This Month's Topics

Reception is staffed throughout the day. As well as registering for your appointment we can help with advice, pet products and food sales, dispensing prescriptions and general enquiries.

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Our light and airy waiting room is a comfortable place for our patients and owners to wait for their appointment. Scales are available to check your pet's weight

Our second consult room is used concurrently during busy surgeries and also for opthalmological examinations as it can be made completely dark.

All our medications are kept in the dispensary. Prescriptions from consultations are prepared here as well as repeat prescriptions requested by owners.

Our kennels are constructed from stainless steel making them easy to clean and disinfect. We have a wide range of sizes allowing us to hospitalise patients of all sizes, right up to very large dogs in our 'walk-in' kennel. A second kennel area makes it possible to hospitalise nervous animals in a quiet peaceful environment if necessary.

This area is called 'Clean Prep', and is the room where anaesthetics and sedations are started. The first priority is to ensure the stability of the patient once anaesthesia or sedation is induced, at this stage monitoring equipment such as a pulse oximeter and respiratory monitor will be used. Patients needing surgery are clipped in Clean Prep before being moved into Theatre. Patients needing dentals are moved into the dental room. Non-sterile minor procedures are often performed in Clean Prep.

Monitoring Equipment

Anaesthetic monitoring is a critical aspect of any surgical procedure. Not only does efficient and comprehensive monitoring maximise the patient's safety under anaesthesia, but a stable anaesthetic and excellent pain control promote a more rapid recovery and quicker healing following surgical intervention.

This is one of our 'Ap Alert' machines. We hear a bleep every time the animal takes a breath so any change in respiratory rate is detected immediately. An alarm sounds if the respiratory rate falls below a preset level.

This is our pulse oximeter. The pulse oximeter measures the patients heart rate and the amount of oxygen being carried by the blood at any given moment. An alarm sounds if these parameters fall below preset safe levels.

This is our ECG machine. ECG stands for electrocardiogram and is a visual representation of the electrical activity of the heart. An ECG is often useful for anaesthetic monitoring and also for investigation of abnormal heart rhythms in the conscious patient.

Our blood pressure monitor is valuable both for anaesthetic monitoring and for the investigation of certain medical disorders in the conscious patient. Low blood pressure during anaesthesia can cause poor blood supply to vital organs which can lead to damage. We can minimise this possibility by regular blood pressure checks in at-risk patients.

Theatre is equipped with a combined pulse oximeter, respiratory monitor and capnograph. A capnograph measures the amount of carbon dioxide in an animal's breathe, a very sensitive and useful anaesthetic monitoring technique.

Our dental room is used all cat and dog dental procedures including descaling, polishing and extractions if necessary. As even very healthy dog and cat mouths are full of bacteria this room is reserved for dentals and surgical procedures are not performed here.

Our ultrasonic descaler and polishing equipment is in regular use. If left unattended large accumulations of very hard yellow tartar can form at the base of dog's and cat's teeth (see next picture), resulting in gum disease and the possible loss of affected teeth. These accumulations can be very hard. After descaling the teeth are polished to discourage further tartar formation. See Dental Care for more information on dental care.

Accumulations of very hard yellow scale are seen very commonly in both cats and dogs. Ultrasonic descaling is necessary to remove this scale. In early cases no permanent damage is caused, but in longer standing cases the scale causes gum disease and recession which can lead to the loss of teeth. Regular brushing limits the accumulation of scale, but won't shift existing deposits.

Here Janet is using the ultrasonic descaler to clean scale from a dog's teeth. Once clean the teeth will be polished to discourage further scale deposits.

All major surgical procedures are carried out in theatre. The strictest precautions are taken to minimise the possibility of infection during surgery. Theatre is disinfected daily; the room is separated from the rest of the building to minimise air currents; animals are clipped and cleaned in clean prep before sterile skin preparation in theatre. Vets 'scrub-up' to sterilise their hands before commencing surgery and sterile gloves and gowns are worn.

Once exposed our X-Ray plates are developed in-house by an automatic processing machine. This takes less than a minute and allows rapid assessment of radiographs while the patient remains under anaesthesia.

Our large conference room is ideal for dog training classes and puppy parties as well as lectures and courses.