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!