When your pet is ready to go home, the clinician will contact you to arrange a discharge appointment. They will go through the potential diagnosis, treatment and any discharge instructions with you and explain any ongoing medications or care that your pet needs.
Prescriptions for Medications
Veterinary surgeons may only prescribe prescription only medicines, category V (POM V’s) for animals under their care. For pets with an on-going disease condition we class ‘under their care’ as having been seen within the last three months.
We will normally dispense short courses of medication that your pet will require on discharge. You are entitled to ask for a prescription for any medications that we recommend for your pet and a fee is charged for prescription writing. Please note we cannot take responsibility for medications purchased elsewhere.
Bereavement
If you have to make the tough decision to have your pet put to sleep, we will support you through this.
The process, known as euthanasia, is painless and involves an injection of anaesthetic via intravenous catheter, administered by your clinician. They will ask you to sign a euthanasia consent form and you can be with them during this time.
This is an upsetting time for pet owners, during which some decisions need to be made:
- Would you like to take your pet home with you, for burial or cremation?
- Would you prefer to leave us to organise this? In this event we work with Peaceful Pets, who can arrange a communal cremation (ashes scattered at Peaceful Pets in their garden of remembrance) or an individual cremation with the ashes either returned to us or to your own vet practice for collection.
- Would you like us to take some fur for you to keep, or a paw print image that can be used to create a keepsake?
- If your pet is a dog, would you consider donating his/her corneas to help save the sight of another dog?
Our clinicians and nurses understand how difficult these decisions can be at such a sad time, and they will talk you through the options and help you choose what is best for you and your family.