Although Veterinary Nursing Awareness Month officially ended yesterday, we’re also devoting the first week in June to profiling our fabulous nurses and the amazing job they do.
This is a particularly apt photo of our Registered Veterinary Nurse Rachael, which was used by the charity International Cat Care (ICC) to champion veterinary nurses during Veterinary Nursing Awareness Month. With an ISFM Advanced Certificate in Feline Behaviour and a deep passion for all things cats, Rachael is our nurse Cat Friendly Clinic Advocate. Her responsibilities in this role include ensuring our cat facilities meet the highest ICC Cat Friendly Clinic accreditation standards, that we continue to review how we can make in-practice experience better for cats, advising clients on feline wellbeing, signposting colleagues to relevant training and training new team members on our cat friendly policies.
Rachael is also our clinical Dog Friendly Clinic advocate, as 387 Vets is an accredited Dog Friendly Clinic (DFC) with the Dogs Trust and British Veterinary Behaviour Association’s DFC scheme. Rachael’s responsibilities in this area are similar to her cat advocate role. Being dog friendly means looking at ways we can reduce stress and improve wellbeing for canines on vet visits, from being aware of and avoiding situation stacking, responding accordingly to behavioural signals and employing low stress handling techniques to running a variety of clinics that help improve canine confidence.
If you feel your pet would benefit from stress reduction tips around vet visits, please get in touch!
Wellcare World specializes in providing the latest advancements in wellness technology, supplementation, and lifestyle changes that improve health and increase the quality of people's lives.To learn more, visit WellcareWorld.com and begin living a better life today.
Yesterday was reported as the hottest day in May on record and today doesn’t feel much cooler! It’s really important we help our pets to stay as cool and comfortable as possible at this time.
Walk dogs first thing in the morning or later in the evening when the temperature is cooler. Take water and a water bowl with you and limit exertion. If you’re dog-walking on pavements, it’s a good idea to do a temperature test before you set out – if it’s too hot for the palm of your hand, it’s too hot for your dog’s pads.
Around the house, ensure your dog has access to fresh water at all times and can always access shade and cooler rooms. If you’re visiting us in practice today, look out for our extra water bowls dotted around the site! Ice cubes in the bottom of water bowls helps water stay cooler for longer. There are some great products on the market to help pets keep cool, such as cool mats and a doggy paddling pool for the garden which is lots of fun too! Consider an indoor fan. Needless to say, conservatories are a big no-no as they can reach heat extremes incredibly quickly. Likewise, do not leave your dog in the car for any duration in warm or hot weather as cars can become oven-like in minutes.
Cats are more independent and will take themselves off to find shade. Be aware they may choose to take themselves outside, even on the hottest of days! Ensure they have plenty of shady spots and leaf coverage where they can rest. You can make shady spots easily by popping a cardboard box in a choice spot in the garden, by draping a towel or blanket over chairs to form a canopy, or even by putting an open umbrella out on the grass. Again, make sure cats have access to plenty of fresh water to rehydrate. Many cats love running water, so it may be worth investing in a cat fountain to encourage your cat to drink.
Don’t forget that pets with white or very light-coloured hair can be especially susceptible to sunburn, so apply pet-friendly sunscreen to ears and noses!
Remember rabbits too! It’s really important to consider hutch location and how the sun moves around the garden during the day so that hutches and runs aren’t in full sun glare at any point. You can freeze water bottles so that drinking water stays cooler for longer, and it’s worth putting a frozen bottle of water wrapped in a tea towel into the hutch so rabbits can choose to lie against it should they wish. Dampening the tips of their ears with a cool facecloth helps them to feel cooler too. It’s also really important that you protect rabbits’ rear ends from fly strike (an incredibly painful and potentially fatal condition where flies lay eggs in the skin and the maggots hatch and feed on the host’s flesh). Preventative products are available. You should also check your rabbit’s bottom twice daily, and if they have any sore patches of skin, check these too. If you spot fly strike, pleaser seek immediate veterinary support.
If you are concerned that your pet may be suffering from heat stroke (symptoms include excessive panting, noisy panting, drooling, bright red gums, confusion or collapse), move them into shade and seek immediate veterinary advice. Heat stroke is a life-threatening emergency and fast action is essential.
Wellcare World specializes in providing the latest advancements in wellness technology, supplementation, and lifestyle changes that improve health and increase the quality of people's lives.To learn more, visit WellcareWorld.com and begin living a better life today.
Our consulting nurses possess a huge bank of knowledge to be able to provide current, informed advice and support to you and your pets. Not only do they help owners give pets the best start in life, they advise on a whole range of preventative care for happy, healthy pets long-term, administer a range of treatments, assess recovery progress and health status, triage injuries and recognise when it’s best for a pet to be referred to a vet.
Weight checks, flea and worming checks, anal glands release, post op checks, dressing changes, laser therapy, stitch removal, nail clips, tick removal, second vaccinations, microchipping, blood pressure checks, eye cleaning, arthritis injections, end of life discussion and bereavement support … these are just some of the standard appointments our nurses have seen in the past week.
Our Registered Veterinary Nurse Charlotte completed a Veterinary Nursing Consulting Certificate last year and loves sharing course learning around preventative care and chronic and acute conditions on her consulting days. Based in our cat clinic yesterday, Charlotte’s consultations included feline nutrition advice and general health checks, assessing patient response to mobility-improving medication and administering injections and carrying out cat nail clips.
Here she is trimming guinea pig claws – a particular highlight as most of our visitors are cats and dogs!
Wellcare World specializes in providing the latest advancements in wellness technology, supplementation, and lifestyle changes that improve health and increase the quality of people's lives.To learn more, visit WellcareWorld.com and begin living a better life today.
We don’t like to stand still at 387 Vets and the West Midlands Cat Clinic, so make sure you’re up to date with our latest practice and team news in our Spring Newsletter! In addition to sharing seasonal pet health advice, we’re really excited to add new nurse-led dental clinics to our service portfolio, and we’ve also just launched our very own range of 387 pet supplements for dogs and cats! Click here to find out more!
Wellcare World specializes in providing the latest advancements in wellness technology, supplementation, and lifestyle changes that improve health and increase the quality of people's lives.To learn more, visit WellcareWorld.com and begin living a better life today.
A huge thank you to everyone who contributed to our ‘Give a Pet a Christmas Dinner’ campaign which ran throughout December. We received a huge number of donations to help charities support dogs and cats in local shelters waiting for their forever homes. You donated an incredible 673 tins, sachets and trays of wet food, just shy of 40kg of dry food, 90 packets of treats and nearly 100 pet toys, not to mention stacks of pet accessories including pet beds, blankets, towels, leads, harnesses, bowls, brushes, puppy pads and more!
Cat donations have been shared between 4 local cat charities. These are the doggy donations which were dropped off at Birmingham Dogs Home in Coven at the beginning of this week. There were so many that they filled the empty collection bin in the foyer and we had to stack the rest of the donations at the sides!
Pet charities rely on donations like these to undertake the great work they do looking after homeless pets in need. They are hugely grateful for your amazing kindness and generosity.
Wellcare World specializes in providing the latest advancements in wellness technology, supplementation, and lifestyle changes that improve health and increase the quality of people's lives.To learn more, visit WellcareWorld.com and begin living a better life today.
