❓Sunday’s guess the breed!🐶
Can you guess the breed??
.
We're hoping to catch you out with this one.🙊

Go!!👇👇👇 ... See MoreSee Less

9 hours ago

⭐️VETERINARY NURSE AWARENESS MONTH⭐️
🤩Meet the team💚

The first of our students… Vicky! Vicky hails from Southend-on-Sea. She worked in Cirencester as a veterinary receptionist before joining Straitons as a veterinary care assistant in late 2018. She has since started her training to become a fully-fledged RVN.

Vicky wanted to become a nurse because she feels more confident when she’s around animals.🥰 They really are amazing that they can make people feel that way.🐾

Vicky has 2 cats, Joey and Asterin, and Albert the leopard gecko.🦎 Vicky is actually a qualified primary school teacher! She is a self-confessed geek at heart and loves reading, gaming, comics and manga.🤓 She’s also a fan of hiking, cycling and eating! (Perfect combo.👌)

Vicky’s favourite thing in nursing so far is working with ferrets/exotics. We see a variety of species here at Straitons. From your standard canines and felines, to meerkats and marmoset monkeys! (Yesterday we neutered a skunk!!)🐒🦉🐢🦔🐍 Nurses are taught about the anatomy, physiology, diseases, husbandry and care of an array of species during training. As you can imagine, all animals are different so there’s a lot to learn! Whilst we are not a specialist exotics practice, we do see and care for multiple cases, including lots of ferrets!

Vicky loves reading and going to college. She has passed 2 out of her 3 exams with flying colours. She has done a lot so far not actively being at the practice during the pandemic, so her achievements are even more commendable.

Vicky has learnt to deal with the worst sides of veterinary, and helping clients say goodbye to their pets, which used to be difficult for her when she first started. Knowing how to support clients and patients at end of life care is an important part of our job. You don’t always see how it affects us behind closed doors and is always an area we have to learn to deal with for our own mental health. Vicky is also really proud of how far she has come with her social anxiety (and so she should be) during her time in this profession. She has come along way since she started working here.💚

#VNAM2021 #planetRVN #whatVNsdo ... See MoreSee Less

1 day ago

Happy Friday folks!🌈

⭐️VETERINARY NURSE AWARENESS MONTH⭐️
🤩Meet the team💚

Nicky has been living in the UK since 2012 as she is originally from South Africa! She started her career in wildlife conservation and management. Nicky then joined a community veterinary clinic offering neutering and vaccination campaigns. She then obtained her Level 3 Veterinary Nursing qualification in the UK and joined Straitons in March 2017. She is now one of our senior nurses. Quite the life hey!🌍

Nicky joined the profession because she wanted to help animals in need. The satisfaction of knowing you can help is what drives her through her career, which is actually 35 years strong!💪

Nicky, fondly known here as ‘Africa’, has her two staffies at home, Jock and Savanna, a black cat called Alfie and her two sons who are now 19 and 24. She’s pretty sporty and always on the go, but at her happiest with her pals in front of an open fire (probably with a wine or two!).

It goes without saying that Africa has a passion for wildlife and exotics, but one of her favourite areas is medical cases! Being with our inpatients in kennels gives her the most satisfaction knowing that she was a part of their recovery, caring and medicating, and being their love and support through hospitalisation. She also likes nurse clinics and helping develop our laser therapy programme.

Africa also has her laboratory that she keeps on top of here at Straitons. She knows how everything works, teaches the staff, and is in charge of making sure it is all stocked and running smoothly.🔬🌡🦠 We are really lucky to have a wide range of lab equipment. We have the ability to run multiple in-house blood tests to measure and monitor various internal organ functions, assess blood components, inflammatory responses and blood clotting efficiencies. We have a urinalysis machine alongside handheld equipment. We have a microscope allowing us to examine an assortment of different samples in greater detail. Not only do we take the samples… we run them!🥳 As nurses, we are fully trained in using the equipment, and do so on a daily basis, enabling the vets to provide owners with prompt results allowing a more efficient course of treatment.

Africa has many the qualification to her name including a degree in nature conservation, an advanced certificate in wildlife and avian AND one in animal behaviour. A very impressive rap sheet.👩‍🎓

Africa is a very free spirited lady with a passion for life and likes to set by example here as one of our senior nurses. You can’t argue she hasn’t lived.💚

Have a lovely weekend. Stay safe.🐾

#VNAM2021 #planetRVN #whatVNsdo ... See MoreSee Less

2 days ago

EDIT:
‼️AMBER HAS BEEN FOUND!!!!❤️❤️❤️❤️

THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts for your shares and help. She is safe and well.💚🙌🏻👏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

One of our nurse’s dogs has been hit by a car in the Great Wyrley area and has ran off. She is spayed, border collie X and chipped! Please share.🙏🏻 ... See MoreSee Less

3 days ago

⭐️VETERINARY NURSE AWARENESS MONTH⭐️
🤩Meet the team💚

Nicki was a student here at Straitons in the summers of 2015 and 2016 and returned as a qualified nurse in July 2017! She has always had a strong love for animals which eventually progressed to their care and health. She has two gorgeous dogs of her own at home, Tarka and Kiwi.🐶

Her main love lies in theatre! She likes to be in there as much as possible. Her favourite area is anaesthesia, specifically the pharmacology side.💊💉

There is so much that anaesthesia entails as a nurse. It is one of our most sophisticated, important and challenging job roles.🤓 We are trained to understand all components including anaesthetic circuits, volatile agents, depths and planes of anaesthesia, observation parameters both by hand and machines, temperature of our patients before, during and after surgery, whether their pain relief is adequate, their positioning on the table, ensuring they have all the medication prescribed by the vet, what this medication actually does, monitoring intravenous fluid therapy and intravenous catheter patency, and their recovery! The list is endless. Each anaesthetic is like a puzzle, and no two patients are the same.

One step better than all of that… Nicki has very recently passed her advanced certificate in anaesthesia! She now has more post-nominals to add to her name! A very impressive achievement.👏🙌🧠

Whilst very modest in her statue as a nurse, Nicki is an integral part of the team. She frequently takes up the night shifts where needed, covers any shift left right and centre and always gets the job done.🥰

#VNAM2021 #planetrvn #whatVNsdo ... See MoreSee Less

3 days ago

⭐️VETERINARY NURSE AWARENESS MONTH⭐️
🤩Meet the team💚

Emily is a senior nurse here at Straitons and has actually been in the profession for 20 long years!! She qualified 14 years ago and joined our team in 2017. Her love for science pointed her in the direction of vet nursing, that and she preferred the thought of working with animals!!🙊

Emily has her hands full at home with her 3 children, husband, Salem the cat and Larry the chihuahua. She has worked as a silver service waitress, bar maid, with the RSPCA, dog grooming and in a zoo.🐆🦓🦍🦩

Her favourite area is emergency, critical care, anaesthesia … everything that being a theatre nurse entails! She loves blood sampling and being hands on. She’s also a great organiser which aids her in the role of senior nurse. She loves nurse clinics and teaching/educating the public.

Emily’s biggest love, however… the ‘gross’ stuff.🤢 Give her a smelly abscess or a gory wound and she’s happy!

She is also currently towards the end of obtaining a certificate in animal behaviour. Just to add to her list of credentials!

Emily wouldn’t change being a veterinary nurse for the world and wears her RVN badge with pride.💚

🤔Have you ever noticed our badges? When becoming a qualified, registered veterinary nurse, we receive badges (of honour if you will) to pop on our uniform. The central image of the badge is St Francis of Assisi who is the patron saint of animals.

#VNAM2021 #planetRVN #whatVNsdo ... See MoreSee Less

4 days ago

Good morning!🌈

Timmy is giving us all the post long weekend vibes today!🤩😴

⚠️We are now open as normal 8.30am-6pm, Saturday 10am-2pm, still by appointment only. Our Rugeley branch is open 10am-6pm.

Our most recent update is pinned to the top of the page.📌

Phone lines are always busier than normal after a bank holiday so please bear with us if at first you don't succeed!

Have a lovely week all.🌧 Stay safe.🐾 ... See MoreSee Less

5 days ago

Good morning folks!🌈
Happy bank holiday Monday!🥳🥳🥳

Please remember that we are open by appointment only 11am-1pm today. As always, we are available outside of these hours for emergencies.

⭐️VETERINARY NURSE AWARENESS MONTH (VNAM)⭐️

🤩Meet the team💚

Our first installment to start us off...
We want to welcome back Monique!🙌

Monique is head nurse here at Straitons and vanished a year or so ago now on maternity leave. She has her hands full at home with her two children, Amelia and Harry, and has also had to go through all of this in the middle of a pandemic.

She returns back to work on Wednesday and we are all very much looking forward to having her back in the game! She will be continuing as head nurse alongside Nicky.

Monique, fondly known as ‘Mons’ or ‘Mon Mons’, has been at the practice since 2013 and became our head nurse in 2017. She wanted to become a nurse because of everything the role entails, especially helping patients and their owners through the good and the bad.☺️

She enjoys all areas of nursing and struggles to pin point her favourite area! She likes being in our operating theatre for the variety it brings, but also likes a hand at medical cases, clinics and pharmacy!

Monique is proud to be part of a brilliant nursing team and what we achieve on a daily basis. She has also reliably informed us that she is looking forward to seeing us all when she’s back!

We can’t wait to see you Wednesday Mons!🥰

#VNAM2021 #planetRVN #whatVNsdo ... See MoreSee Less

6 days ago

❓Sunday’s guess the breed!🐶
Can you guess the breed??
.
A spaniel... but which one??

Any guesses?👇 ... See MoreSee Less

1 week ago

☹️Unfortunately we have another leaving post!

We are sad to inform you that Ellia, our equine technician, is leaving us! She is heading onto a new career path and leaving the veterinary world behind.

Whilst Ellia hasn’t been at the practice for very long, you may have seen her on your yards, farms or around the practice. Today is her last day here at Straitons, so if you spot her, be sure to wish her well.

We wish her all the best for her future endeavours and she will be missed here. Good luck in all that you do, Ellia. Best wishes from everyone at Straitons and beyond.❤️ ... See MoreSee Less

1 week ago

Meet little Obi!💙

Obi came to the practice last week after he ate a whole load of grapes!🍇

Did you know grapes are toxic to dogs?🆘

Even a very small number can cause severe problems. Unfortunately, there’s no clear correlation between the size of a dog and the amount eaten when determining the effects and seriousness of the toxicity. Emergency cases have been witnessed when just one grape has been eaten and in some cases, the ingestion causes no problems at all. So it is better to be safe than sorry.

What are the symptoms of poisoning?
🆘Vomiting
🆘Diarrhoea
🆘Changes in drinking or urination (blood can be seen in urine)
🆘Inappetence
🆘Weakness and unsteady when walking
🆘Lethargy

There is generally a high chance of survival with prompt treatment after ingestion. Delayed treatment may result in kidney damage.

Obi came straight down to the practice and we made him vomit. He stayed with us a little while for supportive treatment. We definitely didn’t mind nursing this handsome guy!😍

We hope he’s feeling right as rain at home!🌈 ... See MoreSee Less

2 weeks ago