The Vet Practice

By The Vet Practice on Sunday, 22 February 2009

It's now 2 weeks since the bushfires ravaged our local community..

During this time we have been run off our feet treating the many animal victims of the inferno.

We estimate to have treated over 250 patients (mainly domestic pets) as well as horses and livestock during these past 14 days.

At any one time over 70 cats and dogs are under our daily care whether it be here at our clinic in Whittlesea, at our clinic at South Morang or boarding at local boarding kennels.

Those still needing intensive daily treatment remain hospitalised at our Whittlesea and South Morang clinics.

Burns injuries are painful and require daily medications and bandage changes. Some of the patients will need to undergo surgery to perform skin grafts in order for the burned areas to heal.

Others will need their toes amputated because the burns are so severe.

Our commitment to these patients will remain ongoing and all patients receive the same level of care and dedication whether they are owned or unowned.

As you can imagine, the financial cost in providing this care has been enormous. The cost per patient varies from anywhere from a few hundred dollars (less severe cases) to a few thousand dollars for those requiring intensive care treatment and surgery.

We estimate overall treatment costs at this point in time to exceed well over $150,000 including lost earnings.

As you can see, without the generous support of the public, through donations of money, time and supplies, this would not be possible for a normal clinic to sustain.

 

By The Vet Practice on Friday, 20 February 2009

People have been asking us what financial assistance we are receiving for our efforts.

Here is our response.

When the first patients started arriving at our clinic on that terrible Saturday, we made an agreement that our contribution (as a local business) to assist those affected by the devastating fires was to provide immediate access to Free Veterinary treatment for injured animals brought to us.

To this date we have upheld this agreement.

To this date - no invoice for these patients has been raised therefore, there are no invoices to present to anyone for reimbursement.

With the influx of so many injured dogs and cats as well as livestock and horses treated on properties, we did not have the luxury of time to create individual financial records which would carefully separate the donated supplies from those which have been supplied from our own pockets.

Plus, it was never our intention to do so in the first place.

Our priority was to provide the needed veterinary care to patients, many of whom belong to clients we have known for many years.

The commitment to provide this care to date has only been made possible through the generous donations in the form of medical and other supplies, hands on help by volunteer staff and monetary donations from the general public.

We certainly could not have been able to do this using our own resources alone.

We are just an ordinary clinic facing extraordinary circumstances.

By The Vet Practice on Tuesday, 17 February 2009

At this point we'd sincerely like to thank all of you who have helped us out during this very difficult week through donations and "hands on" help.

As we have said to everyone - nobody expected the fallout from the fires to become this big.

We certainly did not expect to see and treat so many animal victims.

The good news is that any animals that are beng bought into our clinic here at Whittlesea are being well cared for by not only our own staff but the many kind Vets and Nurses from other clinics who have volunteered to help.

Not to mention the other important volunteers such as those who help clean up around us, provide us with food and help out in so many other ways,

We are also managing to reunite many pets with their fretting owners as well so there are lots of positive things happening thanks to all of you.

For those of you who are sending donations through to us, please accept our apologies for not responding to you as soon as we'd like to. It's just that we are simply snowed under at the moment.

We'll be sending our replies and receipts for donations as soon as we can.

 

By The Vet Practice on Friday, 13 February 2009

As most of you are aware , we have been co-ordinating the services which provide veterinary treatment to our injured pets and livestock both down here at our clinic in Whittlesea as well as up on the hill at Kingleke.

As you can imagine - it's's been an incredibly hard week for all of us involved.

Our staff and our volunteers have been run off their feet and the emotions are running high as we listen the stories of those who have lost family and homes.

If it wasn't for the incredible efforts of those willing to support us in all sorts of ways - we'd be going to pieces by now.

So a big, big thank you to all of you in other communities that have so eagerly donated supplies and money to us.

You don't know how good that has made us feel.

And Yes - everything you have donated is goping straight to the victims - there are no middle men here benefiting in any way.

It's now clear that we we need to be doing this for some time to come so any further donations of money are greatefully accepted as we need to keep our clinic open and running.

Veterinary services to all those impacted by the fires is FREE.

An especially big thank you to the good people of Ballarat and Central NSW for sending down so many supplies.

You are awesome!

 

By The Vet Practice on Friday, 13 February 2009

All pets injured by the fires are being treated and cared for here at the Whittlesea Animal Hospital.

Any pets who are not injured and require boarding are sent to local Boarding Kennels which have also offered their services for Free.

A big thank you to A Dog's Domain and Rilten Kennels in Yarrambat for your support.

One of the most rewarding things we are seeing is the reuniting of  unidentified pets with their owners.

Can you imagine being handed back your cat or dog that you're convinced had perished in the fires?

By some miracle - some had indeed managed to survive.

We are urging any of you with missing pets from the bushfire affected aras to register their descriptions with us.

At the same time we are urging all of you who may be housing a pet fhat does not belong to you to bring them into the clinic here so we know they exist.

This is really important.