It’s officially winter, the evenings are drawing in and we’re pulling our fleeces out of the wardrobe.
We hope you all had a wonderful summer and managed to make the most of the fleeting sunshine. As always, we have loved seeing everybody (our regulars as well as our new customers) coming through the All Pets doors this past year.
Staff Achievements
There have been some huge staff achievements over the last year and we’re incredibly proud of each and every one of them.
Firstly, vet Georgia Smith, took on an immense challenge in September as she signed up to compete in the Ironman Wales triathlon. Starting and finishing in Tenby, Ironman Wales consists of a 2.4-mile sea swim, a 112-mile bike course – complete with almost 2,500m of elevation – followed by a full 26.2-mile marathon.
Georgia got an impressive time of 15 hours, 33 minutes! She says, “It was a very long day out, surprisingly hard…but I would probably do it again.” She’s a casual superwoman.
Marathons aside…she also gained her post graduation certificate in diagnostic imaging, a subject of particular interest to her. What does she enjoy most about it? “The ultrasounds, especially feline abdominal ultrasonography.”
Rebecca Jordan joined us as a Veterinary Care Assistant two years ago and has now started her Student Veterinary Nurse journey. She is very keen to build on her knowledge and is looking forward to the clinical side of working within the practice, especially anaesthetic monitoring, caring for inpatients and bandaging and dressing wounds.
We know she’s going to do brilliantly and be just as popular with the customers as she is within the team here at All Pets.
As many of you already know, RVN Becka Whitehead has been working towards her Master’s degree in Clinical Animal Behaviour. She recently received her results and is delighted to inform you all that she has passed!
To complete her dissertation, Becka had to complete a research study assessing the level of agreement between veterinary staff and animal behaviourists in identifying stress-related behaviours in brachycephalic and non-brachycephalic dogs.
Becka was concerned that brachycephalic dogs may be more difficult to read due to their altered morphology short tails, short muzzles, large eyes and pointed ears. She felt that this topic was important to identify the capabilities of veterinary staff in noticing stress in these dogs in order to support a positive welfare and to increase the safety of veterinary staff.
As with all research, this study did have some limitations. However the results could suggest that the morphology of dogs does not influence the abilities of veterinary staff or animal behaviorists to identify stress related behaviours. This is great news as it implies that veterinary staff can successfully recognise signs of stress in all dogs, regardless of their morphology, which could allow us to identify dogs who may benefit from additional behavioural and emotional support.
Becka would like to thank the clients that volunteered for footage of their dogs to be recorded for the dissertation, and of course the dogs, without whom, the research could not have been completed.
Introducing New Staff
We have welcomed two new staff members to the reception team this year. A lifetime lover of animals, Catrina joined us in April. Born and raised in Northern Ireland, she moved over to Jersey in 2019 to be with her partner, her beloved dog Gertie in tow. She is enjoying working in a different role and learning all that there is to learn – a lot!
Eve followed a few months later in July. A Jersey girl, animals have always been at the very centre of her life, having grown up alongside dogs, cats and many, many chickens! Time spent with them is one of her biggest joys. She loves being a part of the All Pets gang and getting to know our clients (humans & pets alike!).
Now that Bec has begun her Student Veterinary Nurse qualifications, we have introduced Liam into the crew as our new Veterinary Care Assistant. After completing a 2-year animal management course at Highlands, he ventured off to South Africa in 2023 for a period of 8 months where he embarked on a Game Ranger course.
In May 2024 he was given the opportunity to volunteer at the Zeehond seal rehabilitation center in the Netherlands for a period of 3 months. It was during this time that he decided that working with animals was the life for him. We look forward to supporting him throughout his VCA journey.
Price Increase
We are aware that the prices of products have skyrocketed in recent months, which understandably will have caused concern, and we acknowledge the knock-on effect this may have on pets receiving long-term medication.
We now update medication costs monthly to keep in line with our wholesaler prices, but we do try our best to keep prices web-similar where possible.
To try and help, we want to remind you that we are more than happy to provide prescriptions for up to 6 months in order for owners to take advantage of the competitive prices from online pharmacies.
As inflation has slowed down, we have decided not to implement a service price increase at the usual 6-monthly mark and instead will review at 12 months.
Repeat Medications & Food
Owing to the challenges of importing medication and food from the UK, we kindly request that where possible you aim to give us notice of 5 working days for repeat orders. As always, and a gentle reminder, we do require a minimum of 48 hours for any repeat prescriptions. For your information, if your pet has been seen within the last 6 months, we are happy to dispense up to 3 months’ worth of medication at one time.
Meowvellous News!
We are very excited to announce that from the 5th December we will be re-introducing cat-only mornings to the practice. Every Thursday morning, appointments and surgeries will be dedicated to cats. This will help to promote our calm and peaceful environment for your special feline friends.
This dedicated feline team will be led by our resident and certified crazy cat ladies Tiz & Emily.
5 Year Anniversary
We celebrated Ruth and Emily’s 5 year anniversary this summer with a party on the beach at Ouaisné. It turned out to be a beautifully sunny and warm day with shade provided underneath a lovely yurt. We dined on a feast of food and drink supplied by Kismet Cabana, played beach games, swam in the sea and chatted the afternoon away.
Emily says “It has been a rollercoaster of a 5 years, but we couldn’t be prouder of our team. We thoroughly enjoy coming to work every day to work alongside these fantastic people who all share our vision in providing that unique care to our clients and patients. Thank you to everyone who has supported us, past and present, – we are so excited for the future of All Pets.”
