Hospital Tour
Our Wells Road Hospital and Surgery was extended and refurbished in 2003 to provide full hospital and surgical facilities, a spacious and comfortable waiting room and ample parking, even at the busiest times.
Last year we achieved the highest possible accreditation from the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons after rigorous inspection of our hospital standards, facilities and services.
Come and have a look around, simply click on an area of the plan.
Diagnostic Room
This is where we take pets when they require more specialized diagnostic facilities such as x-rays, ultrasound, endoscopy or ECG.
We also carry out some key hole surgery procedures here with our fibre optic video facilities.
Ultrasound Scanning
You may well be familiar with ultrasound scanning as it is now routinely used to take pictures of babies at various stages in pregnancy to ensure that they are developing normally.
We are fortunate to have ultrasound equipment here at the hospital which we also use for diagnosing pregnancies, but more often, we use it for the diagnosis of medical conditions and for examining organs and other structures of the body.
It is particularly useful for examining heart function, checking for blood flows and valve disease. Veterinary surgeon, Oliver Garrod, has a special interest in heart function and often uses the ultrasound scanner at his cardiology clinics in conjunction with a Colour Doppler which enables him to see exactly which way the blood is flowing through the heart.
Margaret Costello, our visiting European Specialist in Veterinary Diagnostic Imaging runs ultrasound scanning clinics at the hospital, once a week.
Hanne Gundersen, also uses ultrasound scanning in her medicine clinics to aid diagnostic work-ups.
X-Ray
We have our own x-ray facilities at the hospital with results possible within 10 minutes.
The most common reasons for taking x-rays are when we are looking for possible bone fractures, chest problems and bladder problems. (We also have specialist dental x-ray equipment).
As well as conventional x-rays such as the one shown above, we are able to perform spinal myelography which involves introducing dyes into the spinal canal for spinal investigations (for example in a case of limb paralysis). Other contrast studies that myelography is used for might involve the bladder (looking for a tumour or bladder stones) or the intestines (maybe a bowel tumour).
Fibre Optic Video and Key Hole Surgery
Highcroft is one of the few practices in the country to use fibre optic video facilities.
These tiny cameras are used to look at certain areas of the body, removing foreign bodies and for taking relevant diagnostic samples (biopsy/fluid samples) using fibre optics and biopsy forceps.
This procedure is far less invasive than performing major surgery (which would otherwise be required) and offers a far shorter recovery time.
The areas that we are able to look at are:
- stomach, intestines and other hollow organs (Endoscopy)
- lungs and associated airways (Bronchoscopy)
- sinuses and nasal passages (Rhinoscopy)
- shoulder and elbow joints (Arthroscopy)
- abdomen, liver, spleen, kidney, pancreas etc (Laparoscopy)
ECG
The ECG monitor checks the electrical activity of the heart and will show any rhythm disturbance. Oliver Garrod uses this monitor at his clinics.
Where required, we have access to a 24 hour ECG Holter monitor which allows us to monitor more complex rhythmic problems that might not occur regularly enough to be picked up over a shorter period of time.
