Abbey Veterinary Surgery 

First never got a call back regarding pet health citificate
Then when I rang them again and a frank exchange of words they agreed to do it and was told £185 more expensive than others charge but as I had waited for a call back that never came I had little choice, I paid in full over phone, to now find out, whilst I am on holiday with the pets,they have charged my card £285...accident? Or malicious?
I hope it's a simple mistake, but as the person that took the payment was the person I had a heated exchange regarding not being called back and she clearly stated "£185 same as last time" & "so I am taking £185 from card number blar-blar", very very annoying which might be the exact reaction she was looking for.,well done

These are brilliant vet’s., very kind and caring when my little dog had to be put to sleep

I already wrote a review under the Abbey House Vet Surgery which is the same practice, I believe.

I have been with the practice for 40 years, and received fabulous caring service all this time. Now I am looking for a new vet. Went in yesterday, had a four minute consultation, for a minor problem- anal sac, was left with a bill for £ 92 pounds as vet prescribed, one wormer, one flea deterrent, and a short course of antibiotics. When I looked these drugs up on line, they would have totalled maximum £ 20. This is outrageous. Why aren't they listening to their many disgruntled clients about overcharging?

I took my pup to Abbey Vets after she started displaying symptoms of a water infection very soon after we got her. I wanted to get her seen to immediately so booked her in to Abbey Vets (who i’d never visited before) and got an appointment that same evening.
The experience of booking her in was not particularly welcoming but at this point I was just grateful to have got an appointment somewhere.
From the moment we arrived for the appointment we were made to feel like we were an inconvenience and were provided absolutely no reassurance about our pups condition, in fact quite the opposite, as the vet was using jargon and making comments about her symptoms or the potential causes without discussing the implications. The vet made it completely unclear as to whether her condition was serious, or something we shouldn’t be too worried about.
It was a Friday evening, and the vet reminded us of this at least 3 times during the appointment which gave me a significant lack of trust in the outcome. We were almost going to be sent away to “keep an eye on her over the weekend” because OBVIOUSLY it was a Friday so they were only open for limited hours over the weekend which we certainly weren’t allowed to forget! Luckily my pup urinated in the clinic so we were able to get a sample and confirm it was a urine infection. At this point I still didn’t know if it was extremely serious or something easily treatable. After a hefty bill for some tablets, we were informed a week later that the tablets were resistant to the infection and were provided with yet another prescription.
In summary, Abbey Vets Monmouth does not provide a caring veterinary service and exists for the intention of profit. The overall experience was anxiety inducing and I’d have serious concerns about entrusting them as an emergency service for my pup, given that a Friday evening appointment was such a huge inconvenience for them.

I have been with Abbey vets for 7 years and can not believe the decline in the service. They only care about money now not animals. I took my dog 2 days before Christmas and they told me they needed to get a urine sample as they thought my dog had kidney failure and it needed to be sent away. I rang them on the 9th jan only to be told they still didn’t have it back even though we’ve been stressed out about this. I had to ring them again on the 19th today! Only to be told it hasn’t been sent off and they don’t have it. They took payment of 335 pounds nearly 1 month ago advising it needed to be done as they think my dog has kidney failure and they don’t even send the samples off. I am shocked at how downhill this practice has gone. I will be moving as the care for the animals is clearly not there and I could not trust they know what they’re doing if they can’t even send a sample off when they suspect kidney failure. So sad but they really need to make some changes as vets. I would not recommend this vets to anyone unfortunately and I would have a few years ago.

We have been with Abbey Vets since 2004, but will never go back. Two months ago, we took our lovely 15 year old Westie Louis to be put down. He had a wonderful life, and went down hill rapidly so we knew it was time. What a shame I did not read the reviews before we went...

We waited until the consulting room was free so we didn't have to wait in reception and took him straight in. - The Vet had a quick look over him and agreed it was the kindest thing to do.

He then proceeded- whilst Louis was lying on the table in the throes of dying- to discuss the fees for all the options: do we want him cremated, do we want his ashes back etc. We were horrified. We agreed to everything he suggested just to get on with it-well over £400- and then he asked us to leave whilst he prepared him for his injections. He suggested that whilst we were in reception we pay to save doing it at the end!

I honestly still cannot believe his callous attitude and we have shared our experience with family and friends who are equally shocked.

We have waited until now as were were waiting to move vets as we still have a cat, and will no doubt in time, get another dog. This we have done and I can only say in the strongest terms to anyone reading this- DO NOT USE ABBEY VETS. They are callous and ONLY care about the money.

After being with Abbey vets for several years I cannot believe the change in them, I never thought the day would come when the money was more important than the patients and they would become so uncaring towards our pets. Time for a change of vets I’m afraid as my animals health should always come first!!!
Looking at other peoples reviews it looks like it’s becoming a general census about them.

Absolutely disgusting service! They only care about money and not the animal and the vets have no clue what they are actually even talking about.
I brought my young kitten into this veterinary clinic after she had been hit by a car, she was conscious, still able to walk however was really heavy breathing due to the shock.
We rushed her to Abbey vets as this was the closest place to us open on a saturday afternoon. They took her away to exam her and came back 15 minutes later and the first thing said was "how much are you willing to pay?" without and update on our baby girl or even an introduction Sybil then claimed our bill was already at £750 but failed to tell us how it had already cost us that much as she had only been in there 15 minutes. We asked to wait to see the X-ray results to decide on what course of treatment we would go with as she is a part of our family and we have previously lost a cat after being ran over and we obviously didn't want to lose another one.
After the X-ray we were told she had a broken spine in 2 places and that she needed surgery to survive, we got told that we could take her home to heal on her own if we couldn't afford the surgery but then again we were just counting down the days for her to die which obviously we didn't want. We considered putting her down as we didn't want to prolong her suffering by taking her home and we were told the surgery would be thousands and thousands of pounds which we obviously couldn't afford.
She came back in after letting us discuss our options to which we were told she had just been doing stuff to her which now meant the bill was at £900 this was without consulting us or telling us what the other stuff was that she was doing.
We told her surgery was out and we were going to get her put down but we just wanted to ask a few more questions regarding taking her home and letting her heal.
she came back and said she only has a broken pelvis on one side of her body and showed us the X-ray meaning previously when she told us her spine was broken in 2 places that was a LIE and they were just trying to make us pay more money than necessary. She was also trying to push us in getting her put down which was an extra £200 on top of the £900 they were charging us for putting her to sleep and x-ray.
She said if we took her home she would heal perfectly fine as 9 out of 10 cats with this injury can heal on their own and as she was still a kitten she was more likely to be fine as kittens heal quicker than cats.
We ended up deciding to take her home and we are so glad we did and we didn't listen to her and get her put down as it has been 6 weeks since the accident and she is back to normal, running around playing with her brothers and chasing flies and seems to not be in any pain or discomfort at all.

Basically from this story I want people to take from this that everything they say is BULL**** and will lie and lie and lie and change stories to try and get money out of you.

We are now having to pay £833 for an X-ray and medicine which is disgusting and they refuse to help you out by setting up payments plans.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE AVOID AT ALL COSTS because thankfully we were lucky enough to not listen to the vets advice on putting her down and take her home and as I said she is in perfect condition.

They are scammers and they are scumbags.

Having being with abbey vets since 2005 I can honestly say I will never use them again absolutely no compassion at all Rebecca from cudworth couldn’t be bothered thought it was just us but she was the same with the other customer that was waiting for her I then tried abbey vets in Dodworth Barnsley with this being head office I thought staff would be on the ball **WRONG** Natalie
The vet had the same attitude has Rebecca awfull no compassion both of them very hard faced if you don’t like working for abbey vets change your job
Don’t take it out on customers
I am now looking for another vet surgery
Never will I ever deal with abbey vets again

Consultation for my dog which lasted no longer than 3 minutes and was charged £43 no one I know gets paid that much for that time, Disgraceful.

They literally only care about money and could have harmed my dog... They don't consult on the price before, give totally unnecessary and expensive treatments that wasn't talked about first, and they messed up on my dog's prescription label which would have not been good for him at all if we followed it. Thankfully, we were suspicious and had to find out on Google how it was supposed to be given and also how harmful and unnecessary it was !

Another example is we took my dog in to check on his dual claw, they brought him out and had trimmed ALL his claws (but didn't even look at the dual one), when he had literally already had them trimmed at the groomers the day before... Then we were charged a ton for it. We didn't ask for it and we weren't told about it before.
Also we took my cat in for her hurt leg, they said everything else was fine, but we took her to another vet a week later (because she had other symptoms which we also told Abbey's about) and they told us she actually has a bad heart and diabetes. Worst is, the vet gave her a steroid shot that can cause and worsen diabetes.

Terrible service they only care about the money and not the animals. Took my dog there once just to get a check up left him there to go get some cash for some pain meds and they go and give him steroids and other meds and charge me for it when I didn't come there for that. Avoid at all costs.

Took my dog to vets today only to find out they booked him into wrong practice. So I kindly said my dog as a nasty skin infection can you see him just for 5 mins please they said no we are fully booked. So thanks Abby vets your happy to leave a dog in pain and at risk of a infected cut getting worse. Only care about money coming through door not your animal.

**********PLEASE PLEASE READ************** If your animals are your family please AVOID this vets, money making business, prescribe medication which is not needed, miss diagnosis and fail to recognise serious illness, never see the same vet like one review said young inexperienced veterinary trainees my list could go on. Our brief story after treatment for continuous hot spots recurring, urine infections not being diagnosed properly with the result being our dog was diagnosed with incontinence and prescribed incurin for over a year. Blood test taken showing raised white blood cells urine showing high levels of protein. Ulcer on paw.. Yes something not right here we took our dog to another vet skin scrapes were taken and biopsy bloods ect. Results were back within a week **Cutaneous epitheliotropic T-cell lymphoma** Our beloved girl grew her Angel wings 4 weeks later. All of our girls history, illness should have been picked up on and vets should have had the knowledge and experience to diagnose with all evidence on file there was something seriously wrong with our dear girl. Thank you for taking time to read.

We had been with Abbey vets since 2012 and always had good service. Then in January 2021, my son's dog was found to have an aggressive form of cancer in her leg, which required amputation. Money was the constant theme with every appointment leading up to our dog's surgery. She was insured but Abbey were extremely unhelpful in setting up the claim, to the point of ignorant and impatient. In fact it took for her to die before they would help. Staff were often rude and patronising to my son who took the dog for all her appointments.

As rescue dogs often are, she was acknowledged by Abbey to be stressed at the vets in her notes, yet they planned her 4hr operation for 4pm after being dropped off at 9am. We were unaware of this and had no update all day apart for when they were chased late in the evening. In fact they didn't even tell us she was to be hospitalised overnight until the morning of her admission.

Despite being told at 9.15pm (our first and only proper update) that the op went well and she was recovering well, the medical notes we requested and events through the night, do not completely correlate with this.

On taking the matter to the RCVS we have subsequently found out that various texts, photos and videos flew about through the night between the operating vet, vet on call and vet nurse about our dog and her bleeding wound and pain management. Yet the vet on call did not think it necessary to go to the practice even once, despite living 5 minutes away in her words.
Long story short our dog died in their care. I understand animals can take a turn for the worse but they must have been aware she wasnt at all well by the amount of texts and photos they sent each other and could have at least had the decency to check on her in person when it is well documented she was distressed and in pain.
We were alerted things weren't right when unpacking the dogs bag of her blanket etc the next day, we came across her collar encrusted in dried blood and promptly requested her medical notes. We had to chase them on 3 occasions for those, which do not make pleasant reading. The first time them sending an itemised bill detailing her operation.

How had they gone from so good to so bad? On looking on companies house, it turns out there was a change of hands in 2019 and not for the better it seems as now it's all about the money, not about the care.

Beyond shocked at Abbey vets. We have used them for thirteen years and had no problems but then things seemed to change a few years ago. Seem to be only interested in how much money they can get from you. Then this week our cat had surgery and when we called the out of hours line the vet seemed annoyed that I had phoned and was patronising. I told him that our cat was trying to go to the toilet but couldn’t, was falling over if he tried to move and was cold to the touch despite being next to our log burner all night. I was told this was normal and to just keep him warm. He said he would see him if I wanted but that he didn’t think it was necessary. Our cat died three hours later. The vet just couldn’t be bothered dealing with it at 10pm. Why have an out of hours service if you are reluctant to do anything when an animal needs it? The vet is the practice director and I believe it was when he took over that we started having problems with them.

Two cats dead because of negligent service. Advertised as a 24 hour vets but clearly isn't. Our 18 month old cat was registered with Abbey Vets. She was hit by a car last night and when we brought her to the vets at around 9pm there was no answer when we rung the doorbell, knocked on the door or rung the phone. She died.

Similarly, our neighbors cat died this morning after Abbey Vets told them yesterday not to bother bringing him in for a suspected poisoning. Vets For Pets today confirmed the poisoning but it was sadly too late. Another case that could have been prevented if Abbey Vets did their job.

I would never use or recommend Abbey Vets again. They should be ashamed and seriously review their practices. This branch was the Dodworth Road branch in Barnsley.

UPDATE:

We rung the Abbey Vets to make a formal complaint. The receptionist was very rude and unapologetic. She tried to shift the blame by saying they employ an external company to cover the 24 hour night service. Conveniently they only accept formal complaints by written letter, but she was reluctant to give us a postal address to send it to. Again, the poorest vets service I've ever encountered.

I had been going here since I adopted my cats. They had always been nice, until my beautiful Kitty became ill at a financially inconveinant time of the month. We had just had some unexpected expenses and I told them upfront that I'd have to pay them when I got my check on the 28th of the month, which was about two and a half weeks away. Due to my idiotic honesty, which I will regret the rest of my life, I lost my best friend. They were only permitted to do "emergency" treatment, which was a shot for pain, an anti-sickness injection, and antibiotic good for 3 days. The vet herself wanted to do blood work to determine what the issue was, but was not permitted by management. She improved for a few days, then rapidly declined, at which point I called back and took her in. At this point, there was nothing that could be done to save her. She was too dehydrated to even put her to sleep humanely because they could not get a vein. She died in pain, scared, with a needle in her heart. The part that I can not forgive is that the euthanasia administered cost more than the blood work would have that could have saved her life and they deferred THAT payment. Because getting paid immediately to save her was more important than saving her life, but they killed her and let me pay later even though it cost more. I have revisited every scenario in my head and If I could go back, there are 100 things I'd have done differently, including being honest with them about having to pay later because that cost my best friend her life. The staff sent a card, and a paw print and offered condolences, which is standard. I don't blame them, but their policy and the decision of their manager is the reason she died this way. For all we know, she could have been saved with proper treatment. I will never know. This kind of greed is disgusting and I will never ever bring any animal to this service again. I can't even drive past without bursting into tears. I'd have given a kidney to save her life, and I had to stand and watch them take her away because I had a few days left til payday. I'd have skipped rent, food, sold my car...but it is too late and I will never see my sweet girl again, but hey, they got paid on the 28th, just as I promised.

Dreadful experience with this vets

My dog has been wrongly diagnosed with arthritis and treated for arthritis for 6 months

Once another vet from a different surgery looked at my dog as he was getting no better from the medication, hydrotherapy and k lazer treatments - he within minutes identified the condition as not arthritis but in fact a bone cancer growth the size of a golf ball. He showed me the growth on the xray shared with him that Abbey vets has taken 6 months earlier and even a small child would have been able to see the flowing white ball attached to his hip.!

On questioning the vet at Abbey the vet said Ahhh yes I can see it. I didn't notice that.

On pointing out the smooth hip and that the other vet had said that 'if it was arthritic it would look rough not smooth' . The vet at Abbey just stood and said nothing.

When I asked for an explanation I was told mistakes happen

This is not good practice and I highlighted this to the practice and asked for a complaint to be lodged. I have asked for an update on my complaint on more than 6 occasions and still have no information on my complaints process.

I asked if there was anyone or a body externally I could complain to and was informed no.

I have now been to citizens advice and learnt that such practice is classed as malpractice and that the Royal society for vetinary practice can be contacted with regards to serious concerns about practice

Rather than sharing information and being positiveI I now have a team at the surgery who are making it difficult to get information, filles and treatment that my dog desperately needs.

I am disgusted at the practice in this surgery and would suggest any person wanting more than routine medication and check up s change to a different vets where if anything serious occurs they can identify it, treat it and be honest, trustworthy and positive with the dog and their owner.

I'm shocked that professionals working with animals don't care and think it's OK to just say accidents happen. That they don't prioritise improving practices and doing their best by all animals