Pete the Vet's Podcast

This week's short podcast discusses skin tumours in older dogs: these are common, and they are usually harmless. Listen in to find out more!

This short podcast discusses how ticks become more common in the early summer, and what can be done to control them effectively in pets.

The BSAVA congress is one of the biggest pet vet gatherings in the world: here's a short review of some of the discussions and learnings

Inhaled medication - as used by humans with asthma - are sometimes used to treat dogs and cats with nasal and lung disease. This short podcast explains the basics of how this effective form of treatment is used.

Spaying and neutering pets is important to control excessive populations of dogs and cats, but it's important to carry out an individual assessment of the impact of these operations on the pet's health before going ahead. To find out more, listen here.

In the UK, it is now illegal to own an XL Bully dog if you have not applied for a certificate of exemption for your pet. This short podcast outlines the details of the ban, including the pros and cons for this strict new law, as well as discussing what Ireland plans to do about the risk to the public from some of these dogs.

This short podcast is a from a short radio interview on Spirit radio. We discuss the surge in dogs being abandoned and surrendered to animal rescues, and we talk about what can be done to help

Dementia is a common problem in older pets: listen to this ten minute podcast to learn more about what happens, and what can be done to help.

From dog and cat toys to pet cams and more, this short podcast discusses pet related Christmas gifts

We all need a good night's sleep. So what should we do when our pets wake us up in the early hours? How can we get them to stop? Listen to the podcast to find out.

This week's podcast starts with a question from a listener about feral kittens, moving on to a discussion about how foster rescue charities work (with Milo's Mission being a great example).

In this interview, Pete explains why the XL Bully ban in the UK is destined for disaster, and he talks about different ways of dealing with the serious problem caused when large, muscular, powerful dogs go out of control.

In the USA, therapy cats are being used like dogs to visit people in hospitals. This podcasts discusses the pros and cons of this idea.

World Animal Week is a time to remember the animals in our lives. Listen to find out more about what the ISPCA is doing to help animals in Ireland

The ISPCA is having a Cycle Away From Cruelty event on Saturday 7th October. Listen in to find out more

This six minute podcast discusses the latest stray dog control statistics from Ireland.

After discussing the tragedy around the Ironman event in Cork, Pete went on to discuss puppy farms in Ireland. Two contrasting topics. Plenty to say about each.

In New Zealand, a school set up a competition to reduce the local feral cat population by asking children to shoot cats dead. After a huge outcry, this crazy idea was abandoned. But it does raise the issue: what is the best way to control feral cat populations?

An inter-departmental working group has just made a submission to Cabinet with suggestions for improving the control of dogs, including forty new dog wardens, increased on-the-spot fines, and a unified dog microchip database, accessible to the dog licensing system. Listen to this seven minute podcast to find out more.

Irish dog pounds and rescue centres are overloaded with unwanted dogs, either abandoned or surrendered by their owners. To find out more about this, listen to this 10 minute discussion on my podcast.

The diagnostic ability of vets has improved dramatically in the past twenty years, using a range of high tech equipment. Owners often do not realise this, as it happens behind the scenes. This short podcast outlines how laboratory and diagnostic imaging equipment has enabled rapid and effective diagnosis of pet illnesses that might formerly have remained a mystery.

In this week's vet spot, we discussed a recent case from my clinic, when a dog needed an operation to remove a stone that had accidentally been swallowed, and then had become stuck in the intestines.

In the wake of the dreadful attack on a child in Wexford this week, here's a discussion about how we handle dog attacks in Irish society, and how, perhaps, we could do this better.

In this week's 15 minute podcast, after an initial chat about phones (a shared interest of myself and Declan Meehan, the interviewer), we discussed the recent debate about a live animal crib in Dublin city centre, and we went on to talk about animals dreaming.

In this interview from Spirit Radio, I discuss issues for pets at this time of year, including how to keep them calm and relaxed when there are fireworks going off outside.