Merry Christmas

 Merry Christmas to all our furry friends and their carers!

We look forward to seeing you again in 2014.

We are closed on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day. If you have an emergency on those days please phone the Animal Emergency Centre on 6280 6344.

Yoda liked our Christmas tree when he visited recently

Signs of dental pain

We take a dental Xray of some painful canine teeth

Cats are determined to hide any sign of pain or discomfort from us. The observant owner may notice one or more of the following if they are really on the ball:

• not grooming properly, leaving coat matted, loose or scurfy
• eating on one side of mouth or tilting the head to one side when chewing
• resenting stroking around the face/jaw
• not enjoying handling at all
• keen hunter not interested in hunting any more
• keen warrior not interested in fighting any more
• not wanting to play with tug toys
• throwing food to back of mouth to chew
• bringing unchewed, unlubricated food up within 10 minutes of a meal
• hesitating at food bowl even though clearly hungry
• not crunching kibble
• preferring moist to dry food when used to prefer dry to moist and vice versa
• bad breath
• eating only a little but going back to the bowl often
• drooling
• pawing mouth
• swollen face
• bleeding from mouth
• grinding teeth

Training your cat to tolerate the AeroKat...

The coughing cat

Nick enjoys some fresh air

Nick's carer wasn't sure if he had a hairball or was coughing until we saw him at the hospital. He crouched down with elbows out, hacked and hacked and then swallowed - he was definitely coughing.
To help you work out whether your cat is coughing have a look at this video. Some people mistake 'hairballs' or vomiting for coughing.
When we listened to Nick's chest he had a wheeze, which his owner had also noticed at night. His wheezing has been much worse this spring and summer.
We decided to Xray Nick and found that he had thickening of his bronchial walls, typical of chronic bronchitis or asthma.
Like humans, cats can have frightening episodes of not being able to breathe. They panic and can die if not treated with a bronchodilator like Ventolin immediately.
Nick is now on steroids and is training his owner to use an AeroKat inhaler.