Frequently Asked Questions

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Please see our price list. Our prices include the surgery, anaesthesia, and medications including a course of pain relief to take home. The only additional costs you could incur include:

- a Buster collar ('cone'), surgical suit or other item to protect the incision. Some of these can be purchased from us, but you are welcome to source your own and bring it with you.

- For dogs who are not taking a vet-prescribed flea/worm treatment, you will need to bring him or her in so that a lungworm treatment can be given at least one week prior to surgery. For dogs up to 25kg, this is £9. For 25-50kg, it is £18.

- Calming medication. Some people worry about their pets being too active or anxious, and take extra medication home with them to help calm them. This usually costs around £12-15.

- Complications. This is most common when a pet is allowed to, or figures out how to, lick the wound and an infection or wound breakdown occurs. Costs could include anything from antibiotics up to an additional surgery to replace stitches.

If you have a cat, rabbit or guinea pig, the answer is a definite 'no'. 

If you have a dog who currently takes the flea and/or worming treatment recommended and prescribed by your  regular vet, you do not need to bring your pet in for a pre-op check.

If you are using over-the-counter flea and worm treatments, either from the pet store or an online subscription - any source other than a vet or a pharmacy using a veterinary prescription - then your dog is going to need a lungworm treatment and needs to be seen at least one week before surgery.

'Key hole', or laparoscopic spays, are done using a camera and tools located on long, flexible tubes that go into your pet's abdomen through small holes (2-3) to remove the ovaries without opening up the body wall. The benefit of this is that recovery is faster, and it may be less painful. However, the equipment needed to provide it is  highly specialised, requiring extensive training for all staff and specialised cleaning techniques. The procedure also tends to take longer (depending on who is operating). Cleaning the equipment and setting it back up can take a long time, and none of these characteristics make it compatible to doing multiple/many spays in one day. 

To compensate slightly, it is worth noting that our spay incisions tend to be fairly small, as vets who have done thousands of these surgeries become able to do them through smaller and smaller incisions.

Our first duty and most important responsibility is to our patients, who sometimes require multiple people to care for them at any one time. Staffing numbers vary from day to day and at different hours, so there may not be a person available to answer the phone at the time you call.

In addition, we are going to be implementing a new phone policy. This is to ensure that we are able to keep our fees as low as possible, as human labour is the clinic's largest expense. Once we train some cats to man the front desk, we may be able to resume this. However, meanwhile, we will be focused on our work in the back so that we can neuter more animals. This means that we would ask that you leave a  message, and we will get back to you as soon as possible, either via phone, email or text. Any enquiries covered in the 'FAQ' section will be advised on where they can find this. 

Please note that while we aim to respond to everyone promptly, it could take up to 24 hours, or in exceptional circumstances slightly longer - if the enquiry is not time sensitive.

If you have an EMERGENCY, please call the emergency number (07592131270). Emergencies include: trouble breathing, *profuse* bleeding, a seizure that has not stopped after five minutes, extreme pain/agony or a wound that has opened and has tissue protruding from it.

If you have an urgent enquiry that is NOT an emergency, please email us with 'URGENT' in the heading and/or text the above number. You can also leave a voicemail detailing your enquiry, or do all three of the above.