25 Jun What is important when choosing a veterinary clinic?

Choosing the right veterinary clinic is not only crucial for your pet’s health, but also for your peace of mind as their owner. For some pet owners, location will be the deciding factor, but for the vast majority of pet owners, whilst that is important, there will be far more to consider – after all, our pets are part of the family! So, what should you consider when choosing a veterinary clinic for your pet? Here are our top considerations:

Range of services

All pets require routine care, which covers aspects of health such as dental, vaccinations and preventative care, such as flea, tick and worming treatments. However, over a pet’s lifetime, they will likely require access to a wider range of treatments. This could range from diagnostic (x-rays, or ECG, for example), potentially advanced surgery or even access to emergency or critical care in the worst case scenario. It is not a widely known fact that not all veterinary clinics provide these services or the same level of care, and often, this can result in you needing to access services elsewhere. 

Our Fulham hospital is not only an overnight patient care facility providing emergency and critical care to pets 24/7, 365 days per year, but we are also an advanced referral centre, with a highly skilled team providing expert surgical and non-surgical support to pets and their owners. 

Qualifications & experience

This leads us on to those you entrust with your pet’s care. For more complex cases, veterinary surgeons require advanced qualifications to equip them with the knowledge and skills to diagnose and treat pets with more specific needs. In addition, it is worth considering whether the veterinary clinic you choose has been accredited by the RCVS (Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons). This accreditation signifies that the clinic meets specific standards of veterinary care by this governing body, encompassing areas such as hygiene, health and safety, and clinical governance. 

Our Chiswick clinic and Fulham hospital are not only RCVS accredited, but many of our team hold advanced qualifications and have also worked in advanced referral centres across the UK, so your pets are not only in the best hands, but you also have access to leading expertise, provided locally. Your pet is aided by diploma and certificate holders, vets and nurses with over one hundred years of combined experience.

Approach to care

Visiting the veterinary clinic can be a stressful experience for pets. They not only need to travel to the premises, which can be unsettling, but the surroundings will be relatively unfamiliar and filled with new sights, smells and sounds. For many pets, this can be frightening. Those you trust with the care of your pet must treat them with patience, gentle and appropriate handling for their species, and compassion to reduce stress. 

Our tagline is “the vets your pets would choose” for a reason! Compassion is the centrepiece of our mission. Everything we do, have and believe in is based on one goal: helping pets recover from injury and illness. As pet owners ourselves, we understand how important your beloved companions are and we treat them with the same love, kindness and respect we give our own. We love nothing more than pets who come bounding into our practice with confidence; it is the utmost compliment that they have enjoyed their visit previously, having been made to feel safe, showered with fuss and, of course, treats, to make their visit extra special! 

Reputation

Word of mouth referrals are often the best form of marketing! Online reviews from reputable sources (such as Google) are often a fantastic way to seek first-hand feedback from pet owners who have used the services you are searching for. It is important to look for consistency, ratings and whether the clinic responds to clients, especially where a negative review may be present. 

Our Google rating is not only 4.6/5, but we also take the time to respond to each review to ensure that other local pet owners have context for the feedback given for fairness. We believe in transparency, as we are all working towards one common goal – better animal health and welfare. 

Cost and payment options 

Being located in the UK, we have the benefit of the NHS (National Health Service). As a result, the average cost of medical treatment is not widely known, let alone veterinary care!

In recent years, following an in-depth review, greater transparency around the pricing of veterinary care has been championed so that pet owners can make informed decisions in relation to their pets’ care. An added complexity is that there is a growing number of corporately owned veterinary clinics, many of which have a monopoly within the areas they operate, pushing prices up for pet owners, and also gaining additional advantages in terms of lower prices for themselves when purchasing medications. 

We have not only published many of our prices on our website as a guide for pet owners, but we are also happy to write prescriptions for clients to find alternative pharmacies that may be able to offer medication at a lower cost. Treatment costs are always discussed upfront, and we also accept and process insurance claims. In addition, we also offer our unique Wolfe Pack Health Plan membership, which is a preventative healthcare plan designed to make essential pet care more affordable through monthly payments and different tiers to suit your specific circumstances. The highlight? Wolfe Pack membership includes unlimited consultations, enabling pet owners to seek veterinary advice early, catching potential issues before they develop into more serious conditions. 

Ownership

Finally, something we touched on earlier was the fact that veterinary clinics can be both independently and corporately owned. Both types of ownership provide different benefits, but in our opinion, our independence provides far more benefits to you, our pet owners, so much so, we wrote a whole blog on it, which you can read here. 

We are proudly independent and also embedded in our local community. Our fees are not defined by central budgets; we are not allied to other veterinary service providers, meaning our advice truly is impartial, and we have complete autonomy over our operations. This provides fast action, flexibility and genuine value for money, to name only a few key benefits. 

We hope that this has helped you, as a pet owner, consider what you may like in a veterinary clinic and should you like to register your pet with our practice, we are currently growing our pet patient base; you can conveniently register your pet via our website.