We would like to say congratulations to Abby, our auxillary nurse and to her guinea pig, Penny- who has had 6 babies. As you can see from the photos below they are all doing well. Abby took on Penny from the RSPCA rescue.Penny has landed on her feet finding a good home with Abby!!!

We had another successful puppy party. All went well and all puppies were worn out going home. Puppy parties are a starting block for socialisation. We highly recommend you socialise your puppy from an early age to prevent behavioural problems. If you would like to come along to one please give us a call.

Robbie the Westi that was looking for a home has found one. This little fella has certainly landed on his feet with his new family. I think he is going to be one pampered dog- which he really deserves.

Sitting Pretty completed its first bronze (beginners) course with great success. All dogs showed a huge improvement and the owners feel more confident in handling them. We will be starting a new course on the 20th March and will embark on a silver course in the near future.

The feedback from all participants was very good, and these are some of the comments:

Q Would you consider continuing obedience training to a higher level?

A Yes definitely especially if you did it- really enjoyed it.

- Monty is much better and we enjoy him even more than we did now we have learnt so much. Really good fun, thanks for your hard work. Mrs C

- Very enjoyable time for me and Scamp thank you very much. Mrs O

- Very relaxed atmosphere for me and Bonnie. Mrs W

The course participants received their certificates on the night and will get their assessment report and class photo this week. The report is aimed at helping handlers to continue improving the obedience levels of their dogs.

We would like to congratulate a client of ours that took thier dog to Crufts on the weekend. They entered their dogs Lucky and Sky into the West Highland White show class and to their amazement Lucky was placed 5th out of 20 dogs and Sky was placed 1st out of 26 dogs- WELL DONE LUCKY and SKY!!!!

We have set two more start dates for the Bronze Course which will run for 6 weeks

20th March 2007

15th May 2007 

If any one is interested and would like more information please call on 01952 201369

Also we are about to start the Silver Course which is a follow on from the bronze. Date still to be confirmed but if you would like more information please call us on 01952 201369

And now for something completely different....

We recently had an anorexic veiled chameleon brought in to us. Despite not eating for a few days, her belly was very large and she had stopped moving about her vivarium. Xrays showed many eggs almost filling the coelom (the cavity in reptiles which replaces the thorax and abdomen in mammals).

The eggs can be seen as the lighter (whiter) oval shaped structures on the xray. This chameleon also showed evidence of a long term calcium deficiency - see separate article- and partly due to this, the eggs had not formed correctly and she was unable to pass them. The only chance was to surgically remove the eggs.

Although we do not routinely operate on reptiles at this surgery, the owner requested that we attempt the operation to give the chameleon a chance at survival. After much research and communication with experts in this field, we decided to proceed with the operation. Once anaesthetized, the chameleon was laid on its back and prepared for surgery. The picture below shows the large number of eggs being removed from the coelom. The chameleon's head is towards the top right of the picture under the sterile drape.

Once the eggs were removed, we stitched the muscles and skin together again and woke her up. Within a short time back in a warm environment, she was awake and beginning to move around again. The following day she was already starting to feed again. The following pictures taken before and immediately after surgery show how bloated the eggs had made her appear- no wonder she was so umcomfortable! You may notice the darker colouration immediately after surgery - this is an indication of the stress the chameleon's body has undergone during the surgical procedure. This very quickly returned to the normal lighter colour when she was fully awake.

                 BEFORE                                                    AFTER

The Chameleon came in today which is 3 days after surgery. She is doing very well- moving around, climbing and eating. Will keep you updated!

The chameleon that came in egg-bound (see article 5th March) was found to be deficient in calcium. This is a fairly common problem in captive chameleons and it can be quite difficult to ensure the correct ratios of calcium, phosphorous, vitamin D and UV light. These factors can all play a role in the amount of calcium a chameleon takes in and then absorbs in a way that it can use effectively. The end result of a deficiency is that bones do not grow correctly (often curved instead of straight) and eggs cannot form the correct shell structure and then cannot be laid.

The xray below shows the very thin cortex (outer part of the bones) and how the bones have curved in this chameleon.

Note the curved bone and thin cortex                 The bones are straighter and the cortex thicker

                 CALCIUM DEFICIENT                                                  NORMAL