The first truly revolutionary cat handling gloves. Hello everyone. My name is Clem and I run a company called 1 to 1 Animal Handling Products.
My background is zoos and public aquariums, but I am also involved now in the wonderful world of cute, but mostly unpredictable cats. I am here today to present a unique product, and this product is a glove. But it's a glove made of a revolutionary fabric that has already been used by vets in zoos where it had been tested against some of the most dangerous species in the world.
And it's finally come to the small animal veterinary market. I am going to talk you through the features of the glove and how you can use it to protect your veterinary staff, but also protect the welfare of your pet patients. Health and safety alerts.
90% of injuries received in small animal veterinary practise are due to scratches and bites. The source of this statistic is the BVA or British Veterinary Association. In a publication titled Voice of the Veterinary Profession Survey.
It states, and I quote, The British Veterinary Association, the BVA is urging veterinary teams and pet owners to work together to improve safety in surgeries, as new figures reveal that 2/3, or 64% of small animal vets have been injured in the course of their work in the last year. BVA's Voice of the Veterinary Profession survey found that by far the most common injuries were scratches and bites. 90% of injured vets had received scratches and 78% have suffered bites.
As someone new to the industry, I'm shocked at the size and scale of this problem. It's also shocking that there is a kind of acceptance to these injuries. While veterinary teams might accept the daily risk of being injured at work, these incidents can have a significant impact to individuals and to the practise.
The impacts of the injuries. Huge costs to the veterinary business. Injuries often require medical treatment.
50% of staff rated these injuries as severe. Deep cut bites, more common than superficial scratches, and cut injuries require medical attention. And it's not just the number of injuries, it's actually shocking how severe they can be.
If the need for medical treatment and antibiotics is not bad enough, what about the impact on the individual and on the business? Not to mention if it turns out to be a case of a cat bite carrying the deadly Paorella maltoida bacteria. I went out to ask members of the profession that have worked on the front line for a number of years on their thoughts on cat injuries.
And all clinical staff I spoke to have either had a nasty injury themselves or seen one happen to a colleague. While there is an apathy among some, there are many who feel that we need to do something more to protect our teams. While staff have a responsibility to look after themselves and work as safely as possible, we all have a responsibility to give people the right tools to reduce the risks as much as possible.
Issues with current handling techniques. Some restraint techniques can be extremely stressful to the pet, and this may escalate into fear associated aggression. We are much more aware of how effective handling can improve welfare.
I can actually relate to the towel technique, as that was used in zoos as well. It was actually a game-changing moment for the gloves in the world of zoos when I first learned about the use of towels to restrain an animal. We'd only been promoting the gloves for a year or so for the protection against venomous snakes and constrictors.
When I got a phone call from the head reptile keeper at London Zoo, Mr. Ian Stevens. He said, come and visit me.
As I have something interesting to show you. I was taken to an enclosure of a Philippine water monitor lizard. I put on the gloves, opened the cage, and coached the lizard out.
He then held it in front of me. A short silence, and he asked, what do you think of this? And at the time, I knew very little about lizards, and in my infinite wisdom, I replied, how cute!
And I attempted to stroke it. When Ian quickly intervened and burst out, you silly Dutchman, you haven't got a clue, have you? This little fella has put 2 people in hospital in the first week it arrived.
When he needs to be moved, we use towels, and it actually takes two of us to wrestle him to ensure control. And this causes a lot of stress, as the lizard goes into survival mode. Now with your gloves, we can pick him up gently and move him from A to B, and he doesn't even seem to mind.
As the handler is more relaxed, knowing he or she has the best protection against injuries, this results in a direct calming effect on the animal. Animal welfare, I said, that's a great quality offered by these gloves. There are different restraint options, but none provide the perfect solution or tick all the boxes of welfare for the animal, protection for the handler, and the dexterity you need for the procedure.
Towels. I've heard of multiple injuries happening despite using a towel. Also of cuts going blue or being asphyxiated when you can't see them to monitor them properly.
Leather gloves. Cats are more likely to escape, as these just don't provide enough dexterity, and through the thickness, there is also the risk of injury to the animal, not to mention the smell of the gloves, as those can't be laundered, resulting in nurses simply not willing to use them. Gardening gloves, these simply don't provide enough protection as they're not high enough.
But people are effectively making do with what they've got. Important to realise much of personal protective equipment cannot be laundered, so it retains scent that become offensive to cats and other species. Inadequate restraint increases risk of stress, escape, or patient injuries.
So we've talked about the problem and I'm now introducing the solution. Introducing the Venom Defender animal handling gloves. Defend and defender animal handling gloves have been used to restrain some of the most dangerous species in the world.
Trusted by many veterinary experts in zoos, these gloves have finally come to the small animal veterinary workplace. And its track record at zoos speaks volumes, and the wide range of applications for which they are used each and every time amazes even us. And sometimes even touches our heartstrings.
For example, A short while ago, a keeper at Chester Zoo told us about the difficulties she had when checking penguin eggs and chicks. When she tries to reach into the nest to retrieve either of these, the parents fiercely defend and peck quite hard, and on a few occasions when she had been forced to pull away, the parents inadvertently pecked their own chick, which then sustained horrible injuries. This is, of course, by anyone's imagination, a terrible experience, but she said that since working with our gloves, this was now a thing of the past.
Following on from the last examples, the reason this glove has been so successful in the zoo world. Is exactly the same reason why it is so suitable in the small animal veterinary worlds. It actually gives the handler dexterity, it provides better protection, but most importantly, it much improves animal welfare.
The glove is designed to be supple and becomes more flexible with use, which allows maximum dexterity for the animal handler. This minimises the risk of injury or pain to even the smallest of ferries. The features of the fabric allow for minimal restraint which reduces stress in your animal patients.
The gloves are fully launderable, which reduce the incidence of scent-induced stress in cuts and minimises the risk of disease transmission. Cutt welfare schemes highlight the importance of minimal handling, and these gloves ensure minimal interaction with the least amount of stress. The gloves feature advanced guard plate technology that offers by pressure reduction and ultimate protection against punctures, scratches, and needle stick injuries.
They have a pre-curved shape for maximum comfort with full coverage design for hand and forearm. At the very beginning, launched this protection against venomous snakes and large constrictors. The material is well suited to protect against the teeth of a cat.
The gloves feature 3 layers of high dexterity, performance fabric. Advanced guard plate technology adhered to high performance fabric providing superior puncture protection. They're engineered to provide the highest level of hypodermic needle stick protection available on the market.
And it's hard to imagine when feeling how soft the gloves are, that there are actually 3 layers involved in the makeup. Yet these 3 layers crisscross overlapping super fabric, ensure that if one layer gives way, there is another. And if that one gets punctured too, there is yet another.
This revolutionary safety product truly brings together the highest level of protection with the highest level of dexterity, combining these two features in the most efficient way. And I'll just show you, this is the glove, very, very soft. Truly amazing.
The gloves feature specialised silicon gripping service on the palm, bite pressure reducing technology. And the gloss can be machine washed at 30 degrees, and they typically dry within 6 hours. They are also successfully tested for degradation against disinfectants.
Now, I don't wish to preach to the converted about how to restrain cats, especially in the midst of a group of experienced veterinary professionals. But I would like to go through the steps in the context of the gloves. Step one would be with the correct size of gloves selected, prepare to greet the patient by adopting a positive demeanour.
Step 2 is to approach the cat quietly and calmly so as not to startle, avoid eye contact. Step 3, when restraining for the procedure, use the dexterity of the glove to gain maximum control with minimal restraint. Step 4, gently move the car back to its safe area.
Step 5, inspect the fabric of the glove for any damage and launder after use. Now, because this is a high performance fabric, it does need checking regularly, as damage could indicate that the gloves need replacing. These are some of the comments we've heard from your colleagues in the profession.
We learned of changed dynamics due to less stress. Subsequent increased confidence, and generally a happier vibe due to a change in dynamics. And overall, the feedback is, after working with our gloves that vets and nurses cannot imagine how they managed before.
And on that note, I would like to thank you for your attention. It was a pleasure telling you about something which can make such a huge difference. If you would like to receive more information, then please get in touch or visit our website where you can download our brochure.
Thank you for listening.
