Owner of Starving Dog Banned From Keeping Animals for Ten Years

This story was featured in last week's Merthyr Express. (please click on the article to see a bigger, easier to read picture)

We at Ash Veterinary Surgery are pleased to help stamp out animal cruelty. Our vets have been involved in giving evidence in a number of animal successful cruelty prosecutions.

On The Buses

I was heartily amused by the story of Casper, a cat from Plymouth in Devon who gets on a bus when he fancies a rest and settles down to sleep on the back seat. You can read the story here.

A client pointed out a similar story about a white cat called Macavity who takes the bus 400m down the road to the fish and chip shop. His story is here.

I'm intrigued now. We've got plenty of patients who arrive by bus for treatment, but I've yet to meet one who comes by bus on his own. Perhaps it's just a matter of time.

Obesity in animals

Obesity is not just a problem for people, many animals are becoming overweight as well. Some surveys of veterinary surgeons suggest that almost half the animals we see are overweight.

When told that their pet is overweight, some owners do not feel that this is a problem, but being obesity can lead to joint pain, heart conditions, liver problems, cystitis and diabetes. Overweight animals cannot exercise and enjoy life as much as their slimline friends.

Recently a man in Brighton has been prosecuted by the RSPCA for animal cruelty because his dog was seriously overweight. Details can be found in http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/sussex/8048356.stm

The hope is that this publicity educates the public and makes people treat obesity in animals as it deserves; as a serious medical condition.

We at Ash Veterinary Surgery are very concerned about obesity and offer free nurse clinics to help your overweight pet lose weight. We have a range of special diets, behavioural therapies, advice and even drugs if necessary to help with the weight loss.

Please phone to make an appointment and we will be delighted to help. If you are not sure if your pet is actually overweight, please book a into our nurse clinic and they will be happy to advise you.


More advice about weight loss and healthy lifestyles for your pet can be found at http://www.petsgetslim.co.uk/home/

Is It Worming Time?

When did you last worm your pets? Can you remember, or was it "some time ago, I can't remember exactly when" like most of us?

Generally we remember to worm our puppies and kittens regularly. When you are doing it every 2 weeks until they are 12 weeks old, then every month until they are 6 months, it's not too hard to remember. But adult dogs and cats? Then it gets more difficult.

Adult dogs and cats should be wormed every 3 months. No matter how organised you are, it's easy for this to slip your mind; we're all terribly busy after all. Even if you buy our year's supply of wormers and get the 25% discount you still have to remember to give them.

Novartis, the manufactures of our milbemax wormers have provided a website to help you remember. If you log onto their website, you can arrange to have emails sent by either text message or email. Just look at
http://www.wormfree.co.uk/worming_reminder/en/treatment_reminder.shtml

That's one less thing for us all to remember.

Helping Ty Hafan

At Ash Veterinary Surgery we don't just help animals, we're interested in helping people too.

Last weekend Leanne, one of nurses, and I took part in Ty Hafan's first sleepwalk. The 8 mile walk started at midnight in the Millennium Stadium and went all the way to Cardiff Bay and back.

We raised over £350 in sponsorship between us, contributing to a total amount of £54,000 for the night. It costs Ty Hafan £2.5 million pounds a year to keep running, but this goes some way towards their costs.

Many thanks to everyone who sponsored us, from both of us.

Is Insurance Worth It?

After our insurance training session last week, I started to wonder just how much money I had saved by having my pets insured.

I sat down with a calculator and worked out exactly what I had spent in the last year

Giacomo has been the most expensive of the cats, especially after his argument with a car a fortnight ago. (He's doing very well by the way. He's walking as normal now and really can't understand why he has to be confined in a cage or a room at all times. His tail has now stopped itching, as the hair is growing back, which has also improved his mood!)

He has started physiotherapy again to build up his muscles after the accident.

In the last 9 months, since we got him, he has suffered from the following

Diarrhoea
£369.65

Hip Dysplasia
£514.09 here at Ash
£661.00 for physiotherapy

Respiratory Infection
£1642.01

Road Traffic Accident
£809.74 for initial treatment
£1336.30 for specialist surgery

This means I would have spent a total of £5332.79 in the first year of his life. However, because he is insured with Petplan, I have only spent the excesses of £60 per condition; a total of £240.

How much does his insurance cost? Well he has the Supercat Cover, which means that he is covered for up to £12,000 on each individual condition per year. We pay £13.89 per month; a total of £166.68 per year. This is the most expensive of the Petplan policies and cheaper monthly premiums can be arranged.

As well as covering you for illnesses and accidents involving your pet, Petplan also cover for other related problems. For example; we were supposed to be going to London to see a show the weekend that Giacomo had his accident. If we hadn't managed to cancel the travel and hotel we had arranged, they would have reimbursed us for that.

The other cats haven't been cheap either. Bellini has had the same respiratory infection which cost £2486.53 to treat. As this was a single condition, I paid only £60 excess on this treatment.

Rungo is slightly more expensive to treat. Because he's 12 years old, I have to pay the first £90 of treatment for each condition and 20% of each claim after that.

He has been treated for

Arthritis
£601.14 here at Ash
£551 physiotherapy

Oral Pain (including dental treatment)
£272.95

This is a total of £1425.09, of which I have paid £429.02

He has the Budget Plan insurance, which means that he is covered for up to £4000 treatment on each condition, and this costs £12.79 per month for a cat his age.

So as you can see, I'm very grateful to Petplan for the level of cover they provide for all my pets. If your animals are not insured, then it is well worth thinking about. How would you manage if you were faced with bills like these?

Insurance companies will not cover what they all pre-existing conditions. This means they will exclude diseases which your pet suffered from before you took out the policy. This is why we recommend insurance to everyone with a new pet. They will also charge an excess on any condition treated. However, even with these criteria, it's worth your while insuring your pet in most cases.

Murphy the Hypnodog

One of the questions I am often asked is whether I've seen anything interesting at work.

I'm not always sure what other people think are interesting. Some things I consider fascinating have just made my friends or practice clients go green. But here's something I think everyone should consider interesting.

At Ash Veterinary Surgery, we treat a dog who can hypnotise people.

Don't believe me? Have a look at his performance. Murphy appears about 3/4 of the way through this clip and shows what he can do.

He has appeared on all sorts of TV shows including last week on "Richard and Judy" and has had pieces written about him in national magazines, including "Chat". He even features in Danny Wallace's book "Yes Man."

So do we treat Murphy in a special way because he's a celebrity?

We think all our patients are special, so he doesn't get the red carpet treatment I'm afraid, we treat him just like everyone else. Just with one noticeable exception. I'm always very careful not to look into his eyes...

Unluckiest Cat Around?

February was not a good month in the Thomas household. My boyfriend Ian was rushed into hospital with appendicitis and had to have surgery. When I returned from visiting him in the hospital one Sunday night, I couldn't find Giacomo. It's most unlike him not to be either around at tea time or to appear immediately when called.

Eventually I found him; hiding under my bed and refusing to come out. Again, most unlike him. When I crawled under and slid him out, I found that he was breathing very heavily and quickly and didn't want to stand. It was every cat owner's nightmare - he'd been hit by a car.

I checked him over and discovered that he had a painful hip and pelvis and was shocked, but the rapid breathing didn't indicate anything more sinister going on in his chest. He'd also got a nasty wound on his tail.

He needed pain relief quickly. Living in Cardiff, I didn't want to take him up to Merthyr and back to get treatment, nor did I want to leave him at home whilst I went to fetch it. Luckily VETS, our emergency clinic have a branch close by at Galbalfa, along with the clinic that we usually use in Ystrad Mynach.

VETS are open from six o'clock at night, to eight o'clock the next morning and have a vet and veterinary nurse on site at all times to deal with emergencies through the night. They are also staffed all weekends and bank holidays, even Christmas Day. If we are not at the surgery, you can always contact them for advice or to be seen. They monitor our hospitalised animals overnight; the ambulance takes them there in the evening and returns them to us the next morning.

Giacomo was swiftly seen, painkillers and antibiotics were administered and his tail wounds clipped and cleaned. As with all emergency cases, they faxed his details to the practice the next day; they also have a website so that we can access comprehensive records when their vets are in bed recovering from their busy nights.

We X-rayed Giacomo at the practice once his breathing was back to normal and discovered that he had broken his hip. His was an incredibly tricky fracture to fix, especially in a young cat, so we referred him to the orthopaedic specialist Steve Butterworth at the Weighbridge Referral Centre in Swansea. It was a familiar route for Giacomo; they operate in the same building as the SMART clinic. His fracture was repaired, he was home the same day and by the next day he was walking almost perfectly on his leg and was back to being his normal, purry self.

Now I just have to keep him rested for eight weeks. We can't explain to him what is going on and he doesn't understand why he can't run and jump as normal, so he is confined. Here you can see visiting time in the living room.

Initially and some of the time now he is kept in the big cage we used to introduce the kittens to Rungo. We have also cleared a room of all furniture except a mattress on the floor and he is allowed out and about in there (it has a very low windowsill, otherwise it would not be suitable).

Thank goodness we got him insured. The bill for this accident alone is over £2200; I'm so glad we have PetPlan cover and can give him the treatment he deserves.

Now we just all need to stay sane whilst he's in jail. We're considering getting him a TV with a DVD of a fish tank just to keep him interested!

Arthritis in cats

As you may have seen from the last blog entry, Giacomo has been treated for hip dysplasia using physiotherapy. Rungo has also been receiving treatment at the SMART Clinic. In his case, this was for arthritis.

More than 80% of cats over 10 are thought to suffer with arthritis, although many cats are never brought to the vet for diagnosis or investigation of the problem. Signs of arthritis in older cats include

• sleeping more
• reluctance to play
• jumping up less (you may just notice that your cat is choosing to sit on lower resting points)
• hesitating before jumping up or down
• becoming less keen to interact with you
• changes in temperament - generally becoming more grumpy
• matted or scurfy coat
• long nails which catch in carpets or clothing

If you cat is showing any, or especially several of these signs, you should consider that they may be suffering from arthritis. This is a painful degenerative joint condition which can cause a significant decline in the quality of life of may older cats.

Don't put off bringing your cat to the vet because you think it's just old age or that nothing can be done. If you have any suspicion of arthritis please consult your veterinary surgeon as it is a painful, progressive condition, meaning that the longer it is left, the more uncomfortable your cat will become. Arthritis may be suspected on examination, but X-rays are often needed to diagnose the condition.

The good news though, is that the condition is treatable. We use a combination of several different treatments to achieve the best control of the painful signs of arthritis

• Anti-inflammatory drugs to reduce pain and inflammation
• Chondritin and Glucosamine supplements to improve the condition of cartilage and joint fluid (these need to be specially formulated for cats)
• Special food containing supplements to help maintain joint health
• Physiotherapy, including exercise and acupuncture (available by referral)

For more information about arthritis in cats click here.

Arthritis is also found in dogs. They generally show a slowing down when exercising, may become more reluctant or slower to rise and look stiff after they have been lying down. Again, early diagnosis and treatment can make a huge difference to your dog's quality of life.

If you are interested in finding out about the SMART Clinic click here.

Physiotherapy for Cats

Giacomo has been having physiotherapy...

He has a problem called hip dysplasia; meaning that his hips have not formed properly. The condition is not uncommon in dogs, especially big dogs but is rare in cats. Maine Coons are known to be prone to it, so when he was about 5 months old I X-rayed his hips to make sure he was not suffering from dyspastic hips. Unfortunately he was.

The best way to deal with the problem in a young dog or cat is to use physiotherapy to build up the muscles in the hind legs to stabilise the hips in the sockets. He has also been receiving joint supplements to make sure his joint cartilage is as healthy as possible.

His physiotherapy has been taking place at the SMART Clinic, a dedicated animal physiotherapy clinic which has branches in both Cardiff and Swansea. He has made a huge improvement in the last 5 months and can now jump onto the top of our 6 foot garden fence and run along the top.

I thought you might like to see what physiotherapy in cats looked like. As well as the treadmill exercise show in the video, he has also be receiving acupuncture and we have doing exercises with him at home.



Hip dysplasia is a more common problem in dogs than cats, where is tends to affect large breed dogs such as Labradors and German Shepherd dogs. Young dogs which are reluctant to exercise, have hip pain, are unwilling to jump or bunny hop when running, may be showing signs of hip dysplasia. Left untreated it progresses relatively quickly to arthritis, but with treatment, most dogs and cats with hip dysplasia cat live a normal life.

Anyone considering breeding from a animal in a breed know to have hip dysplasia should have their animal screened before breeding. In dogs there is a Kennel Club scheme to screen dogs of affected breed before breeding, with recognised low breed values.

If you are an Ash Veterinary Surgery client and think your pet could have hip dysplasia or feel that your pet would benefit from referral to the SMART Clinic then please contact Ash Veterinary Surgery to arrange an appointment.

Emily Makes Headlines

Emily, collie with a badly broken leg was brought to Ash Veterinary Surgery when she was found by Mr and Mrs Sturgess. They adopted her and a year later she has been adopted by the Merthyr branch of the RSPCA as their mascot.

Your can read her story here