Being a one vet practice certainly has it's upside and I have loved being that vet, but as we have grown it's been hard to keep up and I must confess I may have got a teeny tiny bit grumpy. But fear not, help is at hand; introducing Alex, our new vet. She has energy and enthusiasm and we are so impressed with how good a "Hope Vets" fit she is. She is really looking forward to getting to know you all.
And what do I do with the prospect of a little more time on my hands? Expand our zoo of course. I am now the proud owner of a beautiful, bright bay thoroughbred mare. She is called Belly (since that is all she thinks about) and is a sweet funny character. She is only 5 years old and will need a lot of work but I can't wait to get going and I reckon I might even have the whole horse thing nailed in a decade or so. Bring it on!
Steph and Belly
Hope Vets News August '09
We've gone and done it again! As if 3 dogs, 2 cats, 2 sheep and a lizard weren't enough - we have another new addition. Meet Fizz our new puppy and the weird bit is that she isn't even a collie. Fizz is a little cross breed (or Jack-a-poo if you want her full title). She has quickly settled into our mad-house and surgery life doesn't phase her one bit. She may be small but she holds her own and is a force to be reckoned with when she gets going. Now all I've got to do is work out how to train a non-collie dog... Wish me luck!
Gosh, we have been busy... In May, only 6 months after opening our new clinic, we underwent an inspection for the RCVS practice standards scheme. They studied the practice from top to toe and looked at all of our facilities, procedures and paperwork. AND WE PASSED! So Hope Vets is now an RCVS accredited practice. What that means is that we are fab (even if I do say so myself). Not only that but we have also just been appointed as an official nurse training centre so soon we will be training lots of mini-Barbies and Katies.
Hope Vets News April '09
Hope Vets goes BAAAAArmy... We'd like to introduce you to the newest additions to the Hope Vets team. Meet Elton (a Suffolk ram) and Kylie (a Wiltshire Horn ewe) our 2 orphan lambs. It turns out that we always wanted pet sheep but never knew it, until now!
Lost and Found
Have you lost or found a pet? Let us know and we will post it here and hopefully reunite you.
Hope Vets let loose at Bovingdon primary school fayre!
Thanks to Bovingdon primary school for inviting us along to help raise some money for an excellent cause.
Here are a couple of photos from the day and also the winning entries from our drawing competition. Well done to the artists!
Charlie
George
Isabel
Karishma
Lauren
Lizzie
Hector in his tail incarceration device
Just how do you stop a Labradoodle wagging his tail?
Who'd have thought a small tail wound would cause such a problem for the happiest dog in the world?
Hector is a crazy bundle of limitless enthusiasm and wags his tail with such fervour that the troublesome wound had no chance when whacked against kitchen units, walls and doorframes. We tried everything from bandages and toe plasters to pipe lagging. After he ate the 2nd bandage, we were getting a bit desperate...
This absurd get-up is the only way to stop a doodle tail!
Has your pet got a story to tell?
We would love to post it here.
A much happier Hector!
Tiger’s Story
Hi, my name is Mr Tiger Matthews but my friends call me Tigg-puss. I am an adventurous kind of a cat, never one to shy away from a challenge. Being a hard lad I have got myself into a fair few scrapes in my time, falling out of top floor windows and racing motorbikes and Tesco trucks but I always win and I’m never scared, until last year that is.
It started when I didn’t fancy my usual pre-supper snack mouse and it all went downhill from there. I was bundled into the car by my servant human who calls herself Mummy-Barbie and deposited with no dignity onto a cold table smelling of disgusting dogs. Then I was introduced to a new servant who called herself Aunty Stephanie. She was ok I suppose but I wasn’t too chuffed when she kept making suggestions involving needles!
Being a handsome chap they wanted to take some pictures of me but insisted on leaving my fur off the photo. X-rays they called it, more like x-rated if you ask me! By this time I was feeling none too clever, kind of like a million mice were trampling my chest stopping me breathing, and after that it’s all a blur. My hospital chart said “Pyothorax” and a load of stuff I didn’t understand, so I asked the servants and apparently my chest had filled with pus stopping my lungs inflating. I almost died under the anaesthetic but you can’t keep a good cat down and I made it through (well I wasn’t going to let that good for nothing sparrow have the last laugh was I?).
The next thing I remember is wearing a jacket covering tubes that were sewn to me. I tried to tell the humans that jackets are for girls but they were too busy sucking fowl smelling pus out of one tube and squirting food down another. Humans are an odd species. Who can ever understand what they do in their spare time? These shenanigans went on and on until I felt well enough to put a stop to it. A couple of bites and a swift tug and the tubes were gone. It took clever negotiation to get myself driven home but I managed it and here I am, none the worse for wear, apart from my asthma - which only plays up when the stupid humans suck on paper tubes on fire - and a few aches and pains that any self respecting hunter experiences. I am back on patrol and there’s to be no messing about on my watch.
Vet Nurse of the Year 2007
Congratulations to our very own Barbie Matthews for being selected from thousands of nominations to win the prestigious veterinary nursing award. Here are some snippets from the many letters that were written to nominate her: “Barbie is a cracking nurse” “Qualifying as a Vet Nurse was a battle for Barbie, although she is extremely bright, she had to teach herself how to overcome the dyslexia and how to study”
“As a nurse Barbie is extremely attentive to the animals, always spending the extra time to care for hospitalised patients.” “She instinctively provides for the needs of all creatures under her care.” “The reason Barbie is so popular is that she routinely goes the extra mile, always phoning to make sure clients are coping ok” “She always makes the extra time to research a problem or find the extra information to help a client” “Barbie: Vet Nurse and general good person of the year. I challenge you to find a more caring, more selfless, more dedicated, more intelligent, more wonderful person.”
