Facebook for pets - Dogbook and Catbook!

Did you know that cats and dogs now have their very own facebook?   Once they were happy to be simply man's best friend.   But in the Internet age, dogs and cats are expanding their social circles.

Thousands have their own profiles on a Facebook spin-offs called Dogbook and Catbook, which also offers them to chance to network and make new friends, just like their owners.

To find out more, take a look at http://apps.facebook.com/dogbook or http://apps.facebook.com/catbook.  There are 722 000 monthly users on dogbook and 153 000 on catbook, so you won't be alone!

Oscar the "Bionic" cat

The wonders of veterinary science!  Many of you may have heard or read about Oscar, a 2 year old moggie, who lost both back feet in an horrific accident where he was run over by a combine harvester.  In poineering surgery, a Surrey-based orthopaedic specialist gave him prosthetic back paws to enable Oscar to lead an active and happy life (though not outside any more), instead of having to be put to sleep!  A BBC television programme has been featuring this ground-breaking surgery.

While there have been some negative comments along the lines of "Why is money spent on this nonsense?", we as "GP" vets salute the specialists that are able to help these animals.  It will of course always be up to the individual pet-owner to decide  how far they want to take any veterinary investigation or treatment when their pet is ill, but it is wonderful to know that we as vets can offer "the best" for any pet.  Good luck to Oscar!

Too Many Strays...

We have had an unusually large number of strays brought to us at Park Vets in Raynes Park recently. In some happy cases we were able to reunite them with their owners very speedily, because the animal had a microchip. Take the Strauss fammily, for example. Kasper, their Bengal cat, disappeared from their home in Raynes Park on Thursday, and they spent the weekend frantically looking for him.

On Monday, Kasper was brought into Park Vets by a caring passer-by, on who had noticed Kasper in his garden. Staff at Park Vets scanned the stray to check if he had a microchip, and luckily he had! It was then a simple matter to find his owners.

Mr John Strauss, Kasper’s owner said “After four days of worrying, we were finally reunited with our beautiful, beloved one year-old Bengal cat, Kasper. Having been through this several times in my life, I was absolutely overjoyed to see for myself what a difference it makes to have our pets micro-chipped.”  The smiles on the faces of his children Willem and Kip say it all!

This gorgeous kitten was found wandering along Worple Road last week too, and brought in to Park Vets by one of our clients. Sadly this little fellow was not chipped, and we have never been able to find his owners - or was he dumped? Luckily one of our vets, Peter Lennox, has given him a home, but we can't rehome all the strays that come in!

Just yesterday a little Jack Russell was found running around in the road outside our home, and again, when scanned, was found to have no chip! It's such a simple process to have pets microchipped, that I don't understand why everyone doesn't do it.

Welcome

Welcome to the new blogspot of The Park Veterinary Practice in Raynes Park! We'd like to share news and stories of interest to all of you that love animals. We're new at this game, so bear with us while we find our feet.