This weekend remember the types of Easter treats that can be toxic to our pets:
Please phone us on 01606 880 890 if you think your pet has eaten something they shouldn’t have. Doing this as soon as you are aware is very helpful in their treatment.
Alabama Rot, also described as Cutaneous and Renal Glomerular Vasculopathy (CRGV) is a disease that in recent weeks has appeared in the media and lots of our clients have had questions about its prevalence in the area.
CRGV is caused by damage to blood vessels of the skin and kidney. This can lead to the development of skin lesions and kidney failure. The disease can be fatal with the latter but it is important to note that not all dogs will develop kidney involvement.
Advice regarding prevention and avoidance of the disease is very difficult as the exact cause remains unknown. Researchers believe that there must be some form of an ‘environmental trigger’ but despite lots of research this is yet to be identified or proven.
The most important thing is to be vigilant for signs of the disease developing. This includes unexplained skin lesions; sores, redness or ulceration typically of the limbs, feet, face and mouth. Signs of acute kidney injury can range from excessive thirst and urination to non specific signs such as lethargy and reduced appetite. If you are concerned about your pet in any of these ways then we recommend a veterinary consultation.
So far, there have been no confirmed cases of Alabama rot in Delamere Forest. The disease was confirmed in Mobberley last year and most recently in Crewe. For more details please refer to the CRGV confirmed cases map.
Anderson Moores Veterinary Specialists are conducting lots of the much needed research on CRGV. They provide recent case confirmations on their Facebook page and helpful CRGV information sheets which we would encourage you to read.
Barnie is a nearly two-year old handsome Russian Blue cat who got himself in a bit of a scrape a few months ago. His owners were unable to find him one evening and when they eventually traced him to a neighbour’s garden he was reluctant to walk. He appeared to be sore on his right hind leg and had also passed some bloody urine. His owners brought him down to us on our emergency service to have him checked out.
When we examined Barnie he was very lame and indeed very painful when we touched around his right hip and pelvis. The rest of his legs seemed to be unaffected and thankfully he did not appear to have any other injuries. In fact he was remarkably bright! We were suspicious that Barnie had been hit by a car around his back end, although it was possible he had fallen or something else had happened. Barnie was admitted into the hospital, given pain medication and monitored closely for the remainder of the night to ensure nothing new developed.
The next morning Barnie had passed some normal faeces and some blood tinged urine. He was generally much more comfortable on the pain relief. We were confident that Barnie was unlikely to have any further compromising injuries and so we sedated him to further examine his hind-limb injuries and check on his bladder.
X-rays confirmed that Barnie had unfortunately suffered two fractures. One was at the bottom of his right femur (thigh bone) and the other involved the right hip joint. Thankfully his bladder was intact. Due to the complicated nature of the fractures Barnie had suffered he was referred to an orthopaedic specialist to have them fixed.
Barnie had surgery two days later to fix the fractures using pins, plates and wires. We saw him back here at Hollybank ten days later to take out his sutures. His skin wounds had healed really well. Barnie had some pain relief and had to stay in a cage at home to ensure he rested properly and allowed the fractures to heal.
Four weeks later we saw Barnie back and took repeat x-rays to monitor how well his fractures were healing. We sent them to be looked at by the orthopaedic surgeons who had operated on him and they were really pleased with his progress.
Barnie was glad to hear he could get out of his cage! He was not yet allowed to roam free however and had to spend another six weeks on room, and then house, arrest!
Barnie is now back to his normal lively self and appears none the worse for his injuries!
