Stawell Veterinary Clinic

17/08/2026

Raw chicken wings are often recommended for keeping pets' teeth clean, but they carry real risks. ⚠️ Raw chicken can harbour bacteria such as Salmonella, and in Australia it has been linked to acute polyradiculoneuritis (APN), a serious paralysis condition in dogs.

Bones can also fracture teeth, cause choking, or injure the gut. 🦴 The dental benefit rarely outweighs these dangers.

Ask us about proven, safer alternatives like veterinary dental diets and chews. 🦷

12/08/2026

Sometimes all you need is some helpful advice at the end of the phone 🐮

We are so grateful for this beautiful card and the delicious morning tea that came with it 🤤 yum!!

12/08/2026

In a calm moment, gently lift your cat's lip and look for red or bleeding gums, yellow-brown tartar, broken teeth, or swelling. 🔍

Also watch for drooling, dropping food, chewing on one side, pawing at the mouth, or going off dry food. Cats rarely show obvious pain, so subtle changes matter. 🐾

Home checks are useful, but they can't detect disease below the gumline, where most problems hide. Regular veterinary dental checks are still essential. 🩺

Book a dental check with our team.

10/08/2026

A healthy cat's breath shouldn't clear the room. 😮‍💨 Persistent bad breath is most often caused by dental disease, including gingivitis, periodontal disease, and painful tooth resorption, which affects many cats. 🦷 It can also signal problems elsewhere in the body, such as kidney disease or diabetes.

Because cats are experts at hiding pain, smelly breath may be the only clue. 🐱 If your cat's breath has turned foul, book a check-up so we can find the cause.

07/08/2026

Wishing everyone a happy weekend, from Tortellini and the Stawell Vet team 🐢🥰

05/08/2026

Water additives can be a helpful addition to your dog's dental care routine, with some products shown to reduce plaque and freshen breath. 💧 However, they're a supporting act, not the star. Nothing replaces daily tooth brushing and professional dental care. 🪥

Look for products carrying the Veterinary Oral Health Council (VOHC) seal, which means they've been independently tested for effectiveness. 🔎 Unsure which products are worthwhile? Ask us for a recommendation.

03/08/2026

Dogs who love chewing balls, sticks, or bones often wear their teeth down over time. Slow, gradual wear may be harmless, as the tooth can protect itself by laying down extra dentine. 🦷

Rapid wear, however, can expose the sensitive pulp, causing pain and infection, often with no obvious signs. ⚠️ If your dog's teeth look flattened, have dark centres, or are chipped, book a dental check.

Swapping abrasive toys like tennis balls for softer chews helps prevent further damage. 🎾

31/07/2026

We just want to provide some context to the changing face of after-hours emergency care from a purely business standpoint.
Prior to the recent increase in our after-hours load, the cost to the clinic to just provide a service for the 50% of days that we were on call was around $50,000. This pays for nurses and vets to be on call and significant costs of a triage service. When we were sharing after-hours, our vets would often triage their own calls during reasonable hours of the day to reduce the triage costs and provide a more personal approach. We are now in a position with neighbouring clinics no longer providing even a triage service that we are getting an influx of calls after hours and we are not in a position to field the higher volume and all calls are going through the triage service. Hence, there is a massive increase in our triage costs.
Now that we are on call twice as many days we anticipate that the cost of providing an after hours services will now be close to $100,000 per year.
Veterinary nurses are entitled to 3-4 hours of overtime each time they are called into work. The fee we charge clients for a nurse call back entirely goes to the nurse. Veterinarians are not entitled overtime as such but the award sets out 50% of professional fees be paid to the vet (we pay our vets a higher percentage than this to recompense them for the extra work)
We take all this into account when we create our fees for after hours.
This does mean there is minimal “profit” as such from after hours calls to cover the estimated $100K cost.
We are currently working through models that mean clients of other clinics may need to pay a triage fee to reach out to us.
Details of how we provide both triage and after hours care in the future will be released as we work through the process.
Thanks to everyone, especially our staff, for their understanding during this difficult transition time.

30/07/2026

An update on bird flu! Please remember to phone ahead about wildlife, especially birds, as we currently have very specific protocols in place to keep us all safe 🦆

H5 bird flu (H5N1 HPAI) has now been detected in Victoria after a Greater Crested Tern discovered in Portland tested positive for the virus.

We are incredibly concerned about the catastrophic impact this strain may have on our wildlife both in Victoria and across Australia.

We encourage members of the public to follow these simple steps if they see wildlife exhibiting symptoms of H5 bird flu:

🚫 AVOID contact with sick or dead wild birds or wildlife and their environment.

📝 RECORD what you see.

📞 REPORT wildlife sickness or deaths to the Emergency Animal Disease Hotline on 1800 675 888.

📍 Report clusters of 5 or more sick or dead wild birds of any species, anywhere in Victoria. Also report even one sick or dead:
- wild seabird, waterbird, shorebird or bird of prey.
- marine mammal (e.g. seal, sea lion, dolphin).

We want to commend the Victorian community who have been on alert and reporting suspected cases across the state since H5 bird flu was first detected on mainland Australia. We encourage the public to remain vigilant and to continue to report any suspected cases.

For the latest updates, visit birdflu.gov.au or agriculture.vic.gov.au/birdflu

27/07/2026

❌ Content warning - see the original photos in the comments, they do contain a large wound.

Occasionally we can’t bandage a particular area of our patients so we use this method of placing sutures around a wound that we can use like shoe lace loops to keep a bandage in place! It also allows us to replace bandages in these patients awake when required.