Medicine

Feline medicine is a rapidly growing field and the University of Sydney is leading the world in this area. We are proud to be able to offer the highest level of care for our sick feline patients. Our Feline Medicine team consists of feline Medicine Specialist Dr Lara Boland and resident Dr Emily Pritchard.

Our purpose built, state-of-the-art feline hospital, The Valentine Charlton Cat Centre opened in December 2004. The Feline Referral Service is the busiest in the hospital and continues to prosper. Facilities include chemotherapy and a nuclear medicine unit for the treatment of cats with hyperthyroidism. Our experienced team deals with very challenging cases and provides our patients with high level care. The Valentine Charlton Cat Centre boasts an accredited training program for veterinarians to gain internationally recognized specialist registration in feline medicine (Fellowship training ACVSc, 2 positions).

The Feline Referral Service is also engaged in international clinical research programs such as feline intestinal lymphosarcoma and feline sino-orbital aspergillosis. Our clinician’s reports and research findings are frequently published in specialist journals and are called as speakers at national and international conferences and meetings.

We are able to investigate and treat cardiovascular and respiratory diseases using our state-of-the art diagnostic facilities. Cardiorespiratory investigations often include thoracic radiographs, fluoroscopy, ECG, echocardiography with spectral colour Doppler imaging and bronchoscopy.

Some patients require intensive care and oxygen supplementation. Our highly qualified staff and excellent hospital and treatment facilities ensure that our patients enjoy the highest standard of care.

The diagnosis and treatment of some endocrine diseases can be challenging. Our referral clinicians have expertise in identification of endocrinopathies in small animals and carry out specific endocrine function tests to identify the underlying problem. We also provide excellent care for critically ill patients with diabetic ketoacidosis. We have a dedicated radioiodine unit for the treatment of cats with hyperthyroidism.

Problems of the gastrointestinal tract, pancreas and liver are common in dogs and cats. We are able to investigate these problems using special diagnostic procedures such as fluoroscopy for disorders of swallowing, ultrasound for gastric, intestinal, hepatic or pancreatic diseases and endoscopy for investigation of the gastrointestinal tract.

Our medicine clinicians, working in close association with the imaging and pathology services at UVTHS, cover all aspects of the investigation, diagnosis and treatment of neoplastic (cancerous) diseases.

At the UVTHS we also offer chemotherapy for a variety of oncology cases, alone or in combination with other therapeutic modalities such as surgery. We monitor our chemotherapy patients regularly to ensure the best patient care, remission and quality of life possible.

We see patients with a wide variety of problems including seizure disorders, brain tumours and infectious diseases, including fungal infections. Our clinicians can utilize a wide range of diagnostic tools including advanced imaging to investigate these challenging cases. To facilitate rapid diagnosis of neurological problems in small animal patients, on-site access is available to both a 16 slice CT scanner and MRI machine.