Services

Find out what we have to offer here at Rogart

  • We care for pets and farm animals. In regards to equine please contact Kessock Equine Vets.
  • We provide a 24 hour emergency service 365 days of the year.
  • We cover the area of Sutherland.
  • We will do house visits to see pets.
  • We offer the Pet Health Club to help spread the cost of routine treatments.
  • It is our aim to provide clients with modern veterinary services, at an appropriate cost, in an efficient, friendly manner.

It is vital to the continued success of our business that we provide clients with levels of care and treatment that meet or exceed their expectations.

Consultations

Consultations are available Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday (9:00am - 5:00pm), Thursday 9:00am - 6:30pm and Saturday 9:00am - 1:00pm.

Please let us know if you would like to see a specific vet, and wherever possible we will try to arrange this. In an emergency, we will admit a patient for immediate treatment.

There are a limited number of appointments available on Saturdays. We only have one vet on duty at this time, so we restrict these appointments to “critical” cases. Please be aware that there may also be unavoidable slippage in timings if the vet has to attend to the more pressing cases.

Home Visits

We do offer this service as we understand that clients may wish to have their pets seen at home. However, it can be difficult/impossible to effectively examine and treat an animal without assistance from other staff, and we will only have a very restricted choice of medicines with us with which to treat patients. Therefore, it is usually far better for your pet, (and your pocket!), to have your pet seen, by appointment, at our Rogart Surgery even if this means arranging a lift or Taxi.

Small Animal Services

  • Preventive health care, including vaccinations, parasite control etc.
  • Routine operations such as neutering dogs and cats: usually require patients to be starved from 8:00pm the previous evening. Your pet should arrive for surgery at 9:00am and will usually be ready for discharge by 3:30pm when advice on aftercare will be given.
  • Microchipping - We can offer heavily discounted rates if microchipping is performed during routine surgery. If you are a Pet Health Club member microchipping is included!
  • Pet travel Scheme and Pet Passport provision.
  • Free weight checks.
  • Free weight clinics on the understanding that any diet foods recommended are purchased from us.
  • Expert dietary advice and supply of an extensive range of Pet Foods.
  • Nail clipping.
  • Dental treatments (ultrasonic scaler and polisher).
  • Home visits.
  • Laboratory facilities: "in-house" blood analysis machine to provide rapid results and access to specialist labs for more complex cases.
  • Ultrasound scanning for pregnancy detection and diagnostic purposes.
  • X-ray.
  • Kenneling for patients requiring "in-patient" care.
  • We do not have staff on the premises 24/7 to care for in patients. However, a vet will return to the surgery as needed to attend to the needs of kenneled animals. There will be a charge for this.
  • Blood pressure measurement by Doppler.
  • ECG's.
  • Diabetic patient treatment and control.
  • Prompt referral to "specialists" when required.
  • Prescriptions and dispensing of repeat medicines.
  • Please give 48 hours notice. There are quite a few checks to be made before medicines can be dispensed or prescriptions written.
  • Euthanasia.
  • Cremation and aftercare of euthanased or deceased pets, including if required, individual cremation with return of remains.

Farm Animals

Sheep

  • Health Schemes: HISHA (Enzootic Flock Status), CEA (Caseous Lymphadenitis Status).
  • Flock Health Plans.
  • Treating sick or injured individuals, lambings etc.
  • Investigation problems in flocks such as ill thrift, scour etc.
  • Sheep Scab: investigation and diagnosis of suspected outbreaks.
  • Farm Shop (Rogart Surgery) with a range of Wormers and other Animal Health Products.

Cattle

  • Health Schemes (Hi Health, Premium Cattle Health Scheme) to control BVD, Johne, IBR.
  • BVD testing for the Scottish Government's compulsory eradication scheme.
  • Health Plans.
  • Routine procedures such as castrations, disbudding / dehorning, pregnancy diagnosis.
  • Examining and Treating individual sick or injured individual cases.
  • Calvings and Caesarians.
  • Investigating herd problems such as ill thrift, scour etc.
  • Farm Shop (Rogart Surgery) with a wide range of wormers and other Animal Health Product
  • Routine compulsory Ministry work: TB tests Anthrax testing of any sudden deaths, Brucellosis testing of abortions.

Equine Services

In order to provide our clients with the best in equine care, we are delighted to be working in partnership with Kessock Equine Vets. Kessock Equine Vets are the Highlands' only dedicated equine veterinary practice, where you are guaranteed that only a dedicated 100% horse vet will come to see your horse, whatever the time of day or night. We would like to refer all our equine clients to Kessock Equine Vets and you can contact them on 01463 731107 or by email.

Medicine from Online Pharmacies Vs Veterinary Practices

Pet owners are able to obtain a prescription from their veterinary surgeon to purchase veterinary medication from other sources. Obtaining a prescription from your vet will incur a charge to cover the cost of the vet’s professional time. Prescribing the right medicine involves a professional assessment of the health of the animal, making a diagnosis and deciding what the best treatment is for the individual animal. Just as doctors in private practice charge for prescriptions and solicitors charge to write letters, vets must charge for their professional expertise and time.

Because we are fortunate to have the National Health service for humans, we are often unaware of the cost of medical care, equipment and medication. It is expensive for anyone to keep and dispense veterinary medicines under the strict guidelines that are set out in legislation. Setting up a pharmacy, buying and maintaining the correct equipment, and training staff are all costs that must be met by the sale of the medicines. Online suppliers are able to buy in a much larger quantity than individual veterinary practices and the cost of their overheads can be more easily absorbed by the business.

All veterinary medicines have a shelf-life and once the expiry date is reached the medicines must be discarded. The vet has already paid for those drugs and so needs a pricing structure for the medicines that covers the cost of the wastage. Vets must keep in stock a wide range of medicines, including those that are needed in an emergency, and very expensive drugs that are rarely used. Again these must all be paid for, even if only one dose has been used by the time of the expiry date.

However, it isn’t always cheaper to buy prescription medicines from an online source rather than your veterinary surgeon. If the medicines are very cheap this should ring alarm bells and you should take extra care to ensure the website belongs to a reputable, UK-based organisation.

Vets are very worried about some online pharmacies based overseas supplying counterfeit medicines into the UK that are placebos at best and dangerous at worst.

The Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD), which regulates veterinary medicines in the UK, is working on a type of kitemark system for online pharmacies to use to show that they have been approved by the VMD. Unfortunately, this will only be a voluntary scheme but it will provide a useful sign to owners that they are buying from a safe source.

But even if the medicines bought online are safe there are added benefits to buying them from your veterinary practice. Vets and the vet nursing team will spend time demonstrating how to administer medicines correctly to ensure maximum efficacy. This is also an opportunity to talk through any possible adverse reactions, how to spot them and what to do.

Buying from the vet also means that treatment can start straight away because the practice pharmacy will have the medicines in stock for you to take away immediately, rather than having to wait for a package to arrive by post.