A huge thank you to our neighbours at Busy Bee’s Nursery Inverurie for kindly dropping off a collection of beautiful blankets for our patients, along with an adorable Busy Bee’s teddy. Our beloved Practice Cat, Ginny, has already decided that Buzz the Bee is her new best friend, and she’s been proudly showing him off around the clinic.
We also had the pleasure of meeting some of the wonderful children who attend Busy Bee’s, as well as their fantastic staff. Their enthusiasm, kindness, and smiles truly brightened our day. We’re so grateful for the thoughtful gesture and for being part of such a warm and supportive community.
September has seen a variety of cases from gastroscopes and guttural pouch washes in our equine patients, to cases of bloat, dehorning and the start of our autumn calvings. We attended just one Caesarean this month; a great sized healthy calf born, already causing chaos in the calving pen within minutes of being born!
We have seen a few cases of severe worm burdens in sheep this month, with haemonchus on the rise in Scotland. The recent years of warmer temperatures and longer grazing seasons has resulted in a surge of haemonchus. Cases have presented with anaemia, bottle jaw, ill thrift and death, often without diarrhoea. Use of ‘Famacha’ scoring can determine those affected, by checking eye mucous membrane colour which indicates severity of the disease process.
With the turn of the weather going into the wet and windy months we begin to see more cases of foot abscesses in our horses and ponies. Those who suffer with laminitis and PPID (Cushings disease) are at greater risk due to the already weakened structures within the hoof. It should also be noted that as we head into the colder months and some may choose to stable, that there is an increased risk of impaction colic, due to decreased water intake from grass. Just a reminder to our horse clients to look out for signs of colic when making changes to management and diet, as well as keeping up with regular dental checks by a vet or BAEDT equine dentist.
Just a wee reminder 2025 is a ‘mast year’, meaning certain species of trees are producing more nuts and berries this year. The phenomenon occurs roughly every four years, and as a result there are far more acorns lying around at this time of year. Our ruminants and horses are more at risk of acorn toxicity from tannins found in acorns this year, and so is best to avoid grazing on pastures with oak trees. Signs include dullness, bloat, colic and constipation that progresses to tar-like diarrhoea. More information can be found on the SRUC website.
Finally, being new to the area, Sarah took me to the rare breeds sale at Thainstone which ended up turning into a lesson in Doric! I have also been exploring local walks with colleagues (and 4-legged friends), along with making the most of the autumn sun swimming in the North Sea.
Freddie is a lively 2 year old boy who has been recently diagnosed with hip dysplasia.
With the help of his dedicated owners, he was placed on a carefully managed weight loss diet to help ease the pressure on his joints and improve his mobility.
Thanks to their hard work and commitment, Freddie has now lost an incredible 7.9kgs!! This amazing achievement has not only made a big difference to his comfort and quality of life, but it’s also a huge step forward in managing his condition long-term.
July has been a quiet month for us as all the animals are out and all the farmers are busy with cropping, although everyone is busy there still has been a few interesting cases
With the warmer weather this month the animals with low grade chronic pneumonia got into trouble, these are usually the ones that look perfectly fine. They usually are slightly underweight or not growing at the same rate as the rest of the herd. The moment the weather changes a bit or stress is added to them the pneumonia flares up. They respond well to treatment, but they will never be cured.
Lame cattle have been a bit of a surprise this month, we had a disproportional large number of them. This is usually a problem of the wetter months where it gets very muddy and boggy, most of the cattle seen had overgrown hooves which led to the problem, this is where targeted feet trimming becomes very important. The rest was due to penetration wounds or less frequently seen boggy fields with the animals standing in mud for too long.
We had one interesting case of a calf that dropped dead in the field with no presenting symptoms. A postmortem was performed and it turns out that he had a congenital defect of his heart. This is very rare, but the genetic line will have to be monitored to see if there will be more of them or if it is an isolated incident
Then we had a few ram vasectomies. These are done for making teaser rams designed to tighten up the lambing season and work very well when used correctly. Always an exciting procedure that we all enjoy being a part of. See attached pictures of Bruce in his glory teaching the young vets and students all about the procedure.
On the equine side it has been a bad month for COPD. The warmer weather combined with the high pollen count made it challenging for the COPD horses. There are a lot of horses that are on Ventipulmin already but still developed respiratory distress. We had to resort to steroids and inhalers to settle them. With these guys it is important to soak their hay and keep them inside or in shaded areas when it is warm. If breathing issues develop, start hosing them down immediately and keep them quiet
Finally, as it is holiday season. My family and I took a trip over to the West Coast and spent a bit of time cycling on the Isle of Lismore, which was lovely. Luckily it was dry, but unfortunately no sunshine. We were joined by some sheep running wild on the ferry terminal!
As it is Veterinary Nurse Awareness Month we thought it would be best to introduce you to them all.
We have a great team of Nurses and students who take exceptional care of all our patients when they are in. Our team consists of 10 Registered Veterinary Nurses, 4 Student Nurses and also 1 Veterinary Care Assistant.
On Sunday 25th May one our vets, Jess, along with her dad, Mike, will be doing a charity bike ride from Lands End to John O’Groats covering over 1000 miles.
They are raising money for Children with Cancer UK, a charity that funds research into the causes of childhood cancers and the development of better, kinder treatments.
As well as raising money for this incredible cause they are also cycling in memory of friends and family who have sadly lost their lives to cancer.
Jess’s mum, Rachel, will be taking on the very important role of driving the support vehicle and will be accompanied by Jess’s dog, Angus, who is the team mascot!
If you would like to support Jess and her dad and donate something to this worthy cause please follow the link below:
