Springing Forward

Spring is finally here and the Southern Animal Referral Centre is geared up to see all the incidents and accidents which come with the new season! Just a reminder that there are 3 departments at the Southern Animal Referral Centre, all fully operational and most happy to collaborate with your Springtime cases.

The three departments here at the Southern Animal Referral Centre all see an influx of new case presentations with the warmer weather and longer days.

Dogs, cats and of course their owners all crawl out from under the doona to reacquaint themselves with the backyard, neighbourhood and local park.

During spring we see a large number of emergency presentations symptomatic of the spring clean. Poisons and fertilisers are spread around back yards across the state. The increasing incidence of ‘pet friendly’ iron-based snail bait products and associated toxicities is something of which we are vigilant, along with the other numerous toxicities we treat every spring.

We are again approaching the season when we see paralytic poisoning from ingestion of some aquatic species in Port Phillip Bay. Puffer fish which regularly wash up on Bay beaches are known to contain the neurotoxin tetrodotoxin. They may also contain saxitoxin which causes short term paralysis and respiratory arrest. We do not know whether this is caused by increased numbers of dogs trawling the beaches or increased concentration of toxins in specific species at this time of year. What we do know is that the ventilator will be within easy reach and staff alert for these presentations. In addition we will be on the lookout for paralysis tick envenomation which becomes more prevalent at this time of year.

It is also the season for sprains and strains with an increased number of pets booking to see physiotherapist Michelle Monk. Cruciate ligament ruptures and similar injuries increase significantly with activity levels. This means more visits to the vet for orthopaedic surgery...and increased numbers of pets presenting for rehab. This year Michelle has widened her service offering to include the Orthopets range of orthotics and prosthetics. Pets waiting for surgery, or who due to concurrent conditions are not surgical candidates, can now be referred for fitting of custom braces.

And not to be left out, the Cardiorespiratory Service is expecting the number of pets presenting with possible nasal foreign bodies to increase as new season seeds and shoots are inhaled and become stuck.

All in all we are gearing up for another busy spring as the services continue to grow. As the days get longer and the leaves and shoots begin to sprout we look forward to continuing to provide our referring practices with ongoing emergency and critical care, physiotherapy and cardiology services.

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