Dr Jodie

When did courtesy become optional?

2012-08-07T17:03:00.000-07:00

We made a very difficult decision today. We decided to ask a client to seek the services of another veterinary practice. It just about broke my heart – we love all our patients so much – but sometimes the humans involved make the relationship impossible.

We pride ourselves on caring, on going out of our way to help whenever we can, and the vast majority of our clients (our extended family, as we think of them) really appreciate that. But in every family, I guess, there are people who we’d rather not have to deal with.

In the VRVS family, we ask of each other courtesy and respect, and if someone is unable, repeatedly, to meet that requirement, it’s up to me to make the call that perhaps another practice might better meet their needs. This is the first time I’ve actually had to do it – usually reminding people of the need for courtesy is enough. But I won’t have our team members disrespected and insulted, and I won’t excuse deliberate discourtesy.

So to all our wonderful extended VRVS family whom we love, who treat us politely and with consideration, thank you. And if I need to give your dog a longer hug than usual at your next visit, it might just be that someone else broke my heart.

Thank you for helping to heal it.

RIP Dr Koala–it’s time for Labrador Love!

2012-07-01T20:55:00.001-07:00

Yes, it’s finally happened. Our re-branding is complete, and Dr Koala is dead and gone. He’s moving off our front window today, and he isn’t coming back. We’ll miss him, but after 10 years, it was time for a change! Our new logo – with those absolutely adorable Labrador puppies – suits us much better, I think.

Speaking of adorable Labrador puppies, we had a delightful puppy moment this morning when one of our favourite patients came in with her gorgeous babies for their four week check up. They are truly beautiful babies and we feel very privileged that Coco (and her people) trust us to look after the puppies. At four weeks old these little balls of puppy love have just been dewormed, and are about to start on solids and the weaning process. With their teeth coming in, I’m sure Coco is glad of that! In two weeks, they’ll be old enough for their first vaccinations, then a few weeks after that it will be time for microchips to be implanted and off they’ll go to their forever homes.

At least with their microchips done here, they won’t learn that vets are scary, painful places! Most microchip implanters don’t use any pain relief or local anaesthesia when injecting the microchip, and that makes me cringe! The needle used to implant a microchip is just under half the width of my little finger, so essentially it pokes a big hole in the puppies skin then drives the chip in through the hole. Imagine having that done to you without local anaesthetic! Yikes! Our technique is slightly different – but makes a huge difference to how our patients feel.

We hospitalise our microchip patients for about an hour to let our not-so-secret weapon work – we use “Emla” local anaesthetic cream on a small shaved spot at the microchip implantation site, to completely numb the area for injection. Our microchip recipients wag their tails while they have their chips implanted, because all they feel is the lovely cuddle they’re having with a nurse whilst I’m doing the implantation. They don’t try and run away, and they don’t scream with pain. We find that a much more friendly option!

Till next time…

Dr Jodie.

The Puppy Diaries…

2012-02-22T15:05:00.001-08:00

There's a new family member at our place - a 9 week old Neapolitan Mastiff puppy! “Magnufi Bochianna” (Anna) joined our ranks on the weekend, after a 2 day round trip into NSW to collect her from the breeder. Finding Anna was an interesting exercise for me. I knew I wanted a Neapolitan Mastiff puppy. I knew that I would only buy one from a reputable, responsible breeder. But how to find a breeder that fit my criteria?

I initially approached Dogs Queensland – the new trading name for the Canine Control Council of QLD – who are the peak registering body in QLD for pure bred dogs. They gave me contact details for several breeders in QLD and Northern NSW, and I began with an email, stating that I was looking for a puppy. Some came back to me with a price and how many puppies they had available – and I sent a polite reply to those breeders saying thanks, but no thanks. The Neapolitan Mastiff (or ‘Neo’) is a giant breed dog, with fully grown males potentially reaching 80+ kg. They are a strong-willed, intelligent breed, and need an experienced dog owner to train them to be canine good citizens. They have, as do many large and giant breed dogs, the potential for joint problems and because of their very baggy skin, the potential for skin and eye disease. If a breeder didn’t try to determine if I was a person who could cope with all these things before offering to sell me a puppy, then the welfare of their dogs wasn’t the most important thing to them, and I certainly wasn’t going to buy a puppy from someone like that!

The breeder we did choose asked me in-depth questions about my knowledge of the breed’s quirks and health issues, my experience in owning and training dogs, and my ability to meet the health needs of this breed. I think being a vet may have helped there! Our breeder was also happy to answer my questions, not just about the puppy, but about her parents and grandparents, their breeding program and aims, health history of parents and grandparents, including hip and elbow scores, and was happy for me to visit her home to inspect her facilities and make sure I was happy with the care she provides for her dogs. I was!

So now we have Anna – and her wriggly unco-ordinated wrinkly smile makes everyone she meets fall in love with her. She’s learning to sleep in her crate, to go to the toilet outside (and on command), to sit & greet new people with a handshake, and to never put her mouth on people. It’s a big adventure for all of us… will you share our journey with us?

Does your pet share your bed?

2011-05-31T17:53:00.000-07:00

Regular pet health care is even more important when we co-sleep with our pets, for the sake of OUR health, as well as theirs.
This video from the American Animal Hospital Association is definitely worth a look!

ID is the key!

2011-03-08T18:07:00.000-08:00

Here at VRVS, we often have poor lost dogs and cats brought in by caring members of the public. We love it when we scan those animals with our microchip scanner and it beeps to tell us the animal is wearing a microchip under his or her skin. You should see how excited we get!

On the other hand, you should see how frustrated we are when there is no collar, no microchip - nothing to help us get that pet home to a loving family. We're very sad when we have to send animals to the pound, but without ID, there's nothing we can do.

There is one situation even more frustrating than an animal with no ID - that's an animal with out of date ID. Our excitement at finding a microchip quickly becomes frustration when we ring the phone number provided by the microchip database to find that the registered owner is not known there, or left sometimes years before.

Do you know if your pet's details are current on the microchip database? If not, please ask us to check for you. We'll need your pet's microchip number to do that, so bring the number, or you pet so we can him, down to the surgery and let us help make sure your pet can come home, if he ever gets lost!

When cat litter is a danger...

2011-03-08T17:36:00.000-08:00

Well, I don't think I would have believed it, if I hadn't seen it myself. A three year old male desexed pussy cat presented this morning with a urinary obstruction. The cause? Not FIC, FUS, FLUTD or any of the other acronyms we vets ascribe to urinary disease in pussy cats. It was his CAT LITTER!

His owners had been using cat litter crystals in his litter tray, and a tiny piece of the litter had stuck to the end of his penis after he'd urinated. That piece of litter swelled on contact with urine the next time he had to pee, just as it was designed to do, only it was not where it was designed to be and caused a complete urine outflow obstruction - a life-threatening condition if not treated immediately!

Fortunately in this case, the pussy cat was treated in time, and he'll be fine - but a warning to all: if you choose to use crystal cat litter, you need to very closely monitor your pussy cat's urine output. If it decreases, off to the vet right away. Your vigilance could be a life saver!

(P.S. People often ask me what litter I use for my pussy cats. I use a recycled, pelleted newspaper litter. It's cheap, envronmentally friendly, and doesn't pose a danger to them.)