We are pleased to announce Alyson, our practice manager successfully ran the London Marathon in a respectable 4 hours 18 minutes and has raised approx £1700 for the charity SENSE who support deafblind people. She wishes to THANK everyone who sponsored her and requests any pledged amounts unpaid to be submitted as soon as you can please. She says “it was a fantastic experience and I didn’t hit the dreaded wall once thanks to my committed training schedule and the crowds who were truly amazing shouting my name (printed on my T shirt!!) throughout the whole journey”. She managed to pass Sir Richard Branson, a guy dressed as a giraffe and Elvis Presley!!?

7-7-09 - Recession busting tips for pet health care

With the RSPCA recently reporting a 57% increase in numbers of abandoned pets, the credit crunch certainly seems to be having an effect on owners and their pets. In the current economic climate we are all looking for ways to economise but it is crucial that we guard against false economy, particularly where out pets are concerned; after all, they can’t decide for themselves what they want to cut back on! The good news is that there are several ways you can look after the pennies as well as your pets.

Insurance: Pet insurance can (literally!) pay dividends but only if you make the right choice early on. A good insurance policy will cover not only vets’ fees but also much more costly third party claims should your pet be involved in damage to property or personal injury.

When it comes to chosing the right policy remember, some are better than others. Shop around but make sure you also get personal recommendations; the cheapest policy may not always be the best. Most vets, including Orchard Veterinary Group, are independent of insurance companies and are able to give free, impartial advice on which types of policy will suit you. We have an awful lot of direct experience about potential pitfalls which we are only too happy to pass on - speak to us first!

While pet insurance is the ‘Gold Standard’ there is also a scheme run by the PDSA which will cover many veterinary fees in a similar way. Conditions apply as you would expect when a charity is footing the bill but in many cases the scheme can work extremely well to really keep veterinary costs down. Pets have to be registered before any problems start in order to be eligible so if you think you might qualify speak to your vet for further information.

Of course there are certain things which insurance doesn’t cover, for instance flea control, vaccination, worming and so forth. That’s why Orchard Veterinary Group has developed our “Health Plan Scheme” designed to spread the cost of these uninsurable items and earn you a discount too. Click on the link for further details or contact the surgery for advice..

Neutering is a good thing, not only for the health of your pet but also for the health of your wallet. It prevents or reduces conditions such as some types of cancer and some serious infections which are costly to treat and can even endanger your pet’s life. Not having a pet neutered also means running the risk of unwanted puppies or kittens - and the expense of feeding all those extra hungry mouths!

Many charities are able to help with discount neutering schemes for dogs and cats so, again, it’s worth asking us if you might be eligible.

Vaccination - a recent survey by independent market researchers YouGov indicated that the numbers of owners choosing to vaccinate their pets was falling. This means that there is a risk that some pets are going to be vulnerable to a number of easily preventible, extremely serious (and expensive!) diseases. For instance the disease leptospirosis is widespread in the UK, particularly in our part of the world, can be fatal to dogs and can spread to humans. Leptospirosis requires a vaccination every year; other diseases such as distemper and parvo-virus require boosters every three years.

Vaccines are an extremely safe and cost effective way of protecting your pet and you get an yearly health check into the bargain. It is surprising what vets will notice at the time of vaccination; conditions such as bad teeth, early heart disease and various worrying lumps and bumps have all been identified, allowing prompt treatment before real problems start. My personal record was spotting an internal lump which weighed an amazing 7.5kg and which both owner and dog were completely unaware of!

Finally, if you have a health concern about your pet - Act Promptly! It’s tempting to put off a visit to the vets’ if an animal is ill hoping that it will get better on its own, but in many cases this can result in a condition worsening or being more difficult to treat. If you’re unsure you can phone us for advice to help you decide whether a trip to the surgery is required.

26/9/08

Big congratulations to James and Emma. After keeping us all on tenterhooks for most of the day and driving backwards and forwards to hospital a few times Emma finally gave birth to Annabel Evelyn at about 11.00pm. Annabel weighed 7lb 4oz and by all accounts mother and baby are both well.

Talking of babies Hayley will shortly be finishing her maternity leave and will be coming back to us for 2 days a week starting in November.

20/3/07

Last Saturday (17th March) we had our long awaited open day. Some two hundred clients took the opportunity to take a unique, behind the scenes view of the practice and to see what goes on during a normal working day at a busy veterinary surgery.

Visitors were provided with drinks and nibbles as they arrived and after this light refreshment they were able to embark upon a “treasure trail” quiz to guide them through the practice with an enormous variety of (mostly edible) prizes at the end. Dozens of children enjoyed face painting, a match the vet-to-the-pet game and colouring competitions and the various events and a donation from the practice raised over £130 for animal charities in addition to money raised from a cats’ protection league stall on the day.

In addition to the CPL stall we were pleased to provide a venue for several local business. Nick Hill of Decoy farm shop, Brue Valley cheeses from Baltonsborough and “Barka-Parka” pet beds came along to promote their wares and add to the enjoyment.

There was a gruesome (but very popular) display of unusual objects which had been removed from various parts of animals including a sewing needle, a toy arrow, a mouse ball and a pebble. The most bizarre exhibit in this section was a sock a plastic bag, two hair bands and half a pound of wood chippings all of which had been extracted at the same time from the stomach of one particularly hungry springer spaniel!

Chris, one of our veterinary surgeons was on hand to give demonstrations of our ultrasound machine using a block of Tofu and two tomatoes as the “animal-friendly” equivalent of a liver and two tumours to show how it is possible to view the inside of an animal in real time without the need for invasive surgery.

Prevention is better than cure was the theme of the day with a display of dental equipment designed to keep teeth clean and shiny and a chance to discuss vaccination and parasite control as part of Orchard Veterinary Group’s pet health plan which makes preventive health care for pets easy to achieve.

Some clients and members of staff brought in some interesting pets including a cuddly puppy, two boisterous Labradors, a group of playful ferrets, two beautiful corn snakes, a tarantula, a scorpion and a giant African land snail complete with babies (which were distinctly not cuddly). Staff were on hand to give information about all these unusual animals and advice on how to care for them and visitors were given the opportunity to handle some them much to the delight of the children and the horror of the adults.

The event lasted three hours (we had to be finished in time for the England match!) and was reckoned by everyone to be a great success. A big thank you to everyone, staff and visitors who helped to make the day so much fun.

28/2/07

Fairly serious upheavals in the practice at the moment, apologies to all our clients for the disruption caused because the main waiting room has been closed while new flooring is being laid. You may have noticed in recent months that the dark green areas of the waiting room floor had taken on a life of their own and started to bubble up from the floor & to become sticky. Sounds quite exciting but eventually the novelty wore off and we decided to do something about it so we’re having some new stuff laid - hopefully this will last longer that the previous one, we’ll see!

Preparations for the open day on March 17th are well under way, the new floor will be finished by then, we’ve got impressive posters of behind the scenes activity at orchard vets and everyone has been busy wrapping presents for the luck dip - will the excitement ever end?! I look forward to seeing you all there.

14/2/07

Well, it’s been a while since my last entry, apologies to our regular readers!.. Actually, if anyone out there is reading this let me know what you think, or even just say hello, any and all feedback is much appreciated.

Our new electrolyte analyser has arrived and is up and running, everyone’s very pleased with it. This is a great step forward for the practice and it means that we will be able to monitor animals on intensive care much more closely and diagnose many conditions much more quickly than previously when there was a two day delay waiting for results to come back from external laboratories.

Plans are afoot for our up and coming open day which will be on 17th March from 2 PM to 5 PM. It’s St Patrick’s day and for all you rugby fans out there I’ve been asked to say that we will be finished by the start of the England match.

28/11/06

Blimey, less than a month to Christmas and the practice “Christmas bash” fast approaching, and what about this weather, it’s like a pleasant Spring day today, whatever happened to the seasons. The news today is that sadly Rachel, one of our senior nurses, has decided to leave us after three years for pastures new. It’s always a sad occasion when long serving members of staff decide to move on and she will be missed by her colleagues and many clients too.

At a recent meeting at the Bristol veterinary school at Langford which Hayley and I attended as veterinary nursing assessors we were able to meet members of other veterinary practices who participate, with the University in training their veterinary nursing and practice administration (VNPA) degree students (such as Lisa and Maria). While we were there we were introduced to Lucy, a third year student who was looking for a new training placement. A few days later Lucy came along to Orchard for a look round and to meet the people here and now she is the latest member of our nursing team! That was a week ago and she seems to be settling in well.

11/11/06

Armistice day today and also carnival night tonight. Since the areas nearby, previously used to park coaches for the carnival goers on are now under construction we have offered our car park as an alternative area. This will be the first year we have done this so I hope it works out ok. If you visit us on Monday and find the car park looking like a reconstruction of the Somme and all the fences flat you can take it that things didn’t go precisely to plan.

Vicky has been with us for some time now and seems to be settling in well. She is confident and friendly and gets on well with clients and staff alike; already she has become a popular member of our team.

Our latest session of puppy parties start on Tuesday. These have been organised by Emma and several other staff are closely involved with the various presentations that will be given. The parties have been extremely well subscribed (including a small cairn terrier owned by Mr Niall Taylor - yes, we’ve finally relented and are going to get a new pup!) so it should be organised chaos with good fun being had by all. To get an idea what is involved have a look at pictures of our last puppy party.

1/11/06

Sarah has been busy for some time now working towards a business qualification and as part of her work has sent out questionnaires to quite a few of our clients. The response has been excellent with lots of people saying good things about us and giving constructive comments as to areas where we might be able to improve some of the services we offer. So a big thanks to Sarah and to everyone who took the time to respond. Of course you don’t have to wait for a questionnaire before giving us you comments - please feel free to provide feedback at any time, all suggestions and comments (good or bad) are always appreciated.

23/10/06

Vicky Hopkins, the latest member of our veterinary team starts today and we all wish her luck - you can read more about Vicky on her very own “meet the staff” page.

October /06

For the last few months Chris has been looking into getting a new electrolyte analyser for the practice. This is a complicated piece of kit which will allow us to measure the levels of certain salts in the blood of animals. This can be an invaluable tool in the diagnosis of certain hormonal conditions as well as kidney disease and is also extremely useful when monitoring animals on fluid therapy. Previously we have always sent such samples away to an external laboratory which, although useful, meant that there was a delay of 24 to 48 hours before results were available. Now we will be able to put the test to use in critical care situations with results available within seconds of sampling. As well as electrolytes the machine will also allow us to monitor some liver functions and blood clotting times.

September /06

Sadly, Norelene, who has been with us as a veterinary assistant for the last year has announced her resignation. She will be greatly missed by everyone, clients and staff alike but she has been bitten by the ‘travel bug’ and is going away with her boyfriend (an Australian vet) to travel the world and do a bit of veterinary work “down-under”. We wish her the best of luck.

July /06

Our new practice computer system has finally been installed after many months of worry and fret in the space of one very frantic day. It seems to be working well and though it has Alyson tearing her hair out on occasions she is gradually bending it to her will and one day it will produce all the information, facts and figures that we could possibly wish for - it might even be able to tell us how much it cost!

25/5/06

Events are moving quickly with our new practice computer system. We took delivery of some of the hardware today and training starts shortly. There’s a sort of nervous anticipation here at the moment; everyone knows it’s going to make things much easier in the long run but there may be some temporary difficulties on the way. Our ‘going live’ date is 29th June, so wish us luck.

20/5/06

Good grief, yet more congratulations are in order. This time to Emma and James who had a bit of a bash (involving a barbeque and bouncy castle) at Emma’s granddad's house during which they announced that they were engaged to be married. Marvellous news and we wish them all the best. I guess this means that Will Young is definitely out of the running - sorry Will, you had your chance. The party was great fun as well, excellent food, fine company and I even went on the bouncy castle until exhaustion and low flying children forced me off after a massive two minutes strenuous hopping (no pictures are available!).

28/4/06

Well the BSAVA congress was as exciting and informative as expected. A four day marathon of veterinary lectures covering everything from brain surgery to hamster medicine and surgery set in the middle of Birmingham. Plus a massive trade exhibition full of exciting veterinary type toys to wonder around and admire like an Aladdin’s cave. With around 8,000 (yes that’s 8,000!!!) vets in attendance from all four corners of the globe the congress is an excellent social occasion as well and a unique chance to catch up with old acquaintances from way back when. In this current electronic age it’s also a good chance to meet up with people that you know well having corresponded by email for years but have never actually met face to face - you just need to be quick at reading name badges.

Our careers talk at the clinic went extremely well and was very well attended, many thanks to everyone who helped make it a great evening. It was so good to see so many keen young people and answer questions to help them along on the first step of the career ladder. The veterinary profession has to be one of the most fulfilling around and things like that really help remind you of it. We even had a couple of real live vet students there who were able to fill all the gaps in my rather creaky 1970’s version of University life with more relevant, modern information.

22/4/06

Congratulations to Hayley and Simon who got married today in a star studded ceremony. Well most people from work were there at least apart from one member who was attending BSAVA congress at the time (not that I’m bitter). The weather was superb and Hayley looked wonderful and we wish them both the best of luck for the future.

6/4/06

Preparations are underway for Niall to attend the British Small Animal Veterinary Association annual congress. This is the biggest veterinary congress in the World outside of the USA (well, they do everything bigger don’t they!) and is an important event in the veterinary calendar. At Orchard Veterinary Group we take continuing professional development very seriously. Keeping up to date is vital for our own job satisfaction and for the well being of our patients and it’s not something that just happens by itself, it takes time and effort.

5/4/06

The incredible popularity of some our recent events such as last Autumn’s puppy parties and our first aid nights has prompted me to start this page to keep people informed of recent and forthcoming events at Orchard. I will also be able to include sections of general news and gossip to give you some idea about what’s going on behind the scenes at Orchard Veterinary Group.

Our series of first-aid in animals talks has been an incredible success, proving more popular than we could ever have anticipated with around 60 people attending, so many in fact that we had to split the event in two to accommodate everyone. The talk comprised 2 separate meetings, the first one given by Emma on the basics of animal health, what is normal in our pets and on first-aid scenarios caused by external agents such as trauma, burns and poisoning. The second talk was done by Niall and dealt more with incidents caused by ‘internal factors’ such as epilepsy, gastric torsions and so forth. We are thinking of repeating the talks since we’ve already had requests from people who weren’t able to make it the first two times so if you’d like us to keep you informed send us an email with your contact details. Anyone interested can download a copy of the notes for their delectation.

Our next ‘client education’ venture is a talk on careers within the veterinary profession, including veterinary surgeons and veterinary nurses. This will be an evening meeting with a 20 minute talk from Emma on nursing & a 20 minute talk from Niall on veterinary careers. It’s a lot to cram into just 40 minutes but we hope to be able to give interested people the gist of what is involved and point them in the right direction for further information as well as allowing time for questions. We have already had a tremendous response, these career paths are as popular as ever, so if you would like to attend let us know as soon as you can. Any suggestions for subjects of talks you might be interested in attending would be greatly received.

Practice news - the big decision of the year has been to upgrade our practice management computer system which holds clinical records, clients details as well as financial transactions and stock levels, so all in all a pretty important piece of kit. Our existing system has worked well for the last 10 years but has been rather outstripped by faster, more modern, more comprehensive (and more expensive!) systems on the market and the time has come to replace it. Anything to do with computers changes so fast these days it can be hard to keep up but hopefully the system we anticipate changing to comes with a package of support and up-grades which will allow us to keep ahead of the game for many years to come. The likely installation date will be about 3 months or so from now, I’ll keep you posted as dates firm up. I apologise in advance for the inevitable inconvenience and confusion as we get used to the new system but we will endure it with our usual cheery demeanours and in the long run it will allow us to offer a greatly improved, streamlined service - I mean, computers never go wrong, do they?

Practice news...

Any item of news or general interest you’d like to see on our diary, or if you would like to be kept informed of forthcoming events like open days and client meetings just drop me a line & I’ll keep you up to date.

Practice news... (scroll down for more)