Reviews for South Wales Regional Meetings
What a rabbit eats…
August 12th, Carmarthen Veterinary Centre
We were pleased to welcome Justin Stamp from Supreme Pet foods that came to give us an overview on what we should be feeding rabbits as part of a healthy diet.
A poor diet can lead to obesity, poor dental wear, bloat, constipation, gut stasis, myiasis and even death of the rabbit. It is therefore evident the importance of good advice on a rabbits diet to our clients.
Unfortunately many of the cheaper rabbit foods are not suitable for rabbits; they are high in sugar and low in fibre which is critical to maintain a healthy diet. Justin explained that this is a major problem amongst our clients as the general public remain unaware of the importance of the quality and quantity of fibre required in the rabbit food.
Rabbits should be fed on a diet that contains at least 14% fibre. A good source of fibre is from Alphalpha, which is naturally low in starch and sugars. To increase the palatability of the foods a quality product should be using herbs such as Thyme and Spinach.
Justin then finished off by explaining rabbit diets can now be bought according to the life stage of the rabbit. The junior food will have more protein whilst the senior diets has lower protein and increased amounts of Vitamin C to help maintain the strength of the periodontal ligaments.
Justin kept the audience supplied with lots of educational materials, posters, sample foods and even some teddies!
I would like to thank Justin and Supreme Pets foods for their time taken to speak to us.
Wound Management
We were very fortunate to have Georgie Hollis BSc MVWHA speaking to us in South Wales. For anyone who has not attended one of Georgies' meetings- you are missing out. Georgie makes the subject of wound management fascinating; the evening was very info
rmative and interactive giving us the chance to hear about a small section of the thousands of available wound dressings on the market.
Georgie has her own company called Intelligent wound care as runs the website vet wound care library where members can see case studies ask advice and use the dressing selection tool to help you choose the correct dressings. See www.vetwoundlibrary.com for more details.
Over 20 vets and nurses at Kappaccinos in Cardiff attended the evening. After a wonderful buffet of Chinese treats, salad and a selection of cheeses everyone settled down to hear Georgie speak.
With over 3,000 dressings on the market there is a lot of choice out there and Georgie was able to show us some of the different types available. We were able to handle some examples to really judge for ourselves the qualities of each different brand.
Georgie showed us the healing and antibacterial properties of Silver and Manuka Honey along with Dechra's new line of Mauka Honey dressings now available. We also learnt about the amaxing job maggots can do to encourage debridement and 
healing of a wound!
This talk was really enjoyed by everyone who attended and Dechra kindly provided everyone with free dressing samples and honey lip balm!
I would like to thank Claire Morrissey and Dechra for kindly sponsoring this evening and to Kappaccino's for the food and venue. I also hope that Georgie got home safely to her lovely pig, Gertie and her piglets.