Benalla Veterinary Clinic
16 Church Street
Benalla, VIC, 3672
admin@benallavetclinic.com.au
www.benallavetclinic.com.au
Phone: 03 5762 2788

NEWS FEED

As platinum sponsors of the Benalla Spring Show, Benalla Veterinary Clinic hosted the annual Pet Parade event with entrants as varied as guinea pigs to painted dogs! All the kids had great fun and no one left empty handed! We look forward to the next parade in 2016.

Snakes are being observed around Benalla and district on a daily basis now. Please ensure your animals are secured on a lead at all times when out walking. Click on this link for information on snake bite in pets. A very handy free app we recommend to have on your smart phone for emergencies is First Aid for Pets (Australia).

As an introduction to our new range of endoscopic services we have a video link to demonstrate grass seed removal via a video otoscope. We are very excited that we can now offer many endoscopic procedures previously unavailable at our clinic.

Don't forget that Puppy Pre-school runs regularly. Please contact the clinic for the next class start date and visit puppy preschool on our website for more information.

Mickey is a delightful fella who came into the clinic with a nasty complex fracture of his femur (back leg) after a suspected accident with a car tyre recently.

This lucky little bloke has been able to keep his leg because his owner agreed to have it repaired in a long orthopaedic surgery at the Benalla Veterinary Clinic.

As you can see in the xrays many different implants were used to piece his tiny shattered femur bone back together. This included stainless steel screws, pins and wire.  He also required a steel frame to be created outside of his leg to support the delicate implants in his femur during the healing phase.

Twelve weeks later the leg had healed and the frame and pins were removed and Mickey (minus one of his nine lives!) was castrated, to hopefully prevent this sort of road traffic accident occurring again.

Unfortunately we see far too many cases of road trauma in un-desexed animals, particularly males who are prone to roaming.

Benalla Veterinary Clinic recommends desexing and keeping  cats in at night as the best way to prevent these tragic events. 

Once a month from spring through to autumn bunny owners in Benalla congregate on a Tuesday evening at our clinic to have their bunnies checked, weighed and accurately dosed by a vet with a safe insecticidal repellant product. This product discourages mosquitoes from biting bunnies, which helps to prevent the spread of deadly myxomatosis (myxo). Unfortunately there are no vaccines against myxomatosis available within Australia at this time, unlike the equally dangerous calicivirus.

We recommend annual vaccination against calicivirus and offer a discount for Bunny Club attendees. Call us to book your bunny into the next Bunny Club evening. More information on bunnies at our website.

With summer just around the corner, now's the best time to start getting your pet ready for the warmer months. Proper preparation will help keep your pet healthy and safe.  

Here are our top tips:

Get up to date with vaccinations 

If your pet is boarding over the summer holidays appropriate vaccinations must be up to date. Boarding facilities might turn your pet away if they are not. Ask us to check if your pet is due for any vaccinations. 

Prevent parasites 

The warmer months bring about pesky parasites. Fleas, mosquitoes (that can carry deadly Heartworm), biting flies and potentially deadly paralysis ticks love the warmer weather. Now's the time to get your prevention regime sorted. Prevention is easier (and always cheaper) than treatment. Ask us for the best product recommendations. 

Get a haircut

Dog groomers book out quickly over the warmer months so you should arrange grooming appointments now. Keeping your dog's coat shorter over summer will help keep your dog cooler and more comfortable and help reduce grass seed problems. 

We are always the best place to start when it comes to looking after your pet. We can provide you with the most accurate and up to date information so phone us or drop in if you have any questions. 

Who doesn't love a summer BBQ? With the warmer weather and longer daylight hours we are all keen to get our snags cooking - and your pets probably are too!

How do you best keep your pet safe around the BBQ? Follow these four safety tips so your pets can enjoy the BBQ as much as you do. 

1. Keep pets away from the BBQ

The smells coming from the BBQ are irresistible to our pets. Keep your pet away from the hot BBQ at all times to prevent burns. Keep the lid closed when you are not around, especially after cooking, to prevent your cat jumping up on the hot plate to hunt out any leftovers or meat juices. 

2. Use a drip tray

Some pets will eat anything that meat juices may have dripped on to - including sticks and rocks! These can be ingested and cause intestinal injury and obstruction.

3. Clean up

After your BBQ throw away all drip trays, foil, left overs, bones and meat skewers. Dogs in particular love to scavenge and ingest things they shouldn't! We don't want to have to perform intestinal surgery to remove them. 

4. Don't feed leftovers

Ask your guests not to feed your pet any leftovers or tidbits from the table as this can lead to gastric upsets and pancreatitis. Have a bag of pet safe treats on hand instead - we have great options in stock so ask us for a recommendation. 

Summer brings scary noises including thunder from storms as well as fireworks in celebration of the silly season. The result is hundreds of terrified dogs who often manage to escape and head for the hills. This is why it is essential your pet is microchipped.

Now is the perfect time to check the contact details attached to your pet's microchip. Unfortunately, for many microchipped pets, the contact phone number assigned to the chip is incorrect and this makes the chip useless. 

If you don't know your pet's microchip number, drop by with your pet and we can scan it for you. If you already know the microchip number you can jump online at www.car.com.au to update any details. 

It's also a good idea to have an ID tag attached to your pet's collar as this can speed up the lost and found process.

If your pet is lost he can't phone home, but a microchip with the correct contact information will enable someone to phone home for him!

See below to read an incredible story about a dog who was reunited with her owners. 

Vaccination is a vital tool we have available to help keep your pet healthy.

Even if your pet doesn’t have contact with other pets, he should be vaccinated. Many people aren't aware that there are diseases that can be transmitted in water droplets through the air or in contaminated faeces.

Other reasons vaccinations are so vital

They protect against deadly diseases: many dangerous diseases are completely preventable with the correct vaccinations. Why would you put your pet at risk?

Vaccinations save money: vaccinations are substantially less expensive than the cost of treatment for the diseases they prevent. We think this is a no brainer! 

You can board your pet with other animals: if you ever plan to board your dog or cat he must be up to date with his vaccinations - what would happen if you had a family emergency and boarding was the only option?

Visits to the vet hospital: if your pet has to stay in hospital he needs to be vaccinated. If your pet is sick, his immune system may be already be compromised so you want to know he is protected.

There are many diseases we are able to vaccinate against but your pet's health, lifestyle and where you live may affect which vaccinations are deemed necessary - we can help you make an informed decision and are always happy to discuss vaccinations with you.

Water accounts for 70-75% of a calf’s body weight yet it is often not available for growing calves. Free water, not the water content in milk, is required to support the growing rumen bacterial population and promote good rumen development and function, a necessity for safe weaning. When water goes into the rumen it mixes with grain to aid fermentation, stimulating the development of the rumen lining.

Research has shown that calves not offered clean water ate 31% less dry feed and gained 38% less weight over a 4 week period.

Coming into the hot weather season calves' water requirements will increase to maintain hydration and normal body function. During periods of water loss like scours or extreme heat, dehydration will reduce feed intake, feed conversion and growth. Even mild dehydration (1-5%) that is not visible to the human eye will reduce a calf’s metabolism and welfare.

When offering water ad-lib, offering dirty water doesn’t count. If you are going to feed water in buckets or troughs the equipment needs to be clean. Algae deposits can grow quickly and need to be scrubbed out of water buckets. Some research has shown a 40-50g per day increase in live weight when clean water is offered compared to offering dirty water buckets.

So to answer the question in the title: yes, fresh clean water is an essential element to raising calves. They should be offered water from the moment they hit the calf shed.