Snippets

I am so grateful to Jaffa's

Wed, 13 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Treated to the special brand of Jaffa's TLC

Wed, 13 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

We cannot recommend Jaffa’s enough

Wed, 03 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Jaffa's is a friendly, welcoming, relaxed place for felines and their owners

Thu, 04 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

A nasty fracture

Thu, 09 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000

This picture is self - explanatory - before and after with a gory view mid- surgery! The skin was then closed and a dressing placed over the fixator to protect it. Click the picture if it doesn't display fully on your screen.

International Cat Care Open Day

Wed, 05 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Ask the expert

• Pete from Jaffa Vets in Salisbury will be on hand to answer your cat health queries

• Best-selling author and cat behaviour counsellor Vicky Halls will answer your cat behaviour questions

Fun for all ages!• Tombola• Pet tombola• Splat-the-rat• Treasure hunt• Crafts for kids• iCatCare merchandise

The Mess The fabulous Mess Restaurant will be open, serving refreshments and cream teas

Be with your cat

Thu, 19 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

We have come to understand that one of the things we do automatically at Jaffa's is not universal - and it is something that people really seem to appreciate. We will take blood samples, collect urine samples from the bladder (cystocentesis) perform ultrasound scans and the like with you present so you know exactly what is happening to your kitty, rather than it being taken 'behind closed doors'. This is not possible for x rays due to H & S rules, and where anaesthetics are required, but you can be in the room next door and kept in touch with ongoing tests and investigations.

Endoscopy

Fri, 29 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Chronic digestive upsets often require biopsies for diagnosis. This kitty had lots of fresh blood in her stool over several months. On the video you will see red areas of ulceration. Biopsies showed this to be all inflammatory with no cancer present.

Cats are not the cause

Thu, 02 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Cats and Corona

Fri, 30 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

fleas worms and ticks

Fri, 23 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The whole territory has been made so much easier since the arrival of Bravecto-plus, which only needs applying every 3 months rather than monthly and which covers fleas, ticks, and roundworms all in the one pipette.

All depends on how easily you can medicate your cat, and what its individual needs are. Generally it’s a choice of tablets or spot-on preparations. Choose the ‘cat-group’ that corresponds to your kitty for our simple solutions.

Indoor cat/s

Generally no need for any paraciticides unless you also have dogs, though there is always a risk of you or your visitors bringing in fleas on clothes.

You have 2 choices

Don’t bother with any treatments and treat if any infestation occurs
Treat regularly just in case.

Jaffa’s advice:

Fleas if you have a paranoia about fleas then treat your cats, otherwise make sure you know how to detect fleas and treat only if necessary. We can supply a free flea comb – better and cheaper to comb monthly rather than medicate monthly!

If you find you have to treat more-frequently then every few years then swap to full-time treatment.

Another option is ‘Program’ injection – not an insecticide as such – it is like a contraceptive for fleas, injected every 6 months – avoiding powerful chemicals. It doesn’t mean your cat wont ever have a flea – but they will be groomed out and unable to breed, so you wont ever get a flea infestation.

Worms no need to worm

Outdoor cats

Most outdoor cats are going to need regular paraciticides. If the local cat population is very sparse then you might get away with a suck-it-and-see approach.

Otherwise treat for 12 months of the year. There is no ‘low season’ for fleas as they thrive in centrally-heated houses – we see bigger flea problems in winter when people stop treating!

Worms Tapeworm need fleas, mice, rats and rabbits as their ‘intermediate host’. If your cat hunts, treat regularly for tapeworm. If your cat is properly protected against fleas and doesn’t hunt (and eat) rabbits and rodents, tapeworm infections are rare – and if they do happen they are easily treated. In this neck of the woods they little or no risk to cat or owner.

Roundworms ARE important as they can (very occasionally) cause problems in people, especially young children – see separate paragraph if you have young children of crawling size.

Jaffa’s advice

Spot-on

Treat once every 3 months with Bravecto plus.

In addition, for cats that hunt or develop tapeworm infestation,

treat with Droncit spot-on quarterly. If they still have tapeworm problems increase frequency to monthly.

Tablets

Treat monthly with Credelio tablets.

Treat tapeworm under the same circumstances as for spot-ons using Milbacter tablets.

Young children

If you have babies or children still in the crawling/hands-in-mouth phase, then the risks of them picking up roundworm eggs from your pet are increased.

Jaffa’s advice

Advocate spot-on every 4 weeks will eliminate the risk of any worm eggs being passed by your cat/s. If ticks are an issue Stronghold-plus sorts these in addition to all that Advocate covers.

Credelio and Bravecto plus (kittens only) have a ‘buy-one get-second-one-free’ on your first purchase. After that, both are buy 9 months get 3 months free – you buy individually and we keep count and give you your free product when due. The monthly guide prices in the chart take account of the 3/12 free.

Already have a flea problem?

Then you need to treat ALL the cats and dogs in the household, and for anything other than a minor infestation we advise you treat with a household spray initially – if you then treat your pets regularly you shouldn’t need to repeat the household spray.

Whilst we believe these sprays to be pretty safe products, to minimise human exposure we suggest that you shut all the windows, spray all carpets and soft furnishings, then go out for a few hours. On your return open all the windows for an hour. Alternatively treat one room a day, shutting it of for the day.

If you are using a product currently and still seeing fleas they may be resistant. We see this frequently with Fipronil-based products – Frontline and Fipracare are two examples (usually has ‘fip’ in the name)

Frontline is however very helpful for harvest mites which cause itchy ears in August and September - ask us for advice.

Prescription medicines

There are few effective flea products that are not ‘prescription-only’. This means that animals must be in our care to dispense the product to you. This effectively means your cats need annual checks – it’s not us who make the rules, but this explains why we can’t hand out flea products year on year without seeing your cat.

How to feed your cat

Fri, 23 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Our dietary advice is based on millennia of evolution. Cats have evolved biologically to eat prey. Please note I say prey not meat! - the bones and organs such as heart and liver are also important. Whilst we can’t feed whole live prey we can feed something better than a cereal-based dry food (kibble).

Your kitten will come to you already on a diet of some description. Never feel obliged to stick to this diet, except for a few days of stabilisation with you. And don’t leave it for a few months ‘to see’. Diet changes are easiest in young kittens before strong dietary preferences become established.

However there are so many different options - raw on-the-bone, pouches, tins, dry nuggets - each with their own pros and cons. Which is best?

Well what is right for one cat and owner may be very wrong for another. As an example, some vegans will not wish to handle meats (though many are avid raw feeders – good nutrition is high on their list of priorities). Those of you with young children may want maximum convenience while for others cost may be the over-riding consideration

Choosing

We have our ‘ladder of desirability’ with raw meat on the bone at the top, with a cheap dry food (kibble) at the bottom. But fear not – there are lots of options in between for every kitty. And reliance on a single source or type of food is not desirable –variety guards against over-fussiness, and unexpected errors of all sorts including wrong formulation (a past example was excessive vitamin D in dry foods).

Firstly we favour wet over dry any day – much healthier on kidneys and bladders, less highly processed starchy matter, more animal protein. And there are very different qualities of wet – but again which do you choose? And how much do the different options cost?

Top of the ladder

Let’s start with raw – or I should really say a ‘prey-model’ diet. In the wild cats would catch live birds and rodents – obviously not an acceptable way of feeding your kitty. Closest to this would be the carcases of small birds (eg partridge, quail) or rabbits, gutted and skinned/plucked for convenience – but these are very seasonal, hard to source, and expensive!

Much more readily available, cheaper and still very appropriate would be a diet based on chicken wings/thighs with added organ meats (liver, hearts). Variety is good – other boney meats can be included, or minced meat/bone mixes. Try not to feed the same thing every day otherwise your kitty may not want anything else – until it decides it doesn’t want that food any more!

WARNING !! DO NOT feed just meat on its own. Home-formulated MUST be done properly. It can be very challenging to implement properly and is quite demanding of effort and time. Speak to us first. Minced balanced mixes are safer in this regard.

But don’t worry about the bones in meat joints spiking them – millions of years of eating little boney birds and rodents has seen the feline species thrive not die. And chewing bones is great for teeth and satisfying deep natural instincts. Negative side is effort, need for freezer, need for somewhere for them to chew bones, hygiene issues (they will drag it out of the bowl) .

Minced raw mixes

Take the previous boney foods just mentioned and put in through a mincer – all the same nutrients but without the benefits or potential problems of bones (see our guide to raw-feeding for more details of this)

Usually supplied frozen, these mixes supply all the nutrients your cat needs, including taurine. This is much more convenient than meaty bones – but lacks the dental care afforded by regular chewing. Defrost overnight to feed the next day. The food should contain meat, bone, fat and little else. However mincing meats lets anyone stick whatever they want in – be warned against cheap raw mixes!

We stock 2 different varieties – one wild, free-range or organic or both, supplied in 250gm chubs. The second is from a human butcher/wholesaler/farmer we have known for 30 years but is not free range. It is sold in 4.5kg bulk bags of 120gm tubes.

The dangers of bacteria in raw meat are hugely inflated by the processed food market to encourage you to buy their products. Freezing will kill Campylobacter and reduce the overall bacterial burden, so for our pets frozen product is not detrimental. And for UK meats there is zero-tolerance of Salmonella. Good hygiene reduces any risks to a negligible level – statistically you’ve more chance of being struck by lightening than die from feeding raw! So convenient, cheap, no dental wear, quality risks with cheap/unknown product.

Cooked raw

However, light cooking kills pretty much all important bacteria, and you can cook our raw minces. However there is now a new product from a new-kid-on-the-block - 'Hugs', designed to be cooked, packaged in its own cooking pot – and it can be fed cooked or raw. The bone is replaced by a biologically-appropriate form of Calcium, with minerals and vitamins added to ensure that the diet conforms to industry requirements for a ‘complete diet’.

So this food answers the raw-anti’s claims that raw food can be imbalanced and dangerous bacteriologically. No real negative.

A comment for all raw foods

Don’t waste time experimenting with frozen raw if you don’t have any freezer space!

Buying frozen from pet-food retailers invokes expensive carriage and you don’t want to be visiting us every few days for food – nor do we want to be supplying 3 days worth at a time. Either get a small freezer or stick with wet foods!

‘Wet’

Next step down the ladder are wet-foods which come in a vast variety of qualities and prices. How do we define quality? My persona criteria are as for human food – the least processed the better. If you can see the ingredients in the end product that is good – if it’s a load of jelly and gravy with pink-coloured processed nuggets of mush, then it’s not the best. Most wet cat-food these days contains minimal carbohydrate though the expensive ones often include the likes of ‘wild rice’ and pumpkin to appeal to us humans. Quality wet foods are expensive, but even cheaper wet foods are not cheap - our free-range meat mixes work out cheaper than feeding Felix! We sell a high quality highly palatable moist called ‘Pussy deluxe’. Negatives for moist are lack of dental wear and cost.

Presentation

Pouches/tins/foils – what’s the difference? Not a lot – marketing, ease of use – all the same stuff in a different outer. Cheapest wet can be large cans, but many cats wont touch the stuff as soon as it starts to dry and discolour, so if not using a full can best to cover the exposed surface immediately, or get it all out, chop into pieces and freeze until required. Watch out – those little foils are ridiculously costly and are often no more nutritious than larger cans or pouches. Expensive does not mean high quality!

Dry foods

All kibble needs starch to make the little nuggets, and the better ones have lower starch levels – preferably not from cereals. But don’t think that because it says ‘grain-free’ it is all good – we don’t really recommend you feed any dry, but if you do then choose a high meat-content food such as Applaws or Orijen.

When it comes to dry food, there are foods made with real meat and others that are made from ‘meat and animal derivatives’. Do you know what animal derivatives means? We don’t.

How much to feed

Let us first kill the idea of ‘recommended feeding amounts’. The energy requirements of individuals varies so much that any manufacturer recommendation should be taken simply as a starting point, adjusting according to your cat’s physique.

Kittens eat huge amounts – probably as much as their adult counterparts, so don’t be surprised at how much they will consume. Contrary to popular belief, you can over-feed kittens – we see them for neutering at 4 months old at which time they can already have central obesity – lots of fat in their tummies which is not obvious from the outside. Any saggy tummy is a sign of obesity!

Initially kittens will need 4 or 5 small meals a day, depending on how old they are when you get them, reducing to maybe 3 meals daily at 4 months and 2x daily at 5 to 6 months. They do not need food down 24/7 any more than we do – this wouldn’t happen in the wild. And if you are feeding wet or raw foods you don’t want to be leaving foods out on hot days in case they get hungry – get them used to meal-times.

As a guide/starting point, most adult cats need around 100gm of quality raw food a day. Some may need 150 gm or more, others as little as 50 gms. Pouches vary hugely in nutritional value, with cheaper ones having recommended amounts of 3 or 4 pouches a day – this is why Felix is not cheap – they need loads, whereas a single small pot of Hugs cookable raw may be enough (at the same overall cost).

Dry foods are very energy dense – a small handful is often more than enough. 50gms total is my starting point, but weigh it out first to see just how little this is. (better still, don’t feed kibble!)

Costs

It would be reasonable to assume that a high quality meat-based diet is going to be more expensive than cheap wet food – wrong! Let’s look at the options and costs – all prices approximate and per day for a 4kg cat.

Cheap kibble 10p

Expensive ‘vet grade/quality’ kibble 40-60+p

Home-sourced raw meaty bone diet 30p

Jaffa’s meaty mixes 50p

Jaffas organic/free-range meats 70-80p

Cookable raw 1.30

Felix (‘cheap’ wet) 1.40

Pussy deluxe (‘quality wet’) 1.80

Encore (‘expensive’ wet) 2.20

For our specific advice on raw-feeding ask for the appropriately-named Jaffa’s guide to raw feeding.

practice video

Thu, 24 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

new clients

Wed, 05 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Like the rest of the world, there is a shortage of qualified staff across the veterinary workplace - nurses, vets and ancillary staff. Our first priority is the welfare of our lovely staff. We then need to prioritise the quality of the care of our existing clients and patients. The problem is that by the time we have done all this we have no time or energy left for new folk. So very sorry to disappoint, we would love to take everyone into our fold but at the present time we are unable to do so.

microchips

Sat, 05 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This is not a sales pitch but just to inform you that as of June 2024 it will be the law that all cats are microchipped. For those of you who are not familiar with these things the way they work is that they each carry a unique number which can be linked to your cat by contacting a database – it doesn’t hold your details on the chip itself.

There is the threat of a £500 fine for having an un-chipped cat though quite how this will be policed or enforced we do not know. However we do actually heartily endorse microchipping, as much for identifying cats that die on the roads as for re-homing cats that get lost.

We routinely use a ‘thermochip’ – a microchip that includes a thermometer, so if we need to take its temperature we simply scan it over the neck area. Cost is £20.

new prescribing rules

Fri, 10 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

New regulations require that we physically examine every cat whenever we prescribe prescription-only medications including flea/tick/worming preparations. The prescribing must be made at the time of examination, but we are able to write you up for repeats at appropriate intervals without necessarily needing another examination (depending on the drugs and the situation).

Having examined your cat and discussed your home environment and parasite risks we will prescribe anti-parasitics for a 12 month duration if appropriate.

Please note that you DON’T have to use the repeats. So if, for example, you only treat during the summer months you just treat then and don’t bother later. There is no additional cost over-and-above the annual health check fee for any product sold in-house (other than the cost of the product!). We would always recommend an annual health check in any case, and this currently costs £55.

Similar rules apply for antibiotics such that we need to see cats before antibiotics are prescribed. This applies to un-planned repeat-doses of all products containing antibiotics, including skin preparations like Surolan.

So please understand that we don’t make the rules, we just have to stick by them whether we agree or not!

Here’s a link to the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons rules

https://www.rcvs.org.uk/setting-standards/advice-and-guidance/under-care-new-guidance/