When science sounds fictional / How animals help medical research
Have you heard of fluorescent felines? They have been genetically engineered to try to help our understanding of viral diseases in people. One of the most recent human viral outbreaks was the AIDS epidemic. It sparked an enormous amount of charity fund-raising to support the effort to find cures for viruses. It was noted that […]
Bunnies and Winter
With winter just around the corner, let’s spare a thought for our hutch friends. Experienced rabbit and guinea pig owners will be used to watching out for signs of frost or freezing weather. This could cause our hutch friends’ water bottles to freeze, putting them at risk of dehydration. Consider using a water bottle ‘warmer’, […]
Ermie and his purse string suture
At twelve years of age, Ernie is a cat of strong opinions. For instance, he knows he prefers vets kept at claws-length. He wants our relationship to be strictly hands-off! But when he started passing blood and diarrhoea, and getting more sickness than usual, his owner knew he needed us. And although he was reluctant […]
Celebrate Veterinary Nursing Awareness Month with us
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 our role in caring for your pets. In any given day a […]
Thoughts return to university days
At this time of year, my thoughts return to memories of my early days at University. My first two years at Vet School involved taking many of my lectures with the students training to become doctors. We shared Physiology, Biochemistry, Pathology and Pharmacology lecture halls. Only for the Anatomy classes were the Veterinary students separated […]
Join us at our Christmas party and support abandoned and homeless cats this winter
My whole team are lovely, and Trainee Veterinary Nurse Lisa is no exception. She has been volunteering on a weekly basis with local charity Paws and Claws for years. It was partly this experience with animals that got her the job with us, and the opportunity to follow her dream and train as a Veterinary […]
Julia’s Weekly Column For The Middy
In the veterinary world, communication is essential not just between staff teams but between vets and owners too I sometimes worry about clients understanding me. Much of my role is to communicate what I know about a pet’s issues and illness to its owner, so that they can support and nurse them back to health. […]
Julia’s Weekly Column For The Middy
An apple a day is not the Labrador way When a dog feels sick, they can look absolutely wretched. And Ernie looked wretched. Normally a bouncy and inquisitive Labrador, he arrived at the Clinic with no energy. I got none of my usual greeting – no waggy tail, no snuggles. He had made several efforts […]
Julia’s Weekly Column For The Middy – The Shepherdess, The Lady & The Escapees – Part 2
CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK I was a humble groom on a Lord’s estate in Wales. My friend the shepherdess, Nicky, was away for the evening, the sheep were out and a member of the family of the house might appear at any moment. This was over 30 years ago – no convenient mobile phones back […]
Julia’s Weekly Column For The Middy
Bringing your cat to the vet doesn’t have to be a stressful experience with our new cat-only clinics! This National Pet Month, The Mewes Vets are launching a new unique service: the first Cat Only Clinics in Mid Sussex. Cat owners often comment about how stressful it is to bring their feline friends into the […]
Julia’s Weekly Column For The Middy
Is your pet the next Miss January or Mr October? Two months ago I was at Chelwood Gate enjoying the splendid Summer Fun Day at the Cats Protection National Cat Rescue Centre. It struck me that this is the only outdoors event of all those that The Mewes Vets attended in the last 12 months […]
Julia’s Weekly Column For The Middy
Our new trophy is proudly displayed with our Customer Service Award (and Julia’s Lifetime Achievement Award) in Reception Right now I could not be more proud of my team! We agreed together back in July that we would attempt to become the first vets in the area to achieve ROYAL CANIN® Approved Weight Management Centre […]
Mewes Memories: surveying camel poo at the zoo
Holidays from Vet School are a time to gain practical experience. In the summer after my second year, I had been incredibly fortunate to land some weeks observing the care of the animals at Whipsnade Zoo in Bedfordshire. Better still, I was offered onsite accommodation. I shared the student digs with several others, and the […]
Amputation of a hind leg in standard Poodle & your last chance to enter our Pet Portrait Competition
I met my first canine amputee when I was a third year student. As an apricot Standard Poodle, Stanley had a natural grace and dignity hard to match. His chin was always up, and he seemed to survey his world from a superior position. The first time I met him he was lame on his […]
Learning your Liebfraumilch from your Laurent-Perrier
Recently I saw my only son off to University for the first time.During the first week I waited expectantly for the first call: “Mum, please can I have some more money….?” Eventually it came, but not in the expected form. He had created a little budget and worked out his likely costs, less his student loan […]
Julia’s Weekly Column For The Middy
Alternative medicine can have incredible benefits where conventional medicine may not be able to help As it is National Pet Month, I want to celebrate a special friend and the resolution of a problem with one of his special dogs. Shadow is a fabulous fluffy white German Shepherd, with a temperament as soft as his […]
Why Did an Expectant Cow Make Me Sh-udder at Vet School?
Anything I do, I do it to the very best of my ability. But back in vet school, it was necessary to acquire skills that sometimes seemed as if they were always going to be just out of reach. One of these talents was the ability to detect very early pregnancy in a cow. In […]
Julia’s Weekly Column For The Middy
There’s no room for dropped stitches when you’re working ona poorly pet! I spent six years at University learning how to be a valuable member of my profession. Much of that time was spent studying sometimes fairly dry theoretical topics such as Pathophysiology and Biochemistry. But occasionally, especially in the later years, I escaped the […]
Julia’s Weekly Column For The Middy
The tale of a dog and a doggy bag! During one holiday period in my training years, I was scheduled to see practice for three weeks with an equine Vet in Eire. As a typically poor student, I was slightly concerned to find my budget not going very far. I stayed in a Bed and […]
Julia’s Weekly Column For The Middy
Join The Mewes Vets team for a barking mad dog show at Haywards Heath’s annual Town Day My lovely team at The Mewes Vets have the rosettes and prizes ready, we just need your company and your precious canine companion, of course! This Saturday 17th September is our annual Dog Show, held as part of […]
Paws and Claws: Give Generously for a Wonderful Cause
“There’s an injured cat on the way in!” The message reverberates around the clinic. My experienced team quickly reorganise themselves from routine GP work ready to become A&E. A Good Samaritan arrives with a black and white stray cat that looks close to death. The poor soul did not have the strength to lift her […]
Julia’s Weekly Column For The Middy
A not-so-merry Merrie and a simple twitch to save the day “My horse has got colic. Come at once!” This was perhaps the scariest phone call a newly qualified Vet can receive. My brother Alastair was visiting. I had spent the last 8 years studying, but he had spent them working with racehorses. Alastair and […]
As a student I only used to let my gerbil roam so far, until he took a journey inside a sofa
When I was at Vet School there were often many patients staying in the hospital. Some needed the constant care of the final year Veterinary students. To be readily available we were provided with accommodation we lovingly called ‘the hut’. In those days I had an illegal pet. It was completely against the rules to […]
My path to Finals: Part one
The end of June signals the end of exams for most students. For me, back in 1989, this meant relief from hard studying, and terror at the prospect I might not have done enough. I had committed my life to becoming a Veterinary surgeon at the age of about 14, in about 1979. I had […]
