A recent study done on five cats in China seems to indicate that SARs-CoV-2 can be transmitted via respiratory droplets to other cats. This work is yet to be peer-reviewed to assess how reliable the information is, although experts do think the findings were credible. Importantly the findings DO NOT indicate that cats can spread the disease to humans. Dogs, [...]
We have had lots of enquires this week with concerned new puppy owners during lockdown so have some advice to help. ℹ As it currently stands (08-04-2020), following government guidelines The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons clarification on treatments is that veterinary practices are currently not permitted to do puppy, kitten, or rabbit vaccinations. Only Urgent and Emergency treatment should [...]
Thankfully, it is now widely recognised in humans that mental health is just as important as physical health; the same is true for our pets! Our lifestyles are becoming more and more hectic and often we expect our pets to be able to keep up, coping with busy households, traffic, fireworks, moving house, other pets and all sorts of other potentially stressful situations. [...]
Recently, we arranged a training day for the whole team about how to maintain resilience in the face of what, as you might imagine, can be a very emotionally demanding job. The lovely Torphichen Inn hosted us for the workshop and kept us well fed and watered throughout the day. The session was set up and run by the brilliant [...]
Fiona and Paula headed off on a mammoth road trip on 23rd January to attend the annual SPVS Conference. This was being held in the beautiful Celtic Manor Resort in Newport, Wales. The congress is the only one of its kind, in that there are no clinical lectures, it is all about managing the practice from leadership and mental [...]
Our vet Gina (who you may recall did a client talk on pet CPR recently) spent this Wednesday further honing her skills at an Emergency and Critical Care conference hosted by VetsNow in Glasgow. Whilst the topics of fluid therapy for patients in shock and decontamination of patients exposed to toxins were a good refresher of topics Gina was already [...]
Westport Vet's Design a Christmas Bauble Competition 2019 was a great success! The competition was to design or decorate a Westport Christmas Bauble, the entry forms had a blank white Bauble with the Westport logo on. 170 local children submitted bauble design entries - all of which were outstanding! To pick winners, the baubles were divided into categories by age [...]
At the end of November, Nicola completed the training for the third block of her clinical animal behaviour course. The first two days focused on pain and the impact this can have on behaviour. Indeed, sometimes the only sign of a painful condition can be a change in your pet's behaviour, such as being more sound sensitive than usual or [...]
At Westport Vets, we are very aware of our responsibility toward the environment, and are constantly striving to improve our practices and reduce any detrimental impact that we have on the planet. Across our three branches, we have steadily been making changes behind the scenes, as well as front of house. Unfortunately, being a medical industry, there are some things [...]
Stuart travelled to the Accesia Academy in Sweden to attend their course on Oral Surgery - Reconstruction and Plastics. The journey was fairly simple with a quick easyJet hop from Edinburgh to Copenhagen, and then a train journey across The Bridge (featured in a famous TV show) into Sweden and then North to Halmstad. On arrival it was cold, wet [...]