Important client information

Donaldson’s Vets important care guides and information hub

Notice to Clients Requiring Written Prescriptions

Legally the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons require the patient needing repeat prescriptions to be assessed by a veterinary surgeon every 6 months, or more frequently if the prescribing vet deems it necessary. There will be a consultation fee for a vet re-examination.

You can obtain prescription-only medication from your Veterinary Surgeon or request a written prescription and obtain these from another veterinary surgeon or a pharmacy.

Your Veterinary Surgeon may only prescribe POM-V medications to animals under their care.

The practice required 2 working days notice to authorise and dispense a repeat prescription or written prescription

Written prescriptions are not suitable for an in-patient or a patient requiring immediate treatment

There will be a fee associated with a written prescription that can be given upon request

Information on prices of medications prescribed will be given upon request

Administering Injectable Medications at home

If your pet has been prescribed injectable medication, you will be given a 20- 30-minute consultation with the vet or nurse to demonstrate and practice injecting on a soft toy.

We will demonstrate how to:

  1. Store the injectable medication
  2. Draw up the correct amount of medication safely
  3. Administer the medication to your pet
  4. Safely discard of the sharps and syringes

Insulin must be always stored in the fridge.

Some useful websites and videos:

About diabetes mellitus in cats: https://icatcare.org/advice/diabetes-mellitus/

Injecting your cat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=by4U2VFxOGg

We can clip an area on the back of your pets neck to help you get used to injecting your pet. This makes sure you can see the needle going into the skin correctly. Please ask the vet or nurse if you would like this doing.

Disposal of needles

Needles must be disposed of in a specific sharps container for health and safety reasons. One of these containers will be provided with you by the practice at your first appointment.

Information for clients on Overnight Care of In-patients

Any patient requiring overnight care will be transported to the Somerset Road 24 hour Hospital. Emergency hours run from 7:30pm to 7:30am and the team consists of at least two registered veterinary nurses who are on site at all times, a designated night vet or an on-call vet. The veterinary surgeons are available to come into the practice at any time when phoned by the nursing team and may stay on site all night if deemed necessary. If a designated night vet is on duty, they remain in the building at all times. There is always a Registered Veterinary Nurse on duty throughout the night overseeing the inpatient care.

Facilities

The Somerset Road out of hour’s Hospital has a range of facilities to enable your pets recovery to health and to make their stay as stress free as possible. We have separate dogs, cats and exotics ward. We also have an ICU for critically ill patients and an isolation ward for patients that may have contagious diseases. We have large walk-in kennels with mattress beds for our larger dogs, vivariums for some exotic species and a quiet cat ward with cat hides to keep our feline patients calm. We have modern diagnostic facilities and patient monitoring equipment available at all times. We have the facilities to be able to perform emergency surgeries at any time of the night, however sometimes the veterinary surgeons might make the decision to stabilise your pet beforehand.

Updates on your pet

The nursing team will call you with an update on your pet between 8-9am. The Inpatient team conducts ward rounds from 8:30am. You will receive another phone call update from the Veterinary Surgeon at some point in the day to discuss your pets ongoing plan. The timing of this update may alter from day to day depending on the Vet’s caseload.

You are welcome to call at any time for an update on your pet.

If you have any more questions about our out of hours emergency service please ask any members of our team on 01484 421512

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