Diagnostics Details

By: Hamilton Veterinary Clinic

Ultrasound

We now have a new machine, which gives us better detail than before. Ultrasound is good for diagnosing heart conditions and for giving accurate soft tissue detail of the abdomen. It can also be used for pregnancy diagnosis and staging.

Doppler Blood Pressure

Is the most useful in house way of measuring blood pressure in animals. Hypertension can be secondary to other problems such as Cushing’s disease and can cause pathology such as retinal detachment and blindness, cardiomyopathy and renal disease. Medication is available and monitoring of blood pressure is a useful service.

Pathology

We have an in house blood analyser, which can do such tests as biochemistry, electrolytes, and full blood counts as well as more specialised tests such as thyroid and adrenal gland function. Hamilton Veterinary clinic recommends routine blood tests prior to anaesthesia and surgery.

We also have fast access to major laboratories for more complicated blood work and tissue sampling, as well as an array of modern diagnostic tests for such things as heartworm, parvovirus or feline aids, and microscopy for cytological diagnoses, which is particularly useful for skin and ear disease.

Surgery and Anaesthesia
Here at Hamilton Veterinary Clinic we strive to use the most modern techniques and equipment for the ultimate care of your pets.

Once admitted to hospital our trained nurses check your pet, to make sure they are healthy for surgery. We recommend intravenous fluids during the procedure, which enables a safer anaesthetic- it helps maintain blood pressure, prevents dehydration and facilitates speedy excretion of drugs after the surgery.

Once anaesthetised a trained nurse is always in attendance of your pet to monitor the anaesthetic. We also utilise specialist equipment such as a pulse oximeter, which measure heart rate and oxygen levels in the blood. For more involved surgery or for more at risk patents we use an ECG, which records the electrical rhythm of the heart, and a Parkes Doppler blood pressure monitor.

All patients are intubated and placed on oxygen and Isoflurane anaesthesia and kept on a heat mat. On recovery a trained nurse again monitors them.

We at Hamilton Veterinary Clinic pride ourselves on the array of procedures we can offer our patients:

Dentistry
We have a state of the art dental machine with ultrasonic scaler and dental polisher for cleaning the teeth, and a high-speed drill to help with teeth extractions. We also have a full array of dental elevators and extraction forceps to help conquer the most difficult extractions.

We also discuss preventative measures for your pet’s teeth as well as recommend regular check ups for problem mouths.

Soft Tissue Surgery

The veterinarians at HVL are fully versed in the most up to date techniques for soft tissue surgery, from routine desexing thru to more complicated procedures such as liver and kidney surgery.

Orthopaedic Surgery

Services in this category range from the more common problems such as Ruptured Anterior Cruciate Ligaments and medial luxating patella’s, thru to repair of broken bones using various implants such as bone pins, plates and screws and external fixatuers.

Specialists

There is a wide range of specialists available these days and if we diagnose a problem that is best treated by a specialist we can organise referral for you.

Oncology

These days a diagnosis of cancer is not necessarily the death sentence it used to be. We can liase with oncology specialists to provide the most up to date chemotherapy protocol for certain conditions, and can administer these chemotherapeutic drugs in house. There is also a new drug being trialled now that shows promising results that should be available commercially next year.

We also provide: