A LOCAL veterinary service isn’t letting the pandemic stop them from ensuring sick and injured animals get the care they need.

Paragon Veterinary Group has dealt with everything – from delivering calves, a puppy with a broken leg, and a dog who swallowed a sock – while the country has been under lockdown.

Farm vets are key workers but other vets are not, yet surgeons across the UK have kept their businesses open regardless to be able to provide emergency care.

Graham Lewis, who specialises in treating small animals, said: “Emergencies are still happening.

“We had a puppy with a broken leg and we had to pull a sock out of a dog the other day.

“I removed 14 teeth from a dog that had a really sore mouth – we are not going to let that go without treatment.”

They have adapted the way the business works to ensure they are abiding by the government’s guidance on social distancing so that no animal gets left behind. This includes telephone and video consultations, and socially-distanced procedures.

“We are still offering a service to our clients,” said Graham. “If a pet, horse or farm animal is ill we have a duty of care to that animal in our view.

“We are trying to carefully balance providing our service with preventing risk to our staff and risk to the public.”

People who need pet food or medication are able to have this delivered by the Paragon team for free as long as they are in a ten-mile radius of their centres.

For people who are self isolating, arrangements can be made to collect their sick pets from outside the house to minimise contact.

“We are taking animals from clients in the car park and examining them in small teams,” said Graham. “All the vets in the country are still open, because animals can’t just be forgotten about during this crisis.”