Have you had your blood pressure checked? For the humans in your household, the answer would be of course, yes. But what about your furry family members? Particularly in cats, high blood pressure or hypertension is a common disease that is easy to overlook. But this can result in catastrophic consequences such as sudden blindness, seizures, kidney damage or heart disease.

Cats with pre-exisiting kidney or thyroid disease are particularly prone to developing hypertension and dogs aren’t exempt from the problem.

Fortunately, with a little bit of cooperation, diagnosis is easy. A blood pressure cuff (similar to ours, just quite a bit smaller!) is put on the leg or tail and either using an electronic monitor or listening to the blood flow, the pressure can be measured.
We use several different devices to measure the blood pressure, as with each style their accuracy can depend on the size of the patient and how stressed they are. Oscillometric non-invasive blood pressure monitoring machines are quiet and easy but can be a little temperamental (they do use a computer after all). Doppler monitors can be a bit noisy but allow us to hear the heart beat at the same time. We use a combination of monitors for tracking our patients’ blood pressure both as outpatients or when they are undergoing anaesthesia.
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If we do detect that a pet has hypertension, the good news is that there are several medications that we can use to help control it and keep your pet safe.

​Do you know what's in your soil? Or, more to the point, what's in your chickens?

In 2019, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that the most lead-polluted areas in the Greater Sydney area included the Blue Mountains, with 29% of mountains residences exceeding safe levels.

Where natural background levels are 20-30mg/kg, Blue Mountains average lead concentration in the soil was found to be 287mg/kg.

It might be simple enough for flower-fancying gardeners to whack on gloves while they're trimming the roses, and take away the toddlers' mud pies before dirt hors d'oeuvres can be eaten. But what about free-range backyard chooks? Often, if there's lead in the soil, there's also lead in the eggs.

Lead is absorbed mainly through the gastrointestinal tract in chickens. Chicken bones serve as the long term storage site for the toxic heavy metal. Lead affects the red blood cells, the kidneys, and the nervous system. You might notice incoordination, regurgitation, or weakness. But you also might not - some chooks can absorb terrible amounts of lead without showing any signs - including not slowing down on the egg production.

In a study reported on by the ABC's Conversation in 2022, backyard hens' eggs were found to contain 40 times more lead on average than shop eggs  ( https://share.google/nWVvKSY54BJcBwHMM ) and almost half the eggs analysed posed a threat to human health.

Sources of lead in the backyard can include contaminants from industrial processes of decades or centuries ago, lead paint used on older houses, residues from the days of leaded petrol, lead pipes, lead sinkers, lead light windows, and proximity to railway lines.

Soil lead testing kits are available at hardware stores, or from online suppliers.

What about testing your hens? Vets can test blood lead levels in chickens. Not all chickens with high levels of heavy metals will show clinical signs. Affected chooks can start a series of injections for chelation therapy - but they then have to go to a safe area of the garden, or be rehomed if you're unable to have your own backyard decontaminated.

For food safety, if a child is eating one egg from a backyard chook per day, the levels of lead in the soil would ideally be less than 117mg/kg - and if you aren't eating the eggs, for the health of the chook, less than 166mg/kg is recommended.

Investigating lead levels in your soil and your chooks may bring peace of mind when it comes to eating eggs sourced from your backyard.