Injuries and illness keep after-hours vet staff busy

Like their owners, pets have after-hours medical dramas. KEITH LYNCH spent a night at the Christchurch After Hours Veterinary Clinic, which provides emergency care for Canterbury's pets.

Despite a rather fetching pink coat, Zuuka isn't a happy cat.

He is under observation at the Christchurch After Hours Veterinary Clinic after being attacked by two dogs. The small pink coat isn't for fashion - Zuuka has serious wounds to his abdomen.

It's just after 8.30pm and staff at the Disraeli St clinic are very busy, with vet Andrew Hay, three nurses and a veterinary student all on duty.

Zuuka is sitting glumly in an oxygen tank.

Carlin, a cavalier king charles spaniel that ate a plant, is in the waiting room.

The nurses are also monitoring a sad-looking cat called Chloe, which has cancer and is on a course of chemotherapy drugs.

In one of the rooms, Hay speaks to the family of Riley, a dog hit by a car. MORE>>

Nice to read something positive about animals in the newspaper...