Vets in Cardiff

[fourpaws]

Hey all, first post!

Thought I would introduce myself by offering my experience of vets in Cardiff. having had my first gerbils for two years now, we came across our first case of an inner ear infection.

This led us to two practices - the first was "Valley Vets" in Gabalfa, Cardiff. They operate an emergency out of hours service but BE WARNED, to use the service it will cost you £80 just to see a vet and then any other shots or treatment will incur additional cost.

The other place is the Companion Care vet practice in Pets at Home at Cardiff Bay Retail Park. They were absolutely fantastic - the guy who owns the practice specialises in small/exotic animals and they were really kind and understanding of this hysterical woman with a poorly gerbil! Prices are very, very reasonable. Highly recommended.

[sparky]

It's good to get some other opinions of Cardiff vets. I've taken various of my girls to both of those practices. I'm guessing that you didn't get any treatment at Valley Vets in the end. I've been there 3 times and seen 2 vets who were both nice and quite good with gerbils, although one did almost let Sprocket jump of the table while trying to catch her. That dented out confidence in him just a bit and we haven't seen him since. They do seem to have a lot of exeperience with small critters as the next patient after us was a rat the last time we were there.

Our most recent visit to the vet was to Companion Care for the first time last week. The receptionist that we spoke to was brilliant. Very reassuring and helpful. I'm not sure how much experience the vet that we saw has with gerbils though but it all went well. I was rather anxious at the time and it didn't help that she wouldn't let me stay with Sparky when they treated her.

I'd almost been to companion care once before but they couldn't fit us in quickly enough. This time Valley Vets couldn't give us an appointment, and companion care were about to fit us in later that day. I guess it must have been Johann that you saw. The other partner seems to have left now as he is no longer on the website. Was he able to pick up your gerbil quite easily?

How is your gerbil doing now? Much better I hope. Which one was poorly? We make regular trips to the vets with Sprocket who lost her top teeth in February and needs to have the bottom teeth trimmed every 4 weeks. Last weeks visit to Campanion Care was with Sparky who has also just lost her top teeth. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that hers are going to grow back. It's only been a couple of weeks so there is still hope.

We've tried one other vet in Cardiff who was good the first time we saw him but not so good the next time.

[fourpaws]

Wheeee you don;t know how happy I am to have found another local who keeps gerbils!

Smokey was the poorly one, with an inner ear infection. We didn;t return to Valley Vets following the initial emergency visit, namely because the vets suggestion was that "we consider euthanising him right now because he is two and that is a good age for a gerbil". I was horrified!

The first time we went to Companion Care we saw a foreign vet who was really lovely, though did overprescribe the antibiotics (20 days twice a day???). But she handled him well, didn;t dawdle and got her examinations done quickly as he was so agitated. Our follow up was with Johann and it was like he was once a gerbil himself! Smokey even seemed to relax around him. Johann is also quite dishy too....hee hee!

Smokey is now completely fine and you have to look really closely to see a head tilt. Both of them are getting older - you can see lots of white hairs coming through on Sooty now - so I just want to make sure they are the happiest little things ever with lots of fun and adventure for their little selves!

[sparky]

I'm really glad Smokey is all better now.

I would have been horrified to have been told that too. It is such a good job that you didn't take there advice, especially when it was so simple to fix. Quite an over-reaction on the vets part, and sounds like they really misdiagnosed what was wrong with him.

The out of hours service at Valley Vets is run by a different company to the day time surgery, and all of the Vets in Cardiff get put through to them after hours. Hopefully you won't need to see them again. We did have some good advice from them when one of our rabbits wasn't feeling well. They were able to reassure us over the phone that she had probably got a bit too cold as she hadn't got her winter coat yet and the weather had turned quite cold, and after a couple of hours snuggled up with her sister in the hutch she was back to normal again. I was out there every half hour with a torch to see if she was doing ok!

It's great that Companion Care has such good opening hours. Sprocket was a bit under the weather last week but we didn't want to stress her with anothe trip to the vets. It was really good to know that if she had needed attention we could have had an appointment any time over the bank holiday weekend.

It sounds like Johann has an excellent way with gerbils. Thanks for the recommendation.

I know what you mean about wanting to make your gerbils as happy as possible. I love finding new things for mine to play with. I feel a little sad for them that they can't live with a friend but they do have company through the bars and I spend as much time with them as I can. Gerbils are such amazing creatures.

[fourpaws]

Oh I know, I feel so guilty that they don;t have someone to snuggle up with at night! I do wonder if that's why they aren;t as fussed about direct interaction with me. We adopted Smokey from P@H so I don;t know where he came from and if he's ever had a cage mate since he was weaned. He does have a very slight kink in his tail though so hoping it was nothing too bad. And if it was I hope I have provided a life that has very much made up for it. He was only 11 weeks when I got him so hopefully!

I think Valley Vets were concerned about his eyes, as they were...can;t remember the word but you could see the eyeball flickering ever so slightly, I think because of this they assumed it was a brain tumour but I wasn't about to just go "OK then" without trying something first. They gave an antibiotic injection and a steriod injection and the improvement the next morning was enough that I knew we had done exactly the right thing. I had steeled myself that if he was still clearly distressed and in pain, then he wouldn;t be coming home with me after the second visit to the vets. Thankfully, all was well!

FYI Companion Care also do an overnight "hotel" if you ahve animals that need medicating and cannot take them with you/arrange suitable alternatives. We nearly had to go away on a family emergency, and were panicing about what to do with Smokey as he still needed his daily doses of anitbiotic, and they said they would be happy to ahve him overnight. It does cost but the peace of mind that he is in good hands was so comforting.

[sparky]

That's a useful service to have if needed

[fourpaws]

Sparky, you seem to have found a good vet after Squeaky's illness. Where are they?

[sparky]

They are at Valley Vets. There are two vets that we have seen that are very good with gerbils - Sophie and Mark. They are both specialists in exotics.