George Animal Hospital

28/08/2026

Is your dog shaking his head and scratching his ears?

This irritation is commonly caused by a yest infection in the ear canal.

Bring your pup in for an examination today.

27/08/2026

So a consult becomes a conversation between two people about a third who cannot join in. When did you first notice? Still keen on the food bowl? Slower getting up in the mornings than last winter?

The hands are doing one job. The questions are doing another. You know your dog better than any of us ever will, and the history you give us in the first two minutes often points us straight at the answer before the stethoscope does.

That is why we do not rush a consult. Half of the diagnosis walks in on the other end of the lead.

Book with Dr Blignaut or any of our five vets.

26/08/2026

There is a spot on our front counter, right between the dental posters and the Protexin tub, that has been quietly claimed. Not booked. Claimed. Every morning it gets filled by a small striped supervisor who watches the door, sizes up each new arrival, and decides who is worth a slow blink and who gets ignored completely.

That counter has seen a lot come through it over 27 years. Dogs, cats, a rabbit in a carrier, a parrot in a box, and every so often something considerably larger waiting outside in a trailer. As the only multi-species hospital in George, very little surprises us anymore.

For most of you, that face is the first one you see when you walk in. If you are already nervous about your dierekind's appointment, that is not a bad way to begin.

21/08/2026

Every sterilisation is one less litter born on the street.

This is theatre time that never shows up on an invoice. We work with Vet Scripts, a nonprofit that donates the medication, and our team does the surgery. Between us, the street dogs and cats of George get something they could never afford on their own: a safe procedure, a clean recovery, and a healthier life on the other side.

One sterilised female prevents dozens of unwanted puppies or kittens over her lifetime. That means fewer animals going hungry on the roadside, fewer road accidents, and fewer preventable diseases moving through the pack.

Thank you to Vet Scripts and for making it possible, and to a team that scrubs in for patients who have nobody to speak for them.

Every animal deserves a vet.

19/08/2026

Did you know that a sore ear is a symptom, not a diagnosis?

That swab looks like a small thing. It is not. We roll it onto a glass slide, add a stain, and take it straight to the microscope. Within minutes we know exactly what is living in there.

Yeast turn up looking like tiny peanuts. Bacteria as little dots or rods. Ear mites look like pale crabs scuttling across the slide, and they are every bit as unpleasant as that sounds.

Here is why it matters. Each one needs a different treatment. Drops that clear up yeast will do nothing for mites. Guess wrong, and your dierekind spends another two weeks shaking his head while the real problem digs in deeper.

Dogs, cats, rabbits. We check them all the same way.

Scratching at the ears, shaking the head, or a smell you cannot quite place? WhatsApp us on 078 375 4501 and let us take a proper look.

17/08/2026

Stripes on the move.

A morning out on the farm darting zebra so they could be moved to their new home. Nobody asks a zebra to walk onto a truck, so the work happens under sedation, quickly and calmly, and then they wake up somewhere new with fresh grazing in front of them.

Did you know zebra are one of the trickiest species to move? They are strong, they are fast, and they stress easily. That is why the hood goes on over the eyes and ears the moment they are down. Less to see, less to hear, less to panic about. From there it is all about time. Breathing checked, temperature checked, positioning checked, the team working in near silence, because on a capture the biggest danger is almost never the drugs. It is the stress.

Then the reversal goes in, they get up, and they go and be zebra again.

14/08/2026

Dental decay is a serious issue in our household animals.
Luckily it is easily avoidable, and treatable.

Do you have some questions about dental disease?

13/08/2026

Did you know a horse cannot vomit?

Not "will not." Cannot. The muscle where the oesophagus meets the stomach works like a one-way valve, and the angle it enters at seals tighter as pressure builds. Whatever goes down, stays down.

It sounds like fun trivia until you think about what it actually means. When something goes wrong in a horse's gut, there is no reverse gear. No relief valve. That is why colic is never a "let's see how he looks in the morning" situation.

So watch for the signs: pawing at the ground, rolling, turning to look at the flank, sweating, walking away from food, or no manure passed. A horse that is uncomfortable in the belly needs a phone call, not a wait-and-see.

As the only multi-species hospital in George, we are equipped to care for all of them, not just the usual two. Horses included, day or night.

Call us on 044 874 4259, Mon to Fri, 08:00 to 18:00. After hours, 082 376 6555.

12/08/2026

Not every patient walks in on a lead.

This is a Golden Wildebeest bull, darted so the team could take his measurements ahead of an auction. Horn length and spread get recorded properly and safely, for him and for everyone standing around him.

Did you know that blindfold is doing real work? An immobilised animal can still see and hear everything happening around it. Covering the eyes cuts the stimulation right down and keeps him calm while we work. The stretcher does the rest. He gets carried, not dragged, and every minute under sedation is accounted for. Breathing, temperature, how he is lying. Then the reversal goes in and he gets up and walks back to his herd.

Game work is a different kind of medicine. No consult room, no theatre lights, just a team moving quickly and quietly on a mountainside, because out here the real risk is stress, not the procedure.

As the only multi-species hospital in George, we are equipped to care for all of them, not just the usual two.

09/08/2026