Special Clinics

Health Clinics at Isabelle vets

Routine clinics are offered with all our veterinary surgeons to cover any aspect of companion animal health care.

Nurses clinics These are available in the afternoons at Route Isabelle Surgery between 4 and 6p.m. If your pet requires a routine blood sample, a change of dressing, a continuation of a course of treatment prescribed by one of our vets, his toe nails cut or her beak clipped, the nurses are qualified to help in these areas at a nurses fee.

Dental clinics These are run free of charge by our nursing staff. If you have any concerns about your pets teeth or require advice on dental care, please make an appointment to visit one of our nurses. We would also advise that if your pet has been in for any dental surgery, that you have a ‘post dental’ check to ensure that the gums and teeth are healthy. Again there is no charge for this service. If our nurses are concerned that there is an on-going health problem, your pet may be referred to one of our vets. A fee may be levied for this service. See the web pages on Dental Care in the Cat and Dental Care in the Dog

Pet Health Counsellor This is a nutritional advisory and general health care advisory service run by our Pet health Counsellor, every afternoon, Monday to Friday. The staff members who run this service have been specially trained and are full of useful information and advice. Is your pet overweight and requires a diet? If so a special calorie controlled diet regime can be produced. How should diet be altered with age and exercise? Does your pet have fleas or worms? What sort of grooming instrument is best for your cat? The advice is available free of charge from the Pet Health Counsellor.

Vaccination Clinics Vaccination is essential to safeguard your pet’s health and to help limit the disease risks in the community. The diseases vaccinated against are potential killers of your pet. We start vaccinating puppies at 6 weeks of age, kittens at 9 weeks and rabbits at 12 weeks. It also enables us, as veterinary surgeons, to examine and advise on a range of health issues potentially affecting your pet. Please inform our reception staff when making the appointment that it is for his / her first vaccination as we try to allocate a double consultation period (at no additional charge) to ensure that we have adequate time to cover any of your queries.

Puppy parties These have been incredibly successful over the past ten years and offered at no charge to clients who have had their pets vaccinated. It is an evening of puppy socialisation, advice and transference of knowledge; the best ways to house train, puppy worming, dietary changes with age, behavioural and training advice, dental care, flea prevention etc… The main point for us vets is that the pups love the evening and like coming back on future trips. This makes treatment easier for us and less stressful for you. Please book in for a ‘Puppy Party’ evening at the time of vaccination. We run the evenings approximately every three to four weeks.

Kitten evening This is a new venture for 2000. We thought long and hard about the idea of having a dozen cuddly kittens running about together but decided that there are disease risks that we cannot eliminate and it would be mayhem anyway! The evenings will be run through the summer and autumn months and cover a vast array of topics from cat aids and leukaemia virus’ to grooming, parasite control, handling, administration of medication, first aid, behavioural problems and cat socialisation. They are free of charge to our clients who have had their kittens vaccinated. Please book with reception.

Adolescent Health clinic Your puppy or kitten will grow rapidly over the first six to seven months of life. Certain problems come to light around six months of age that may not be so evident at the time of vaccination. We encourage clients to come to see a veterinary surgeon for an ‘adolescent health‘ examination around six months of age. At this examination the vet will check the teeth (the permanent dentition should have just arrived), look at bone growth, check the eyes and reassess heart function. The vet will also discuss dietary changes that are necessary to initiate over the next nine months. It is also a time to discuss contraception or neutering if required and any problems that you may have become aware of.

‘After 8’ Health clinic This clinic has proven extremely useful for both pets and owners. If your pet is over eight years of age we shall send, six months after your pets annual vaccination, a letter recalling him or her to the surgery for an ‘After 8’ examination. Remembering the old phrase ‘for every one cat or dog year, there goes seven human years’ we believe a year is far too long to wait between check ups in the older animal. The ‘After 8’ health clinics offer a twenty minute nurses appointment (free of charge) covering a range of health topics and procedures (please try and bring a urine sample, although not essential). You will be then passed to a veterinary surgeon who will assess more fully any areas of concern, concentrating particularly on heart and circulation, arthritis and pain control, dental problems and an ophthalmic check (normal appointment fee). As vets, we have found many disease problems that owners have been unaware about and helped rectify them before they have become too serious. Please book with the reception staff, specifying you require your pet to have an ‘After 8’ examination.

Canine Psychology Barbara Lawrence our senior nurse is a qualified Canine Psychologist and is an Associate Member of the Canine Behaviour Centre. Barbara, has years of experience working in the Practice and is a keen owner of several German Shepherd dogs. Her practical knowledge added to the canine behavioural qualification that she has obtained makes her ideal to undertake her work in helping dogs and owners with behavioural problems in the Practice. Through the practice she can offer home visits and practice consultations in several different formats depending on the type of problem involved. This is determined by filling in a questionnaire on the dogs behavioural problem prior to consultation. Please telephone Barbara if you wish for her advice and assistance.