Is it heat stroke?
I was called to a dog show in progress on a fabulous sunny day. Art, a black greyhound, was collapsed in a large puddle of water. He was laid flat out on his side, still breathing, but unable to even raise his head. Before he reached this state he went through several stages. First of […]
Celebrate Veterinary Nursing Awareness Month with us!
Nurse Awareness Month Outside of the consulting room, most of the attention and medical care your pet receives is at the hands of a veterinary nurse. It is this we celebrate each May, as Veterinary Nursing Awareness Month (VNAM) gives us an opportunity to talk about their role in caring for your pets. In any […]
Sheep rarely need a Vet
The modern experienced shepherd has learnt to handle most situations, apart from occasional veterinary assistance at lambing. So I was rather surprised to get a call from an anxious shepherd one early summer. “They’s all blown up!” he said. I had had very little experience with sheep since I qualified just ten months earlier. I […]
Help! It’s flooding everywhere!
I was giving one of my First Aid Courses, and we were discussing what to do if a pet has an arterial haemorrhage. I explained how the bright red blood will fountain out, at a rate in time with the heart beat, and how it can spray a remarkable distance at first. This reminded me […]
How I became a Goat Tamer!
As I wanted to get into Vet School, I needed more experience with different kinds of animals and situations. So I got myself a summer holiday job working at a kennels near my parents’ home. I acquired important skills such as how to cope with sixty dogs all yelling for food at tea-time; how not […]
She must have some sight!
Glaucoma is something you would not wish on your worst enemy. Beautiful Lily, the gentlest of terriers experienced it, but has fought through. She is a delightful pure-bred Sealyham, looking like a West Highland White with floppy ears and a longer body. I hate glaucoma because it not only causes blindness, but is very painful […]
Learning more than I wanted about germs
“Meet my colleague.” I was being shown around a government Pathology Laboratory, and, as a lowly first year Vet student, I swelled with pride to hear myself described in this way by its Director, a Vet with many decades of experience. Especially as, secretly, I was very aware I had done little to deserve this […]
Thinking of a holiday?
“Julia, can you help?” It was a desperate phone call from a client I had never expected to see again. Back in the days when PETS passports were new he had emigrated, then changed his mind and travelled back into the UK with his beloved dog. I had told him that his passport would not […]
National Pet Month
It is National Pet Month. The team behind National Pet Month are celebrating pet ownership, and promoting education. They have created Ten Top Tips for responsible pet ownership, which you can see proudly displayed in the Mewes Vets Clinic this month, or have a look at online at nationalpetmonth.org.uk. These Tips remind me of exam […]
Mewes Memories: My brick of a phone for on-call
Reflecting on over 25 years serving the Mid Sussex community as a Vet, I can’t help but laugh when I remember how primitive our means of communication were when I first qualified. In 1989 I landed my first job, in a practice with a one in three on-call rota. Being on call was nerve racking, […]
Mewes Memories – The shepherd and his ‘yo-s’
I was a third-year veterinary student on work experience on a sheep farm in Oxfordshire, assisting with the lambing. In this particular January, nearly 30 years ago, the weather was cold and dry. Our routine regularly involved checking the stock. I loved being asked to ride out to the fields to check the sheep not […]
Mewes Memories – “This puppy’s face is swollen!”
A lovely litter of puppies had arrived, with their proud mum. She was a charming short-coated cross-bred terrier, and kept a close eye on me as her owner explained that one of the pups had a swollen eye. The puppies were only eight days’ old, and had been progressing really well, blindly exploring their nest […]
The Dachsie who thought he was a Piggy Bank
“Something’s wrong with Hugo!” Normally a bouncing bright red bundle of fun, Hugo had vomited up his breakfast and suddenly had no energy. He’s a gorgeous wire-haired miniature Dachshund whose hobby is to hoover up rabbit droppings. His greatest ambition is to catch a rabbit! But on this day he was really sad, and when […]
