These days it’s pretty common to travel with our pets, but it you are looking at travelling a little further afield or making planning for a lap of Australia then there’s a few things to think about to ensure you furry companions stay in tiptop health.
Vaccinations:
You’ll need to ensure your pooch’s standard vaccines are up to date, so they don’t get parvo from the soil and are covered if you need to pop them into board while visiting national parks. These days more pet-friendly accommodation and caravan parks also require proof of vaccination for the stay. It’s worth having a chat with the vet team about where you are headed and the risks of a disease called leptospirosis. We can vaccinate again the most common strains, but depending on where you are going (mainly tropical Australia) and how long for, there’s an additional vaccine you may want to get topped up with a local vet in that region.

​Ticks:
Just like in the Blue Mountains, the rest of the East coast and northern part of Australia has paralysis ticks. Nexgard, Simparica and Bravecto all provide excellent coverage for this parasite but when it comes to the Brown Dog Tick, which can carry the blood borne parasite Ehrlichia, a Seresto collar works best. Both types of products can be used together to give top level coverage when you are travelling through northern Australia.
Heartworm:
Monthly heartworm prevention works well at protecting so long as they are given exactly on time. Because we are all prone to human error, failure to give a dose on time, even if only by a few days, in high risk areas (north/east Australia) could allow infection. Yearly heartworm injections give superior protection if you are spending an extended amount of time in that region.

​Oral toxins:
Cane toads are synonymous with Queensland but these days they can also be found in Northern NSW and the Northern Territory. If dogs are unfamiliar with these toxic hoppers, then they can get themselves into a pickle, especially if they enjoy the ‘buzz’ that a small dose of their poison gives. Many national parks and forest areas utilise baits to control wild dog and fox populations. Exploring pet dogs can come across baits if they have been dragged away from their intended location.
If you are spending a lot time in these regional areas it can be worth taking the time to train your dog to a basket muzzle so there’s no risk of accidental poisoning. 

Spirocerca:
This random little parasite is not very well know but hangs out in Northwest Qld – think Mount Isa and surrounds. It’s normal host is a dung beetle but it can cause pretty nasty ongoing illness in dogs that accidentally eat it. If you have a poop-eating pooch (of any variety of poo, especially cow dung), it’s worth looking at basket muzzles and regular worming with Milbemax or equivalent generic products.
Registration:
The final thing to do before hitting the road is to check that your pet’s microchip details are up to date, especially you’re on-the-road contact information. Because the NSW Pet Registry is not easily accessible by vets and council rangers outside of NSW, it’s worth making sure that you dog has a collar and/or tag with your phone number on it, plus it some states it’s a legal requirement.

​One of the many things we love about backyard chickens is the idea of reducing food waste and our little feathery powerhouses converting celery tops and cauliflower leaves into fresh eggs.

But how can we feed the flock kitchen scraps safely? The ratio of commercial feed: grain: greens is important.

Too high a proportion of delicious fatty grains, such as scratch mix, barley, corn, or oats can make chickens overweight, and deficient in protein, calcium, and good vitamins such as Vitamin A. This predisposes them to egg-laying difficulties including egg yolk coelomitis. And chickens will always choose grain if it's freely available.

Too much vegetable matter, and chickens will starve! Your kitchen scraps have good trace elements and vitamins but are low in energy.

Commercial foods such as layer pellets are tailored to meet the needs of today's high-output hen. General guidelines are about 120g per chicken per day.

In addition, a small scattering of scratch mix, which the chickens have to search the garden for, makes the perfect environmental enrichment.

Plus they can get added goodness from that bucket of vegetable kitchen scraps. 

Meat scraps should be left out, because of how quickly they go off - rotting food can result in paralysis from botulism - and because feeding livestock to other livestock is kinda how we ended up with mad cow disease.

And remember that some of our vegetable scraps are poisonous. Don't feed avocado pits or peel, onions, or raw potato to chooks. Too much parsley can sensitise them to the sun, so feed in moderation to avoid burnt chickens.

As for forage or weed piles from gardening, take care with long grass because it can cause crop impaction, as can polystyrene and cigarette butts. Castor beans, tobacco and nightshades are toxic. Pesticides, fertilisers, lead paint or wire offcuts are also to be avoided.

Don't forget the shell grit and the fresh water (allow 400mL/ chicken/ day) and you're all set to feed safe scraps to your chooks.

If you’ve ever tried to get your cat into its carrier only to have it vanish under the bed, you’re not alone. Nor are you alone if you then have your heart sink as they wail in distress as they are carrier and/or driving to the vet clinic or cattery.
But travel doesn’t have to be a battle. With the right preparation, training and mindset, most cats can learn to tolerate — and in some cases even cope well with — the journey from home to vet clinic or beyond.

Why Preparation Matters
Unlike us, cats don’t naturally enjoy motion or changes in environment. New sounds, smells, and the sensation of a moving car can all cause fear and anxiety. But many of these stressors can be minimised with some simple planning and desensitisation before the big day.

Choose the Right Carrier
A sturdy, well-ventilated carrier is the foundation of safe, low-stress travel. We particularly love ones that doors can be removed from and won’t collapse in on the cat, plus have a top opening or easy clips to pull apart, if a kitty doesn’t want to come out in the clinic. Ideally, it should be large enough for your cat to stand up, turn around and lie down comfortably.
Once you have a carrier you’re happy with, it’s time to make it a positive place:

• Leave it out at home with the door open — don’t just bring it out on the morning of a vet visit.
• Give it a good clean if it’s been in storage in the carport or shed so there’s no bugs, cobwebs or direct, and place familiar bedding and maybe a favourite toy inside.
• Reward calm exploration with yummy treats and gentle praise.
• Short, positive visits into the carrier — even just stepping in and back out — are valuable.

All of this helps your cat associate the carrier with comfort and choice, not fear.

Carrier Training: The Steps
The process of training your cat to use its carrier is much the same as any other behaviour shaping:

1. Reward interest: mark with a click or calm word and reward when your cat looks at or approaches the carrier. For time-poor folk, this might be as simple as smearing some creamy treat just inside the carrier or placing some treats at the back of it.
2. Encourage entry: reward when your cat places paws inside and gradually stays longer.
3. Add the cue: use a simple verbal cue like “in your carrier” as they start to enter on their own.
4. Practice with the door closed: begin with the door lightly closed, building up to secure latching while your cat remains calm.

This step-by-step positive reinforcement helps your cat feel in control, protects your bond and reduces the stress that can build around vet visits.

Travelling and the Journey Itself
Once your cat will enter and stay in the carrier, it’s time to bridge the gap to actual travel.

• Secure placement: ensure the carrier is stable in the car — movement and swinging can heighten stress. Plus in an emergency it means that the carrier won’t go flying if you hit the brakes.
• Cover with a towel: a familiar blanket draped over the carrier can block out a lot of visual stimulation.
• Pheromones and familiar scents: sprays like Feliway or their favourite blanket help some cats feel safer.

If motion sickness or high anxiety remain an issue despite training, medications are available that can be very helpful in reducing anxiety during travel. Discuss this with us so we can tailor a plan for your cat.

After the Visit
Don’t let your cat bolt back inside and shut the door on the experience. Be calm and gentle when returning home — especially after longer stays — and allow your cat to reset in a safe, quiet space. This helps them feel secure again and prevents negative associations from building up. If it’s a multi-cat household this also allows the other cats to get the measure of any foreign scents that might have been picked up on the journey.
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Final Thoughts
Good travel experiences are built on small, consistent, positive moments. Carrier training isn’t just about the vet visit — it’s about giving your cat confidence and reducing fear in a situation they’ll probably face many times throughout life.
If you’re struggling despite your best efforts, or if your cat displays high levels of fear during travel, please talk to us. We’re here to help with behavioural strategies and recommendations that make travel easier for both of you.

With no Medicare for pets, planning for unexpected veterinary bills is important. Young animals can get themselves into mischief eating inappropriate objects or break limbs falling off beds/couches. Older animals have a greater likihood of developing serious illnesses like cancer. Whatever the age, chronic illness such as skin allergies or arthritis can add constant expense to your pets’ care.
Pet insurance is great safety net and we love when we don’t have to cut corners on health care for your 4-legged family members, in order to squeeze into a tight family budget but insurance companies main aim is to make a profit so when considering taking up a policy there's a few hazards to watch for.

Payment Method
If you have health insurance of your own, you’d be used to the hicaps system – so when you go to the dentist or physio you just pay the gap cost between the charges from the provider and what insurance covers. Traditionally though pet insurance have been a user pays model. So you need to pay the vet bill in full, then a few weeks later, once reviewing your claim, insurance would make a reimbursement to your bank account. The problem with this system is that you need to have enough cash/credit to be able to pay the bill to start off with. These days things have improved and there is a now a ‘gap only’ system that can integrate with most veterinary clinics, however there are still some insurers that require you to stump up the money first.

Excess amounts
The final area of difference between pet insurance and the other types of insurance that families would be familiar with (car, house) is in the structure of the excess. For most car insurance, there is a fixed cap amount you need to pay and then everything beyond that is covered by insurance. Pet insurance however on the most part works on a percentage excess. So while that mightn’t be a problem to pay 20% of a $200 visit for consultation and medication, when it’s a $3000 dollar visit to emergency, you’re still out of pocket $600! It’s worth looking at what the excess amounts mean for your family on a larger bill or consider options that might have a fixed excess amount.
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Pre-exisiting Conditions
Taking out a policy on your pet after they have had health issues, is a bit like get car insurance after an accident. The insurers are not going to cover for anything that was documented as being a problem in all the time before the policy started. If you’ve mentioned problems to us and we’ve put it our clinical notes, they typically will exclude that body system and for high risk breeds (French Bulldogs and Dachshunds we’re looking at you!) that will sometimes have blanket exclusions on any problems they can argue the dog was born with and therefore you were aware of at the time of purchase. So it pays to take out insurance as soon as you get a puppy or kitten, before anything can go wrong, and read the fine print on their exclusions related to congenital conditions.

General exclusions
Although we are seeing more progressive insurers changing on this front, for the last 2+ decades pet insurance has excluded two whole body systems from cover. Namely, anything to do with teeth, because they claim it is preventable, although we see plenty of problems that owners can do nothing to avoid on that front (cat resorptive lesions and broken teeth in dogs to name a few), and behavioural (mental health) problems.

Injuries vs Illness
Another method that insurance companies use to ‘discount’ premiums is to offer injury only cover. While this might sound good, and it’s reassuring to know that if you pet was struck by a vehicle that they would be covered, there’s lots of shade of grey with claims. Is a puppy eating a sock an ‘injury’ or an ‘illness’? And often the most expensive care occurs with chronic illness such as heart disease or skin allergies, neither of which are covered by the basic policies.

Sub Limits
To make policies seem affordable, one tactic insurance companies take is to have sublimits. So while the policy might state that they will cover your pet for up to $30k worth of vet bills, buried in the policy documents will be a section stating that for select conditions - typically tick paralysis and cruciate ligament rupture (dogs) that they will  pay out $3k. Coincidentally (not!) the two most commonly claimed problems are…tick paralysis and cruciate ligament rupture. And treatment costs for ticks typically range between $2-10k and the standard recommended option for cruciate ligament repair is $5-6k. This leaves the pet owner substantially out of pocket, but saves the insurance companies a mint. It’s best to avoid policies with any sub limits.

Although we are not allowed to advise on insurance providers, considering these common traps can help you navigate deciding between the different options that are out there in the marketplace.

These days the usefulness of microchips for our cats and dogs is taken for granted but the way the microchip system operates within Australia leaves a lot to be desired and can be a great source of confusion and contention.

The Basics:
A microchip is in essence only a scannable number. It gives the reader a 15 digit number (or if it is a fancy microchip, it may also transmit the pet’s temperature). But that number is useless without a relevant database. Think about it like a number plate for your car. For most of us when we look at the number plate, the only thing we can tell is that specific combination of letters and numbers. But its value is when those details are put into a database such as the NSW Vehicle Registry which allows access to information such as the registered owner, car make, model & colour. Similarly the NSW Pet Registry given information on the species, breed, colour & age of the pet, as well as the owners name, contact details & address.

Which Registry:
You would think like vehicle registration, that if you have your pet’s details recorded on the NSW system, that it would mean if you pet ends up interstate that their details would still be accessible by pounds, etc but that is not the case. In Australia there is at least 5 different registries. Different states require animal residing within its boundaries to have their details lodged with various providers. None of the registries communication with each other and many are privately owned – and as happened recently, this leaves them vulnerable to bankruptcy and the pets details being wiped completely or sold off. What does this mean for you? Well if you live in NSW, you pet needs to be on the NSW government registry, irrespective of whether they are also on another interstate registry. And if you acquire a puppy or kitten interstate you’ll have to complete the relevant change of ownership forms for both the state they are leaving as well as ensuring they have the specific microchip paperwork for NSW completed.

Registration vs Being on the Registry
Having your pet’s details on a microchip registry is NOT the same thing as them being registered with council, nor kennel club registration. Confusingly the same word is used but it means different things. Being on the pet registry just means that your pets microchip number has been placed on the system with an owners’ contact details. When the lifetime registration fee has been paid to council or via the Service NSW portal, then the pet is considered registered in NSW. The one-off lifetime NSW registration fees are the main source of income used by the councils to fund the work of the council rangers in collecting strays, caring for and rehoming unowned dogs and cats.
Pedigree dogs can also be registered with Dogs NSW, but that is only relevant for purebred dog owners who are wishing to confirm their dog’s lineage for show-ring or breeding purposes.

What’s The Rules?
The microchipping laws are laid down by the state government but in a complicated system of bureaucracy, local councils have to administer the rules. This is why at times rules may change but the people in the local council office are unclear on what is supposed to be happening. As of 2024, registration fees are due “when a pet changes ownership or at 12 weeks of age, whichever is first”. This means as soon as you adopt a puppy or kitten it is your responsibility to organise payment of the registration fees. You do NOT wait until they are old enough for desexing (if that is something you are planning on). Fees around entire vs desexed animals do not apply until they have reached breeding age.
Transfer of ownership is another point of confusion. Traditionally this was done with a form in triplicate (i.e. 3 copies) that the breeder and new owner each kept a copy of and the third copy had to be physically taken to a council office for submission. Now there is also the option for electronic change of ownership via the Pet Registry Portal. If it has been years and for whatever reason your pet isn’t in your name, then the best option is to complete a statutory declaration form and submit that council to request the pet is transfer into your name.
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The microchip system is confusing and often convoluted, but can be a life-saving in identifying pets and getting them back to their owners. It’s worth spending a bit of time checking that all of your pets details in order, because it is heart-breaking when families lose a beloved pet and are unable to track them. If you’re getting confused about it, you are welcome to reach out to us, we are more that happy to help people navigate the system.

Paralysis ticks are well known as a deadly summer parasite in the Blue Mountains, but did you know that they can impact your pet even in the cooler months? While adult ticks are typically most active from September to January, warmer, wetter winters mean that we are now seeing tick paralysis cases in clinic as early as July. Additionally, the warmer weather means that suburbs like Hazelbrook and Wentworth Falls, which previously did not see tick paralysis, are more habitable for ticks. With this in mind, what do pet owners need to know about ticks, how to spot them, and how to help your pet avoid them as tick season intensifies.
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The paralysis tick life cycle
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​The lifecycle of the paralysis tick takes around a year to complete and requires 2-3 mammalian hosts in this time. Native animals common to the Blue Mountains, like bandicoots and possums, are natural hosts and will often carry a large number of ticks with little to no impact on their health. Larval stage ticks (most seen in Autumn) may bite and cause some skin irritation to pets and owners. Nymphs (most seen in Winter and early Spring) can cause illness in pets, particularly if present in large numbers. Adult ticks are the most dangerous, with even a single adult tick being able to cause severe illness or death in household pets.
 
How do ticks cause paralysis, and what are the early signs to look out for?
Ticks feed on blood and are reliant on mammalian hosts to complete their lifecycle. While feeding, ticks inject neurotoxins which can lead to eventual paralysis and death of pets. During warmer months, pets should be checked daily for ticks, particularly if you or your pet has been in the bush, long grass/shrubbery or the beach. Even indoor pets can be exposed to ticks, often if they are brought inside on owners, or if the tick has crawled inside.
Early signs to look out for include vomiting, lethargy, weakness in the back legs, a change to vocalisation and inappetence.
 
What should I do if I find a tick on my pet?
First, remove the tick. Ensure you have removed the whole tick including mouth parts, not just the body. A tool like a Tick Twister can be helpful to do this, but fingers or tweezers work too! Run your fingers through your pet’s coat to feel for ticks. Often if one tick is found, more will be present. If you notice any changes in your pet’s behaviour, or are unsure you have fully removed the tick, give us a call. Sometimes, symptoms will still be observed even after a tick has been removed, as some toxin may already be in your pet’s system.
 
How to protect your pet from ticks
Ideally, year-round tick prevention should be given. For dogs, Bravecto Quantum is an annual injection which prevents ticks and eliminates the need to remember to give preventatives every few months! Alternatively, monthly and three-monthly chews from brands including Bravecto, Nexgard Spectra and Simparica Trio or six-monthly top spot treatments from Bravecto can also be used. For cats, Felpreva and Bravecto top spot treatments can be used for three-monthly protection from ticks. Staying up to date with preventatives is the best way to avoid tick paralysis for your pets, and is important year-round, not just in the summertime!

What is a zoonosis? Unfortunately, it's not a fun outing to Taronga, but instead any disease that infects or is carried by animals, which can also infect or be spread to people.
 
An estimated 60% of human infectious diseases around the world are zoonoses. And there's one that has the potential to do a lot of damage to chooks and humans: Bird flu, or Avian Influenza (AI), which has its reservoir in wild birds (they carry it without getting sick). AI comes in multiple varieties including Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, (HPAI). An example of HPAI is H5N1, which has lately smashed everything from parrots to penguins on every continent except Australia. 
 
Preparations for the worst are being made. What preparations can owners of backyard chooks make?
 
NSW has an excellent fact sheet here: https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/factsheets/Pages/avian-influenza.aspx
 
...with the main take-aways being that bird flu is endemic in wild birds; that is, they carry it in their bodies all the time, and may not show any symptoms or get sick from it, but when they mix with domestic birds, such as your free-ranging leghorns, or contaminate your backyard by coming down to your birdbaths or chook feed dispensers, the virus can be passed to you, not to mention your budgie or your bantam.
 
What to do? Rehome your birds? If your household has immunocompromised people in it (eg young children, the elderly, anyone on chemo or other immunosuppressing medications) this is a valid step. Not just on account of AI, but other endemic zoonoses such as psittacosis, aka parrot fever, which has frequent outbreaks in the Blue Mountains due to our love affair with feeding native species. 
 
If you've ever worked at a big poultry producer, you'll know pet birds at home aren't allowed, because of biosecurity, ie the risk that your pet bird may be invisibly carrying something nasty. Poultry farmers have had the experience of driving vehicles through troughs of disinfectant, to keep contaminated soil out, and of performing a complete shower and change of clothes when passing in or out of the buildings.
 
This kind of barrier between your kitchen and backyard may not be practical. But you can try to approximate it by regularly washing hands with soap and water, wearing coveralls, and disinfecting your gumboots before and after attending to your chooks, even if you don't go the full PPE including P2 mask.
 
If you have a birdbath, situate it well away from areas that your chickens have access to. Fully emptying and disinfecting any food and water vessels every day is ideal. Always choose water containers that can be scrubbed and sterilised over a pond or waterfall which can never be cleaned and which will attract wild waterfowl.
 
Use netting, covered water and feed dispensers, and rat-proofed coops to reduce the chances of wild bird contact and/or contamination. 
 
Be careful around wild birds - enjoy watching them but don't encourage them to land on you, come into human-frequented spaces, or share your food.
 
Love your chooks and your aviary birds but don't kiss them!
 
Keep your annual human flu vaccination up to date. This reduces the chances a bird flu virus and a human flu virus can coexist in your body, potentially swapping genetic material with each other to mutate into the superflu that causes the next pandemic.
 
And if you notice a swathe of sudden deaths, coughing and sneezing, or other symptoms in your backyard flock, refer to this Bird Life Australia handout: https://birdlife.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Avian-Influenza-Fact-Sheet-Sep-2024.pdf
 
...and AVOID, RECORD, & REPORT to the Animal Disease Hotline.

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.