The Metta Pet Clinic

14/09/2025

It was great to catch up with Beatrice at North Downs Animal Therapy the other day and hear all about McTimoney for animals. Feel free to put any questions in the comments!

13/09/2025

Is there nothing she cannot do? Please congratulate our one and only Lorraine Eason 🤩

12/09/2025

Always nice to receive! Thanks for voting for us, we are a tiny (but mighty) independent clinic and we really appreciate your support!

07/09/2025

I love the thinking outside the box and the patience used to get this to work- great job!

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/16JaCW55zn/

26/08/2025

🌈Gracie🌈

I first met Gracie in April this year and was amazed to find out that although she looked about 6 or 7 years old, she was actually 14!

One of the reasons for that of course was because she had an amazing set of guardians who were already addressing so many of the things which gave her a great quality of life.

Anna from Anna’s Animal Physiotherapy suggested that I join team Gracie, in addition to the excellent care she was getting from Hythe Vet Centre, to see if we could decrease the pain she was experiencing- both from her back and also from recurrent pancreatitis.

Happily Gracie was a total legend and responded to the addition of acupuncture, supportive herbs and some diet additions. Within a few weeks her guardians reported that she had more bounce, more chat and was attempting to jump off the bed again ❤️

Over the next few months Gracie's courage was evident to us all as she faced a new very challenging diagnosis. The aim, as it always had been, was to keep her as comfy and happy as possible.

As soon as this couldn't be managed as well as we had before, her guardians made the very brave and kindest decision to let her slip peacefully away.

Rest in peace little sweetheart, you were a joy to get to know. Sending much love to team Gracie ###

22/08/2025

This message made Lorraine Eason and I laugh. Clever dog Bindi!

"Sarah's herbs must be magic! Bindi is so lively we had to take her for an extra walk...and has dragged her whole toy box out this evening and is demanding a game of ball 😂 chase is not impressed and would like to sleep 😂 x

22/08/2025

📣A little update on how we take payments 📣

Hi everyone, just a quick note to let you know about a small change.

Since we opened 6 years (!) ago, I've trusted clients to pay after their appointments and most of you have been brilliant with this (thank you💚). However recently I think people are just so busy and they forget, which leads to delays and extra admin time for Lorraine chasing up payments.

To keep things running smoothly, from September, I'll now need:

Appointments to be paid for -ideally by BACS, but card is possible- at the time of the appointment or beforehand if you prefer.

Herbal prescriptions are to be paid for before collection or posting. So definitely factor this is when ordering a repeat prescription.

Thank you so much for your understanding - this will help me keep running our little independent clinic smoothly and let me spend more time focusing on caring for your pets.

19/08/2025

Lovely to hear- well done Mr M!

"Morning Sarah ,
Just wanted to let you know that we have both noticed a huge difference in Max…he’s really noticeably using his right hind leg so much more when he’s walking … thank you … thank you … thank you !"

13/08/2025

🌈Brandy 🌈 Three years ago I became part of the team looking after this wonderful joy gr***de. Her personality was a delightful mix of love, mischief, determination and courage. The bond that she and her guardian shared was a beautiful thing to witness. Brandy was always so excited to come in and see me, enjoyed her acupuncture treatments and then if her mum and I were chatting too long at the end, she'd let us know it was time to go to the cafe! She is already deeply missed. Sending all my love to her mum ###

11/08/2025

If you are interested in deep diving and increasing your up to date knowledge of pain in cats and dogs ... then you may be interested in reading this recent review piece by Pederson and colleagues.

The paper concludes by mentioning the bidirectional relationship between stress, anxiety, and pain, where the authors explain how stress can amplify pain perception, and that this can lead to ongoing pain, increasing stress and anxiety.
They also briefly discuss how chronic pain can increase other emotional change such as frustration.

Understand Animals continues to believe that it is not possible to separate the emotional and sensory experience of an individual from their underlying health and therefore fully support the final recommendation in this paper that as pain is also an emotional experience as well as a sensory one, limiting negative emotion and promoting positive emotions should be considered as multimodal component when treating veterinary patients.

Pedersen, T.R., Berendt, M. and Rusbridge, C., 2025. Neuroanatomy of spinal nociception and pain in dogs and cats: a practical review for the veterinary clinician. Frontiers in Veterinary Science, 12, p.1534685.

29/07/2025

Good advice from The Mutty Professor

PLEASE RECONSIDER GROOMING YOUR DOG WHILST OUT ON WALKS (or in the garden!)

This - along with letting them swim in waterways - could be killing wildlife.


It's that time of year when you see random distributions of dog fluff out on walks.

Kanita is also blowing her coat, and Mohawk has been having a big coat change too recently. There's something very satisfying about gently pulling those loose tufts of hair out. If you know, you know.


I don't blame people for thinking that it's easier to groom a super floofy dog outside to save covering their house in hair- BUT if that dog receives anti-parasitic treatment, this may be harming wildlife.

A study in the Netherlands detected two active substances used in routine pet anti-parasitic treatments in the nests of great t**s- who had collected hair in order to build their nests.

Another study by The University of Sussex found that screened nests contained 17 out of 20 insecticides screened for. 100% of nests contained fipronil and 89% contained imidacloprid.
A higher number of unhatched eggs and dead chicks were associated with higher numbers of chemicals present in the nests (with dog hair being used to build the nests by the birds).


Many of these chemicals in these treatments are thought to be harmful to birds. It is also thought that they are damaging to insect populations (including bees) as well as contributing to pollution of waterways and damaging aquatic ecosystems - contributed by people letting their dogs swim in ponds, lakes, streams, rivers etc.


If you routinely use parasite control medication on your dog please do not let them swim outdoors (especially soon after treatment) and avoid grooming them outside (or bag up the hair as you groom).

There are some suggestions that oral medications are less damaging, but they don't just sit in the digestive system. They are transported around the bloodstream- which supplies nutrients and oxygen to the whole body. Toxins leave the body via excrement, urine, sweat, hair and skin cells- albeit predominantly via the former two.

Whilst topical treatments pose a greater risk - especially soon after treatment- it cannot be assumed that there is no negative affect from oral treatments. The research identified that dog hair is linked to bird deaths and that specifically states that dogs owned by volunteers donating nests received parasite control via collars, spot on and tablets.
Chemicals from Nexguard and Bravecto were not screened for in the study and thus are not ruled out as safe nor established as harmful (to birds).


The recommended frequency of use of these products continues to be called into question, as is the risk of adverse side effects in pets!

Veternarians are being encouraged to prescribe them based on risk to the individual.
Assessing individual risk is not easy for veternarians to do in the time that they have, so you can help your vet help you by intensively reading information on these products rather than administering them every 1-3 months in blind faith that it's the right thing to do and without consequence.

Our wildlife is in decline and if we care about nature- we all need to do our bit.

That may include reviewing the specific medication you purchase from your vet or you may decide to use them less frequently, such as treating as needed or seasonally (instead of across the year).
You may delay letting your dog swim post treatment for as long as possible, or consider alternative prevention such as worm counts, flea combing or natural repellents (although do note, some ingredients in these could still be toxic to some species of wildlife).


Again, whether to treat or not should be down to INDIVIDUAL RISK. What poses a risk to individuals in one area may differ to others elsewhere.

But it's also your personal choice and I want to make it clear that this post is NOT telling people to NOT treat their pets but simply to be aware of the potential impact of such treatments and to adjust our habits (swimming, grooming outside) accordingly.


Are there other things that damage the environment? Of course.
But this is a page about dogs, so content will be relevant to dogs.

You can use the fact that XY and Z also harm the environment as a justification for doing nothing, or you can consider whether there are small changes you are able to make. The cumulative effect is what causes these issues to escalate, and thus the cumulative effect is also capable of making some positive change.


Note: If you don’t use anti parasitics on your dog & groom them outside, then the hair may be beneficial for the birds. However, do consider that grooming products and other medications may pose a risk - should you use these.

These were the resources linked into the comments, but Ive opted to bring them here for ease. Within some of these you can be linked to the research on this topic and you will find much more detail on this emotive topic.

https://www.sussex.ac.uk/broadcast/read/66973

https://www.veterinaryirelandjournal.com/small-animal/359-cat-and-dog-parasiticides-and-the-environment

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969725000737?ref=pdf_download&fr=RR-2&rr=908a988c1c6d63c1

https://www.songbird-survival.org.uk/post/veterinary-drugs-found-in-bird-nests/

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/243875/toxic-flea-tick-treatments-polluting-uk/

https://www.pan-uk.org/garden-birds-are-being-poisoned-by-pet-flea-treatments/

https://www.broads-authority.gov.uk/looking-after/managing-land-and-water/water-quality/flea-treatments-and-their-impact-on-water-quality

https://www.kentwildlifetrust.org.uk/blog/flea-treatment-toxic-to-wildlife

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/23/flea-treatments-cats-dogs-environmental-hazard

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7738705/

https://www.bva.co.uk/take-action/our-policies/responsible-use-of-parasiticides-for-cats-and-dogs/

https://www.bsava.com/position-statement/parasite-control/

29/10/2024

Sensible advice as always, thanks Understand Animals

It might be almost Halloween but we all know for many of us the biggest “fright night” comes very shortly after: fireworks

November 5th is traditionally the evening associated with fireworks displays and bonfires although on more recent times it has become common for individuals and events to let off fireworks more frequently any time in the week leading up to and the week after November 5th (and, to be honest, quite randomly at many other times across the year)

It’s not just dogs who are affected. Many cats, small animals like rabbits, horses, cattle and wildlife (and people!) are often negatively affected.

If you have an animal you share your life with, who is affected by firework noises, it’s a good idea to start preparing now.

*if your pet is particularly fearful, call your vets for advice on fear reducing medicine NOW. It’s not long to go and you re likely to need to have your pet vet checked and weighed and decisions on the best medication made tailored specifically to your pet (there are several fear reducing medicines which work in different ways each with various pros and potential negatives that need considering)

*start drawing your curtains earlier, putting on background music (see below) and associating this with something calm and fun for your pet to do. Perhaps it’s a delicious paste on a washable mat, or an indoor calm treat search, or maybe it’s a massage and groom in the presence of a calming odour.

*consider background noises. These can help because they help everyone stay calmer - the radio station Classic FM for pets is back for November 2024. Link below. But you may prefer some other rhythmic calming tracks played through speakers. It can be helpful to have calming music on in the room you ll be spending the evening and have white noise and rhythmic sounds like drumming sounds, by a window or in the periphery of the main room.
Start playing them quietly now and associate them going on with calm, social activities and then you can gradually increase the volume over a number of days / evenings

*bring feeding and toilet opportunities earlier, days in advance. Make sure your dog is always wearing a collar with up to date tag information and that your microchip details for all your animals are up to date. Check the clips on your leads and buckles on harnesses and collars are safe and secure and if relevant to you, have your dog on a long line for every toilet opportunity from around 3pm. You may want to increase the number of litter trays you have for your cats and start shutting them in for several hours from mid afternoon each day. Don’t forget to consider bringing any small pets into more sound proofed areas too.

We ll share some more tips over the next week too
We hope you can all stay safe x

https://www.classicfm.com/music-news/pet-classics-2024-fireworks-season/