Dear valued clients,

We have a few important updates for the remainder of this year, so please take your time to read through as they are likely to affect you.

We have tried to minimise disruption as best we can whilst attempting to maintain our level of service and look after the wellbeing of our staff.

Emily’s Maternity Leave

We can start by laying blame with Emily, who has decided to start a family this year! A huge congratulations to both Emily and her fiancé Anthony who are looking forward to welcoming their new addition in October. This does mean that Emily ‘hopes’ to come off the on-call rota in September, and take her maternity leave for 6 months from the start of October.

Our of hours cover & visits

Our wonderful colleagues at Jersey Village Vets have kindly offered to help cover our on-call whilst Emily is on her maternity leave. Without this support poor Ruth may have found herself without any time away from work and with her family. This means that during certain weeks, on average one week a month, our phone lines will automatically divert to the on call vet at JVV.

We are also in the process of recruiting locum cover for the remainder of the summer, again to support our team and ensure we are still available to provide 24 hour care. Unfortunately during this period, we will be unable to offer routine vet house visits. We will still have capacity for nurse house visits, and vet visits in an emergency.

We apologise for the disruption in these services and hope to return to our normal operating procedures ASAP.

Staff Changes

We have some new faces with us, or soon to be with us:

Georgia Smith BVMSci (Hons) MRCVS – We are thrilled to be welcoming Georgia into the All Pets team this October. Georgia graduated from the University of Surrey in 2020 and is currently working towards a certificate in Diagnostic Imaging. She was a real hit with the team when visiting the island and we are confident she will receive a warm welcome from our patients and clients. Georgia is moving to the island with her dog Otto, and three-legged cat Eric. As a keen outdoor enthusiast we feel Jersey is the perfect place for her to continue her training towards an Ironman Triathlon! .

Rebecca Whitehead RVN – Our lovely Becka joined the nursing team in May this year, some of you may have already met her during admissions or nurse clinics. Becka has a special interest in animal behaviour, and is currently working towards her MSc in Clinical Animal Behaviour – this will permit membership into the highly regulated Association of Pet Behaviour Counsellors (APBC), of which there is only one other member on island! Due to this, we have already started referring behaviour cases to Becka, which allows us to work holistically as one team in the patient’s management.

Congratulations

Dr. Ruth Guegan BVetMed CertAVP MRCVS

A huge congratulations to Ruth who has put in an enormous amount of time outside of work to complete the remainder of her Certificate in Advanced Veterinary Practice. This post-graduate qualification recognises over 600 hours of additional work and continued professional development, and reflects Ruth’s extended knowledge as a veterinary practitioner. We are all very lucky to be working alongside her and being able to provide this for our patients..

Tortoise Takeover

We are thrilled to have sponsored a Tortoise as part of the Durrell Tortoise Takeover! Ours, painted by local artist Will Bertram, can be found at Queen’s Valley Reservoir – ‘My Neighbour Tortoro’. Please feel free to hunt her out, and tag us in your photos – we love seeing them! What’s more, by unlocking her on the app, you win the chance to enter into our free prize draw to win a Pet Pawtrait, done by Will himself. To commemorate the trail, Will has also designed a Tortoro themed post card, please feel free to come and get one from reception – donations to Durrell gratefully accepted.

A plea for accommodation

We are currently seeking both short and long term accommodation for our new temporary and permanent staff members. Ifany clients have any property they would be willing to offer we would be very excited to hear from you. Self-contained units are required and please do let us know if you accept animals.

If you can help, please email the team at [email protected]

Not another price increase….

Due to the ongoing pressures of inflation, we will be reviewing and updating our service prices in August 2023 in order to avoid the large annual increase applied each January. This will reflect both t

he local inflation and veterinary market in order for us to remain both fair and competitive. We will

always endeavour to minimise changes to our routine preventative health services, and there is still currently no change to the price of our Pet Health Plans – which encompass all routine preventative healthcare.