Vets4Pets Blackburn

Hello hello hello!
The BVA and RCVS have updated their guidance and recommendations for us - starting from Tuesday April 14th, we will be permitted to resume vaccinating pets once again. While I agree that vaccination is important, I also feel that it may be sending the wrong message that the COVID-19 pandemic is under control, which it is NOT. So, while we will comply with recommendations, we are going to do so in the following way:
1) We are NOT resuming nurse clinics (nail...
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Good afternoon everyone! I know it has been a few days since I have updated you all - but I have a bit of (hopefully good) news!
I have JUST received word from Support Office that they have sorted a way to send all Flea and Worm treatments for CARE PLAN members directly to your homes starting from the week of April 20th! This is a huge relief, as we have been trying to figure out the best way to get you all exactly what you have been paying for!
Here's how it will work: You... will ring us, and we will place the order through for you. It will go directly to our supplier, who will post it directly to you through the Whistlr Courier Service. It should (HOPEFULLY!) be that easy!
I know you will all have similar questions to the ones I had:
1) How long will it take to get the meds?
7-10 days from the date we put the order through. Not too bad!
2) Will there be any additional cost to you??
NO! (There will be additional cost to the practice, yes, but I have decided to absorb that cost, to get you the products you are paying for!)
3) Will this be for Care Plan (Complete Care, Complete Care Senior and Flea and Worm Pack) members only?
At this time, YES, only for Care Plan members.
We will start compiling a list now, to try and avoid the phones going crazy on the 20th of April - so if you ring the practice we will put your names down on the list and from the 20th of April we will start ordering them - and hopefully they should be with you within 7-10 days! **WE MUST BE SURE TO CONFIRM YOUR MAILING ADDRESS!! (I know this is common sense, but if we have the wrong address, your treatments will be delivered to someone else!!)**
I hope this message find you well, and STAYING HOME despite the glorious weather - as of right now, I have no further information about other routine work (vaccinations, neutering, etc) - but PLEASE stay tuned and I will update you the moment I know anything!
Thanking you, always, for your patience, understanding, kindness and support during this unprecedented difficult time.
-Brian
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Good evening everyone - 2 very quick things:
1) I have word from Vets4Pets support office that they are hard at work figuring out a way to get your flea and worm products sent directly to your homes if you are on one of our care plans. I don’t know the details yet, but I promise I will post on here as soon as I know - I’d imagine that will be in the next week or so, so please hang in there, we will get this sorted soon!
2) Don’t forget, just for the time being, we are closed ...Sundays starting tomorrow. If there is a true emergency, please just follow the instructions on our voicemail message. We’ll be back in Monday.
Have a great weekend, STAY HOME 🏡
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2 years ago today, while on holiday in Dorset, I took on Vets4Pets Blackburn as my own - man, we have been building up steam over those 2 years, blowing past all expectations. Today, like everyone else, we are at a standstill while we try and do our best to help our patients while at the same time looking after our own health and that of our families. Hopefully we can weather this storm and celebrate properly once it’s all over. Thanking you all for all of your patience and support over these 2 years and especially now, during this very difficult time for us all. Stay safe, stay home.
-❤️, Brian

Our colleagues at Vets4Pets Hereford have shared these excellent graphics about vaccination concerns right now, and how to handle our immunologically immature pets while the government restrictions are in place. Please have a look at this!

Hello hello hello!
Today the British Veterinary Association published their guidance for veterinary practices during the outbreak of COVID-19, and within it I have found what I consider a sliver of positivity:
I will attach some screenshots of their recommendations for small animal practitioners, where we are being allowed to remotely assess cases which may be causing pain/suffering. In other words, I’m taking this to mean that I am permitted to re-offer phone consultations!!...
For those who may have missed it, I will cut and paste the details below - I am genuinely thrilled to be able to help cases which may not be life-threatening emergencies but still causing suffering.
Once again, we are expressly NOT PERMITTED to do ANYTHING routine. So PLEASE, don’t ask us about vaccines or flea and worm treatments at the moment. This will all be reassessed in 2-3 weeks. I understand the frustration (especially if you are on one of our care plans), but you will just have to have patience. The world is upside down right now, we will resume normal preventative care as soon as we are allowed.
So - phone consultations!!!
Here’s the idea - £20 phone consultations for non-emergency illnesses.
I know this isn’t ideal - obviously I’d love to have the pet in front of me so I can examine him/her and there are many things we won’t be able to assess/diagnose nearly as well from a distance. However, I do feel that it is perhaps better than nothing at all and it could provide a way to get treatments to you for your pets that are struggling.
How I see it, any non emergency illness (ear infections, eye problems, skin infections, etc) can book a phone consultation. The client would ring reception and they would be offered the phone consultation for £20 - which they would pre-pay by card. The client would then be instructed to take photos and email them to us at the practice email address. This would be booked in an appointment slot like any other appointment and the vet would look at the emailed photos, ring the client with reasonable advice and medications could be put up. The client would then ring when they are in the car park, we would take remaining payment for meds by phone, then meds would be delivered to their car (placed on the bonnet).
If after the phone consultation we deem that the condition is serious enough that the pet needs to come in and be seen in person, we will put the pre-paid £20 towards the normal consultation fee (ie you won’t have to pay both a phone AND a normal consultation fee).
Again, this isn’t ideal, but it does remove any face-to-face contact while still providing reasonable care/treatment for animals in need.

What do you all think? Would you be interested? Let us know in the comments below.
-Brian and his most awesome team 🙏🏼❤️
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Good morning everyone - as a temporary measure, we are going to close Sundays as of this weekend. The reason for this is to keep everyone healthy and keep the practice open as best as we can (with minimal staffing) for life-threatening emergency needs only for now. Once the pandemic settles down and the government restrictions are relaxed, we will resume normal opening hours as soon as we possibly can. Please bear with us - these decisions are not made lightly. If you feel that you have an emergency while we are closed, do ring the practice and follow the advice on our voicemail. Thank you so much for understanding. 🙏🏼❤️

Good evening all of my lovely people,
Things keep changing as we are doing our best to stop this stupid virus and get life back to normal as soon as possible.
I’ve received information from the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons - their advice is to only perform “life-saving emergency work.”
... We as vets would need to be able to stand up in front of the disciplinary committee and justify why we contradicted government advice and encouraged members of the public to leave their homes for non-life saving measures.
Because of this latest information, for now, we will have to suspend the phone consultation/come out to collect meds idea. I really am saddened by this, as I want to be able to help our pets as much as possible, but for now we need to prioritise halting the spread of this virus and STAYING HOME as much as humanly possible.
So, please don’t get angry with us if you ring and are told we can’t see your pet or dispense routine flea medication - it is going to be inconvenient for a time, but it is necessary. It has been dictated by the government as well as the RCVS (screenshots below). Theoretically, all pets and owners shouldn’t be leaving the house at the moment so are should be at minimal risk right now.
This is a very stressful time for us all, but please know that these decisions are not made lightly and they weigh heavy on the entire team. We will still fill “urgent medications” - heart meds, thyroid meds, insulin, other life-saving meds. But other than that, it would seem that right now we are not able to fill routine meds, simply due to the fact that it would encourage you to leave your homes to come collect it.
I hope this makes sense, please be kind and watch this space for updates, we will get through this together. ❤️
With love,
-Brian and his extraordinary team of lovely people
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Good morning everyone!! Seeing as the world is currently upside down, and I am up nights trying to figure out ways to not only keep us all safe but also keep our pets safe and healthy, I’ve had an idea - and I’d love some feedback from you all.
I was thinking of offering you guys £20 phone consultations for non-emergency illnesses.
I know this isn’t ideal - obviously I’d love to have the pet in front of me so I can examine him/her and there are many things we won’t be able ...to assess/diagnose nearly as well from a distance. However, I do feel that it is perhaps better than nothing at all and it could provide a way to get treatments to you for your pets that are struggling.
How I see it, any non emergency illness (ear infections, eye problems, skin infections, etc) can book a phone consultation. The client would ring reception and they would be offered the phone consultation for £20 - which they would pre-pay by card. The client would then be instructed to take photos and email them to us at the practice email address. This would be booked in an appointment slot like any other appointment and the vet would look at the emailed photos, ring the client with reasonable advice and medications could be put up. The client would then ring when they are in the car park, we would take remaining payment for meds by phone, then meds would be delivered to their car (placed on the bonnet).
Again, this isn’t ideal, but it does remove any face-to-face contact while still providing reasonable care/treatment for animals in need.

What do you all think? Would you be interested? Let us know in the comments below.
-Brian and his most awesome team 🙏🏼❤️
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Good evening everyone, I hope you are all staying safe and healthy during this unprecedented time.
After the prime minister’s speech tonight, we are (quite sensibly) going to be limiting our services further for the time being. As per the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons statement: “Current advice is that veterinary practices must reduce face-to-face contact immediately, switching to providing emergency care only, fulfilment of urgent prescriptions and maintaining the fo...od supply chain.”
I think it is clear now that this is no joking matter, which is why we have been rapidly trying to prepare for this moment - it seems that we are entering “lockdown”. So, as of tomorrow morning, we will be cancelling all routine and non-emergency appointments based on the government’s advice to try and slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. We will ring everyone individually to confirm the cancellations. Anything that you think may be an emergency- please do ring us, we will phone triage you to determine if we agree, and if so, we will meet you at the front doors of the Pets At Home, take your pet from you while you wait in the car, and do our exam. We will ring you to ask questions and give advice and go from there. Anything else (ie skin infections, ear infections, etc), we will try and triage over the phone, determine if we can dispense any medication without seeing the pet, and if so we will take payment over the phone ONLY, and bring the medicine to you in your car in the car park (we will leave it on the bonnet of your car to minimise contact).
As you can see, I am taking this as seriously as I can, for the health of my team, my family...and yourselves and your families. As well as any innocent passers-by who we could accidentally infect.
The time for vigilance has passed us by, but at least now we can try and slow things down and prevent unnecessary death. I’d say that I am sorry for the inconvenience...but I’m not. These measures will save lives.
Most people have been wonderful, but a rare few are being rude to my staff when we are trying our best. Believe me when I tell you - this will not be tolerated.
Please stay home. Please wash your hands. Please be kind and understanding. And when this is all in the past, we are going to have a newfound appreciation for life, I promise you that.
Big hugs (from 2 meters away),
-Brian
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Good morning everyone - I’ve got in early this morning to create what you see in the photos below: for now, we have blockaded the front of the practice up to 2m away from reception. This is for everyone’s safety - please adhere to the rules listed on our pinned post, and please stay behind the hazard tape until called through. You can either walk around the Pets At Home or, even better, wait in your car. We can ring you to come through when it is your time, or if you prefer (...I actually prefer this option), we can do the verbal consult on the phone and come collect your pet from the car, do our exam and ring you with treatment plan, etc. Again, I know none of this is ideal, but neither is being shut down due to everyone being off ill. Please be patient and kind - these measures are in the interest of safety for EVERYONE. We will also be wearing masks/glasses/gloves on reception/in consults - just a heads up. Please maintain your physical distance, be safe, stay home if you can, and wash your hands! Thanking you in advance!
-Brian
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This lovely girl was found in Darwen town last night. She doesn't have a microchip or a collar. The finder is keeping her safe today and will contact the Dog Warden tomorrow.
Please call 01254 291340 if you have any details on who she belongs to.

Hello all!,
Brian here! Sorry about the lengthy message, but it is pretty important that we get on the same page as far as our measures to minimise exposure for both ourselves as well as all of our clients during this Coronavirus pandemic. We are going to start by instituting the following measures (to be STRICTLY ENFORCED!) starting after THIS WEEKEND:
-Any existing appointments we will leave as is, but going forward for at least 3 weeks we will have NO NEW ROUTINE APPOINTME...
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Hello all!! We have had some queries about chronic medications/flea and worm medication pickups in the face of COVID-19. We suggest getting some backup chronic meds (we would happily dispense 3 months worth) and also 3 months worth of flea and worm meds if concerned. We may be able to post some (for a small postage and packaging fee strictly to cover costs) for the occasional case where someone is already in isolation for suspected or confirmed infection. We do not have the c...apacity to send everyone their meds, so please only request this if necessary. We may also be able to offer over-the-phone payment for meds and we can bring them to your car for you (to try and avoid build up of groups of people waiting in reception).
We are all trying to stay sensible and suggest that you all do the same - any routine visits (for vaccines etc) or surgeries (spays or neuters or dentals) can easily be postponed to a slightly later date to try and keep social contact to a minimum during this period of uncertainty. Please feel free to reschedule these things - ESPECIALLY if you are feeling under the weather!
Wishing you all good health, keep washing those hands!! 🙏🏼💦🙏🏼
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Hello again all!! Just a polite request, during these crazy times: we would prefer, if at all possible, to take all/most payments by card for the time being. This would minimize staff handling of cash, which could potentially be a vector for disease. We will continue to take cash if needed but please consider card payments if you can. Thank you, and WASH YOUR HANDS! 💦 🖐🙏🏼💪🏼

Hello everyone! As the concern over COVID-19 intensifies across the globe, we want to do our best to ensure all of us and our families are as safe as possible. Since we believe in science and logic, we would ask the following for now:
1) Furry patients to be accompanied by no more than 2 humans (that includes children).
2) If the waiting area is quite busy, we may suggest having a walk around the Pets At Home for a few minutes to avoid very close contact. Don’t worry - we wo...n’t forget you, we will come find you when your appointment time comes!
3) If you are feeling unwell...cancel your appointment. PLEASE. Ring 111 for advice, do not ask us.
4) At the moment there is some hand sanitizer at the front desk. Please use it while it lasts.
5) I reiterate point number 3 - if you’re sick DON’T COME TO THE VETS. If you are unwell and your pet is unwell, ring us for advice. We *may* be able to attempt a phone or video consult, which isn’t ideal and may not prove useful (and may require an office visit) but we are just being proactive here.
We want this pandemic to settle as quickly as possible, and we firmly believe the way to do that is by being sensible. We’ve all got someone in our lives who could be susceptible to the ill effects of this virus (ie young children, older parents, immunocompromised family or friends) - so let’s do our part to get beyond this pandemic and back to normal life as soon as we can...before the global supply of toilet paper is depleted and we need to use leaves or magazines instead (ouch).
Thanking you in advance, and wishing you and your families only good health!
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