Chestnut Vets Blog

Travelling abroad with your pet

Paul Walden — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 11:37:26 +0000

In May/June (date to be confirmed) we will be holding a client evening with information on passport regulations and the necessary parasite control measures you need to take to make sure your dog does not contract an exotic disease.

Pet passport client evening poster

Pet insurance – Our nurse was glad she had it.

Paul Walden — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 17:34:52 +0000

We would like to share with you an example of how valuable pet insurance can be. We always recommend that clients take up pet insurance and the example below will indicate why.

One of our nurses had a lovely 18 month old female cat called Inca that was rehomed as a kitten from our practice and for the first 18 months of her life she was perfectly healthy and very happy. Then in early January Inca suddenly started feeling unwell with lethargy and not eating . Subsequent investigations here showed that Inca had gone into acute kidney failure with an abnormal appearance to the kidneys when she had an ultrasound scan.
Inca was referred on to a specialist veterinary centre where they diagnosed that she had very narrow ureters (the small tubes that link the kidneys to the bladder) and so these had become blocked with urinary stones. She then underwent ground breaking surgery (only about 20 cats have ever had this procedure done) to remove the stones and then stents were placed in the ureters (which are no more than 1.5mm wide) to dilate them so that urine could flow down into the bladder from the kidneys again. As you would imagine this surgery took a long time and Inca was hospitalised for a week afterwards. Her veterinary treatment cost just under £7000 which was paid for by the pet insurance company. Unfortunately Inca suffered complications as a result of her condition and sadly had to be put to sleep but having the pet insurance cover had enabled her to have the treatment that gave her the best chance of making a recovery.

Help support the Blue X our favourite animal charity

Paul Walden — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:14:41 +0000

Get fit with Jesse in the new year

Paul Walden — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:03:17 +0000

Advent calendar 2011

Paul Walden — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 11:19:58 +0000

We have an advent calendar on the wall at our Hoe Lane surgery. Behind 19 of the windows (5 are lucky prize windows) are the stories of some of the pets that we have treated this year and we would also like to share these stories via the blog.

24th December

Tiger

Tiger is a very vocal Bengal kitten who suffered from bad diarrhoea this year. Tiger was very happy but the diarrhoea wasn’t getting any better. The vets at Chestnuts performed some tests and discovered that Tiger had a rare infection called T.foetus. This infection is so rare that there isn’t even a medicine designed for cats available. We had to organise for a human medicine to be made into smaller amounts for Tiger to take. Tiger also took part in a research project to help the vets at Glasgow Veterinary School learn more about treating this infection. Tiger’s diarrhoea completely resolved and he is now back to his normal lively self.

Advent calendar 2011

Paul Walden — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 11:19:45 +0000

23rd December

PRIZE!!!

Advent Calendar2011

Paul Walden — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 15:12:52 +0000

22nd December

SAMMY

Sammy is a handsome Beagle who had been a little bit out of sorts for a while. One of the vets could feel a lump in his abdomen. We performed an ultrasound scan here at Chestnuts. The scan showed a lump in Sammy’s spleen and he had an operation to remove his spleen. Dogs and cats can survive without their spleen so Sammy recovered from his surgery really well. The lump was sent to a lab to be tested and thankfully wasn’t a nasty lump. Sammy has now made a full recovery and is acting like a puppy again!

Advent calendar 2011

Paul Walden — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 11:41:34 +0000

21st December

CHARLIE

Charlie is a very handsome little cat. He had only just started going outside when he ran into trouble. Charlie had an accident whilst out and about. He broke his
leg and had a nasty wound on his chin. Here at Chestnuts the vets placed wires
to fix his broken leg and stitched his chin back together. Following lots of
care from the nurses Charlie was soon back on his feet. Charlie is back outside
and fingers crossed he stays out of harms way.

Advent Calender 2011

Paul Walden — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 11:40:35 +0000

20th December

DUKE

Duke is a very bouncy Labrador. When Duke came to see us for his vaccine as a puppy the vets noticed that he had a heart murmur.
Here at Chestnuts we scanned his heart, this procedure is the same as having a
pregnancy scan. Sadly Duke has a problem with one of his valves in his heart.
This valve is leaky so his heart can’t pump as well as it should do. Duke is on
medication to help his heart pump as well as it can. His heart condition doesn’t hold him back. He’s as bouncy and lively as any Labrador out there! We wish Duke well for the New Year.

Advent calendar 2011

Paul Walden — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 16:44:12 +0000

19th December

Monkey and Squirrel

Monkey and Squirrel are two cheeky kittens that joined Snowball and Yoda in their new home. Their owners noticed that Monkey and Squirrel had sore and runny eyes. The vets at Chestnuts ran some tests and discovered that they had an infection called Chlamydophila. This infection is easily treated with a long course of
antibiotics but is quite contagious so all the cats in the house needed to be treated. Their owners did very well to make sure that all the cats received their medication. Both are back to full health now and causing chaos at home.