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.
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387 Vets is proud to hold Training Practice status with our governing body, The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, and we currently have four student nurses in our team. Training colleges require that each student nurse has a clinical coach in practice. Over half of our 12-strong team of Registered Veterinary Nurses are, or have been, trained clinical coaches. What a fab statistic!
The role of a clinical coach is to help students practise, hone and sign off a wide portfolio of qualification-dictated skills to agree competency, as well as offering ongoing support throughout the apprenticeship with blended learning and assignment queries and logging evidence.
Our RVN Katie is clinical coach to Isobel who is now entering the final stages of her course.
“I became a clinical coach because I wanted to help and inspire a new generation of veterinary nurses. I really enjoy teaching and supporting students as they progress through their course and love watching their confidence and skills grow.”
Three cheers for our clinical coach champions, helping our student nurses to realise their dream!
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.
This was taken this morning! Happy World Bee Day to all the bees! As a Bee Friendly Practice with the British Bee Veterinary Association (BBVA), we’re particularly passionate about supporting bees and have planted lots of bee-friendly vegetation around our practice site to help sustain them throughout the year. With the disappearance of 97% of wildflower meadows in the UK, mostly through intensive agriculture and the associated use of herbicides and pesticides, any help communities can offer by planting bee and pollinator friendly plants in gardens or in public spaces for valuable nectar and pollen supply is becoming increasingly important. The Royal Horticultural Society have a great resource page on their website for pollinator-friendly planting inspiration!
In case you missed last week’s ‘bee’ post, we’re giving away free sunflower seeds on our reception desks for you to plant at home to help feed the bees and other wildlife. Please pop in to pick up a pack. We’d love to see photos of your success stories once your sunflowers have grown!
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.
Did you know that 387 Veterinary Centre is a Bee Friendly Practice with The British Bee Veterinary Association? Members of the scheme are encouraged to plant thoughtfully on their premises to help sustain visiting bees. We are currently replanting lavender around our carpark and have created a roof terrace garden with heathers, a variety of herbs and a bed of wildflowers (currently in seedling form) to provide a prolonged period of feeding opportunity for pollinators. And every year, we supply team with sunflower seeds to plant at home, to give bees something yummy to enjoy further afield.
This year, we’d love you to join us in planting sunflowers in your gardens so together, as a 387 community, we can have an even wider impact. To support this, we’ve made up 80 packs with sunflower seeds and planting instructions, available free from our reception desks. Please do pick up an envelope if you fancy getting involved, but be quick as once they are gone, they’re gone! The reward is big smiley sunflowers at the end of the summer, and knowing that you’re helping to provide much needed nutrition for a range of insects – pollinators we rely on for much of our food.
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.
