This week everyone here at Southfield Vets has been busy preparing for our “Grand Opening and Open day” on Sunday. Preparation for something like an open day is never that straightforward in veterinary practice – animals do not get ill at convenient times and certainly have no respect for the need to make the place look neat and tidy.

On Sunday, as well as being at the Open Day, I am also the vet on call so I could spend Sunday afternoon chatting with clients and showing off our smart new premises or I could spend Sunday stitching up a dog or x-raying a cat. Hopefully I will manage a bit of both as it is rather nice to be able to show off all our new facilities – but as always this profession keeps you on your toes so I am sure there will be a few surprises thrown in there.

We had a major emergency in this afternoon: a young Labrador was out playing on the river bank in Dorchester and ate the root of Water Hemlock – he immediately started to have seizures and was brought down to us by the owner. These were major convulsions and took multiple medications to control, in the end we had to anaesthetise him to stop the seizures. As I write this article we have just been able to reduce the anaesthetic but he remains in a critical condition. I will give you a full update next week but in the meantime all dog owners should Google Water Hemlock so you know what it looks like, it is the roots that are poisonous so please be aware.