We came upon this independantly owned vet surgery after having bad experiences with 2 other vets, and I'm so glad we did.
We bought our first ever pet, a german shepherd puppy, and were panicked when we noticed a cyst between 2 of his fingers. We took him to a local vet and they spent 2 minutes looking at his paw and without even explaining or asking us, booked him for surgery the next day and injected him with painkillers and anti-biotics.
Having felt that we were being taken for a ride we made an appointment with the pets practice for a second opinion. The nurses were helpful and polite, and a convenient appointment time was very easy to arrange as they open later than most vets.
Our vet, Kylie, was really wonderful about everything. We told her our concerns, and she examined him, and told us professionally, but also kindly, what we did and didn't need to worry about. We also got to discuss some of our other concerns as first time pet owners, and she was very helpful. For example, she in the course of the appointment had noticed he had dry skin and that he was a slightly under weight and we may want to consider a different diet. We didn't feel pressured or guilted into doing anything, and she didn't just add things to the bill like the other vet, but I was happy that she took the initiative to notice and let us know.
I think what annoyed me about the others is that they didn't respect their ethical and professional boundaries, and it was so in tune with the stories you hear about vet's being scam artists (there was an episode of panorama about it).
At the end of everything she decided to prescribe a course of antibiotics, which seemed more sensible than cutting into him at the first oppurtunity like the other vet. Her manner with us and our puppy inspired our confidence in her. We did change the diet which not only adressed the skin and weight issue, but his distaste towards his food which we had noticed.
I can't say enough good things about this place. It's convenient as it opens late, has parking, and is easy to get to. It's always clean and a nice environment. We decided to our dog to the puppy class was good, and it was nice to hear about advice and training directly from a vet, and it turns out that this is the only place with a vet-led training class in this area.
Since then our poor puppy has a few medical issues, in each case the advice was always good, and we felt safe trusting them as we felt that they really did have our pet's best interest at heart. read more