Newsletter October 2017

Turramurra Vet Hospital Grand Opening this Saturday 28th October 10:45am, followed by Open Day!

Spring has certainly arrived. Spring brings with it warmer weather, fresh plant life and baby animals. It also unfortunately brings along more paralysis ticks. Leo, is a little puppy who at the tender age of 13 weeks was affected badly by tick paralysis. Continue following Leo’s story below.

Spring is also the beginning of our new opening hours, which will last until the end of Daylight Savings. These new hours are:
Monday to Friday: 7:30am-8pm.
Saturdays: 8am-2pm.
Sundays: 10am-12pm.

For more information on the services we provide during these hours please go to www.turramurravet.com.au.

We look forward to seeing you at our Grand Opening this Saturday 28th October from 10:45am, as part of the Princes Street Spring Fair (which runs 10am-2pm). Other attractions include a children’s baby animal farm, face painting, balloons, artisan and organic food tasting, sausage sizzle and jazz band.

Pet of the Month – Leo

Leo came to us 2 weeks ago not eating as much as normal, feeling weak and vomiting overnight. He was also salivating excessively. On examination, a paralysis tick was found on his muzzle and he started to have difficulty breathing.

Treatment for tick paralysis, including Tick Antiserum and oxygen therapy was immediately started. The sooner treatment for tick paralysis is begun, the better the pet’s response.

Tick Paralysis is a very real and serious condition. Poor little Leo also required x-rays to assess his respiratory compromise due to the tick paralysis. He required his bladder to be expressed as the paralysis meant his body couldn’t do it for him. He needed extra warming as he couldn’t maintain his body temperature. Leo was transferred to NEVS (Northside Emergency Veterinary Specialists) at Terrey Hills for continued care and monitoring.

While tick paralysis can take 6-8 weeks of recovery, luckily for Leo and his family, he has made a great initial recovery.

Leo has received a free bag of puppy food.

How Safe is your Dog’s Park?

One of the greatest enjoyments of dog ownership can be visiting the local dog park with your dog and watching your dog run and play with other dogs and get some much needed exercise.

However, dog parks can be potentially dangerous if a few precautions are not followed.

When watching dogs interact, look for:

• Both dogs initiating play (play bows, chase and tag).
• Role reversal (not always 50/50, but both dogs must take turns chasing etc.).
• Giving the other dog the opportunity and space to move away or approach if they wish.
• Relaxed body language (loose body movements, postures and expressions and circular greetings rather than head on).
• Frequent interruptions (either dog or owner initiated). Many social dogs will naturally interrupt play by sniffing, wandering off, looking away briefly, having a drink, checking in with you or shaking off. If your dog is not interrupting play themselves, you need to be able to call your dog away from play reliably and regularly.

If you don’t see all of the above, interrupt play and either give the dogs a break or move away.  While growling is normal during play, it is a sign that the dog is getting too worked up and the dogs should be given a break from play before it escalates to something other than play.

It is equally important to have control over your dog for the safety of people using the park.  Some people while they own and love dogs, don’t like dogs jumping up on them, barking at them or risking knocking them over.

Zambia’s Child School Donation

Turramurra Vet Hospital recently donated $500 to Anglican Aid’s Zambia’s Child Project to help build an orphan school in a remote province of Zambia in Africa. This is a project developed by Kim Mukuka, nee Philips, North Shore raised. Kim was schooled at PLC Pymble, and trained as a teacher.

Zambia’s Child began in Australia in 2007 as a group of people interested in helping children in Zambia. Their aim is to provide quality education for more Zambian school children. Zambia’s child target under-privileged and orphaned children, especially those who have dropped out of school.

Happy Diwali Festival

Best wishes to all for the Deepavali / Diwali Festival, which marks the victory of good over evil and celebrates Indian New Year.

Turramurra Vet greatly values our clients of Indian and Sri Lankan heritage (and clients from other regions of the subcontinent). We hope you have a wonderful New Year.

A personal message from our practice owner, Dr James Thompson

What a remarkable 12 months it has been at family owned Turramurra Vet Hospital. First of all, my dad Denis turned the first sod, starting the build of our long awaited extensions, then in October, our family was enlarged, with the arrival of our second son, Hamish. During early 2017 the hospital build progressed, a design developed in accordance with the Australian Small Animal Vets Hospital of Excellence guidelines. We were gratified that our finished hospital successfully completed accreditation – the only vet hospital in northern Sydney that is certified as a Hospital of Excellence. We can confidently say Turramurra Vet even exceeds the standards of many human hospitals for safety, sterility and quality of service, and we are happy to show your family around.

As if that wasn’t enough exciting family news, my wife Gretta Howard, also a vet, is now working part time at Turramurra Vet Hospital.

Your community is our community and we have continued our support of local schools this spring, sponsoring children’s petting farms at fetes for Pymble Turramurra Kindergarten in Handley Avenue, Pymble and Wahroonga Public Schools.

We are so thankful to our wonderful customers who have embraced the changes whole heartedly. Everything we do is with our customers and patients at the forefront of our minds, so we were delighted to be recently named as finalists in the North Shore Business Awards, in the category of Best Pet Care.

Our family look forward to seeing you at the Princes Street Spring Fair on Saturday October 28th, at which the Turramurra Vet Hospital new extensions will be officially opened by our Federal Member of Parliament, Paul Fletcher, the Minister of Urban Infrastructure, and my mum Alison Thompson, and we will also hold an Open Day. There will free balloons for the children as well a baby animal petting farm. Plus all the usual artisan and organic food stalls, wine tasting and more. Our family will be happy to show you around our new hospital, and we thank you for your ongoing support.