Services

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Here at Teignview vet group we are committed to providing a fully comprehensive package of services to help you with any of your pet's health and general wellbeing. We are also able to source quality products to backup our advice on heath and routine care issues.

Consultations

These are the back bone of our service and for most clients is the first contact with our vets.

What should you expect?...... well the core is a full examination of your pet whilst discussing general issues of feeding, parasite control and behaviour. This is the time you should raise any questions you have and ask about problems you have noticed. This process is very much a two way discussion and it is important to be able to provide basic information about feeding habits, drinking, passing urine/faeces, demeanour and exercise tolerance as well as accurately describing the problems which are worrying you. Examination of your pet is made much more difficult without a good history as the veterinary surgeon is working with much less information and as such it may take longer to get to the cause of the problem, resulting in increased costs and more importantly increased suffering.

For most consultations we allow 10 to 15 minutes and this will cost in the order of £25 +vat. If the problem is more complex and requires more time you will be informed that we should make a special consultation, possibly outside of a normal surgery to allow for this. We may in certain instances refer a client internally to see another vet with a particular specialization; this is particularly the case with regard to skin (dermatology), heart (cardiology), eye (ophthalmology) and surgical cases.

The consultation is also the opportunity for the consulting vet to give you a precise answer as to what he thinks might be the problem and prescribe treatment. In some cases however this is not always possible and further investigations may be required, ranging from a sample blood test, to complicated surgical investigations. We should at least be able to give you a guide to hopeful outcome and future costs. However it must be understood that sometimes at the start of an investigation it is not possible to foresee what exactly is going to be needed. You should expect however to be told exactly what costs have been incurred at any time to date.

Preventative Healthcare and Vaccination.

Vaccinations
This is one of the most important annual requirements of pet ownership. There has been a lot of controversy about vaccinations but in a nutshell these vaccinations prevent very serious infections, many of which in the younger or older animals are killers with no specific cure. Where animals contract these infections with aggressive support the can be helped but the suffering, pain and costs are significant. The vaccination consultation always includes a full examination and is the best way to pick up problems early and deal with them before they get out of hand.

In dogs we can vaccinate against:

• Parvovirus
• Distemper
• Canine hepatitis - 2 strains
• Leptospirosis - 2 strains
• Canine influenza

In certain dogs we recommend kennel cough vaccination and can also vaccinate against rabies for those dogs going abroad.

In cats we can vaccinate against:

• Feline calicivirus
• Feline herpes virus
• Feline parvovirus
• Feline leukaemia

We can also vaccinate against rabies for those going abroad.

Preventative health care

Worming control
Routine worming of all pets is essential, especially if they live with children or are regular hunters of prey. As a general rule we would recommend a minimum of quarterly worming of all cats and dogs, in certain circumstances however we would recommend monthly worming. All our nurses and vets are happy to advise on worming and please be aware that all wormers are not the same and there are some very poor products on the general open market.

Flea control and other ectoparasites (tick, mange, lice)
Fleas are very common and a significant cause of major skin disease in some animals. Effective control does not just mean using a quality product but using the products available in the right way. There is no one best product, in fact we have a whole range of products which can be tailored to individual requirements.
The products we carry are as follows:-

As you can see there is a large range of products, all with strengths and weaknesses, this is where we can advise on the best product to use as a balance between personal preferences, parasite concerned, mode of administration and cost. Our vets and nurses are all very happy to recommend preparations according to your needs.

Surgical neutering
All our premises are equipped with good quality anaesthetic equipment and surgery facilities to cope with surgical neutering of dogs, cats and small pets.

Male dogs are castrated usually from around 7 -8 months of age, in certain circumstances this can be done earlier and in others it may be suggested to leave the procedure until they are a bit older. Castration in dog requires a general anaesthetic and again the stitches (sutures) are removed 12 - 14 days later. Castration can be used to stop roaming, certain behavioural traits, prostrate problems and will render the patient infertile.

Additional Services

As well as the basic services we are able to back up when needed with some very much more advanced diagnostic techniques.

X-Ray Investigations
In many investigations the taking and interpretation of x-rays (radiography) is a core requirement which can be very useful in providing information about a patient's disease. It is far more than just a way of diagnosing a broken bone. Radiography is an essential part of investigation of lung, heart, liver joint diseases and many abdominal problems. All our vets do radiographic investigations. Our surgery sites at Dawlish and Teignmouth are equipped with the latest digital x-ray machines which enable excellent quality radiographs to be produced .

Ultrasound Examination
In recent years ultrasound examinations have become very much more common. We are fortunate to ultrasound facilities at all our surgery sites. This enables us to particularly examine abdominal organs in detail without having to necessarily perform surgery to visualise organs with our eyes.

Ultrasound is a non painful, non invasive procedure which enables us to often perform the examination in a fully conscious or lightly sedated patient. In the last 2 years we have also added colour Doppler ultrasound, this is important in examination of heart murmurs and assessing cardiac function and has enabled us to visualise problems such as intra cardiac cancer, valve problems and assessing the beating heart which before was impossible.

ECG or Electrocardiography Taking an ECG has been a very important part of investigation when dealing with heart conditions. In recent years the ECG has been super ceded by ultrasonography in some areas of investigations, however for investigation of arrhythmias (irregular heartbeats) it is an essential tool and is still used regularly. It is a procedure which has to be done in the conscious animal as sedation or anaesthesia could be dangerous to the patient and it also can affect the ECG trace making it in interpretable.

Anaesthesia - Advanced Techniques
At our Dawlish surgery we are particularly pleased with our anaesthetic setup. This enables us to monitor patients very closely and assist their breathing where needed to perform long and complicated procedures in a way which is safe, the ventilator at this site is essential for certain procedures and dramatically improves safety of procedures where the diaphragm has to be repaired after anaesthesia.
As well as the ventilator we have monitoring equipment to assess oxygen, carbon dioxide, heart rate/ECG rates. These combined with modern anaesthetic gases mean safety is massively improved over techniques and equipment available 5 - 10 years ago.

Laboratory and Testing of Samples
At all our sites we are equipped with quality microscopes and basic stains to do some of our own examinations, particularly for skin disease. However, though many practices have there own 'in house' haematology and biochemistry analysers we are fortunate to be very close to three specialist veterinary pathology laboratories. The skills available to use by using these services are vastly ahead of anything we could offer and being so close, in many cases we are able to get results on a same day as sampling basis. These services also enable us to discuss difficult cases with pathologists and specialist vets and the results are quality assured to ensure consistency.

Telephone Advice and 24 Hour Cover In some cases clients ring us regarding problems and are not sure if they should bring their animal to us. We are always happy to answer queries and give guidance. It is not possible to give a specific diagnosis over the phone but some guidance can be given to possible problems.

In an emergency there is always a vet on duty at night and they are available to answer any queries you may have about your pet but we do ask that out of hours requests/contacts are not for consultation time and non urgent enquires which should be made between the hours of 08:30 and 18:00 hrs in the week and 08:30 - 13:00 hrs Saturdays.