Find out more about Swaffham Veterinary Centre facilities. Our independent practice was established in 2014. The practice has been designed to make you and your pet’s visit or stay as comfortable and stress free as possible.
Reception
Our spacious reception area is bright and airy and offers separate waiting areas for dogs and cats to minimise stress.
We stock a large range of Royal Canin lifestage and veterinary diets and advice on these can be obtained from any of the qualified members of staff.
The waiting room also offers a colouring area for children and the displays are regularly updated with relevant information. Our client toilets also have a baby changing area.
Consulting Rooms
There are five generously sized consulting rooms, all are climate controlled. Clinical records are kept on an intelligent computerised database allowing for easy access throughout the building.
If your animal is unwell the vet will ask some questions, perform a thorough examination and a treatment plan will be agreed. If the appointment is a routine vaccination there will still be a thorough examination. Often problems that are discovered before an animal is unwell allow a pro-active approach to disease management and give better outcomes. Most drugs are kept in a centralised well stocked dispensary easily accessed from each consulting room.
We have a dedicated Nursing consult room which is used for nurse clinics including free weight checks, preventative health clinics and puppy/kitten checks.
Prep Room
This is a multi-purpose space that acts as the hub of the practice for in-patient care and minor out-patient procedures. It is designed so that other areas that need to be close by (such as the operating theatre, wards and imaging suite) surround the hub. This is the area where your pet will have a blood sample taken, be sedated or anaesthetised, prepared for surgery, have minor procedures or dental treatment. There is comprehensive and state of the art equipment throughout the area including oxygen concentrating machines and an air driven dental station. There is a dedicated dental table to allow efficient and effective dental procedures to be carried out. We believe that oral health is very important, animals in poor dental health tend to have many other health issues as a result, as well as being uncomfortable and a bit smelly!
We have an Intensive Care Unit incubator. This machine has many features that are used regularly in the practice. We use it for puppies and kittens that have been delivered via caesarean section as it ensures that a consistent and balanced temperature is maintained. It can also be used for pets that have respiratory problems as it has a nebulising feature. It is a great place for smaller animals to recover from anaesthetics, where they can be closely monitored.
We also have a professional dog bath which has a ramp entry system to aid the elderly or infirm.
Dog Ward
The dog ward is situated just off the prep area and is where dogs are kennelled for both day surgery and for any hospitalised patients. It is climate controlled and we have five large walk in kennels and several other spacious and comfortable kennels.
If your pet stays with us we will strive to make sure individual preferences for diet, bedding and your visits are accommodated. All dogs will be exercised regularly depending on their medical needs.
Cat Ward
Our cats have their very own bespoke ward that is separate from the dogs and therefore very peaceful. Rabbits and other sensitive pets can be housed in the same ward. We are careful, however, that rabbits cannot see cats as this can cause stress and associated problems.
We stock a wide range of foods to accommodate the (often!) particular tastes of individual cats. A plug-in pheromone device (Feliway) is used to keep stress to a minimum.
Isolation Room
This is a completely separate room from all the other areas in the practice. It is used to hospitalise cases that may be contagious to either pets or humans and where full barrier nursing needs to be maintained.
Theatre
We have a spacious climate controlled operating theatre to allow us to carry out a wide variety of surgical procedures in a completely sterile environment. Having been anaesthetised and prepared for surgery your pet will be moved into theatre and onto a special operating table.
An experienced nurse is directly responsible for the close monitoring of your pet once anaesthetised so that the surgeon can concentrate on operating.
Imaging
We have invested in the very latest dedicated X-ray machine and digital processor to allow us to quickly get the highest quality images. X-rays are helpful particularly for the assessment of trauma patients, chest and abdominal problems.
We also have a high end colour doppler ultrasound unit. Ultrasound is particularly helpful at assessing heart and abdominal problems and diagnosing pregnancy. Sometimes it is used as an aid in safely sampling tissue in a minimally invasive manner to provide a biopsy specimen for further analysis.
Your pet may have an X-ray or ultrasound carried out conscious or under sedation or anaesthesia depending on the situation and animal’s comfort. The images are then assessed to help to formulate a diagnosis. Images are stored digitally both on the units and on your pet’s clinical records to help monitor disease.
Laboratory
We have in-house blood laboratory equipment to ensure that we are able run tests to benefit your pet’s health as quickly as possible. These machines are state of the art, highly specialised and very accurate and for certain tests we can have the results back in as little as fifteen minutes.
Samples taken from lumps or organs can be quickly examined under the microscope to aid in diagnosis. Urine samples can also be examined microscopically here.
