Treatment Policies
Operations
Appointments for routine operations are normally made through reception. Investigative procedures are often booked through the vet at the time of consultation.
For operations booked in the practice clients receive a pre-operative leaflet explaining the procedures including when to remove food, fee estimate if applicable, and arrangements for admission/collection. If appointments are made by telephone these instructions are given verbally. Please ensure you are happy about the procedure and feel free to ask any questions.
Pre-op blood tests can be performed on the same day as surgery in our own lab. All dogs and cats should be starved from midnight. Rabbits and small furries should NOT be starved, and we encourage owners of rabbits and small furries to bring food with them for after surgery. Water should be made available until the morning of the operation. Animals should be encouraged to pass urine and faeces prior to surgery. For any unreasonably dirty animals a bath the day before may be advisable! Animals are admitted by appointment with a nurse between 9.00am and 10.00am. Hopefully, with most operations the animal is then discharged later that day.
Hospitalised patients:-Clients may visit at any time during surgery hours, but please try to give prior notice so that someone is available to give you an update on your pet. Patient care sheets are used whilst your pet stays with us to enable us to give then the best possible care. Please fill one in online for each of your pets should they need to stay with us for any reason, and we will then attach them to that pet’s file for future reference.
Neutering policy
Why do we neuter?
- To prevent unwanted litters
- To avoid nuisance behaviour in males, e.g. spraying in male cats, wandering, fighting
- in dogs-To decrease health risks of pyometra, mammary tumour, ovarian cysts, uterine tumours, tesicular tumours, prostate tumours or hyperplasia, hormonal/endocrine disorders
- To avoid behavioural problems
Cats can be neutered from 4 months old. Rabbits are spayed from 6 months old.
The optimum time for a bitch to be spayed is 3 months after her first season (or 3 months from the date of the previous season in an adult bitch). This allows the animal to mature, finish growing and to develop her joints and long bones and decreases the risk of incontinence, pseudo-pregnancy, mammary tumours, and hormonally related behavioural problems. Please discuss with the vet any problems which may concern you.
Male dogs can be castrated from around 9 months of age, however in large breeds we will often wait until much later to perform castration as recent studies have shown evidence that castrating and speying too young, before a dog has had time to finish growing can have detrimental effects on joint and bone formation as these hormones are also responsible for regulation of correct growth.
Misalliance
If a bitch has been mated it is possible to avoid a pregnancy by injecting her. The injections have to be 24hrs apart, but can be given any time from day 0-40, however, prior to day 22 is advisable. It often stings and may cause an injection site reaction, but this soon resolves.
Stray Animals
All stray animals entering the practice will be scanned for presence of a microchip within 24hrs of arrival. All dogs are required by law to have an identity disc on the collar, and from February 2016 your dog must be microchipped by Law. Healthy cats are to be kept for 7 days. If no owner is found they can then be re-homed. Healthy dogs are collected by the dog warden.
Microchipping
This practice has a strong pro-chipping policy – microchips give a permanent form of identification so there is more chance of your pet being returned to you if they lose a collar or especially if you choose not to put a collar on your cat for safety reasons.
Microchipping can be done at any time as it is a simple procedure and does not require sedation etc. Chips can then be checked at every appointment — especially boosters. All stray animals must be scanned within 24hr of entering the practice, to ensure they can be rapidly reunited with their owners. It has been a legal requirement to Microchip your dog and ensure the owner details are up to date on the registration database since 6th April 2016
Dew claws and docking
This practice does not perform docking or dewclaw removal on puppies, of any age, without a general anaesthetic. We will not routinely remove tails from ‘docked’ breeds. Dew claws and tail tips can be removed from dogs that repeatedly tear them, or are likely to tear them as a working dog. However, this is to be performed under GA, with follow up pain relief, antibiotics and dressings.
Drugs and prescriptions
We have researched the best drugs/brands for your pet. If you require specific products which are not normally stocked, please order at least 24hrs in advance for us to obtain them, Repeat prescriptions can be obtained, providing we have seen the animal recently and certainly no longer than 6 months. If requested, we may need you to bring in your pet for a check-up prior to dispensing. We would appreciate it where possible if you could give us a short amount of notice for repeats, so we can ensure we have them in stock.
Flea treatments & Worming
We strongly recommend routine preventative flea and worming treatments. Although you may currently get flea or worm treatment from pet shops or supermarkets it is advisable to get them from a veterinary surgery where you will be getting a more effective product and staff on hand to advise you on the best type of treatment for your pets. We have a range of different products in the practice. We can discuss a regime suitable for yourselves and your pet to include products which are easy for you to administer. However vets and nurses are more than happy to administer flea and worming treatments if required.
Euthanasia
We feel very strongly that this is an area of veterinary medicine which should not be overlooked, and to the best of our ability should be a planned, informative, procedure where possible. If it is known prior to the appointment that euthanasia is likely we try to arrange an appointment at the end of surgery, when more time can be given, and the practice is quiet. We try to collect payment at the time, but we do understand if a client wishes to pay at a later date, however, most feel it is best to sort out the paperwork before the event, so you can leave in peace at your own time. If a house visit is requested this is perfectly acceptable, but please understand the extra charge incurred.
What happens afterwards? You have the choice of burial, individual cremation with ashes returned to you or a standard cremation where the ashes of your pet are scattered in the garden of remembrance at the crematorium. We use Animal Funeral Services at Gloucester. CLICK HERE for more information or there is a client leaflet available on the company, so please do not hesitate to ask when you are at the surgery.
The Gloucester site has a garden of remembrance, which can be visited by the public. Private cremations are costly and there is a delay in the return of ashes, of usually about a week. There is a choice of caskets and urns, and a brochure, along with examples are available for your choice — but prices do vary.
We also offer a Paw print plaque on a slate heart to take home as a token of remembrance.
