We would like to give a warm welcome to Professor Rob Pettitt.

Rob is a Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons Recognised Specialist in Small Animal Orthopaedics and a senior lecturer at the Liverpool University, and we are delighted to welcome him in our Hollybank Team.

Rob passed the RCVS Diploma in Small Animal Orthopaedics exam in 2010 and continues to work at the University of Liverpool Orthopaedics department but joined the Hollybank team in addition to this in 2024.

Rob has a huge breadth of experience with a broad range of orthopaedic conditions – diseases or injuries involving bones or joints. He has published widely in the field of small animal orthopaedics, is the current chair of AOVET principles course and has presented at numerous conferences both nationally and internationally.

Rob provides specialist orthopaedic consultations at our Winnington practice on a regular basis. Together with our compassionate team of vets and RVNs a variety of orthopaedic procedures are also performed including surgery for cranial cruciate ligament rupture, patella luxation and fracture repair.

Rob is excited to be part of the team and is already enjoying seeing lots of our lovely clients and their animals. 

There are a range of clinics our nurses offer at both our Sandiway and Winnington practices, from preventative care and advice about your pets, to carrying out procedures and treatment prescribed by a vet. All RVN’s must carry out at least 15 hours of Continual Professional Development (CPD) each year, there are a vast range of areas we can carry this out in and different routes and levels of learning we can do, but it is important to us that the subjects are relevant and beneficial to our day-to-day work. Recently some of our nurses have been using their CPD to expand their knowledge in areas that we can provide more specialist nursing clinics, such as:

Socialisation

A trip to the vets can be a stressful experience for our pets, our nurses provide free socialisation visits for nervous patients to work on getting them used to coming in and being examined without anything scary happening to them. All our nurses provide this, but dog and cat behaviour can be a very in-depth subject and some of our nurses have carried out CPD in this area to further their knowledge. We can then share this with the rest of the team to ensure we are all providing the same care.

This is what our head nurse Cat said about our socialisation clinics when she thought about this year’s VNAM theme of progression… “In recent years, possibly as a link following on from the pandemic restrictions, I feel we have been seeing more pets that are wary of coming into the practice and are less willing to be examined and treated. We always aim for fear free visits for both cats and dogs. I’ve always had an interest in cat behaviour but lately I’ve felt I could improve my knowledge of dog behaviour. I have chosen to complete some CPD in this area this year and hopefully using this knowledge will help our nursing team make fear free visits more achievable for our patients. It’s so lovely to see the progress some of your pets have made when they have been coming for socialisation and confidence building clinics. I can think of some dogs who wouldn’t even walk through the door without trembling who now feel at ease enough to play, take treats, and follow commands.”

Dental

All our RVN’s have completed the BVNA Oral Care Nurse Certificate and we have just introduced our nurse oral care clinics so we can put this knowledge to use and help you care for your pet’s dental health. Around 80% of dogs and cats over the age of 3 have some level of dental disease which can lead to pain (which most animals are good at hiding), loss of appetite, tooth loss and even contribute to systemic disease in other areas of the body such as the kidneys and heart.

You can book in for a free dental check with our nurses where we will examine your pets’ teeth and gums and give them a grade, from here we can recommend the best dental care advice. This could include home care where we will discuss suitable recommended products, and we can give demonstrations and tips on brushing your pet’s teeth. Sometimes a dental scale and polish may be advised, a general anaesthetic is required for this so these cases would be discussed with a vet and booked in as a day procedure as appropriate. Nurses can perform dental assessments and a scale and polish, however a veterinary surgeon will oversee the case and will also carry out an assessment during the procedure to determine if any extractions are required, as this can only be performed by a vet.

Following dental procedures, we arrange a ‘post dental check’ with a nurse around 5-7 days after the procedure to re-examine the mouth and make sure there are no healing complications. We will then arrange an oral care clinic a month later, once the mouth has fully healed, where we can discuss ongoing preventative dental care. We then recommend oral care clinics every three months to check in and see how the home care is going and give any further advice as required, hopefully reducing the requirement for or frequency of future dental procedures for your pets.

Chronic Conditions

There are some chronic conditions that our veterinary nurses can help with monitoring and providing advice for under direction of a vet. Once our vets have diagnosed a condition and decided on a treatment plan, our nurses can carry out clinics to monitor blood pressure, take blood samples for testing, advise on nutrition and demonstrate treatment, such as administering insulin injections for diabetes. We also often administer medications that have been prescribed by a vet such as monthly injections to help with arthritis and itchy skin.

Nurse Quiz

Some of our nurse consults are free, for example our oral care, weight loss and socialisation clinics. For nurse consults which include carrying out a procedure such as a nail trim, expressing anal glands or administering a prescribed injection there is a £27.50 charge.

Have a go at our Veterinary Nurse Quiz for the chance to win a FREE nurse consult!