News & Info

After hours revisited

 Two years ago I bought shares in the Christchurch After Hours Veterinary Clinic which allows me to refer small animal after hours emergencies there. I have to say it has radically changed my life, and in spite of still needing to be available for large animal emergencies to a large extent my time after hours is now my own. I do occasionally have to be on backup duty for the After Hours Clinic in case of someone not being able to do their shift or if they get too busy but so far I haven’t yet had to go in.

 A visit to the After Hours Clinic isn’t cheap but they are very well staffed and their equipment is state of the art, they share their imaging equipment with VSA, Veterinary Specialists Aotearoa who also share the building with them.

 The reason I’m writing this is to remind you that I haven’t completely dropped off the radar for small animal after hours calls. I’ve made sure that I’m still contactable even in our virtually cell phone signal free valley where we now live by signing up with Starlink and upgrading to a phone that can handle wifi enabled calls. I’m still very happy to give advice over the phone and potentially to even see cases if I’m available and I can just as easily handle them from home.

 You have 3 options when you call our landline 03 3251940 after hours:

1. Leave us a message which will be actioned the next working day.

2. Speak to the After Hours Clinic, remember they will also give advice. You can also call them direct on 03 366 1052 after 7pm and all day and night on weekends and public holidays.

3. Speak with our duty vet- usually me- for large animal emergencies and also for general advice for existing clients, potentially this could result in me seeing your small animal case after hours if we agree that this is the right decision. If I don’t pick up leave me a message including your telephone number, I check my phone regularly. Just one request, if you already have my cell phone number don’t use it in the event of an emergency. Always go through the vet landline and that way you’ll end up speaking to the right person. I try to get away once a month to recharge my batteries and then you’ll be referred to the vet covering for me.

 Also a reminder about how we’re working Saturday morning consulting now. Both clinics are open, we alternate vet consults between the two and a nurse is available at the other. Check our website or use our online booking system for dates of when and where the vet and the nurse consults are. We’ve done this since I’ve moved to more or less mid-way between the clinics to make the travel load fairer for all our clients. A great new service for our Akaroa & Little River clients are evening consults. On Mondays and Thursdays I can meet you at the start of Park Hill Rd near the White Rabbit Garden Cafe in Motukarara about 5.15pm on my way home after the Diamond Harbour Clinic and on Tuesdays about the same time either at your home or at the Little River Clinic on my way back from Akaroa. You will need to book these by phone or in person, not online, so we can give you an estimated time.

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Both our clinics are open on Saturday mornings from 10am to 12 noon. We also have a large range of poultry and other stock feeds at Little River- we are the Peninsula agents for Weston Milling.

In January 2022 we joined the Christchurch After Hours Veterinary Centre and now refer our small animal after hours emergency cases through to them. We still have an option to contact our duty vet after hours for large animal emergencies. We also joined IndieVets in August 2021 so are part of a nationwide network of independently owned veterinary practices which helps us leverage better prices and gives us access to educational and collegial social networking while still retaining our unique flavour.

Under the higher Covid alert levels we've got good at tele consults and limiting face to face contact. You now have the option of booking a tele consult with our vet or sending us a message or email. Please note for all remote veterinary opinions (phone/video/email/message) there may be a small charge.

Our Diamond Harbour clinic is up and running at 9 Stoddart Terrace, Church Bay. Please call in and say hello to Sandy. We have beautiful cat greeting cards available to help fund our kitten rehoming and stray cat desexing work. Thanks to Cat Rescue Christchurch who also generously pay for many of our surgeries on strays! You can hire stock signs for your car or to put on the road, as well as orange flashing beacons and hi-viz vests from us to comply with the new regulations when moving stock.

We have a large of foods and animal health products, including the BlackHawk working dog food at great prices. Our cattery has proved very popular, and we've had many repeat customers. Masterpet has taken over the cattery's food sponsorship with BlackHawk cat and kitten food, we'd also like to thank Hills Pet Nutrition for their food sponsorship over the cattery's first 5 years.

We've upgraded our in-house blood analyzer, so we can run many tests while you wait. This allows us to offer pre-anaesthetic testing as well as health screening for older animals and provide an emergency laboratory service afterhours and weekends when the Christchurch laboratory is closed. We also now have a portable ultrasound scanner, good news for pregnancy testing.

We once again have the cheap mismating injection available for bitches. This has been off the market for a few years now, but Paul has been able to have some compounded. We have some ideas to help you save on animal health expenses- ask us about very competitively priced BlackHawk farm dog food specially designed at Massey for NZ working dogs, and get to feed a premium, performance enhancing brand. The RFID electronic ear tags are now compulsory for cattle and deer. Ask us about ordering NAIT tags for your stock, or about the new tagging requirements. There is a lot more flexibility in what visible tags are acceptable- they don't all have to be yellow! We are able to procure eartags at below recommended retail prices.

We also have a large range of Acana/Orijen, Hills Science Diet and Royal Canin dog and cat food in stock. We can deliver to Akaroa on Tuesdays.

Animal health information - Archives

Most of our articles are available to view as posts on Paul's Linkedin page. Please contact us if you’d like copies of any that are not yet online, also let us know if you’d like to see any other topics featured here.

A different perspective, Animal welfare, Accidental poisonings, Arthritis, Allergies, Above & beyond, After Hours, Akaroa or bust

Becoming a vet, Becoming a veterinary technologist, Birthing & midwifery, Be wormwise this Autumn, Barley grass

Calici vaccination update- rabbits, Canine cough

Dental care, De sexing, Dogs, sheep measles & farm etiquette, Distemper

External parasites, Euthanasia, EID's, Equine deworming recommendations & autumn animal health advice

First aid in animals. FIV and Feline Leukaemia, Five Freedoms

Grain Poisoning

Happy to be stuck with you, Human-animal bond, Heat Stroke

Internal parasites, Is it too late to spay or neuter my pet? Internet & Google- the good the bad and the ugly, It shouldn't happen to a vet, I don't vaccinate my animals, Insights from a vet nursing studentIndoor cats & ways to reduce predation

Kitten rehoming, Kennel cough

Lamb rearing

Mafikeng rhino, Memories of Mafikeng, Mr Talkative, Mycoplasma bovis , Microchipping,

Nutrition, Nutrition in pet rabbits, New Year Animal Health Checklist, nursing clinics

Obesity in pets, Onwards & upwards

Poisons in the pantry, primary health care, Plant poisonings, Pigs rule, Pig's Ear, Pathology & blood testing, Pet statistics in NZ, Phamaceuticals- the NZ situation, Parvovirus, Pet medical insurance

Quotable quotes

Rabbit calicivirus, Ramped up rhino, Resistance-squandering a miracle, Road block, Resistance revisited

Senior wellnessSheep measles, Snuffles

Tapeworm, TB in NZ, The nasties, The big move, The Challenge of Diamond Harbour, The thief, The Driving Lesson, Technology at work, Tom cat vasectomy

Urinary problems in cats, Upper Respiratory Tract (URT) infections

Vets’ cars, vaccination principles- ruminants, Vaccination of dogs & cats, Vet lifestyler

War wounds, Why vaccinate?, World veterinary year, World vaccination guidelines, Wild & stray cats

Xhosa- lost in translation

Yoghurtised milk recipe

Zoonoses