Micro-chipping

In the news recently there was an item regarding the compulsory micro-chipping of all dogs in England. The government are hoping it will help cut the growing number of strays.  Every dog owner will need to comply with this by 6th April 2016 and anyone that doesn’t could face fines of up to £500. At …

Breaks and Fractures

At Cherrydown Vets one of the reasons pets are bought in to us is because of breaks or fractures to their bones.  It could be because of a car accident, a high fall, fighting, over exuberance or something more serious like bone cancer. There are two types of fractures, open and closed. An open fracture …

The Siberian Husky

 The Siberian Husky (also known as the Arctic Husky) is a beautiful looking dog and they have lovely piercing eyes.  Huskies are thought to originate from Eastern Siberia where they were used to pull sleds over long distances by the Chukchi. They were exported to Alaska during the Nome Gold Rush and later spread into …

Owning a Rabbit – Part 1

Did you know there are approximately 1.7 million rabbits kept as pets in the UK? This makes them the third most popular pet after cats and dogs. There are many different breeds all varying in size, shape and personality.  It is generally thought owning a rabbit is easy. However, as they need daily attention, have …

A close call at Christmas

One of the joys of having a dog is their playfulness. When they are happy and bounding around it cannot fail to put a smile on your face. However there are rare occasions where their exuberance can result with an injury. Just before Christmas we had had an incident where a dog was bought in …

Labradoodles

What a great name that is! As most people know Labradoodles were created by crossing a Labrador retriever and a standard poodle. However, not a lot of people know they were originally bred to be used as guide dogs for people who are allergic to fur.  The idea was to combine the low shedding coat …

Pets – Legal Obligations

Recently, on our Facebook page, someone asked us for advice on the legal obligations of owning a pet. Rather than just let one person know we thought a blog would be a better idea Firstly, have you heard of the Animal Welfare Act 2006? It goes into a lot of detail and if you want to …

Seasonal Canine Illness

There has been some media coverage about this recently with reports in the Canvey Island Echo, on Countryfile and on the news. As of 26th October 2012 we have not seen any cases at Cherrydown but it is something dog owners need to be aware of, but not to panic about. We advise dog owners to …

Worms

All cats and dogs will get worms at some stage in their life and many will be re-infected unless they receive regular worming treatment. There are many types of worms that can infect your pet, these include roundworm, tapeworm, hookworm, whipworm and heartworm to name a few. However, in this blog we will deal with …