Practice Facilities

What we can offer your pet

Three Rivers Veterinary Group is one of the region’s largest vets groups, and boasts practices in Beccles & Kesingland in Suffolk, and Norwich, Loddon, Poringland, & Mulbarton in Norfolk. This RCVS accreddited practice provides the resourecs and facilities to offer first class care for your pets.

Computerised Pet Records

The computer system we use allows us to keep accurate records for years in an easy to access format. We are also able to send you reminders for vaccination etc. using the database. It has become an invaluable tool at the surgery.

Fully equipped modern operating theatres

We have two operating theatres at the Beccles practice and one theatre at the Loddon, Poringland, Kessingland and Norwich branches. These rooms are designed so that they can be thoroughly and easily cleaned.

The one pictured is our newest theatre at the Beccles practice and was added in 2006. As you can see it is fully air conditioned, with good light source and the stainless steel table is electrically controlled. These featues mean the surgeon and the patient can have optimum conditions during a surgical procedure.

Safe Modern Anaesthesia

At Three Rivers Veterinary Group we believe in the best possible anaesthetic for all animals we anaesthetise. It goes without saying we use pain relief for all surgeries peri operatively i.e before surgery. This ensures that when your pet wakes up after his or her operation they are more comfortable than if it was given after the operation.

We also use the newest generation of injectable agents to induce anaesthesia – Alfaxan.

When the pet is under anaesthetic we then routinely use the most modern gas anaesthetic to keep them asleep – Sevoflourane. We are one of the only practice in East Anglia who use this expensive anaesthetic agent as a routine.

Not only are the drugs we use important, but so are the team which use them. Once admitted for an anaesthetic all pets are examined by a vet, and in some cases a blood sample is recommended to complete the health picture before we procede.

The Vet then administers an appropriate pre medication. This helps to make the anaesthetic run smoothly and will contain the painkillers. When the pre medicant is working the Vet will then administer the induction agent to make the pet fall asleep. A tube is then passed into the windpipe so that the gas the pet breathes can be controlled by the anaesthetist.

It is standard practice at Three Rivers Veterinary Group for a Trained Veterinary Nurse to monitor the patient when under an anaesthetic. She may use a variety of instruments such as pulse oximeters to help her.

When the anaesthetic is over the nurse will monitor the pet closely until the pet has regained consciousness.

X-ray facilities

We have 2 X-ray machines dedicated to small animal radiography and an automatic film developer to ensure good consistent film development. One is a dedicated dental machine (just like the one used by your own dentist) for investigating tooth and tooth root problems and a larger more powerful machine for all other routine xrays. We also use various contrast media to enhance diagnosis and radiographic quality.

in-house laboratory

We have our own in house lab where we can perform routine blood tests, microscopic examinations of, for example, skin scrapings and urine samples for crystals, fungal cultures and routine urine analysis.

Veterinary Electrocardiograph (ECG)

Should your pet have a heart problem we can offer an electrocardiogram (ECG) as an aid to diagnosis. An ECG can show changes to the normal electrical conductivity of the heart muscle which be useful in diagnosis of problems with the heart’s rate and rhythm.

Veterinary Ultrasound

Ultrasound is versatile diagnosic tool. We use it routinely to diagnose pregnancy in dogs and cats, to investigate problems within the abdomen and also as part of our investigation into a heart problems.

Veterinary Cryosurgery

Cryosurgery is a type of surgery that does not usually involve cutting tissues to achieve an outcome. It is most commonly used to remove small tumours. If the tumours are very small the procedure may be able to be carried out under local anaesthetic. Larger tumours would still require a general anaesthetic. The technique involves freezing the lump. When the pet goes home the lump is still present but the action of freezing the lump causes it to die and the lump then regresses over a 2 – 3 week period.

Routine Blood Screening

We have two blood analysis machines in the practice and these allow us to check vital organ functions either in sick animals or prior to certain critical procedures such as general anaesthesia. Having this facility available on the premises allows us to obtain rapid results from certain blood samples – for instance – when animals are critically ill.

We also send samples away to external laboratories. While the results from these sample may take a little longer to return they are also slightly less expensive.

Isolation Unit

At the Beccles surgery we have a dedicated separate unit for the isolation of animals with infectious diseases. This means that we can care for patients with infectious diseases whilst keeping the risks of transfer of the infectious diseases to a minimum. Again the cages are made of top quality stainless steel and the room has a climate control facility. The cage design and construction means that they can easily be disinfected.

Having good highly qualified nursing staff is also important when using a facility such as this and at Three Rivers we have five fully qualified nurses who all understand the importance of good barrier nursing.

In-patient cattery and kennels

The kennel room has been purpose built for our canine patients. The design has incorporated the very best in specialist kennels.

As you can see the kennels are constructed in high quality stainless steel to enable easy cleaning and disinfection. There are also three larger ‘walk in’ kennels.

The temperature is kept constant to maintain a warm pleasant environment for all our patients regardless of the weather and time of year.

The various kennel sizes allow us to accomodate from the smallest chihuahua to the largest great dane.

The Cattery uses the same kennel technology in a room seperate from the dogs. This allows for a more stress free environment for the cats. We also ensure a pheromone plug in is used to help keep feline stress levels to a minimum during their stay.

Blood Pressure Monitoring

Just as in people cats and dogs can get problems with high blood pressure. This can have unpleasant and serious consequences if it is left untreated. We have the equipment to measure blood pressure in cats and dogs. The machine is a doppler ultrasound probe which allows us to detect blood flow in small blood vessels. We then use an inflatable cuff in a similar manner to your doctor to fully occlude the vessel and then deflate the cuff and measure the pressure when flow returns to the vessel.

If we find a high blood pressure we can then start medication to control it.

Endoscopy

We use endoscopes to investigate problems with the respiratory (airway) and the gastrointestinal (gut) tracts.At present we have four endoscopes of various sizes in order that we can thoroughly investigate these problems in cats and dogs.

Ample Parking

Beccles, Loddon, Poringland and Mulbarton have ample car parking at the site of the practice. Kessingland has a very good public car park within 50 yards of the practice and clients are encouraged to park there if possible. The car park at Hall Road in Norwich can get busy but we have started evening and weekend surgeries and at these times finding a space is not a problem, during the day the whole of the car park around the pharmacy is available for use. Please do not hesitate to ask if you need help to bring your pet in from the car park to the surgery.