Medivet North Oxford

Excellent service & care of my pet, thankyou.

Unfortunately I had a very bad experience at Medivet North Oxford and wanted to warn others. My little dog tore his dew claw nail playing ball in a park nearby. Our local vet is based out in Northern Oxfordshire and thus, out of desperation, I looked for local vets in the area to have him seen immediately as I was obviously very worried about him and he was in pain. Medivet North Oxford came up in the Google search and the reviews seemed good, so I made an appointment and they didn't seem to have any problems fitting him in almost immediately. The vet, on very briefly examining my dog, declared that he had broken his dew claw and would require surgery under general anaesthetic to remove the claw and potentially the entire toe. He said that this must be done very urgently and I would need to be there the next morning for surgery and that my dog would not be able to walk for three weeks. He then gave my dog an injection to relieve pain. Whilst the vet was prescribing some other medication I mentioned that my dog was allergic to two different types of medication, and so I would call my vet to send my dog's medical notes over. He said that wasn’t necessary (what?!) to which I expressed my surprise and called my vet anyway as I wanted to make sure that he wasn’t prescribing something my dog couldn’t tolerate. I called my vet quickly, during the consultation, and they provided the appropriate medication information and then offered to send over the medical notes – which the Medivet vet again refused, saying ‘they weren’t needed’. If this isn’t incompetence I honestly don’t know what is. Would you think it was ok to have an operation under general anaesthetic without your medical notes being present? I think general medical practice would disagree. The bill for this appointment was just under £200 and the quote for the surgery, provided to me by the Vet, was just under £1000. On glancing at the surgery quote he gave me there were two charges of £35 to ‘change a dressing’. This was on top of the consultation fee. The vet informed me that he “had studied for years to be able to do that” – which I thought an odd thing to say. Personally, to charge £75 twice to change a dressing seemed fairly unreasonable to me. On leaving Medivet I immediately called my own vet in Northern Oxfordshire and asked if they could fit me in for an emergency appointment the next morning, which they did. On examining my dog, my vet said that he had split his dew claw nail and that the nail would simply need to be tidied up and the broken section removed, his toe was fine. This she did immediately, under a light sedation, and I was able to take my dog home a few hours later. The total cost for this, including consultation? £75. Yes £75 – not £1000+. The medications that were prescribed to me by Medivet were also literally 70% more than the price charged by my vet. The incompetence of this arrogant vet would have meant my dog would have been put through a completely unnecessary operation, the risk of general anaesthetic and not being able to exercise for 3 weeks, a nightmare for a dog. I do not care if Vets lack 'people skills', as long as they are competent, but unfortunately the Medivet vet I saw was neither. He completely lacked any people skills at all, being affronted when I questioned anything, and most importantly he completely mis-diagnosed the situation. I have written this review today as a friend recently asked me for a vet recommendation in the Jericho area of Oxford and was considering going to Medivet, based on the good Google reviews she had read. I felt it important that others know the bad side as well. I encourage others, who have had bad experiences here to also write their experiences to help others. I am just relieved that I had a wonderful vet who I could rely on. Others may not be so lucky. Finally, I wrote an email to Medivet at the time telling them about my dog's terrible experience there, to which they did not deign a reply. I was hardly surprised. There's far better vets elsewhere.

Medivet North Oxford have been fantastic and reliable for both of my cats, one of whom is a healthy, routine situation and the other of whom has had chronic problems. In both cases, the vets (Stephanie and others) have always been very clear and helpful, and their priority is 100% the animals' wellbeing. For instance, they once advised delaying extra tests (which another vet had recommended), even though the tests would have meant a much higher fee for the practice; I was grateful for the sensible approach and it reinforced my trust in their advice, especially as the tests soon turned out to be unnecessary. They always make clear what the different treatment possibilities are and what the pros and cons could be. They've also been great with sending information to my pet insurance company, and it's always comforting to know that the 24-hour emergency vet is available in Woodstock if there's ever a big problem outside of the North Oxford hours. I recommend this vet practice completely!

Very professional and friendly vet. Highly recommended.

Your receptionists are a hit-and-miss and this is not just North Oxford, I just called your St. Ives and Brampton. Completely different experiences. Same with North Oxford, one time we come across an extremely helpful knowledgeable receptionist, next we get a dismissive person who doesn't know what's what. Maybe invest in training them properly. Also, your website is not user friendly. There's still not a straight forward way of booking appointments online. Both vets at North Oxford are wonderful, couldn't ask for anything more when it comes to the vets!

Welcoming and efficient

Our family dog was under Stefanie's care since she moved here in 2011. Stefanie has always teated our dog with great care respect and always with the animal at the centre of all decisions. Through an op for cancer to a specialist referral the practice was always there, and today as we bade farewell to our much loved pet we were all treated with respect and empathy as we treated her for the last time. I cannot recommend this practice and the team enough. I send my sincere thanks to all at the practice for their dilligence, respect and care towards both pet and owners. Thankyou again for all you did for Truffle.

Just had some great emergency care for my dog when she got a dreaded grass seed in her paw. Was seen quickly, all the staff were kind, patient and knowledgeable and Pattie seems well on the mend. The practice liaised direct with my insurer which was a great weight off my mind. Thank you so much!! Highly recommended.

Everyone who works at Medivet North Oxford is just so sweet and lovely. They take such good care of my dogs and particularly Stephanie goes above and beyond to help.