Services
Detailed Clinical Reviews and Treatment Plans
This is available to vets worldwide. It can be a cost-effective way to help owners and their pets if they do not want a direct consultation with us. Our recommendations can then be discussed with the owner by their vet.
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Vets should email us requesting advice and provide a copy of the pet’s clinical history and any lab or imaging results. Owners can also request that their vet contacts us for this service.
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Advice is always provided by email but we are always happy to also speak to the vet on the telephone.
Practice Membership
Although we do provide case by case stand-alone support to practices we also offer an annual practice membership scheme. Membership benefits include:
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Priority advice
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Reduced fees for clinical reviews
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Webinar CPD sessions for practice staff
Membership gives your practice ongoing and regular support from a specialist in internal medicine.
Owner Consultations
Most consultations are online. This has the advantages of limiting travel for you and your pet, is often quicker to arrange, can be conducted at a time that suits you best, and means other family members can choose to join. However, as we are unable to directly examine your pet, online consultations are not suitable for a patient who is very unwell.
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We can also offer direct face to face consultations at several practices located in south-western Britain.
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Our service guarantees that you will always speak to a full qualified Recognised Specialist rather than a vet in postgraduate training.
Advanced Diagnostic Procedures & Treatments
Tom currently visits practices within Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall but he is always willing to consider visiting other practices. Often the necessary equipment is readily available at your practice but sometimes he will recommend seeing the patient at a nearby practice if specialist equipment such as CT or endoscopy is required.
You have peace of mind in knowing that an experienced RCVS recognised specialist is undertaking procedures for your patient.
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Increasingly, primary care practices perform more complex medical treatments such as chemotherapy for pets with cancer. We can support them in doing so. When the treatment plan involves more complex surgery or specialised treatments like radiotherapy we can help arrange these.
Our Patients
Cancer Patients
Tom has provided a busy outpatient chemo service for many years and always remains up to date with the most recent evidence for and against treatments. We discuss a wide range of treatment options and tailor these to the patient and their owner.
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This includes detailed chemotherapy protocols with advice on how to monitor, avoid, or mitigate patient toxicity. We can also provide advice on how to more safely handle cytotoxics within practices.
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We can also provide Oncept immunotherapy for UK dogs with malignant melanoma. Oncept currently remains the only widely available medical treatment shown to benefit dogs with malignant melanoma that may have spread beyond the initial site. It is typically well-tolerated and is quick to administer with an initial primary course of 4 doses followed by a booster given every 6 months. Oncept is not licensed in the UK so here it needs to be imported for dogs under a special license and can ONLY be administered by a Recognised specialist in either internal medicine or oncology. Tom tries to provide Oncept as cost effectively as possible at practices close to his base on the Devon/Somerset border so that Oncept becomes more affordable for dogs who might benefit from it.
Internal Medicine Patients
Tom can help manage patients with a wide range of internal medical presentations including fever, anaemia, hormonal imbalances, immune-mediated diseases, and chronic stomach and bowel diseases.
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We also provide a specific diabetes detailed case review service that considers the entire patient history including blood glucose curves. We can then provide ongoing support interpreting further curves so that there is continuity of care.
My vet wants my pet to be referred elsewhere, what should I do?
Several UK referral practices accept referrals in oncology and internal medicine and some primary care practices may have a preferred referral partner for this.
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Owners remain free to decide whom they want involved in their pet’s care and their vets are obliged to share clinical notes with whichever vets the owner ask them to.
However, team-work and agreement are key to getting the best outcomes so if your vet suggests a service other than ours then we would recommend you discuss their reasons for doing so.
For example, our owner consultation service is typically inappropriate for acutely and severely ill animals who may require urgent intervention.