Practice Tour Reception The Reception area is the hub of Fern Cottage. Everything starts here. Our nursing staff will be the first contact that you and your pet will have with our practice. They are under severe pressure but always happy to help. Often we have two nurses working at reception to assist answering telephone calls, dealing with appointments, with animals and owners coming to the clinic and of course, helping our clients with the purchase of non-prescription medications. Remember that you can purchase a variety of medications ranging from flea control measures (which actually work), to general multi-purpose shampoos. Worming protocols have become potentially complex with the great variety of excellent products available. It is possible to aquire general purpose wormers at reception but it may pay you to discuss your animal's individual requirements at an appointment with the veterinary surgeon. This of course could be incorperated at vaccination time. The reception nurses are like jugglers, having to keep so many balls in the air at one time. They will always expedite your particular transaction as quickly as they can. Don't forget though that in many circumstances you can telephone to order your non-prescription medicines and where appropriate even repeat prescriptions for long term medical patients. Here you can see our Veterinary Nursing staff hard at work deciding how many sugars should go into the Vets coffees! Waiting Room The Waiting Room is a place for owners, animals and staff to meet. Often you will see animals waiting for clinic appointments, animals being discharged following surgical procedures and even the occasional emergency R.T.A. We try to use the Waiting Room notice boards for client information both fromn the practice and from local animal health and welfare groups. There is even a place for individual clients to post notices. There is a multiplicity of information leaflets available for you to take away and read and don't hesitate to ask any questions resulting from these leaflets, next time you are at the surgery. The Waiting room has a set of electronic weighing scales, which we like you to use routinely. Often, animals on obesity diets will be brought in by their owners just to use the scales. You don't need an appointment for that! Consulting Room The Consulting room is a relatively uncluttered area. This is the first interface between owner, animal and Veterinary Surgeon. We invariably have a Veterinary Nurse present within the consulting room to assist the eterinary Surgeon and owner with their pet. We hope that the environment provided here is not over-powering and that owner and animal remain as relaxed as is feasible given the circumstances. All examinations are carried out in this room and any further procedures would be referred in-house either as a direct result of the examination or by future appointment. Recovery Here you can see some of our nurses attending animals recovering from surgical procedures. Our state of the art stainless steel recovery cages, although excellent for disinfection and cleaning can be a little cold to loook at. We hope that we make our in-patients stay comfortable using modern fabric bedding and blankets. The cat (lower right ) seems to be quite at home! Caging is graded from small to medium to large at different height levels. We can cater for most sizes of animal ranging from the smallest Chinese hamster to the largest of German Shepherd Dogs. We attempt to keep hospitalisation time to a minimum as I'm sure we all agree that the animals are much happier in their home environment. Operating Theatre The Operating Theatre is a sterile environment for carrying out a great variety of surgical procedures. A full range of anaesthetic equipment for all sizes of animal including birds, small mammals, cats and dogs - and even occasionally fish! Our theatre benefits from first class lighting and 'on the spot' radiography facilities. Laboratory In house testing etc. Well equipped, diagnostic laboratory, including facilities for biochemistry, light microscopy, haematology. Modern electronic cell counters are able to give blood results within minutes and state of the art chemistry allows interpretation of tests for more specific conditions. The biochemistry are invaluable with renal and hepatic disease which are particularly common in dogs and cats. Early diagnosis at least gives us all a chance to improve the animals quality of life. Investigation of urine samples can be helpful in supporting diagnosis in urinary tract problems and particularly crystal urea in cats with lower tract disease. The ever developing serological tests and ELISA tests enable us to perform rapid screening diagnostics on a number of common serious diseases in both dogs and cats. Early diagnosis and subsequent treatment gives us our best chance of countering these problems. Diagnostics Modern diagnostics are revolutionising the veterinary profession. Radiography has always been a main stay in the investigation of disease in all species. The introduction of ultrasound (shown left) and endoscopy has complimented the older existing technique. The combination of laboratory procedures and diagnostic imaging enables us to confirm the presence of diseases and conditions that heretofore were undetectable. With accurate diagnosis, we are able to focus treatment more appropriately and hopefully improve the quality of life of our patients. 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