The Metta Pet Clinic

17/07/2025

Happy birthday Henry!!!! You've got such a big fan club ❤️❤️❤️

🥳🐾💕It’s my Henry’s birthday today! Happy birthday Henry, love this dog so so much-13 today! 🎉

14/07/2025

🌼 Chamomile Flower Porridge for Pets
Chamomile flower porridge is a gentle, soothing remedy that I often suggest trialling with my patients. It’s nice to have something simple and safe that can be used easily alongside other medications and interventions.

It’s especially helpful for pets with:
• Gassy gastrointestinal complaints
• Reflux or GERD
• Anxiety
• Poor morning appetite
• Restless or wakeful behaviour in silver-pawed seniors
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🌿 Why Chamomile Porridge?
Chamomile is known for its:
• Nervine and anxiolytic (calming) properties
• Antispasmodic action (soothes cramps and spasms)
• Anti-inflammatory effects
• Vulnerary properties (supports internal healing)
Oats are also considered nervines — they nourish and support the nervous system, reducing stress and anxiety.
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🍵 How to Make It
You’ll need:
• 2 tsp dried chamomile flowers (or 1 high-quality chamomile teabag)
• About 1 cup boiling water (for a 25 kg dog)
• ½ cup porridge oats (adjust for pet size)
Instructions:
1. Pour boiling water over the chamomile flowers or teabag in a mug.
2. Cover the mug to trap the medicinal volatile oils.
3. Steep for 20–30 minutes or longer.
4. Use this chamomile infusion as the liquid for the porridge.
(1 part oats to 2 parts chamomile tea)
Example: ½ cup oats + 1 cup chamomile tea
5. Cook oats in the tea until soft and porridge-like.
(Microwave ~1 minute or simmer on stove)
6. Serve warm or cold, on its own or mixed with a small amount of food.
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🕒 When to Offer It
Offer just before bedtime.
You may need to experiment with portion size based on your pet’s needs.
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🐶 Case Study: Stan
Stan, a 14-year-old lurcher, had weekly vomiting, diarrhoea 4 out of 7 days, weight loss, and poor morning appetite.
He also started barking at night.
One of the first steps in his treatment was simply offering chamomile porridge.
The results:
• No more nighttime barking
• Improved morning appetite
• Less rumbly tummy

The chamomile tea can also be offered by itself if porridge is not your dogs thing, but this must be in addition to their normal water – choice is key!

10/07/2025

Just a quick 'how to' demo for those of you who are using herbs as part of the multimodal treatment plan. There has been some confusion about the seal safe lids. As well as preventing spillage, they allow you to measure out the exact dose easily, once you have thoroughly shaken the bottle of course!

In an attempt to reduce plastic footprint,I do not at the moment put seal safe lids when dispensing single herbs like Boswellia. However, depending on feedback, I may start to as it does make it less fiddly.

07/07/2025

Always a joy to see the fantastic Anna’s Animal Physiotherapy crew🥰

🐾💕❤️Wonderful Sarah from the The Metta Pet Clinic treated my Henry and Megs this afternoon..she worked her magic and they were both flat out chilled and feeling good..thank you Sarah!! 🥰😘

04/07/2025

Many of you know my wonderful cat Maya had been poorly and I'm very sad to say a couple of months ago her tumour returned and we had to let her go. It's been tough, as I know many can understand.

So you will see a new addition next to Matty and Muggins who watch over me at The Metta Pet Clinic , a beautiful portrait by a fellow vet, Dr Mel Saalfeld who surprised me with this thoughtful gift.

As regulars will know, I like to write memorials for the animals who impact my life, so for those of you who asked to see Maya's, here it is-

Maya 🌈🌈🌈

Maya came to us the most emotionally shut down cat I've ever rescued. But all she needed was love and kindness and wow, did she blossom. These five years have been just so incredibly joyful and filled with fun. She soon trained us and got us in order, whether it be breakfast in bed, served by one of her humans (on a napkin from the ivy🤫 no less) or the insistence of 'wet legs' for cuddles after we showered 🤣. The level of trust she gave us, especially in this last year when her prognosis was 50 days and she instead decided to sod the statistics and live a great quality of life for over a year, was amazing.

Paddy paws on my chest in bed, demanding nics lap in the evenings, food on demand, evenings spent far down the garden on the sun lounger, always sitting on my lap top or insisting I type vet reports with one hand whilst scratching her chin with the other. Life is bloody quiet and empty without her.

So loved, so missed, so heartbroken, she'll never be forgotten.

01/07/2025

Great advice as always from Tamsin Durston

30/06/2025

Creating a sensory garden for your dog - some great ideas from K9HS

Sensory Enrichment - Creating a safe garden space for dogs

20/06/2025

The most up to date info with references x
https://www.vetvoices.co.uk/post/cool-icy-cold-or-tepid?fbclid=IwQ0xDSwLCNoRjbGNrAsI2B2V4dG4DYWVtAjExAAEeqB6vITSsdbfe5FUilzfNF9rSMA0KkQnlFuOudK6V3rQJqUdgQOvrX8M0SXs_aem_at0PNRaafaANilgtWz6djg

Let us investigate the myth behind cooling animals with heat stroke with tepid water.Although it is generally agreed that rapid, effective cooling increases survival in heat stroke, there continues to be debate on the optimal cooling method. As with many things, we often find ourselves with lots of....

18/06/2025

Some great ideas for the next few days!

30/05/2025

🌈Bonnie the beautiful🌈
Although we didn't get to spend a lot of time together, Bonnie made a big impact at Metta- she was the epitomy of courage and determination. Her journey was incredible and despite a terrible start in life, she fell on her paws when she was adopted by her family.

Despite the many physical challenges she faced, Bonnie's zest for life was never in question and we focused on enabling her to experience as many things that she loved as possible, plus some gentle acupuncture and herbal support, in addition to the excellent care she was receiving from her primary care vet. We are glad to have been a little part of her journey and happy to have made her last few weeks more comfortable, she even had a little adventure to Wales this month.

Sending much love to Bonnie's family, the bond you shared was as beautiful as Bonnie herself ###

29/05/2025

🌈Bow🌈
I first met Bow about 10months ago after his wonderful physio Anna’s Animal Physiotherapy advised his mum that he could use a little extra support. He was the tall, dark, steady type with a delightful dash of stubborn. I enjoyed getting the post acupuncture updates from his mum "he pegged it down the alley today...just for the joy of running?"

Bow's heart was so full of love for his mum and I know he bought her so much joy, loyalty and companionship. Wishing you strength and comfort at this impossible time ###

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/