George Animal Hospital

📢 NOTICE: PUBLIC HOLIDAY CLOSURE

Please note that we will be closed on Thursday, 24 September 2026.

For emergencies, please call 082 37 66 555.

Thank you for your understanding. We wish everyone a wonderful Heritage Day!

Did you know that some of our patients swallow a magnet on purpose?

Cattle are not careful eaters. They take in mouthfuls of grass and hay without much sorting, and every now and then something else comes along for the ride. A piece of fencing wire. An old nail. A staple off a bale.

That metal sinks down into the reticulum, one of the four compartments of a cow's stomach. The trouble is that this compartment contracts hard, and a sharp piece of wire can get pushed straight through the wall. From there it can reach the diaphragm, and in the worst cases the sac around the heart. Farmers call it hardware disease, and by the time the cow looks ill, it is usually serious.

So we get ahead of it. The animal is given a smooth cylindrical magnet, which settles into that same compartment and stays there for the rest of her life, holding whatever metal she swallows safely against itself.

A permanent magnet, living inside a cow, quietly doing its job for years.

This is the sort of thing that comes with being the only multi-species hospital in George. Dogs and cats in the consulting room, cattle and horses out on the farms, and the occasional bit of physics in between.

Running cattle or small stock on the Garden Route? Call 044 874 4259 and let us arrange a herd visit.

Dog parking. Bay always open, no ticket required.

Small thing, but it makes a difference. Clip the lead here while you pay or have a look around the shop, and your dog stays put and settled instead of doing laps around your ankles.

We built this place for animals first. Right down to the parking. ;)

Quick one, George. Your shampoo is too harsh for your dog.

Human skin sits on the acidic side. Dog skin sits closer to neutral, and their skin barrier is thinner than ours. Wash them in what you use and you strip the oils that keep that barrier doing its job. That is how you end up with a dry, flaky, itchy dog who smells lovely for two days and scratches for two weeks.

These three live on our shelf for a reason. Hypoallergenic for sensitive skin. De-tangling for the coats that knot if you look at them wrong. Regular for the everyday wash.

And if the itching carries on after the right shampoo, that is not a bathing problem. That is a skin problem, and it is worth a look.

Pop in at 65 Albert Street and ask us which one suits your pet.

This is the part of the day you never get to see.

Anaesthesia is not sleep. It is a controlled state, and it has to be watched, adjusted and held steady from the first breath to the last one.

So while one pair of hands does the work, another pair stays on the patient. Heart rate. Breathing. Blood pressure. Temperature. The colour of the gums, the depth of every breath. Small changes get caught early, because early is where the safety lives.

And somewhere in the middle of all that, someone is usually holding a paw.

Your dierekind is never alone in our theatre.

Not every patient fits through our front door.

Which is exactly why this bakkie exists.

Some days it is a farm call for a cow that has gone off her feed. Some days it is a horse that needs looking at in its own stable, where it is calm. Some days it is a house call for an old dog who finds the trip into town harder than the examination itself.

As the only multi-species hospital in George, we are equipped to go to the animal when the animal cannot come to us.

Something on the farm that needs eyes on it? Call 044 874 4259 and we will arrange a time.

The best diagnostic tool in this room is not the stethoscope.

It is the person standing on the other side of the table.

You are the one who noticed she was slower up the stairs this week. You know she went off her food on Tuesday, that she has been drinking more, that she stopped meeting you at the gate. None of that shows up on a blood test, but all of it tells us where to start looking.

So when Dr Blignaut asks his questions, give him the small things. The odd ones. The "it is probably nothing, but..." ones. Those are usually the ones that matter.

You bring the details. We will bring the rest.

THIS IS HOW MUCH WE LOVE OUR NEW LOGO!

We know. You sign the form, you kiss the head, you walk out, and then you check your phone for three hours straight.

So here is what those three hours actually look like. Your dierekind is not lying alone in a room somewhere. There are at least two of us at that table. One pair of hands on the patient, holding the position steady and comfortable. One pair of eyes on the machine, watching the breathing, the depth, the numbers, minute by minute.

Anaesthetic is never set and forget. Somebody is with your animal the whole way through, from the moment they go under to the moment they lift their head and start looking around for you.

Then we phone you. Usually before you have finished worrying.

After-hours emergency: 082 376 6555