28/09/2026
September is . Vets have one of the highest su***de rates among professions and this month has seen tragic loss in our professional community.
While someone typed quickly last night, suggesting that we only cared about money when an injured dog that wasn’t chipped was brought to the practice by someone who had found it running along the roadside, our team were thinking of the animal and everything they needed to do to stop it suffering further.
The online commenter didn’t know that our experienced vet Marie had already been called out and spent most of her afternoon and evening treating pets who were struggling. She continued into the night with our RVN Kristie and has looked after more animals today with another of our experienced RVN’s Kay. The commenter didn’t even pause to consider that this might be a possibility.
This week Heather, Ted and Harriet will be our vets on call, supported by our RVN’s Kristie and Kerry - all of whom have gone above and beyond, chosen to study further, publish articles, taken their own time to sit with an owner in moments of crisis and more…
As a practice and a team, we work hard to offer a high standard of medicine and care. We also strive to offer value - purely in the level of our fees but even more importantly in the standard of care we offer. This can be hard to gauge and see from outside the profession.
We are one of very few practices left locally who offer our own, 24 hour emergency service, giving our patients the opportunity to be seen at their practice by one of their own vets aided by our outstanding nursing team. We also treat wildlife free of charge and support independent local charities like Hedgehog Friendly Vet Practices Suffolk Labrador UK Action Group Suffolk Animal Rescue along with national charities like Guide Dogs UK
Veterinary work is incredibly rewarding. It is also very stressful, highly pressured, unpredictable and exhausting.
As independent practice owners we choose not only to invest in the best equipment and facilities and our team, but our those around us too. We hosted the WI and Fire Service after Storm Babet when they were without a place to meet or train. We bought £5,000 worth of laptops for our local primary school in Covid. We gift The Long Room upstairs to local charities to use. We bought equipment for and host our local river testing group weekly and Debenham Green Team. We plant trees and wild flowers - all because we care and believe in giving back.
As a practice we do not want our clients to have to drive 30 minutes to an hour to a practice they don’t know to see a vet in an emergency. We want to offer consistency of care. We choose to continue to work together as a team to offer 24 hour care and medicine to the pets we serve and their owners. As a team of 60+ we are as varied as our clients, and some of us make this choice alongside our own personal struggles in life with grief, illness, divorce, anxiety, financial hardship, disability, mental health, loss….
Careless vet bashing online without knowledge, thought for the individual people and the professional team involved has an enormous impact. It can even contribute to the loss of life.
Whether it is our team or our professional colleagues reading your comments, they are impactful.
Be mindful and be kind - or be polite and silent
Jade and Pete
