Lottie!

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Earlier in the year we told you about Lottie and Sooty, two of the runners up for the Royal Canin Weigh-in club 2013. This month Lottie is Royal Canin’s Weigh-in club calender girl! Take a look at her page below.

If you would like any further information about how to help your pet maintain a healthy weight  just give us a call on 01606 880890 and have a chat with one of our team. Preventing excessive weight gain is important to help reduce stress on joints and organs, such as the heart, as well as to reduce the chance of developing other medical problems. It can also make a big difference to energy levels and quality of life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lottie before and after weight loss. Congratulations once again to Lottie and her owner for all their hard work!

Hollybank’s Brave Pet of the Month…Elsie!

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Elsie came in to see us a few weeks ago when she came home with a very large wound on her back leg. She also had a few smaller wounds and had lost a nail on her front leg. Although we don’t know exactly what happened to Elsie she could have caught her legs on something such as barbed wire.

 

It was important to clean up Elsie’s wounds and suture them together to help them to heal. For this we had to give her an anaesthetic and some pain relief. Whilst Elsie was asleep we clipped up all of the hair getting into the wounds and flushed them all with sterile water. Wounds can often become contaminated with dirt, stones and hair, so to try and reduce problems with infection we have to clean these away as much as we can.

The next step was to repair the wounds. Some of the smaller wounds just needed a few sutures through the skin to bring the edges together. As the lower legs don’t have much tissue under the skin this was the only layer we had to close. The largest wound was about 5cm long. When bringing skin together we have to make sure that there is not too much tension that would cut off the blood supply. Sometimes we don’t have enough skin left to cover the wound so we have to let the body close the gap itself. This can take much longer than when we can stitch the edges of this skin back together. Elsie was very lucky that her wound came together very easily.

She went home with some pain relief and antibiotics. When we saw her back after five days her wound was healing well. However, her foot was slightly swollen. This can be in response to inflammation but can indicate that some infection is still present. Therefore we added some additional antibiotics in.

A few days later Elsie’s wounds were looking much better with just a few healing scabs left. Soon after she was be able to have her stitches out and started going out to play again-hopefully keeping herself out of trouble this time!

                              

This month is Veterinary Nurse awareness month…

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So what can our VNs do for you and your pet?

Registered Veterinary Nurses carry out rigorous training, varying from 2 – 4 years depending on their qualification. This includes placements within veterinary practices and numerous examinations. They also partake in Continued Professional Developement (CPD) to keep up to date with new developments and techniques within the profession. This means they can give your pet the highest standard of care.

VN’s can help you with lots of things. They can give you advice regarding flea and worming treatment, nutrition, dental health and behavioural concerns. Our VN’s also carry out weight clinics and can give advice about obesity management.

At Hollybank you can see our nurses for puppy and kitten clubs, post operative checks and monitoring as well as procedures such as nail trims.

Our VN’s also carry out many tasks behind the scenes, including monitoring anaesthetics, caring for, monitoring and administering medication to inpatients, taking blood samples, assisting the veterinary surgeon during operations and taking radiographs, to name but a few. They are an important part of providing care for your pet when they are in the hospital with us.