Medivet Worthing

Very long story short It’s natural when you have been through the mill to want to recount all the details but in this case I will only state the salient facts. A couple of months ago, our dog, Merlin, was experiencing pain in his rear leg which was diagnosed as a partial cruciate ligament tear. Options on how to treat this were discussed with Medivet and we did have a proposed plan of surgery. In the interim, we were offered a steroid injection into the painful area and this was administered. A few days later, we reported to Medivet that he was suffering from quite severe nausea and vomiting. The diagnosis was that it was either possible that the steroid had in part infiltrated his blood stream or that it was a reaction to the steroid and another ibuprofen based medication he had been prescribed for pain. There were no concerns for his well being. Merlin continued to go downhill – off his food, sickly, not well at all. There were several more appointments at Medivet at this stage and the diagnosis was repeated as a reaction to his medication. Meanwhile, we had googled his symptoms, especially post the steroid and there were very clear indicators for damage to the pancreas. This was raised with the vet who said we could check via bloods the next week. We continued to be very worried about Merlin and asked Heene Road to see him within that same week. They had no room but referred us to their Littlehampton branch where he saw a vet. She appeared to concur with the diagnosis of a meds interaction. She changed his pain medication. We have a very big issue with the treatment we received there. Our experience was that after a significant wait, which we didn’t mind, we had an appointment with the vet that lasted no less than 5 minutes and we consider far less than 10. We recall being very shocked at how cursory the examination was but when Merlin’s notes were requested by his new vet and shared with us, the Medivet vet and ourselves seem to have a very different recollection of how long and thorough that appointment was. Her written account didn’t match our recollection of the experience. The end result was that Merlin was admitted to the new vet’s hospital on a Sunday morning, two days after speaking to Medivet about him, because he was desperately ill over the Saturday night. He was a very sick dog and no one expected him to survive. He was diagnosed with Necrotising Pancreatitis and spent 5 nights in the dog hospital (not under Medivet). They saved his life. We feel that had we stayed with Medivet who failed to identify how very sick he was, he wouldn’t be here now. He is still a sick dog but seems to be coping well at the moment. We do feel that had Medivet diagnosed him correctly sooner, he may not have been as terribly sick as he now is. We have reached out to Medivet for their comments which, as you would rightly expect, were received as an explanation of his treatment and the decisions behind it. The last communication we had with Medivet was us asking for details of who to make a complaint to regarding the Littlehampton care, to which we have received no response.

the staff here are brilliant! Always greet you with a smile and your pet gets a fuss too, keep you informed on wait times, and when its time to leave make sure you're waved off with a smile! The vet doing my cat's booster vaccines and health check was absolutely lovely! You could tell she adored cats as much as I do, she took her time to speak calmly directly to him, praised him and myself of getting his weight down (he's a chonky boi!) and explained his detail health thoroughly and gave me advice on how to look after his tartar build up and explained no cleaning is currently needed, which is fantastic because i panicked! She even managed to et a very spicy boy's nails trimmed, taking her time to comfort him throughout the process. I have two cats who attend Medivet and I would not take them anywhere else.

All round excellent

Friendly and efficient. Kofi felt very relaxed.

Kind and caring professional practice. Clean waiting area with a cat-friendly area. We felt well looked after throughout our visit and the next day when we phoned wanted some further support. Thank you.

Excellent service every time. Our grizzly had the snip and it was seamless! Our first cat went with another vets and honestly came back horrendous so was amazing peace of mind that grizzly was his normal self. Can tell the vets love what they do