My first post

Hello, and welcome to the first Ash Veterinary Surgery blog post.

Right, that bit was easy, what do I say next? Well I guess a little about what this is. Ash Veterinary Surgery is a small animal veterinary surgery based in Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales. We have three surgeries; Merthyr Tydfil, Mountain Ash and Abercrave and employ six vets and a number of support staff. We treat all small animals, from the more usual dogs, cats and rabbits to marmosets, snakes and tortoises.

So why blog?

Lots of people have pets. Lots of people care for their pets very much, but don't always do the best for them. This isn't because they are being cruel; often they just don't realise that what their pet is doing isn't normal, or that something can be done for them. They don't understand that some diseases or situations can be prevented if action is taken early.

I often hear people saying "I never knew you could do that," or "I wish someone had told me that before." This is an attempt to help some of the animals we rarely get to see, by helping their owners find out what is best for them. I really don't mind whether this is for our clients, or people who go to a different surgery, if it helps even a single animal to have a better life.

Some of our clients come in virtually every week and so have ample chance to find out what is going on within the practice. However some of you are only seen once a year for vaccination boosters, or twice a year if you take up our offer of a free six monthly MOT, so you might miss out on all sorts of things that are going on within the practice.

I hope this blog will give you more of an idea about what is happening at Ash and give you the chance to get involved if you are interested. National Microchip month is coming up and we are planning other events such as a blood donor session for dogs.

We are working on our website too; as soon as it's on line, I'll let you know.

Another reason I wanted to blog was that I really enjoy veterinary practice. Although there are sad occasions there are so many rewarding moments and I wanted to share those. It'd be great tell you about patients who have made a fantastic recovery (or done something really funny) so with their owner's permission I'll tell you about those too. You might get the occasional story about my own pets too.

I suppose it might be a good idea to tell you a little about myself too. My name is Rachel and I have been working at Ash Vets as a veterinary surgeon for five years. I have just become a partner in the business, so I'm more involved than ever now. I live with my boyfriend Ian and my cat called Rungo. That's him in the photo (Rungo that is, not Ian). In about three weeks, we're getting another two kittens, so I'm sure I'll be telling you about them and sharing photos soon.

Bye for now, please look back soon and I'll try to post regularly.

Rachel