Our Services
The Wulguru Vet Clinic is proud to provide a full range of services, which includes the following:
Consultations
In order to minimise waiting times, consultations are by appointment. However, if you have an emergency please come down to the clinic immediately.
Our consulting hours are:
- Monday to Friday – 8:30 am to 5.30 pm
- Saturdays – 8:30am to 11:30am
During a consultation we can assess your pet’s health, discuss any concerns you may have, give advice and prescribe any necessary medication.
Because pets age so much faster than humans, an annual health check is an important way to identify potential health concerns early and address them before they become a serious problem.
Vaccinations
Vaccination allows us to prevent serious diseases in our pets, many of which are potentially fatal. It is especially important as responsible pet owners that young animals receive their first vaccines at an appropriate time and adults receive their booster vaccinations to keep immunity up-to-date.
Pet Nutrition
We stock food for all breed, age, weight and medical condition requirements. If we don’t have the product you are looking for, we can order it in for you.
Please note, when changing your pet’s diet it is ideal to transition their food over 5-7 days. Sudden changes to the diet can lead to gastrointestinal upsets.
Intestinal Worming Care and Advice
Prevention of infection with intestinal worms is important not only to your dog or cat, but also the rest of your family as many worms can be transmitted to people.
Puppies and kittens should be wormed at 2, 4, 6 and 8 weeks of age. After their 8 week worming they can then be wormed monthly until they are 6 months old. Dogs and cats over 6 months of age should be wormed every 3 months for life.
Worming treatment should encompass all four types of intestinal worms; these are roundworm, hookworm, whipworm and tapeworm. Hookworm in particular is endemic in North Queensland and can be fatal, so adequate worming is important.
Intestinal worms are fairly common, It can be passed directly from the mother before birth through the placenta and through the mother’s milk just after birth and thereafter from the environment. Symptoms can include scooting, diarrhoea, blood in the faeces, vomiting, weight loss, lethargy and stunted growth in puppies and kittens.
Flea and Tick Control
It is important to practice regular flea and tick prevention, even if you do not see any on your pet.
Ticks in particular can cause serious illness to our pets. An infestation of brown dog or bush ticks can lead to significant blood loss, while a single paralysis tick can lead to paralysis and death within 2-4 days of attachment.
Heartworm Prevention
Heartworm is a very serious parasitic infection transmitted by mosquitoes. It takes only one bite from a carrier mosquito to infect your dog. If not detected early enough and without treatment, heartworm disease will eventually lead to heart failure and death.
As always, prevention is better than a cure and there are many products available for protection.
Microchipping
Microchipping is the best form of identification should your pet go missing. Unfortunately, many pets that turn up at animal shelters, vet clinics and council pounds have lost their collars and ID tags, but microchipping is a permanent solution to this problem.
Implanting the chip is a very simple and straight forward procedure. It is safe and can be done at any time after 8 weeks of age. The ID chip is about as small as a grain of rice and is inserted just under the skin, between the shoulder blades.
Please remember to update your pet’s microchip details when you move or re-home your pet.
Dental Care
Regular dental checks are advisable, particularly as your pet gets older. This can be done during any consultation.
“Dental Month” occurs twice a year at Wulguru Vet Clinic, in March and September. In these months we offer free dental checks and 20% off all dental procedures.
Desexing
Desexing is recommended for all dogs and cats not intended for breeding purposes. At Wulguru Vet Clinic, we advise desexing at 5-6 months of age. Not only does this remove sexual urges and other hormone related behaviours, it also has several health benefits.
Laboratory Services
Diagnostic testing may sometimes be required to investigate your pet’s condition further. It also enables us to do routine and geriatric check-ups for your animals, monitoring them for disease before it becomes serious. These tests can be performed on various samples such as blood, urine, faeces and tissue.
Radiography
Radiology is one the most common ways to diagnose skeletal disease, but is also useful for diagnosing soft tissue, thoracic and other organ disease. We have a very modern digital X ray processor enabling us to have very good quality radiographs. This means we can create high quality films and offer a far better diagnostic value.
Orthopaedic Surgery
We routinely undertake more complex orthopaedic surgery ranging from cruciate ligament disease, luxating patella and fracture repair.
We are also able to offer advanced cruciate repair options such as Tibial Tuberosity Advancement (TTA) for anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears. Below is a diagram of this procedure.
Source: http://www.vetsurgerycentral.com/ortho_TTA.htm
Major Surgery
We are confident with many more delicate soft tissue surgeries including perianal hernia repair, intestinal surgery, bladder stone removal, tumour removal, and more.
We can also arrange for you to see a specialist if needed.
