has been brought into our Penllergaer branch. If she is yours or you know the owner please get in touch.
Tom came in to see us after a few days retching, lethargy and not interested in food.
Tom was admitted the next day for further investigations. Under general anaesthetic his mouth and throat were examined, with nothing to be found. However, we were able to utilise our endoscope to get a view behind his soft palate of his nasopharynx (where the back of the nose meets the throat). There we found a blade of grass stuck, which we were able to carefully and safely remove.
Tom went home later that same day and was back to his normal self!
We have had a deceased adult, male neutered, black, short haired cat found in Neath by the A474 between the roundabouts by Tesco.
He was not microchipped or wearing a collar.
If you think this is your cat please phone the Sketty Hospital on 01792 205000
We will soon start to see baby birds appearing. It is very important to know when to leave these alone and when to intervene.
The link below to RSPCA gives more detailed information on what to do depending on how old the baby bird is likely to be (visual feathers etc).
We are often involved in helping wildlife casualties. Injured or unwell wildlife can be brought to us (after first phoning the practice to check we are able to receive them) where we can assess the animal.
Registered Veterinary Nurse Catrin Roberts has a certificate in nursing of exotic species. She has been able to provide our team with guidance on the nursing of wildlife casualties presented to us. This means we can offer them the best chance before transport to Gower Bird Hospital for treatment and rehabilitation.
https://www.rspca.org.uk/adviceandwelfare/wildlife/birds/baby
***FOUND - NEATH***
Female ferret found on Bryn Road in Neath. She is not microchipped.
If you think this is your ferret please phone the Sketty Hospital on 01792 205000.
Unfortunately we have had a deceased cat brought to our Walter Road branch today.
Young adult, female, shorthaired, tabby. She was not wearing a collar and was not microchipped.
If you think this could be your cat please phone the Walter Road branch during normal opening hours on 01792 643906
Deadline for ordering repeat medications or food is THURSDAY 3PM.
Did you know we are the only practice in Swansea able to offer our own, on site, out of hours service to our clients?
This means we are able to offer a truly 24/7 service for emergencies. All out of hours operates at our Sketty Hospital where there is always a vet on call and veterinary nurse on site. In April we saw over 100 patients out of hours. Some of these patients will have required further testing and/or hospitalisation and some may have been able to go home that day.
We wanted to say congratulations to vet Bryn Kirk has recently passed his certificate on Emergency and Critical Care. He joins Registered Veterinary Nurse Laura John, who has passed a nursing certificate in Emergency and Critical Care. They both work alongside our other vets and nurses that take part in sharing the out of hours duties. Bryn and Laura are able to help teach other members of staff internally to ensure we stay up to date on the latest advice and are able to provide a full emergency service to our clients.
Continuing Education 🎓
Did you know it is a compulsory requirement that all vets and nurses have to complete several hours of continuing education to continue practicing.
For vets this is 35 hours per year and for nurses this is 15 hours a year.
This extra studying can be in any area/s relating to veterinary and can include:
- short lectures
- practical skills (the photo below is from a heart scanning course run by Heartvets )
- teaching
- conferences
- completing certificates (additional qualifications) that usually takes several years
All this continual studying means we can stay up to date on current information and advice to best treat our patients.
We are very lucky at St James to have a large selection of vets and nurses who have spent the time completing certificates in various topics. Over the next few weeks we will highlight an area and how this benefits our clients.
🤓
Did you know all cats have an abdominal flap that swings from side to side when they walk? This flap is called the primordial pouch and is an important part of the cat anatomy. It varies on how prominent it is depending on breed and genetics.
The primordial pouch has a few functions:
- it provides protection to the abdominal organs during fighting by providing an extra layer
- it helps with their flexibility allowing them to twist, leap and turn
- due to it's elastic nature it allows the abdomen to expand after a big meal
However, if your cat's primordial pouch is more prominent than normal for them it can be due to obesity (the pouch may be larger and swing less than normal as it becomes more fatty).
We had an adult, female, black, shorthaired cat brought to our Sketty Hospital earlier today.
Unfortunately she was too unwell and has now passed away despite attempting treatment. She had no microchip or collar and was found in the road on Gotre Fawr Road, Killay.
If you think this could be your cat please phone the practice on 01792 205000.
We often get questions about pet insurance.
This article from The Telegraph gives a good overview and goes in to how to choose the best insurance for your needs.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/pets/news-features/best-pet-insurance/
Which? also have a list on the "top" pet insurance policies and can be found at: https://www.which.co.uk/money/insurance/pet-insurance/pet-insurer-reviews/best-and-worst-pet-insurance-adlAD3Y24cYN
From PetPlan to Tesco, experienced vet Pete Wedderburn reviews the best pet insurance policies for your dog, cat or other animal friend
Thank you to everyone who came up with some captions for the photo of the lovely Wilson below.
Wilson's family had a look through them all and their favourite one was "Really, you want me to wear that?!" because he does pull a face every time he has to wear his coat.
Deadline for ordering repeat medications and food for the upcoming bank holiday weekend is THURSDAY 3PM.
Today is World Veterinary Day and we wanted to use this as an opportunity to say thank you to our St James Team 🥰
🐶🐱🐰🐹🐭
***FOUND - SA5***
Found on Eagles Place, SA5. Been seen in the area for a while. Shorthaired, adult, unneutered, male, black cat.
Currently receiving treatment at our Sketty Hospital. If you think this could be your cat please contact us on the practice on 01792 205000.
Some fun to start the week!
This is Wilson and he belongs to a member of staff 🥰
We thought it would be fun to play "caption this". Post any ideas for your captions below!
Unfortunately we have had a deceased unneutered, male, ginger, shorthaired cat brought to the practice.
He was found on Fairwood Road, West Cross and was likely hit by a car.
He is microchipped but we have been unable to get hold of his owners.
If you think this is your cat please phone the Sketty practice on 01792 205000 during normal working hours.
| Monday | 09:00 - 14:00 |
| 15:00 - 18:00 | |
| Tuesday | 09:00 - 14:00 |
| 15:00 - 18:00 | |
| Wednesday | 09:00 - 14:00 |
| 15:00 - 18:00 | |
| Thursday | 09:00 - 14:00 |
| 15:00 - 18:00 | |
| Friday | 09:00 - 14:00 |
| 15:00 - 18:00 | |
| Saturday | 09:00 - 12:00 |
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Quackers, a 15yr old goose, came in to see us recently when her owner noticed she was having difficulty getting out of her pond and was quite weak. On examination it was found that she had eggs ready to lay and due to her age it was strongly suspected she had low calcium. We are pleased to say after electrolytes and calcium supplementation she is now back to her normal self!
🦷Tooth Brushing🦷 Tooth brushing is a very important part of dental hygiene for cats and dogs. Understandably dogs are easier to train for this, but it's still possible to get cats to accept having their teeth brushed. Below is a link to the Dogs Trust guide on training your dog to have their teeth brushed. https://www.dogstrust.org.uk/dog-advice/health-wellbeing/at-home/dog-dental-hygiene And also a guide from International Cat Care for our feline friends 🐱 https://icatcare.org/advice/how-to-brush-your-cats-teeth/
Earlier this week we showed you a picture of a canine removed during a dental. That canine belonged to Eliza the ferret (currently at Llys Nini RSPCA ). As her canine was fractured she came in for an anaesthetic and a dental (including dental x-rays) to removed the damaged tooth and give the rest a scale and polish. 🦷
Today is considered "Blue Monday". 💙 Thankfully our pets are usually there to cheer us up. Like Red who was in a few weeks ago and was happy to walk himself back to reception after his appointment. 😁
Leo had a lot of fun on his first visit to St James and our Neath branch. He loves water and had a lot of fun playing with the tap 💦 Lots of cats prefer running water to bowls so water fountains can encourage them to drink more. 🐈
Have you noticed any changes in your pets mobility? As our pets get older, just like us humans, they too can suffer with joint problems. This can show initially in many different ways such as: lameness, not moving around or jumping as much as they used to, not enjoying their favourite thing (like Duke the retriever in the video who loves running for his ball) or maybe you've noticed them over licking a joint? If this is something that you have been noticing in your pet, help can be given in different ways: 1. 👩⚕️Getting a veterinary health check is always important as knowing the best option and ways to help is always important. 2. ⚖️Keeping our pets at their ideal weight is just as important as we don't want extra weight putting extra stress on the joints. Looking at the type of diet and how much they are fed or perhaps a change to a senior diet that has the extra nutrition support. 3.🐾Making sure they have a healthy amount of exercise daily (walking longer than normal on weekends can cause extra aching) and try to avoid too many steps/hills/unstable ground to be walking on. 4.💊 Pain relief medication prescribed by a veterinary surgeon, joint supplements, regular osteoarthritis injections or having physio/hydro/laser therapy can help with the aches and pains. Duke seen in the video below is able to get back to enjoying playing in the sea after he started having monthly injections to help with his pain! 🌊 Sometimes surgical intervention may have to take place and then followed up with the previous answers, watching out for any changes and contacting your vets if you feel anything is wrong as you know your pet the best. If you would like to discuss your pets mobility don't hesitate to get in touch and book an appointment at your local branch!
Today is National Technology Day! We are very fortunate in this country to have a lot of technology available to us in veterinary medicine to help us diagnose and treat animals. These include from machines in practice we can test blood and other samples, machines like x-ray, ultrasound and endoscopy, laboratories we can send samples to for a variety of tests and referral centres that have not just specialists but often additional equipment like CT and MRI. There are also the more unusual technologies that can be very useful to us. In the video below you will see George (belonging to one of our vets) having a very large "pill" being given. This is actually a small camera! It has 4 lenses to get a full view and takes more than 1 photo every second to create a video of the intestines. It often takes 1-2 days to pass through and come out in 💩 where it is gently cleaned and sent to the specialist company to download the information. A medicine specialist then looks at the video and reports back to us. Not all dogs would tolerate this being administered and if abnormalities are found we may still need to anaesthetise them to perform biopsies.
This time last week a group of staff took on the Welsh 3 Peaks Challenge! They climbed Snowdon, Cadair Idris and Pen Y Fan within 24 hours. Fundraising is still active, raising money for MIND. https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/lynsey-hitt3?utm_source=copyLink&utm_medium=fundraising&utm_content=lynsey-hitt3&utm_campaign=pfp-share&utm_term=f9ff72a7a0244b5ea657a061609b362c Well done to everyone involved! 👏👏👏 ⛰️⛰️⛰️
How to "tyre" out a dog! Cledwyn and Dewi love playing tug together, an old bicycle tyre is their favourite. Show us your pictures of your pets favourite toys to play with!
It's the time of year when there is a lot of young and baby wildlife around. Please before handling or moving anything either phone for advice or look on RSPCA/Gower Bird Hospital websites. A lot of wildlife that gets brought to us often should have been left in the wild. Obviously some of these youngsters do need to be removed from where they were found and taken to appropriate rehabilitation centres. Below is a video of a baby hedgehog being fed and looked after by one of our nurses whilst awaiting transport to an appropriate centre.
Show off Sunday Barney's owner has been teaching him a lot of tricks. We were quite impressed by this one which aims for him to help empty the washing machine! 😍 We would love to see photos or videos of your pets and the tricks they can do, please share them below!
🦔Today is National Hedgehog Day🦔 We wanted to share a video of a hedgehog that visits vet Lynsey's garden, who has been named Horis. Horis is very lucky as his coming and goings are monitored by a wildlife camera, he is offered food to help support him and more importantly he has been bought a house to keep him warm and safe. 🏠🥰 For information on what to do if you find an injured or unwell hedgehog, or how you can help local hedgehogs please take a look at the link below. https://www.rspca.org.uk/adviceandwelfare/wildlife/animals/hedgehogs/garden
We hope everyone has managed to enjoy the Christmas and New Year period. Boris certainly has, maybe a bit too much, if his energy levels playing with the tree now are anything to go by. We'd love to see any captions our followers have for this video (please note this is just for fun and not a competition). 😂
Boris is demonstrating exactly what mischief a cat can get up to with a Christmas tree! 🎄
🎄 Christmas is coming🎄 We will post a few tips this week on how to keep your pets safe over the festive period, so keep your eyes peeled! (Video courtesy of https://www.drvictoriastrong.com/)
As well as caring for all our patients we regularly take in wildlife brought in by members of the public. We assess the animal for injury and then when possible arrange for it to go to a local wildlife rehabilitation centre like the Gower Bird Hospital. Recently we had a woodpecker brought in and we did our best to provide it with enrichment and food whilst it was under our care. The Gower Bird Hospital, RSPB and RSPCA have a lot of information on their websites on what to do if you find birds and other wildlife and you are concerned for their welfare.
Travelling to Europe with your pet? Please see the video below for some information regarding the change to travel requirements as Pet Passports are not valid since we left the EU.
That Friday Feeling! 😁
For dog owners: some information about kennel cough as we have been seeing an increased number of dogs affected in the past few weeks.
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