FAQs

No, we highly recommend that all vaccinations are up to date, including kennel cough, as your pet is staying in a kennel environment and kennel cough can be highly contagious, but it is not essential.

In human medicine, when you’re sick, you visit your family doctor. But when you have a special medical need, your doctor will likely recommend you to a specialist consultant – like a cardiologist, a dermatologist or an oncologist. The same is true in veterinary medicine.
Veterinary specialists are veterinarians who specialise in an area of medicine or a specific animal species. These vet specialists start with the five to six years of training at veterinary school, just like other veterinarians. But here’s the difference: specialists also complete an internship and residency in their specialised field, which involves an additional four years of training. At the end of their training vets sit an examination to achieve specialist status and become board certified and then have to continue this registration with further continued professional development.

An intern is a qualified vet who wants to train to be a specialist, so they spend time either rotating through all of the disciplines or focusing on their favourite area of specialism. When they have done a year or two they can then apply for a residency. This allows them to work even closer with a specialist and undertake specialist treatments under their supervision. They will also have to give lectures and attend continuing professional development sessions.

We do our very best for you to be able to see the clinician of your choice, however this is not always possible. This can be due to the availability of appointments, their teaching commitments, annual leave or emergency admissions.
Our specialists work very closely with our residents, so it may be a resident you see who is supervised by the specialist of your choice.

• Anaesthesia and Analgesia
• Cardiothoracic Surgery
• Cardiology
• Dermatology
• Dentistry, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
• Diagnostic Imaging
• Diagnostic Pathology
• Emergency and Critical Care
• Internal Medicine
• Interventional Radiology
• Neurology and Neurosurgery
• Oncology
• Ophthalmology
• Orthopaedics
• Physiotherapy
• Soft Tissue Surgery

We have three different types of appointments, which would determine how quickly your pet will be seen.

• Emergency appointments are for those pets who have a life-threatening condition. We will see these pets the same day.
• Urgent appointments are for pets who do not have a life-threatening condition, but after discussion with your local vet need to be seen and treated within 48 hours, as their condition could develop into a more serious situation.
• Routine appointments could be the next day or in two weeks’ time. We contact you within 48 hours of your vet referring to us to discuss a convenient time for you to bring your pet in for an appointment, we will always offer you the next available appointment.

Our client care and case management teams can answer any questions you may have regarding your upcoming appointment. Our clinical team will discuss your pet’s condition during your first consultant after they have gathered all the information from your referring vet and read your pet’s medical history. Some of our services offer remote appointments if there’s a discussion you would like to have without attending in person.

We have a page on our website which allows you to order repeat medications or obtain a written prescription. Please click here.

We have a full nursing team onsite overnight, along with our intern veterinary surgeons. Each discipline also has an on-call resident overnight. If need be our specialists are also available to attend DWR overnight.

Yes, your pet can become a blood donor. To learn more about the conditions of donation please click here.