Choosing A Veterinary Practice To Treat Your Pets

There are several factors that you should consider when choosing a Veterinary Practice to care for your pets.  These include:

Animals Treated:    Firstly, ensure that the practice treats the kind of pet(s) you have.  Small animal veterinary practices generally treat all kinds of family pets including dogs, cats and rabbits, large animal practices tend to treat mostly farm animals such as cows and sheep, equine practices treat mostly horses or mixed practices usually treat all kinds of animals.  There are a few practices that specialise in exotic species including snakes and lizards.  Milton Keynes Veterinary Group treats Small Animal patients (including some exotics).

Location:    Many people choose a Veterinary Practice that is closest to where they live.  This is often because animals may not like travelling in the car and in an emergency it is preferable to get to the practice as quickly as possible.  It is also important to check where animals will be treated out of normal opening hours.  Milton Keynes Veterinary Group has branches around the City to provide a local service to many clients.  Emergency work is carried out at our Walnut Tree Hospital, (an independent specialist provider of emergency care, Vets Now, provide this service).  You may be surprised how far you will need to travel in an emergency from some practices when they are closed.

Facilities:    Different Veterinary Practices will have a different range of equipment.  Our Walnut Tree Hospital is extremely well equipped allowing us to perform most tests and treatments ourselves without the need for referral.  Some practices have signed-up to the Practice Standard Scheme run by the governing body of the profession, the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons.  Our Walnut Tree Hospital has achieved the top tier in their system and all of our branches have achieved at least their basic level.

Experience:    Most veterinary surgeons have a special interest in certain aspects of their work.  For example, some vets may prefer surgery, others may prefer medical or skin cases.  The advantage of having a large practice is that there is a wider range of knowledge within the staff than can often be provided by a smaller practice.  Milton Keynes Veterinary Group encourages our staff to gain experience in special interests to allow us to provide high quality care to our patients for a wide range of conditions.  Further qualifications can be achieved by vets through further study in their area of interest such as Certificates awarded by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons.  Some of our vets have already achieved a Certificate or are working towards gaining one soon.

Cost:    Some people choose their practice by cost.  A smaller practice may not spend the same amount of money on specialised equipment as a larger one, instead concentrating on providing routine treatments such as neutering and vaccinations.  Due to this, they may be able to offer these services at reduced cost.  However, these practices may be less well equipped and experienced when complex cases are seen that require major investigations or surgery.  The "behind the scene" facilities for cheaper practices may also differ in ways such as the types of anaesthetics used, monitoring equipment employed during anaesthetics, theatre practice (such as clothes worn during operating, dedicated operating theatres, etc).  All of our surgeries use advanced monitoring equipment during anaesthetics along with the latest anaesthetic drugs.

Staff:    Most people wish to see the same veterinary surgeon when they bring their animal to the vets.  This makes sense for reasons including building up a trust relationship and more importantly to keep continuity of care through a given illness/condition.  Although we are a large practice, we try to keep the same veterinary surgeons working at specific branches to allow clients to continue seeing the same veterinary surgeon through their pets treatment. 

Milton Keynes Veterinary Group is also an approved Veterinary Nurse Training Centre.  ALL of our current nurses at Walnut Tree are now fully qualified that helps ensure the best care for your pets whilst they are with us.