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Get a full vaccination course for the price of a booster! |
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June is National Vaccination Month.
It is a sad fact that we are beginning to see a resurgence in preventable diseases, nationally and locally. In the 1980’s when several of the vets at Argyll qualified, we used to see many cases of distemper, hepatitis, leptospirosis and parvovirus in dogs, and flu and enteritis in cats. Due to good vaccines and increased awareness among owners, these diseases dropped to a very low level during the 90’s but are now sadly making a reappearance.
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 Sadly, we have seen several wild bunnies this week who were suffering from myxomatosis - see picture of one of them. With the explosion in the rabbit population recently, the disease is back with a vengeance, and it is incurable. It is caused by a virus which only affects rabbits, and is spread by an insect vector eg rabbit fleas, midges, etc. It can and does affect our pet rabbits, but fortunately there is a vaccine available. We normally vaccinate annually, but when the disease is in the area, as at present, we recommend boosters every 6 months. Please give the surgery a call to find out more. |
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 We are so lucky, not only to live in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, but also having a UNESCO World Heritage site right on our doorstep at Braunton Burrows. Many protected species thrive here and on related coastal sites nearby, including the UK’s only poisonous snake, the adder.
Now that the weather has warmed up, we have seen our first snakebites of the year.
Our practice sees 10 to 15 dogs bitten by adders every year, so we are very experienced in their treatment and generally have a good stock of antivenom.
Typically, dogs get bitten on a warm day when the snakes are sunbathing in an open area. The dog either stands on the snake and gets bitten on the foot, or inquisitively sticks its nose into this strange creature and gets bitten around the face. There is usually an acute pain reaction and rapid swelling of the area. If left untreated, the generalised effects include disruption of blood clotting and eventually total organ failure.
 We need to see your pet as soon as you think he may have been bitten – phone the surgery first if possible, especially out of hours. We will admit him for intravenous fluids, antivenom, antibiotics and painkillers, and he may be able to go home the same day.
Sometimes the swelling is slower in onset, but we can treat with antivenom even some hours or days later, so if in any doubt as to whether he has been bitten, get veterinary attention straight away. |
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Welcome to our new website! |
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We are delighted to have our new website up and running! Please take a few minutes to have a look around. If you hover over the items in the Main Menu to the right, new items will appear to click on. We have a range of factsheets available, which can be printed by means of the printer icon in the top righthand corner of each one. We will be adding new factsheets regularly, and the titles of the latest 5 will be displayed in the box on the right below the main menu.
If there is anything you would like us to do a new factsheet on, or you have any other comments or requests, please contact us by hovering over 'contacts and forms', clicking 'Find us' and then click on the surgery name - there is an e-mail box just waiting for your comments!
We've got staff photos and also patients' photos, so please send us pictures of your pets to display. We are having a few teething problems with the photos at the moment, but that should soon be resolved.
We've got links to some of our pet(!) charities and other websites we think might be of interest, registration and feedback forms, and a blog....so get clicking and then let us know what you think! |
 There is a relatively new danger for dogs in the UK – lungworm. It seems to have been imported with travelling dogs and perpetuated by the warm, wet climate. Foxes carry the infection and, in combination with slugs and snails which carry the larval stages of the worm, spread it to our dogs.
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