Current News

6th December 2008
Our server has been unreliable recently and so we had a new one installed yesterday. For those in IT it is not really a server, as our network is all of 3 computers, but a slightly higher spec PC which is now running the practice management system as virtual desktops. We should see an improvement in performance and reliability. The installation was not as described as we were told our computers would be “off line for about 20 minutes” whilst a back-up system was installed, then work could continue on the server without disturbing us.  Of course we were without computers for the whole morning and with only one PC for the afternoon, but by the evening we were all back on-line.  Apologies to anyone caught up yesterday, it was extremely frustrating for all at the practice.

25th November 2008
VAT reduced to 15% from 1st December means 2.5% reduction in the vast majority of fees.  We will pass on the whole saving although this will make little difference to most peoples bill. It will be interesting to see which companies raise net prices to keep the retail price the same, but increase their profit margin.  We are still seeing cases of myxomatosis I am afraid and there has been an outbreak of kennel cough locally. The term ‘kennel cough’ is a little misleading though as it is a description of symptoms rather than a specific disease and is describing a cough as if trying to clear the throat.  The local outbreak was amongst dogs walking together rather than associated with a kennels. There is a vaccine available against Bordetella Bronchiseptica and Parainfluenza which is a particularly nasty form of the disease but it does not protect against the milder types.

9th October 2008
We are no longer obliged to provide ‘free’ services i.e. written prescriptions.  There will be a £3.50 inc. VAT charge per written prescription as a contribution towards the costs incurred two years ago.  This will only affect a small minority of clients anyway.  We have been making good use of our new blood gas analyser and although sometimes we have had only reassurance we have now several cases where the results have fundamentally changed our treatment. August was very quiet for us but September has been more back to what we expect, so hopefully people are feeling more reassured and not ‘putting off for tomorrow’ as much as they were.  Credit crunch, global warming and lots of rain has not made 2008 the best year!

7th October 2008
“Under the Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2008 it is an offence to import, possess, supply or administer a veterinary medicine that is not authorised in the UK”. A client recently purchased  a flea product from an Australian web site and had noticed that in the packaging it said only for sale in Australia.  They neither realised they were breaking the law or that they paid approximately 2.5 x the price they would have paid in the UK. Further information is available here or here.  Fortunately I have not heard of any counterfeit veterinary drugs yet. The WWW is unregulated and ‘free speech’ is the order of the day.  People often ask about things they have read and some things are helpful and stimulate useful debate but other times it would be harmful if people took action without consideration. The weakest ‘proof’ are testimonials remember and often that is all we see.  Please be careful and do not believe everything you read.

30th September 2008
We have sent a newsletter to all our clients.  We would draw your attention to the meeting on the 15th October regarding fireworks as they will be here before we know it and the new Advantage Scheme.

11th September 2008
We have a new piece of laboratory equipment. We have an i-stat electrolyte and blood gas analyser.  It is a reconditioned unit bought for £1250 + VAT which is actually a fantastic price. We took delivery yesterday and it has already proved useful. Lung worm has been mentioned in the press. We switched to Milbemax Wormers because of the concern regarding lung worm so please be assured that steps have already been taken and you are well ahead of the game.

20th August 2008
Congratulations to Hannah! She sat her final exams and has just received confirmation that she has passed all parts of her examinations including the practicals and portfolio.  She is the first student we have trained within the practice and to pass all exams first time is a major achievement.
Our initial reaction to the television programme on dog breeding last night is that things are not as bad as portrayed and nothing new has been raised. Hopefully action will be accelerated but we suspect changing breed standards will take a long time.  One thing to avoid is the “we had to buy the puppy because we felt so sorry for him and had to rescue him from that awful place” response which we hear too frequently.
We are told this is the wettest August on record.  On the positive side we have no cases of heat stroke or fly strike  so far this year.

15th July 2008
All change at Greensands Veterinary Clinic.  Natalie has left to work at Davies Referrals and Liz has returned to her old practice who opened a new branch a stones through from her house.  We have Mike in as our new head nurse and Laura has started training with us.  We realise there will be some disruption as everyone gets used to working as a new team but hopefully this will be minimal. There was a recent outbreak of avian influenza in Oxfordshire which seemed to be ignored by the press but it was confined to a single premises and all movement restrictions have now been lifted.

3rd July 2008
We have a new product to ‘induce temporary infertility in healthy male dogs’.  This is supposed to mimic castration and is by an implant placed in the back of the neck which then slowly releases hormone.  Speak to the vet when you next come in for further details.

17th June 2008
Many of you will have received the note from the PR company representing Wimpy about the ‘phase 3’ development of the NamPak site in Woburn Sands.  There is mention of a veterinary surgery. Although we spoke to Wimpy at the very beginning of the development about the possibility of purchasing some land or a property and relocating, there has been no further communication from Wimpy and we do not know if this is a serious suggestion or not.  We are not privy to any plans and although the thought of purpose built premises are obviously attractive we are approaching this with some caution.

9th June 2008
Roadworks! The roadworks that we were promised not going to happen with the narrow pavement appear to be going ahead anyway.  The traffic is building up at this end of Woburn Sands as well so please allow extra time for journeys.  The train barriers are still not functioning properly and wont be until the track has been replaced, maybe. This may have been planned to coincide with the gas works to have one very bad traffic jam rather than prolonged moderate disruption? The delivery service will continue for now despite the rising fuel costs and the traffic lights.

9th May 2008
We have been checking microchips again and found more that are not registered correctly. If this continues we will be changing our chip company.  We think it is a problem with the registration process rather than being corrupted once registered but people are still not checking their certificates thoroughly.
We are about to launch a free delivery service, an announcement will be made shortly.

21st April 2008
The waiting room and consulting room now have a fresh coat of paint and it all looks much better.  This is the decorating we have been putting off since last Summer because of the proposed road works.  BSAVA congress has been and gone for 2008 and we have some new ideas, and are looking at new anaesthetic monitoring equipment and lab equipment. We briefly looked at digital radiography but the technology we want is still too expensive and if we are to make such a major investment we want to get it right first time.  There seems to be increasing incidents of ‘exotic’ diseases around the UK too, probably due to climate change as well as the PETS travel scheme.  We now have even more to try and discuss at vaccination apart from just the choice of vaccines and the health check..

17th March 2008
Thank you to Fulbrook School for being so welcoming to me last week. I was asked to go in on Tuesday 11th to speak to the children about ‘veterinary’ and ended up giving presentations to a year 5 and a year 6 class. I think everything went well and I hope the School enjoyed the rest of their science week.

26th February 2008
We have had a confirmed case of parvo virus in a ten month old vaccinated puppy. Fortunately this was relatively mild but still far more severe, with a marked colic, than a ‘normal’ dietary indiscretion. Parvo Virus is a significant risk in very young puppies and it is possible to lose whole litters. A new poison has been notified in the veterinary press - xylitol - which apparently is a sweetening agent, found in some sweets, chewing gum and in baking. Xylitol is very toxic to dogs, has similar effects in goats and cows but cats were not mentioned.

19th February 2008
The road works are now cancelled for consultation! There will be a crossing going in where the current island is and a new footpath next to the park, but the works at this section of Station Road are on hold.  Talks are going on between various parties and it seems we have to say thank you to Councillor Hopkins as he appears to have responded well once his attention was drawn to the plans.  We have booked someone to decorate the interior in May so hopeful all works will be complete by then.

18th January 2008
The road works due on Station Road are now due to start on Monday 21st January.  They should have been Spring 2007 and were supposed to be for 6 weeks.  The note we received today says 12 weeks! So 3 days notice of major disruption that is now estimated to last double the length of time.  We do not know what is to happen to the road as this is something between Wimpy and Milton Keynes council as far as we are aware.  Interesting times.

7th January 2008
We have moved our emergency provision to ‘Vets Now’ in Milton Keynes.  This is part of a national chain of emergency clinics based at private and PDSA clinics across the country.  The main advantage is that everyone knows where Milton Keynes is and some people did not want to travel to the Beds Vets Clinic. This is initially on a trial basis and we shall see what reports we receive.  As very few people need a vet outside of normal hours we will have to wait a while to get an impression but will keep you posted.

3rd January 2008
Happy New Year to you all! We have completed our review of microchips for the 1st six months of 2007 and found 4 errors that we can identify. When we place microchips we now register them online so as to avoid ‘lost in the post’ but all the errors have occurred in online registrations.  We register the box of microchips by returning a ‘postcard’ with our details but in every case the chip was not registered to this practice (and they were different batches and dates), we ask people to check their certificates but all four people never received them or have misplaced them.  Please check your certificates as you, as the pet owner, are the final fail safe in the system.

5th November 2007
Fireworks tonight, last night and several nights to come I suspect.  We still have people asking for sedation today and really it is better to plan ahead if at all possible.  For dogs we are generally recommending DAP diffusers or collars, and diazepam.  There are alternatives but everything that works is better started in advance.  The biggest problem of course is the duration that fireworks go on for and how the ‘odd one’ can go screaming overhead at any time to terrify our pets without warning. 
The works to Station Road still have not started and we have our decorating on hold. I think we will just have to start soon.  The reason and the delay is with the Wimpy development opposite, and for a change nothing to do with the level crossing.
An extremely unpleasant accident has been reported in the veterinary press this week.  A Jack Russell Terrier licked a household paper shredder, the shredder was in standby mode and so started and caused so much damage the dog was euthanased.  He was only two years old.  Do not leave anything switched on/plugged in.

13 September 2007
We are being cut off from the electricity for the day on the 20th September. We are planning on getting a generator for the day but obviously do not know how we will be affected until the day arrives. We may be without power for the whole day or a few hours.  The reason is that a tree has grown across a power cable in a neighbours garden catching everybody by surprise. The subcontracted company responsible for the line wants to cut back the tree now, but needs to cut the power incase they cut the cable by mistake. We are grateful of course that they have thought ahead although whether the tree is to be removed or kept away from the cable we don’t know.   We are expected to absorb all costs ourselves and will do our best to run a normal service on the day...........

9 August 2007
Congratulations to Hannah who has had her exam results today for her 1st year and has passed.  She moves on to her 2nd year in September, which is more clinical, and we are sure it will be just as successful as the first. We are glad that the Foot and Mouth outbreak looks as if it has been contained, we have been getting sometimes hourly notifications from DEFRA but nothing applicable to us fortunately. We are due to decorate the practice but have been holding off due to the expected road works, when they will start we do not know but we have been informed that ‘something’ will definitely be happening.

26th June 2007
We can no longer get ‘Greenies’. These were the chews that helped clean dogs teeth and we were never able to get the cat version. We don’t know if the chews are being discontinued or just withdrawn from our wholesaler. We still have the CET range available.

6th June 2007
We have just had a third confirmed case of mycobacterium in a cat. Mycobacterium are the type of bacteria responsible for tuberculosis and in the news at the moment.  You may be aware of the proposed badger cull but there has also been a reported case of Mycobacterium bovis in a cat. M. bovis is the type that effects cows and badgers and up to now cats have been not considered a particularly high risk.  You can read more about M. bovis HERE.  Rumours in the veterinary press that cats were to be specifically included in the recent Tuberculosis Order were fortunately unfounded.  This particular cat had M. microti which is a form of mycobacterium caught from wildlife.  We have had two cases effecting the bowel and one effecting the skin. The only cat to survive had the skin form and required six months of intensive treatment.