Nurse clinics at Blackwater Vets
Veterinary Nurses play a significant role in practice, educating and supporting owners on maintaining the health of their pets. They carry out a range of diagnostic tests, medical treatments and anaesthetic monitoring.
Nurses also play a key role in preventative health care. Focusing on things like diet, flea and worm prevention and dental hygiene, helping to keep your pet in the best health before problems arise. They can perform physical examinations and must report abnormal findings. These findings along with the information gathered, help identify whether referral to the vet is needed.
Our Registered Veterinary Nurse (RVN) Rachael has over nine years experience in veterinary medicine. Student Veterinary Nurse Ashleigh is only months away from completing her course to become a qualified RVN. Client education is an important part of long term medical management. Our nurses are well positioned to educate whilst helping to support owners and their pets, as well as our Vet Ola.
Additionally nurse clinics can add a personal approach to the management of medical cases, helping to create a bond with the client and increase trust.
We thought we’d share a few of the new nurse consultations on offer at Blackwater Vets.
Blood Pressure appointments
High blood pressure (hypertension) is a common problem in people, but did you know that animals, particularly cats can also be affected? Measuring blood pressure is a huge part of our nurse’s day to day role, as it is routinely measured when animals undergo a general anaesthetic. We are now offering blood pressure checks as part of our nurse consultations.
Regular blood pressure checks are a helpful modality in detecting many common diseases early, such as hyperthyroidism in cats and kidney disease. Our nurses will ensure these consultations are calm and safe for your pets, helping them to acclimatise to the veterinary environment.
Post-operative Checks
Nurses are heavily involved with pre and post operative procedures which are arguably the most crucial stages for the owners and patients. These consultations enable the nurse to check wounds, remove sutures (stitches), monitor weight, medication side effects and overall wellbeing. They also give the client opportunity to ask any questions arising from the post operative period.
Puppy and Kitten Clinic
At Blackwater Vets we aim to help educate and support our clients and their pets, and when is best to do this? With your new companion! Our nurses offer one to one puppy and kitten clinics, designed to help support you and your new family member through this exciting journey. This is an opportunity to ask all the questions you would normally ask google and helps your pet to get used to the practice environment. It also ensures you are getting up to date accurate advice on things such as diet, exercise, socialisation, and preventative care.
Urine Screening
We will be carrying out a complete Urinalysis consisting of physical, chemical and sediment examinations. This allows us to assess the health of the kidneys, along with other major organs; ideal for older patients, as it can help to diagnose some conditions early.
Canine Behaviour Clinic
Our nurses are now offering body language/behaviour clinics for your canine companion, helping to educate you on the body language shown and what this means. Most aggression in the veterinary clinic is a result of fear and anxiety; our nurses do all they can to prevent fear. This starts with reading the body language and the “subtle” signs that dogs show as these signs can often be missed by owners.
Please note our nurses are not qualified behaviourists and focus only on body language queues.
Wellbeing Assessments
The Wellbeing questionnaire is designed to help give us a numerical value on our pet’s physical and emotional wellbeing. Changes in your pet’s quality of life can often go unnoticed; this questionnaire gives us an objective way to evaluate whether or not your pets basic needs are being met. These consultations are a non-judgemental, safe environment where the nurse will help you assess each activity essential to life and come up with a plan going forward, to best help you and your pet.
Dental Health Clinic
Our nurses will assess your pet’s dental health looking for dental disease, fractures, abscesses, tartar/gum irritation (gingivitis) cavities and lesions, all of which can be very painful if left untreated. If you notice your pet rubbing or pawing at the mouth, bad breath, or a change in eating habits such as a reluctance to eat, dropping food when eating, or chewing strangely, then this could be a sign of early dental problems.
Just like humans, good dental hygiene and prompt treatment of dental issues are key for our pets to maintain a healthy, pain-free mouth.
Laser clinics
Laser treatments are an excellent way to provide pain relief to your companions. Laser offers long term care and can help recovery in many conditions such as osteoarthritis, hip dysplasia, and even post operatively for many orthopaedic procedures. Laser therapy decreases pain by reducing inflammation through vasodilation (the opening of blood vessels) and also by activating the lymphatic drainage system, thus draining swollen areas.
We also provide our Diet Clinics, Mobility Assessments as well as De-matt, Nail Clipping, Ear Cleaning and Anal Gland Clinics.
For more information please visit our website or call our friendly reception team on 01206 384999.
