Specialist Care Services

Medicine

The Medicine Service at the VSC includes Dr Phil Brain. The Medicine Service accepts cases for investigation with clinical problems that are not obviously surgical. These may include vomiting, diarrhoea, difficulty breathing, exercise intolerance , excessive drinking, malaise, weight loss/weight gain, anaemia and fever. Sometimes, if a case is found to have a non-medical disease, and, for example, needs surgery or cancer treatment, it may be transferred to another service within the VSC

Typically, after an initial consultation, a patient will be admitted for further investigation such as blood tests, radiographs, ultrasound or endoscopy. After tests, animals may need to go back home to await results, but some may need to stay in for additional treatment, according to how unwell they are.

Our Medicine team is strongly motivated by the ‘detective’ work required to establish a diagnosis and the resulting ability to make animals better, whenever possible.

Our team is happy to discuss cases over the telephone with veterinary colleagues, but is unable to discuss cases with owners prior to a formal consultation.

Medicine Case - Myasthenia Gravis

This patient has myasthenia gravis based on a positive edrophonium response test. She was subsequently found to have a thymoma which was surgically removed and the patient fully recovered