Bella Chandler-Evans.

Bella is Scubby Russel’s sister and now lives in Cremorne.

Scubby Russel Cameron.

Scubby Russel came to us with his sister Bella. He was adopted by one of our clients who had earlier in the year lost her 18 year old cat. He lives in Double Bay and stays with us for holidays in our cat boarding facility from time to time. Lucky boy!

Flea bombs can be dangerous to cats.

Permethrin Toxicity in Cats:

Facts:

One Flea can lay up to 1000 eggs a week

These can in warm seasons hatch into adult fleas in 1-2 weeks

One Flea can last up to 10 days

Immature stages of the flea life cycle can lay dormant in the house environment for up to 12 months before hatching and hatch with movement especially animal movement.

What we recommend:

Careful and ongoing monthly flea prevention application to the back of the neck

In some cases we need tablets on a daily or monthly basis

Careful environmental decontamination

As painful as fleas can be, it is also important when treating your pets for fleas that you use products appropriate for them.

Some gentle reminders include:

1. Permethrin and permoxin products (only in dog products) is highly toxic to our feline friends.
2. Indoor only animals will still need to be treated on a regular basis to prevent infestations breeding – yourself and visitors (both human and animals) can be a great way into the home for fleas.
3. Flea bombs are a great way of treating the environment but be sure to remove pets and other family members from the home whilst they are being let off. Be sure to check in all the nooks and crannies of the rooms as sometimes a dear friend can be hiding away!

‘Ginger’ is a 15 year old domestic shorthair who lives in a multi pet household. As a preventative measure, her owner wanted to flea bomb bedrooms in the household to ensure that there was no chance of fleas breeding. A Mortein flea bomb was purchased –(these can be effective as long as they contain an insect growth regulator) and placed into the bedroom for aerolisation.

A few hours later (as indicated by the instructions) the room was reopened and Ginger ran out of the room ‘mort’-ified. A prompt phone call ensued and Ginger was brought down to VetHQ for a consultation.

The concern arises from the active ingredients that are used in the mortein flea bomb – it contains permethrin and fenoxycarb. Both these ingredients are great for killing fleas and insects, but similarly when permethrin aerolises and the cat ingests the ingredient whilst grooming – seizures, tremors and death can occur.

Ginger was admitted into hospital – her vital signs (temperature, respiratory rate and heart rate) were generally within normal limits and she had no evidence of twitching, or tremors. She was given intravenous fluids to flush out her system and provide supportive care (as directed by poisons hotline) and a mild sedation was given to allow us to wash her to remove all traces of the permethrin and fenoxycarb.

Ginger boarded overnight – allowing us to ensure that there was no evidence of any adverse effect from her startling adventures, and was discharged the following day. She is a very lucky girl and has probably one less of her ‘nine lives.’

Find out about our partnership with various adoption organizations.

Dr. Joanne Righetti at our Adoption HQ launch

Vet HQ has spent six years carving an essential niche in the Eastern Suburbs, aiming to provide the highest standard of veterinary care while offering a complete and individualized approach to animal health through their values of integrity, communication, education, teamwork, respect and excellence.  We already provide full veterinary and surgical facilities, Dog Day Care, Cat Boarding and Grooming Services. Over the past year we have also been helping organisations such as Animal Welfare League New South Wales in finding homes for stray kittens.  Director and Veterinarian Geoff Golovsky now plans to further expand Vet HQ through a new program Adoption HQ, in partnership with Animal Welfare League NSW and other Adoption organisations.

AWL rescue dog Honey

By forming Adoption HQ, Dr. Golovsky and his team aim to provide regulated small animal adoption within their Double Bay clinic, and while doing so to educate the public on responsible pet ownership and current hot topics in regards to animal welfare. We also will highlight the role of foster carers to help with the process.  Every year 250,000 dogs and cats that have been surrendered to shelters are euthanased in Australia. Ironically, this figure is equal to the entire human population of the Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs. The aim is to use existing shelters and help facilitate the adoption process. We know how stressful travelling to shelters can be and how emotional it is to see so many animals looking for homes. Our aim is to encourage adoption whilst removing any angst involved.

Two of our adoption kittens

According to AWL research, common reasons for rehoming pets include owners not being able find accommodation where pets are allowed, changes in partner relationships, inability to commit to the costs of pet ownership- food and veterinary care, and being unwilling to invest in training for solvable behavioural problems such as separation anxiety. Many of the animals surrendered were impulse purchases made at pet stores, where individuals were not informed of the commitment and work involved in owning a dog or a cat.

Meet and Greet at the Adoption HQ launch

Through Adoption HQ and Animal Welfare League NSW, Dr. Golovsky and his team have set a goal of vastly improved animal welfare in the Eastern Suburbs. If you’re interested in rescuing a dog or a cat, or becoming a foster carer, please fill in the relevant attached forms and send it to Jemmah@vethq.com.au

Adoption Registration Form

Foster Carer Registration Form

What causes Tucker’s strange snorting sounds?

Tucker is on our You Tube channel for those of you who want to hear what he sounds like. Over the past few years he has progressively worsened to a point now that the owner feels guilty about walking Tucker around the block because he snorts and chokes and looks like he cant breath (which by definition is actually correct). The only problem is Tucker is 3 and wants to run.

Being a small Yorkshire Terrier there is plenty that could go wrong with the respiratory tract. The possible conditions that could be affecting him include:

1. elongated soft palate
2. laryngeal paralysis
3. everted laryngeal saccules
4. collapsing trachea
5. dynamic airway disease
6. cardiac (heart) disease
7. a mass/polyp in his respiratory tract .

It was decided to perform a workup as he is only 3 and has a long life ahead of him. At Vet HQ we performed a pre anaesthetic blood profile. We are able to run full biochemistry in house so the results were confirmed to be normal within 30minutes. We then proceeded to perform a General Anaesthetic. The upper respiratory tract was examined to be normal (nose, nasopharynx (via endoscopy), soft palate and larynx were all normal. Radiographs were taken of his chest that were also normal although were suggestive of collapsing trachea. Endoscopy of the trachea confirmed collapsing trachea and a final radiograph on recovery was icing on the cake.

What seemed like a routine procedure and diagnosis took a hairy turn for the worse when Tucker began seizuring on his recovery from Anaesthetic. A general anaesthetic can change intracranial pressures and potentially increase the chance for a seizure. Some drugs we use can also do this but as I was looking at the functioning of the respiratory tract during the procedure no drugs used on Tucker have been seen to potentiate seizures. Within 10 seconds of  commencing a grand mal seizure we had Tucker in a stable condition. For the rest of the afternoon Tucker came in and out of consciousness and had a few very minor seizures – all controlled with medication. He was on constant monitoring of Blood Pressure, ECG, temperature, and Oxygenation during that time. The Staff at Vet HQ left at midnight that night and were very happy to say Tucker was out of the woods.

Why did he seizure? Well that seems almost more important than the collapsing trachea that he has as seizures could be life threatening. It is also important as we may need to do further procedures to treat the respiratory disease in the future. At this stage though Tucker has made a speedy recovery and is at present on 2 medications and his breathing and snorting has almost gone away.

Chest Xray indicating Collapsing Trachea

Endoscopy Picture of the trachea that should be a circle but is flattened

Potential Specialist Surgery of a dog with a similar condition that has had a stent placed internally to open up the airway.

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS GRAPHIC SURGICAL IMAGES.

When it comes to luck, Cassius should seriously go and buy himself a lottery ticket as he is truly out of luck. At the age of 4 months Cassius developed meningitis. As it turns out we think that Cassius developed a Staphylococcal Meningitis from teething. We referred Cassius for a spinal tap and MRI to North Shore Veterinary Hospital under the care of Specialist Internal Medicine Doctor, Richard Churcher.  After about 4 weeks Cassius was able to walk and even chase a ball and over the last 18 months has increased his strength to almost normal – 95%.

That was until he developed Lymphoma – a cancer in his intestines! Cassius was not so great. He presented with a small amount of vomiting and diarrhoea and  a little low in energy. He was just off. He did not respond completely to some medications prescribed so we decided to ultrasound his belly. We noted that he had what is called an intussusception of his ileum and colon. The picture below shows Tammy and I doing surgery. The photos at the bottom of this page are only for those interested in the surgery and may offend some viewers.

The first photo demonstrates that one piece of intestine had in essence telescoped in on another causing a blockage. During surgery we were able to reduce the telescoped intestine but noted that it was a very strange shape. I was hoping that it was an abscess or a foreign body but in the back of my mind I had Cassius’ dad saying we don’t believe in luck anymore. We decided to remove the piece of intestine by what is called an end to end anatomises.  The affected intestine removed was sent for pathological analysis.

The Pathology came back as B Cell Lymphoma. After much agonising and decision making it was concluded to do Chemotherapy on Cassius. Although the Consultant Veterinary Oncologists for Vet HQ carry a guarded view, I am hopeful that Cassius will live for more than one year and hopefully 2-3 years. We are using a combination of Chemotherapy at Vet HQ including Vincristine, Cyclophosphamide, L-Asparaginase , Lomustine, Mitoxantrone and Prednisolone.

In the second photo you can see the bowel after surgery. The surgical site is in the top right of the picture.

It must be remembered that the aim of chemotherapy for animals is to prolong our pets life expectancy whilst not compromising on the quality of life. Cassius is in the 6^th week of Chemotherapy. He walks from Bondi to Bronte every weekend, has put on weight and is full of beans. He has vomited only once and his hair – although not regrown at the site of surgery is not falling out.  I have learnt from Cassius’ owner not to hope or cross my fingers but to enjoy every time I see him and every time he gives me a big wet kiss. One week at a time!

Harry’s owners are forced to rehome him.

Harry is being evicted from our building due to a no pets policy albeit there are lots of pets in the building the Chairman of the body corporate has decided to use Harry to set the example, so after a lengthy costly legal process we have 1 month to find him a good home.

Harry is turning 3 years this month, he is a blonde male Pomeranian, he is not de sexed however I will pay for him to be de sexed .

Harry is child friendly, we have a nine year old son and he likes to socialize with other dogs.

He loves the park, riding in the car and going to the beach, he stays with a dog sitter regularly who has other dogs whilst we are away.

Harry has lived overseas so he is use to long haul air travel too, he is fully vaccinated, has a microchip and was bread in Australia, he frequently travels in the car to our beach house on the coast.

Harry is in great health he’s never been ill, he has had a dog trainer and understands the basic commands and is a happy active dog.

If you would like more information on Harry or meet him please contact Petah: petah.green@gmail.com

Latiefa needs a new forever home.

Latiefa is looking for a new forever home. She is 7yrs old, healthy, desexed, social and smoochy, very bright and a fantastic lizard hunter.

For more information on Latiefa please contact Angela on 0412 325 304.

Bilan Nikolaeva.

Bilan is Mya and Biliies brother and is now living in Randwick.

Billie James.

Billie is from the same litter as Mya and is now living in Narrabeen.