28/03/2008 by Arielle.

I still fully support all male dogs being castrated. We have had 3 cases of prostatic cancer in the practice I work in in the last few weeks. These could have all been prevented with routine castration or removal of both testicles.Harry came in this morning. His responsible owner had booked him in for castration 3 days ago. He is a young Lhasa Apso who is carried everywhere at home and came in looking very sorry for himself.

His owner was obviously very concerned as he seemed unable to walk. He shuffled his bottom along and just sat down.

He had had a bout of diarrhoea after the operation. I checked his wound and it looked clean and healthy and he was on a good dose of Rimadyl painkillers.

The clue to his discomfort came when I lifted his tail to take his temperature. Poor Harry had a clump of faeces matting the long Lhasa fur around his bottom into a tight knot. Once this was cut away and I placed him on the floor, he had a little shake and his waterfall tail popped up over his back again. What relief for us all.

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03/03/2008 by Arielle.

Sadie is an overweight 13 year old Collie cross Shepherd who has not been neutered and is suffering from a womb infection called a pyometra. The owners have opted not to have her spayed (the treatment for this horrible infection where we remove the whole infected womb and ovaries) as she is so old and the quote for the full operation and aftercare was almost £500.

I sympathised hugely with the client as Sadie is very old and so we have started her on a relatively new treatemnt procedure which involves an injection on day 1, 2 and 8.

The injection is called Alizin and it is a drug that contracts the muscle of the womb to clean out all the pus that is there. Sadie is obviously also having antibiotics.

So far it is successful and she is still bright although she is off her food and still drinking a lot of water. The drug company says that there is a 95% success rate with these injections.

The biggest side effect that I can see is the terrible mess for the owner. Sadie has long fur and she has a bottom covered in smelly pus and just leaves a trail of pus wherever she goes (including at the surgery). The owner is very patient and has put towels all over the house but it must be so unpleasant.

It is also quite a sore injection and not cheap on its own so has some drawbacks there too, but hopefully we will see a result with Sadie as she is a sweet old lady.

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25/02/2008 by Arielle.

I wrote an article a few weeks ago (although probably months ago, considering how fast the time is flying!), about frost and cold weather causing cystitis in cats due to the ground freezing which results in them being unable to scratch and use the ground.

Our little cat Shadow has just suffered with a bout of cystitis or bladder infection. She left some bloody urine in our bathroom and has been drinking more than normal. I immediately gave her some antibiotics and changed from her regular dry food to tinned food so that she gets enough moisture in her diet.

We have just had yet another very cold snap and I still feel that it is due this that she has her cystitis, but for another reason that I have only just thought about. I put both our cats out every night. They are used to this routine and as we do not have the luxury of a catflap, they stay out all night and come in ravenously hungry each morning. There are so many puddles around that they are able to at least get some water to drink but with the cold snap we are having, every drop of water must be frozen (even the water bowl I put out for them), that it means a good 11 hours with no water which I am sure has also caused the bladder infection in little Shadow!

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17/01/2008 by Arielle.

I spend so much of my time explaining about flea control, that I have produced my own flea site with everything you need to know about fleas in your pet. See www.kill-fleas.co.uk

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18/10/2007 by Arielle.

Bessie came in yesterday morning with a wag in her whole body yesterday morning; as Staffys do. Her owner had bred her in the beginning of the year and had a healthy litter. She had been mated by the owner’s dog (also a Staffy) and she obviously did not want puppies again so soon. I explained how dogs will scale walls to get to a bitch in season and a female in standing heat is sometimes capable of the same to get to the male. Bessie was fortunate in that the male lived with her!

The owner had come in for a Mesalin injection which we give when there is a case of a mismating. Mesalin is an injection that has to be given by us if your bitch has just been mated and you do not want her to have any puppies. We call this misalliance.
As Bessie had had a proper tie on Tuesday, I had to advise that she goes home and comes back on day 3 after the mating for the injection and then another injection is given on day 5.

Mesalin is made up of oestradiol benzoate which is an oestrogen - a hormone. This hormone may be toxic to bone marrow which I had to advise the owner. It is also not 100% effective and the owner said that she wanted Bessie neutered after her season anyway which I recommended too if she did not want to breed with her again. We cannot spay bitches that are in season for risk of bleeding.

The owner sighed when I mentioned that another side-effect is that it prolongs the season for up to another 2 weeks. She would have a desperate male for longer!

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02/10/2007 by Arielle.

Little Shadow (our very loved kitten who will only be 1 year old next month), is showing signs of possibly carrying a nasty virus. She has never grown fully like her brother and her left eye has suddenly become cloudy and discoloured. My husband and I (both being vets and maybe knowing too much), feel it could be Feline Leukaemia, Feline Aids or Feline Infectious Peritonitis. She is obviously fully vaccinated, but could still be a carrier of one of these nasty diseases. I am putting off having her tested but will take her in to work on Saturday to blood test her.

Shadow and her brother Buttons came over from Northern Ireland with us only 3 months ago to live an idyllic life in the English countryside. They had been feral kittens born in the street and their mother had been killed by a car when they were only 10 days old. In the cold of the winter, they mewed pitifully for her for 2 days until a kind person living on the estate where they were hiding, contacted the receptionist at the practice I was working at. They came in lifeless, starving and freezing with their eyes gummed up. The vet I worked for wanted them put to sleep but I decided to give them a chance and took them home.

They went from hell to heaven and spent their first few months in the warm arms of one of my besotted children. I tried to rehome them as we are an army family and I do feel it is not fair to move with cats, but we all grew so attached to them that when it came time to find them homes, we just couldn’t.

I will have a better idea of Shadow’s condition on Saturday, but it would break our hearts if it was something serious.

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27/09/2007 by Arielle.

  This is a strong reminder to all rabbit owners and rabbit lovers out there that they MUST have their rabbits vaccinated against Myxomatosis. I had about 10 rabbits to vaccinate in one day this week as there is Myxomatosis about at the moment in most areas. It is an awful virus that is carried by midges. As we have had such a wet summer, there is an outbreak of midges that will settle on dying wild rabbits and then carry the virus to your pet rabbit. If you board rabbits as a pet sitter, ensure that they are vaccinated.

The vaccine is not 100% effective but it is the best we can do against such a fatal disease. See my article on Myxomatosis under rabbit health.

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