My cat's update and a rare sighting

Hey friends,

This past week Keith (my tuxedo cat) was back at the vets… for his yearly MOT check and a scale and polish. His blood results were all clear, having survived FIP and living with FIV at the moment 🥳 , however we did auscultate a heart murmur during the check.. And after a brief heart scan by a visiting specialist, we noticed he has mild thickened ventricles (but no enlarged left atrium) at the moment. With the abscence of any clinical signs besides the murmur, we decided to monitor him for now and revisit the heart scan at a later date. Please keep your fingers crossed with me that he remains stable 🙃.  

**Updates on the new-grad product: It is still on its way, currently 40 of you are on the waitlist 🔥 so I plan to make it as useful as possible for you!

New knowledge at work

This past week we had a cardiology specialist come in to do a CPD session on heart scans in a first opinion setting, it was really useful and here are some amazing free resources I feel more people should know about! aimed at vet students or vets 🤓 

1. Free case studies to practice your cardiac knowledge

2. Information sheets on common heart diseases for owners

3. ECG videos at qrsTV (what a catchy name i know!)

Book I’m reading

Dog training and behaviour solutions - a book with practicle articles based on force-free and fear-free methods to train your dog.

Recently I’ve been seeing a number of new puppy owners in consult and a common question that comes up is ‘how should I train my dog?’ As a huge advocate of fear-free practices, I sign post resources such as the APBC website and this facebook group to guide them towards a positive relationship with their furry friend.

Lastly, I end with a wholesome story for you..

Woody, the woodpecker was rescued by a member of public from some neighbourhood ‘bully’ cats.. Upon examination no major injuries were found, and after some R&R and passing his flight test, he was released back into the wild where they found him 🙂 💕 

Honestly it is days like these that I get a ‘pinch-me’ moment of feeling so lucky I get to meet and help these animals up close on the daily.. Yes, it is stressful and hard and not so pleasant at times, but it is a privilege not many can live through this experience in their life time, so I hold on to these happy moments of being a veterinarian and share them with you whenever I can.

Lots of hugs,

Sending you energy to go after your goals this week!

May xx