Facilities at Calweton Veterinary Practice
Small Animal Dental Suite
The Practice maintains a dedicated small animal dental suite. This is because during dental procedures a fine mist of bacteria and dental debris is produced by the power drills and water cooled scalers. This mist would contaminate wounds and cause a sepsis and wound breakdown and so to prevent this, we would have to do all dental work at the end of the day. This would be inconvenient for pets and their owners.
Dentistry is carried out to a high standard with equipment specially designed for the job, similar to that which you would see in a human dentist's room.
Once the animal is under anaesthesia, we do a complete mouth examination with full record keeping so that an accurate assessment can be made of every tooth and the work that needs to be done. We extract teeth where significant disease has already occurred and no hope of saving the tooth exists. Gum disease is a very significant problem in cats and dogs and more teeth are lost due to loss of gum and bone exposing delicate roots than primary dental decay. The gums are very intensively cleaned underneath the flap between gum and tooth and the tooth polished to help prevent build up of smelly tartar.
Modern Full Operating Facilities
The practice maintains a modern operating theatre, separate from other areas to maximise sterility. The room also enables satisfactory clean down procedures to minimise risks from post operative infections. We use modern anaesthetic procedures to make this as safe as possible, with special gas scavengers to remove anaesthetic from the atmosphere. Not only does this stop the animal from having to breathe anaesthetic during recovery, but also ensures our staff stay wide awake!
Endoscope
Lets us see where the sun never shines. We also can use this to retrieve various items from dogs stomachs - socks and knickers being the favourite! We can take samples from the inside for biopsy and flush out interesting lesions & items.
X-Ray
The practice has two x-ray machines on site and use of a digital system for equine work or very detailed small animal work. The plate developing is fully automated to maintain a consistent standard.
Ultrasound
We have several ultrasound sets in the practice. These are very sensitive pieces of equipment which enable us to look inside an animal in a safe non invasive way. It enables us to look at the inside of a beating heart, check a womb for pregnancy or infection and look for certain types of tumour. All in the knowledge that it is painless and safe, not even requiring a sedative or anaesthetic.
Diathermy
This is a special cutting tool which enables us to excise and cauterise blood vessels during an operation to minimise blood loss.
Cryothermy
This works by freezing tissues which can not be cut out. These tissues then die and fall off but leave enough tissue for the wound to heal.
ECG
Our ECG machine links directly to a cardiac referral unit where it is analysed by an expert right away.
Full In-house Laboratory Facilities
We have a comprehensive laboratory for us to get results quickly in urgent cases.
Separate Dog and Cat Accommodation
This ensures a stress free recovery for your pet whilst recuperating from an operation.