Hard to believe, but our Roundswell surgery is 5 years old this month! It is now a thriving, busy surgery with many patients registered. All the original staff are still there, plus some new faces.

We are going to have a birthday party on March 10th between 3 and 5pm. There will be refreshments, competitions and a cake stall. David Kennard will be there with Mist, his TV star sheepdog, and Heather Carol will have some of her rare small rodents on show. We are also hoping to raise some money for our 'Charity of the Year', Shelterbox.

We are holding an art competition for children with the subject 'My pet' which can be in any medium - the winners of the different age categories will be announced at the party. Please drop your entry in to the surgery by Saturday 6th March.

So, come along and have a cup of tea and a cake with us to say thank you for your support over the last 5 years and raise a toast to the next (twenty-)five!

One of our nurses, Claire Rollitt, who usually works at Ilfracombe, has recently qualified for the British Dressage Winter National Championships to be held at Hartpury College in April. Well done to Claire and her horse Louis, and good luck for April!

I thought I'd put in a kitten picture this time, to balance out all the puppies a bit! Here are Alfie and Archie - aren't they gorgeous?

I've uploaded a new factsheet, a checklist for people thinking of buying a new puppy or kitten. It runs through decisions to make before and during the process of acquiring the new member of the family, which will hopefully help to ensure that the right choice is made and a long and happy relationship follows.

Click the 'Argyll Factsheets' tab to find it, or click here!

The summer is upon us - boiling hot one week, tipping down the next - and the surgery is overrun with scratching pets! The following information comes from our 'Itchy dogs' factsheet which is available to print in the Articles section.....

There are many causes of scratching in dogs and cats and it is important to reach a diagnosis. Clinical signs can be very characteristic of certain conditions but in many cases further tests are required. For the more obscure conditions, these tests can be involved and sometimes expensive.

The commonest cause of scratching is flea infestation. Many people think fleas only cause a problem in the summer, and it is true that our first cases tend to occur around May, but actually the peak month for fleas in our practice is November. This is because they have been breeding rapidly throughout the summer and reach a peak in the late autumn, before the first frosts come along and kill some of them. (But remember that they will happily survive overwinter in centrally heated houses). Combing the coat may reveal fleas or more commonly the droppings they leave behind. However, fleas can evade all attempts to find them in the consulting room and this is why we make sure that all itchy dogs and cats have a flea eradication programme in place before going any further. All pets in the home must be treated at the recommended intervals. We use Advocate which will also treat and prevent a large number of other parasites; or Frontline which treats  fleas and lice. If fleas are found on the pet, it means there will be a hundred times that number in the house, as breeding takes place in the environment and not on the animal. Therefore the house will also need to be treated with an environmental spray - we currently use Indorex.

Often effective flea treatment of all dogs and cats in the household (not just the itchy ones!) will cure the problem - but you do have to remember to continue flea prevention longterm or they will be back next year.....

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!

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.