This Month at Vetrica

10 June 2005

Latest News

This page contains the latest news from Vetrica and Vetrica OnLine. It updates at least monthly, and will also keep you up to date with the latest news about animal care and welfare.

An archive of previous articles is also available.

Testimonials

Over the few years that Vetrica has been open, we have received many testimonials, or "Thank You" cards from our customers. Most of these have, at some time, been displayed within the surgery, but with limited space available for display, they tend to be taken down again quite quickly. Now we've preserved some of these messages on this website, on a new testimonials page. To preserve online the privacy of the writers where necessary, people's names have been obscured, but otherwise the letters and cards are reproduced exactly as they were sent to us.

Flies and Fleas

The weather has noticeably improved over the past week or two, and while it's undoubtedly better for us, it's also better for all manner of bugs and beasties. The most serious problem just now is the rapidly rising blowfly (bluebottle) population. These are a major threat to rabbits. Blowfly attack, properly called strike is very serious, and easily prevented. It's vital that rabbits are protected against blowflies from now until October. You can read more about blowfly strike here.

Flea infestation continues to be the commonest disease seen at Vetrica. Fleas don't go away in the winter, but we are seeing more cases now than we did through the spring. Remember, prevention is better than cure, and fleas are easily prevented. Find out more about fleas, and our flea-free guarantee here.

This Month's Interesting Case

Even though it's not cancer, a large lump like this needs to be removed.	Duchess is an eleven year old terrier cross breed dog whose owners noticed her rubbing at a lump on her eyelid. This lump is called an adenoma. It isn't serious, but the fact that is was causing her problems meant that we had to remove it.
The lump is removed by cutting out a wedge of eyelid.	Under general anaesthetic, the adenoma was removed by cutting away a wedge-shaped portion from the affected eyelid, taking care to include some normal eyelid on each side. This ensures all the lump is removed. As long as no more than about one third of the eyelid is affected, the cosmetic results are usually excellent.
Following surgery, the cosmetic result is excellent.	After the lump was removed, the surgical wound was closed with a combination of sutures beneath the skin, and tissue adhesive on the skin surface. The internal sutures will dissolve in time, and are never visible. By using tissue adhesive on the surface, it means that we don't need to remove sutures from what is a delicate area. Duchess also had to have an Elizabethan collar on to stop her rubbing the eye before it had a chance to heal.
Ten days after the operation, the wound has healed perfectly.	Ten days later, the skin wound has completely healed, and Duchess was very happy to have her Elizabethan collar removed. The operation site is already very difficult to see, and once the hair has grown back, it will be impossible to tell that there was ever a problem.

Duchess illustrates two important points. Firstly, sometimes it's not what a lump is, it's where it is that's the problem. Adenomas like these are very common in older dogs. If they are on the dog's flank for instance, they rarely cause problems, and can be safely left. However, on the eye they often irritate the dog, and no matter how old the dog is, they need to come off.

Secondly, the cosmetic results achieved using modern techniques are excellent. People often neglect these lumps, fearing that the dog wound need its eye removed or be left with an unsightly scar. This is not the case, and many dogs that are frankly being left to suffer would do very well to have this procedure.

Special Offer for June 2005

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