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Small Mammals

Valley Vets are pleased to offer a comprehensive, caring service to small companion mammals kept as pets – ferrets, guinea pigs, rats, chinchillas, mice, degus, hedgehogs and hamsters.

  • We offer 1st opinion and referral services for small mammals, including rabbits, guinea pigs, chinchillas, masters, gerbils, rats, mice, sugar gliders and pygmy hedgehogs 
  • Our referral small mammal work is limited to Valley Veterinary Hospital where, Dr Tariq Abou-Zahr BVSc CertAVP(ZooMed) MRCVS, our avian and exotic vet, has a special interest and has undertaken further training/qualifications in the veterinary care of small mammals. Please contact us for further information.
  • We strongly advise regular vaccination of all ferrets to help protect against distemper virus.
  • We recommend annual full physical examinations of all small companion mammals.
  • At Valley Veterinary Hospital we have an emergency service called Valley 24/7 care. This means that we can provide uninterrupted continual care to our patients on-site, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
  • We have facilities to hospitalize prey species away from predator species (dogs, cat and ferrets) in all our branches, as well as separate isolation kennels for infectious cases. This helps to minimize stress, whilst hospitalized. We also use lots of hay and hide boxes, as appropriate, to help further reduce stress. If your small companion mammal has a friend / mate, then we highly recommend they also stay with us during the period that the patient is hospitalized.
  • Small companion mammal owners are often extremely worried about their pet requiring a general anaesthetic for any procedure as there are many sources of information that suggest anaesthetics in these animals are very high risk. Valley Vets firmly believe that provided the individual is not unduly stressed prior to anaesthesia and that good, effective analgesia is maintained before, during and after surgery, then risks can be dramatically minimised, though unfortunately never eliminated completely. Please discuss any worries with our staff.
  • We provide comprehensive medical, dental and surgical care, including orthopaedic surgery. More complex dental and orthopaedic surgery is done at Valley Veterinary Hospital
  • We strongly advise that ferrets are NOT neutered and that hormone implants are used to control reproductive hormones.
  • We advise early neutering of female rats to prevent mammary cancer later in life.
  • Valley Vets encourages all clients to insure their pets to help cover veterinary treatment fees.

Our Cardiff, Ystrad Mynach and Caerphilly branches are accredited Veterinary Nurse Training Practices. Student veterinary nurses work alongside our qualified staff and attend external college regularly, to attain the qualifications necessary to become an RVN (Registered Veterinary Nurse). To retain this qualification, our RVN’s must attend regular and on-going training courses each and every year.

Please contact us to make an appointment with a nurse, or a veterinary surgeon.