by BrayVet | Feb 6, 2019 | News
The summer is the perfect time to get a new pet: children are off school so they can spend time with the new arrival and the weather is good, so they can all spend more time outdoors, learning to be house-trained more rapidly. Kiko was just eight weeks of age when she arrived into the family household, and she settled in well at once. Over the past month, she has grown bolder and more energetic, and she has now started to cause problems by nipping with her sharp baby teeth. When she gets excited, she rushes around, wanting to play when humans in the house are otherwise occupied. Kiko gets frustrated, and she uses her mouth to tear at the bottom of people’s trousers or their shoes. And if anyone bends down to give her toys, she’s started jumping up, grabbing the person’s hand and giving them a painful nip. Finally, if she is being held and she wants to get away, she turns around and nips the fingers that are holding her. Christian loves his new dog, but he’s beginning to lose his confidence with her. She has never drawn blood, but her teeth are sharp, and it’s painful when she uses them on him. The “nipping” issue is a common problem, often referred to as “play biting”. Puppies use their mouths in the same way as human toddlers use their hands, and they have to learn to do this in a controlled and gentle way. Pups normally learn to have a gentle mouth while playing with their litter mates. If you watch pups playing together, if one...
by BrayVet | Jan 30, 2019 | News
Florence originally took in Sweep from the DSPCA as a rescue puppy back in June 2002. Within a few weeks of her arrival, Sweep had started to get itchy, and by August in that year, she had to visit the vet for the itch to be sorted out. The usual investigations and tests were done to diagnose the cause of her itchiness, ruling out common problems like fleas, mange and fungal infections. The conclusion at the end of the work-up was that she was suffering from a condition called “atopy”, which is an allergic reaction of the skin to pollens and dusts in the air. She was given the standard treatment for atopy, including regular shampoos, daily antihistamines and an anti-inflammatory tablet called prednisolone, which she takes with her food, three or four times a week. Her itch responded rapidly to the treatment. That first time, back in 2002, Sweep’s itchiness had settled down completely at the end of the summer, and Florence hoped that perhaps it wouldn’t come back. Unfortunately, the following June, she started to itch again. She started to chew her paws, she scratched at her ears and she nibbled the inside of her legs. The skin on the underside of her belly began to look bright red and sore, as if she had been stung by nettles on her underside. Her back became scabby, and if Florence tickled her along her spine, the skin rippled, as if it was feeling intensely itchy. Her coat turned dull and greasy, with a characteristic strong fusty smell. Sweep had to go back onto anti-allergy shampoos and medication for...
by BrayVet | Jan 23, 2019 | News
John thought that Snoop was a normal, healthy yorkshire terrier when he brought him to see me for his booster vaccination in April 2012, so he was shocked when I broke the news to him. As part of Snoop’s usual annual health check, I asked a few questions about his daily habits. John mentioned that Snoop had been drinking more water than usual, and that he had had a few accidents, urinating in the house, which was completely out of character. A quick urine test in my consulting room showed that Snoop had glucose in his urine, and a blood test confirmed that his blood glucose was much higher than normal. There was only one possible cause of this: diabetes. Snoop was started on twice daily injections of insulin, given by John as part of a new daily routine. His blood glucose returned to normal within a week, and since then, he has been a stable diabetic dog. John is careful to keep to a standard routine, with just the right amount of food and exercise. Snoop’s thirst has remained normal, and he has had no more accidents in the house. Blood tests from time to time have shown that the insulin injections are keeping his blood glucose at just the right level. One year after Snoop had been diagnosed as diabetic, John noticed another problem: Snoop’s vision suddenly seemed to be fading. The first clue was that Snoop started to hold his head to one side, glancing around nervously, looking baffled, as if he could not understand what was going on around him. In the back garden, Snoop...
by BrayVet | Jan 16, 2019 | News
Mac and Tosh (Mac ‘n’ Tosh) have been a double act since the day they arrived as puppies back in 2006. They have done everything together, with each adopting their individual style. Mac is a bigger, slower dog, with the classic determined attitude of a terrier. Tosh is smaller, leaner and more energetic, but equally stubborn. The two dogs were house-trained together, vaccinated and wormed at the same time, and they were even castrated on the same day. They get on well, eating dinner in adjacent bowls and sleeping close to one another. They even had an adventure together a few years ago. The family had been out at a funeral, and a friend was looking after the two dogs for the day. They somehow managed to escape from the back garden, going for a wander around Bray. Mac was found within a mile of the house on the same day, but Tosh had vanished altogether. Luckily, he had been microchipped, and the following day, a call came in from Dun Laoghaire, eight miles away: he had been found. Tosh had been seen getting off the DART in Dun Laoghaire on his own, and the woman who had spotted him took him home with her. She had then taken him out for a boat trip on her yacht because the vet was closed, and she couldn’t have his microchip checked till the following morning. Tosh enjoyed the trip so much that after dropping him home to Bray, the lady told the family that he could come back for another boat trip whenever he liked. Apart from enjoying adventures together,...
by BrayVet | Jan 9, 2019 | News
Kaypo has an unusually complicated family history for a cross bred dog. Her mother, a pure-bred Labrador called Bibi, was imported from Australia to Singapore, where she became the much-loved pet of Therese’s niece. Bibi became pregnant by mistake when she was six years old, to an unknown male dog, and six pups were born. Kaypo was the only one that was kept by the family: this meant that from the day she was born, Kaypo was never out of sight of her mother, Bibi. Therese’s niece moved back to London a few years later, bringing the dogs with her. She travelled extensively as part of her job, and so the two animals ended up spending much of their lives in County Wicklow, with Therese, who adored them both. Kaypo was always doted on by her mother, Bibi. The two animals did everything together: exercising, playing, sleeping and even eating their meals side by side. Bibi was very attentive to her daughter, taking time to lick her face thoroughly every day, with the younger dog sitting patiently in front of her while she did this. They were a contented couple of dogs: they both had a spring in the step and a glint in the eye. Life was as good as it gets in the dog world. The years passed – as they do – and last year, Bibi began to show her age. She was thirteen, and her hind legs began to fail her, with the usual arthritis that’s so common in elderly animals. Eventually, she was unable to get up, and the difficult decision was made to...
by BrayVet | Jan 2, 2019 | News
Buzz has an active lifestyle, particularly enjoying running. Brenda takes him into the countryside near Bray so that he can sprint up and down in fields, and she also takes him to the local park: she rides her bike, and he runs beside her. On the Friday of the Bank Holiday weekend, Brenda was away overnight: her brother-in-law was looking after Buzz. There was no particular change in his routine: Buzz spent most of his time indoors and went for his usual run in the local park. But when Brenda returned on the Saturday afternoon, she noticed that Buzz’s right eye looked bloodshot. It didn’t seem to be bothering him, so she wondered if he had bashed it off something, and she gave the eye some simple first aid treatment. She started by treating the eye in the same way as she’d treat a mildly sore eye in a baby: she cleaned it twice daily with some cooled boiled water and some cotton pads. She took particular care to only touch the eye with a fresh pad, changing it each time to avoid re-infection. Over the next two days, on the Sunday and the Bank Holiday Monday, Buzz’s sore eye got steadily worse. Normally, Brenda would have taken him to the vet, but she didn’t feel that it was bad enough to need to contact the emergency on-duty service. She started to use sterile saline from her first aid kit rather than just boiled water. Unfortunately, the problem didn’t get better, so on the Tuesday morning after the Bank Holiday, Brenda and Buzz came down to my vet clinic...
