Consultation
When your pet is not feeling themselves, it is important to seek veterinary attention promptly to avoid them further deteriorating at home. The sooner you are seen, the sooner we can examine your pet, diagnose the problem, and importantly, start treatment.
We consult 6 days a week, and into the evenings on weekdays, and we deliberately hold slots within our consulting schedules to allow unwell patients to come down sooner. We operate by appointment, however of course Emergencies are assessed and triaged immediately. We will stay behind for out-of-hours consultations if requested (additional charges will apply), and outside our regular consulting hours we refer to the AEC Hallam who are fully staffed throughout the night to properly care for critical patients.
At Dandenong Veterinary Hospital we have extended 20 minute consultations to allow a thorough examination and discussion, and this makes a big difference when they are unwell, allowing us to spend much needed time for diagnosis, testing, discussion and/or treatment.
We have an online CLIENT PORTAL that you can register for. You can make appointments, order repeat medications, view your pet’s reminders. Read more here: Understanding the Online Portal SOCs and Drug Orders
Free New Pet Checks^
The Dandenong Veterinary Hospital is proud to provide another unique service; we offer a free pet check for ANY new pet within 7 days of purchase. Be it a new puppy, kitten or rabbit, or perhaps you have just adopted an adult – bring them in to meet our friendly team!
We will undertake a comprehensive examination to ensure they are well, and discuss the appropriate care of your new pet into the future. We also help sort out any “settling in” problems that you are experiencing. We provide a lot of information at this visit to help to get you off to a great start, and set you up for a long healthy and happy life together.
We are also happy to assist in the selection process of your new pet. If you require any assistance please telephone.
^NOTE: Our FREE PET CHECK is a wellness-style check and is not valid for unwell animals; in these situations a regular consultation needs to be booked. Applicable ‘Weekend Surcharge’ will still apply.
Additional procedures or treatments are incurred at their usual charges. A veterinarian will discuss this with you if anything is needed.
Wellness care and Twice-For-Life Examinations
–> See also Why Choose Dandenong Veterinary Hospital to Care For Your Pet’s Preventative Health and Vaccination; For Dogs and For Cats.
Regular check-ups are a very important tool to keeping your pet healthy. Your pet needs a thorough examination at least twice per year, allowing us to detect any diseases or issues earlier than we would have otherwise. Remember that pets age must faster than we humans do, so a check-up every 6 months is the same as us visiting the doctor or dentist every 3-4 years. And as our pets can’t talk, we need to check them carefully to find problems they may have been masking or hiding from you. You need to recognise that vaccines are only ONE part of your pet’s healthcare plan.
There are so many more “pieces” to ensuring optimal health. Twice-yearly (Twice-for-Life) examinations allows the time to give every piece the attention it deserves.
At Dandenong Veterinary Hospital we have 20 minute consultations to allow a thorough examination and discussion about your pet’s health and any concerns you may have. Twice yearly health checks are important in detecting diseases which may not yet be showing any signs and could possibly go unnoticed until the late stages of the diseases are reached. Early detection can allow treatments to be started, which may delay the onset of clinical signs or deterioration.
As part of these wellness visits, we may discuss routine blood testing, particularly as your pet gets older, also to detect problems before they make your pet unwell. We will ensure in these visits that the basics are covered; such as parasite protection, optimal nutrition, dental home care, behaviour & mental health, disease surveillance, just to name a few.
Vaccination and Titre Testing
Regular vaccinations are important to keep your pets protected and boost their immunity to important and potentially life-threatening diseases. Melbourne is still exposed to outbreaks of a number of the diseases that we vaccinate against, and pets without up-to-date protection are at risk.
There are five diseases that your dog needs to be vaccinated against:
We believe there is no need to give your dog unnecessary vaccinations; at DVH, we use a three-yearly (triennial) C3 vaccine because we know that it provides sufficient protection for at least three years. Further more, each third year, we instead test their ‘antibody levels’ to see if they may also avoid needing the three-year booster, either!
At the time that the 3 year injection is due, for suitable patients, we are able to offer instead a small blood test (known as an antibody titre test) to assess their existing protection levels, and if they pass this test they do not require re-vaccination for at least another three years. This avoids over-vaccinating patients that do not need it.
There are FOUR diseases that your cat needs to be vaccinated against:
The feline FIV virus, causing Feline AIDS, is present in alarming numbers of cats within our community.
We also recommend vaccinations for other animals such as Ferrets and Rabbits.
Don’t be confused: that’s our job to customise what is required for your pet and your circumstances, and will update what is due while you are visiting as part of your wellness visit discussed above.
Nurse Consulting
Our experienced Veterinary Nurses also provide a consulting service. They are skilled in post-surgical assessments, nail trimming, blood collection, medication application, anal gland emptying, pre-surgical visits, suture removal, blood pressure assessment, weight management, and much more.
The consulting Nurses also assists the consulting Veterinarians where needed, performs triage of urgent cases, and wellness discussions with puppies and kittens.
Birds, Rabbits, Rodents and Exotic Animals
Dandenong Veterinary Hospital also sees other types of pets, not just dogs and cats.
For many of these pets the husbandry (the environment and how you care for them) and nutrition are both CRITICAL areas of animal health. If you get these right, then you will have a lot less problems and health issues throughout their life. We spend a lot of time educating our clients on proper husbandry and nutrition for all these pets, as we know it is critical for them to live a long and healthy life. Regular wellness health checks are also very important for these species, and rabbits and ferrets also require regular vaccinations against life threatening diseases. Desexing is very important for some species, and we will discuss this with you during your consultations if this applies to your pet.
Specialised herbivore nutrition is difficult to find in Australia, so we stock a range of premium quality rabbit-specific and guinea pig-specific foods. The Oxbow Animal Health range is one of only a few foods that ultimately concentrate on the dietary needs of a herbivore. We have a fantastic brochure developed by them within our resources page to download, with important herbivore nutritional information. All rabbit and Guinea Pig owners must read this.
If specialist referral is necessary we have a network of specialist exotic vets we can refer difficult or unusual cases to.
