What is like being a vet nurse student

In today’s blog I’m going to talk about myself a little bit, the girl that is behind the Facebook page and all those blogs and posts.

So let’s begin.

My name is Paula and I’m a veterinary nurse student in Cork Ireland. I recently finished my first year of college with excellent results and can’t wait to start second year in September.

Being a veterinary nurse student is extremely hard. The pressure and stress that the college put me through was extremely high. However, it all was worth it at the end. I met a lot of amazing people throughout that year and I hope I’ll see them in September.




Despite all the college work that I had to do on a daily basis, I still had to attend my work placement, which was hard at the beginning because I didn’t know anything about being a vet nurse. This was putting me under even more stress as I was worried about my college work but had to focus on work too.

However, with time I got to know the people that I was working with and eventually we got on well at the end. I have learned a lot from my work placement, it’s crazy how much you can learn just in a year. And also I will be seeing them again in September.

Being a vet nurse is a really hard job. Working long hours with a minimum pay, but most of vet nurses don’t do that for money, we all want to help animals. Seeing a sick dog coming into the clinic is a terrible thing for the owner and it’s really sad, but you do everything in your power to help this animal to make his life as pain free and comfortable as possible, and that’s what is the best in this job you can watch happiness. When the dog meets the owner after a long surgery, words can’t explain that feeling.  It’s just amazing.

I was working a long hours, I was scratched, peed on, pooped on and I was covered in hair looking like a grizzly bear, but despite all those nasty things, I love my job and I don’t think I’ll change my mind on that one.

I began writing blogs because since I have a little bit of knowledge about animals and their health, nutrition and everything. I thought I could write about this, about Gina and her problems and also I could help other people understand and take care of their own pets.

Since I already had the Facebook page and Gina & Friends website, I thought I could share my thoughts and information with people of Facebook and all the furry creatures that are walking on the earth. The Facebook page and website was designed by my amazing boyfriend Chris.  Without him all this wouldn’t exist, and I wouldn’t be here talking to all of you out there, because Chris convinced me to apply to college and move to Cork, so thanks to him I will do my dream job in just a year time.

Competition Time

It’s a competition time my furry friends!!
Send us your favourite picture of your pet, like and share our Facebook page and the competition post, and we will pick the cutest picture. So you can be with in a chance of winning our prize!
Which is a Eukanuba 15 kg bag of Adult food for a medium breed dog (10-25kg)
The competition ends on 14th of July.

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What to do with our furry friends when we are going on a holiday abroad?

What to do with our furry friends when we are going on a holiday abroad?images

It’s always hard to leave our furry friends behind when going on a holiday. They all have those puppy eyes that scream ‘’why are you leaving me here’’?

I know it’s horrible to look at that I had to go through that as well.

However now there are a lot of people that are taking dogs and cats to their own home to take care of them while you are on a holiday. They are called animal hotels or dog hotels. They are extremely helpful and they actually take care of your animal. I have personally gone to one while I was going on my holiday.
That place is called Holiday Canine Care and she is based in Ashbourne, Ireland. She took the best care of Gina.




However, if you don’t want to leave your doggie in someone’s home you can always try vet clinics that have boarding kennels. Your dog would be under a vet care. This choice is better for dogs and cats that have some medical issues and needs to be given medication regularly.

Before leaving your doggie in kennels you have to know that your dog needs to be vaccinated against kennel cough. This as its name shows its spread in kennels. Some kennels are poorly ventilated, overcrowded and are cold and damp.

Kennel cough is spread through air, so the dog is inhaling the virus and bacteria called Bordetella. It’s not fatal diseases, but dogs need to be treated immediately.

The symptoms of kennel cough are a persistent smoker’s cough. Some dogs may show other symptoms such as sneezing, eye discharge and runny nose.

If you think your dog may have kennel cough you have to isolate him from other dogs and bring him to the vet immediately.

How to treat and prevent kennel cough?

  • Give the dog a course of antibiotic to kill the bacteria
  • Keep him in well ventilated areas.
  • Kennel cough vaccinations are generally given to dogs once a year at the annual check-up, or three weeks before boarding.
  • This vaccination is different from others as it’s given intranasally meaning it’s given through nose.

So now you know what to do with your furry friends when you want to go for a holiday. Just remember to vaccinated them before to prevent them from necessary pain and discomfort.stockfresh_2283471_dog-sunbathing_sizeXS-300x200

Love Gina.

How to prevent fleas

In today’s blog I’m going to talk about fleas.
What are they, what do they look like, clinical signs,  how to successfully kill them and prevent them and also what kind of diseases they can transit in between dogs/cats.

So what are they? Fleas are ectoparasites, meaning they live outside the body. They may cause a lot of discomfort and even spread diseases.
Fleas are small black wingless and really hard parasites that live of our furry friends by drinking their blood. They are flattened which helps them run through the dense fur. Fleas have 3 pairs of legs but also they have one pair of long legs at the back which is used for jumping.download




There are few clinical signs that your dog/cat may have fleas.

  • Pruritus which is excessive scratching
  • Alopecia which is hair loss
  • Scabs
  • Self-trauma from scratching a long time
  • Anaemia from blood loss

How to look for fleas on your pet?

  • To look for adult fleas and their faeces can be done by combing the coat this can be done with a human louse comb or a thin comb.
  • Your dog or cat can be brushed over a damp piece of white paper, the faeces may fall on to the paper, they look like a small black dots as they contain a huge amount of undigested blood.
  • When the faeces fall on to the paper a red ring will appear around the black dot. That way you are sure that your dog has fleas.

When you found fleas on your dog/cat then you can go to the veterinary clinic to consult that with the vet and he may give you advises what to do next.

To kill fleas you have to treat the environment first, as this is where they all live. There are special sprays that can be used to kill fleas. Spray’s such as RIP fleas, which actually works. After you spray the area, wait few hours then hoover everything and wash your dog’s bed in boiling water.

After you finish all those steps you can begin treating your animal with spot on’s such as frontline pet medsFrontline once a month. Simply expose the skin on dog’s neck and apply the liquid. Do not touch the area for one hour and don’t let kids touch it as well.

To prevent your dog getting fleas again, keep using the flea treatment regularly.

Fleas can transmit worms such as tapeworm from dog to dog, and also agents that cause feline leukaemia from infected cat to a healthy but not vaccinated cat. Also fleas are responsible from spreading Bartonella henselae from cat to cat the bacteria that is responsible for cat scratch disease in humans, it’s believed that cats claws may be full of bacteria probably transmitted from cat grooming of infected fleas in the coat.

So please treat your animals against fleas as this may reduce the spread of diseases and the infestations in home.

Hot Cars Kill!

imagesHot cars kill dogs.

That’s a pretty serious topic to talk about. I think some people don’t realise that their cars can go up to a crazy temperatures just in few minutes, and change into an over heated oven. For a dog that’s a nightmare.

Dogs can’t take their fur off just like humans do with clothes. Dogs are not able to sweat like humans, their only way to cool down is through breathing and when the air is hot they are unable to do that.




Recently there was a case of a dog that died from a heat stroke in a car. The owner left the dog in the car for few hours with no water no shade and all windows were closed, the owner himself went to some festival. I think people like that should never have any animals under their care.
In hot day like today it’s better to leave your dog at home. That way you might save your dog’s life.

If you’re going for a walk with your dog take a bottle of water and make sure there’s plenty of shade where you’re going. Never go with the dog into an open field without a shade.

Gina gets warm really quickly as she has a double coat. In a warm day we usually go for a quick walk and then play in the back garden where there’s an easy access to a shade and water. Sometimes, I put few ice cubes into Gina’s water bowl to help her cool down.

Remember if you’ll find a dog locked in a car in a hot weather, call 911 immediately.

Kong Toys for our furry friends

Kong toys are really good for our furry friends. Not only they keep their teeth clean but also it keeps your doggie entertained for a while as he needs to figure out how to get the treats out of the Kong toy. They need to think and they do 20_kong_with_biscuitsbecause dogs are extremely smart animals.

Kong toy is very safe for dogs to play with. They come in different colours such as red, black, green, blue, but also it comes in different shapes and sizes, for all the doggies that are out there.

You can have a Kong toy which can be stuffed with dog treats or food. Other types of Kong toys have no holes but teeth where you can place the food, which is harder for dogs to take it out.




There’re also small Kong toys for puppies why they are teething, which helps to keep them occupied and to prevent the puppy to bite everything in the house. I think we all had that when all our dogs were small.

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The toy that Gina has is a rubber dental ball which I think is still qualified as a Kong toy, and it has a mint smell

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So here I have a video that I made today of Gina eating and playing with the rubber dental ball.  She didn’t want to play with it at the beginning, but towards the end she was interested with it.

A day of Gina’s life

People that don’t have dogs or those that don’t like animals would think that dogs have really boring life and the only thing they do is sleeping, eating and pooping. However, dogs have really interesting life they are really curious animals wanting your attention and love.

Gina is a German shepherd and she is the most curious dog in the world, wanting to find and know everything.
I will tell you what Gina’s day looks like.

She wakes up around 7 am every morning, she then goes to every single room and waked everybody with a slobby kisses and licks on our faces. Then I get up and let Gina outside to the back garden so she can do her business in the back. When she’s done we’re going back to the bed until 9 am.

At 9am I usually make breakfast for myself and Gina. Then I get dressed and we go to the park for our morning jogs and walks.

We come back home Gina drinks a lot of water and eats her food, and I do the same thing, then she has her 1 hour sleep that was she do every day. During that time I do my work and clean the house.
Sometimes I go shopping with my mum or sister.

Our second walk is usually at around 12/1 pm we first of all go for a quick walk and then we go home to grab some tennis balls and go to a field where Gina can have some fun and exercise.

Gina has a very strong character and she’s really stubborn sometimes. So when we’re at the field I’m trying to train her to wait for me, to give me the ball back etc. she is getting a lot better now. She has her days like everybody when she just doesn’t want to listen.
When we come back home we usually play in the back garden.




The next walk or should I say jog/exercise is at 5pm just before Gina’s dinner and 6pm. We go to the park for 30minutes/1hour. Then someone in the house usually makes food for Gina, and when we come back she inhales the food.

Sometimes we have late evening walks as well if it’s not raining, and the bed time for Gina is usually at 9pm.
Gina’s life is full of love, play and a lot of sleep.;D

Below is Gina sleeping in her huge bed after an afternoon walk.

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