When they fall ill, dogs can exhibit a wide range of symptoms. Not all of them mean you are facing an acute emergency. Just like us, a dog may feel off colour for a couple of days and then bounce back. But your dog depends on you to recognise when there is a serious problem and to seek appropriate help. All of the symptoms in this article indicate you should seek immediate veterinary advice or attention…
Read more →
Open wounds, serious burns, broken bones and trauma are the most obvious symptoms that require visits to the animal hospital . If your cat has been hit by a car or in a fight with another animal, or been involved in any other kind of accident or trauma, unless the wounds are clearly minor you should seek emergency veterinary treatment as quickly as possible.
Read more →Deciding what constitutes an emergency and when the vet needs to be called in can be a difficult decision for the horse owner. Despite their size and power horses can be fairly delicate. They can often pull up lame, suffer cuts and bruises and experience mild fever and reduced appetite. In a large percentage of cases these are not true emergencies, but they are always an anxious time for the horse owner.
Read more →Horses are prone to injury. Whether it’s a knock going over a jump, a nasty cut from tangling with barbed wire fences or some sharp machinery in the paddock, or a kick from another horse, open wounds and bruising are something most horse owners will face at one time or another.
Read more →
Poisoning cases need immediate veterinary treatment. If this is not possible there are some basic first aid treatments, but you should only attempt them if you know what was ingested, and/or when your pet came in contact with it…
Read more →
There are hundreds of products and substances harmful to domestic animals. With many toxic substances the consequences are severe, life threatening and often fatal. Even if we can pull a pet through the immediate danger there is a chance of permanent organ damage. Successfully treating poisoning requires swift, appropriate care. Time is of the essence — every pet carer needs to know the various symptoms that may indicate poisoning…
Read more →
Pet poisoning is common, and often fatal for the affected animal. Our own experience at Alpine Animal Doctors is that poisoning from foods toxic to pets — with chocolate easily topping the list — are more common than incidents involving medications or insecticides etc, but we do see pets affected by all of the substances in the top ten…
Read more →
A little of what’s bad for them. Many common foods can make your pet ill. Some, ingested in sufficient quantity, can kill. If you suspect your pet has eaten quantities of any of the foods covered in this article, or are showing any of the symptoms described, it’s critical that you call us and get to the hospital as quickly as possible.
Read more →
Envenomation from the toxins contained in snake venom is always a serious and life threatening incident that must be treated swiftly to save the life of a pet. If your pet has an encounter with a snake you can help by being aware of the signs and symptoms of snake bite detailed in this article, and getting the affected animal to the hospital as quickly as possible…
Read more →
Hi, We seem to be having issues with this popup.
To send us a message, please email: reception@alpinevet.com.au
Come Home Spot is a community initiative by Alpine Animal Doctors that aims to see every pet in the Alpine Shire microchipped so they can be reunited with their family if they get lost.
There are almost six million pet dogs and cats in Australia. Every year thousands go missing. People move and Spot or Kitty decide the new place is not to their liking and set off to head back ‘home.’ They’re frightened by fireworks or thunderstorms and run away, to become lost and confused.
All too often these lost pets never find their families again, ending up at Council Pounds or animal shelters. Some may be rehomed but for many their fate will be euthanasia. The lucky ones — those whose owners had the foresight to have them microchipped — are quickly returned to their families.
Implanting a microchip should be one of the first things you do when you bring a new animal into your home. In fact, it’s a legal requirement in most states. From 1 January 2012 microchipping has been compulsory for all dogs across the whole of Australia, but microchipping legislation generally applies only to dogs and cats, and only to those born after the introduction of the legislation. That still leaves many thousands unprotected.
At Alpine Animal Doctors we have an ongoing program that aims to see every pet in the Shire — from Myrtleford to Mt Beauty — microchipped by 2020. This is not about revenue for our practice. Vets don’t make money from microchips, the low one-off lifetime fee really only covers the costs. It’s about protecting all of those who can’t protect themselves.
Put simply, if every animal owner had their pets chipped, and kept their registry details up to date when they moved house, we might never again see a stray dog or cat have to be put down because we can’t find their owners.
Microchipping is an extremely simple, safe and inexpensive procedure. Just call the hospital and we’ll do the rest.
This page was updated July 2017. The artwork featured is from the Deviantart community and was created by Devianart member Brandimuffin. Copyright is owned by the artist. Please do not download or share it without permission. It is reproduced here under a CC license. You can find the original and other work by Brandimuffin here.