In practice news we bade a very sad farewell to vet Sarah in August. Having been at Dacre House since her graduation eight years ago she is now exchanging Tunbridge Wells for the beautiful surroundings of the Welsh countryside. Sarah is an exceptional vet and will be greatly missed - we wish her and her family every happiness and success for the future.

On the brighter side, we have welcomed Maisie as an animal nursing assistant, growing our nursing team to ten members! Maisie joins after many years visiting us with her family pets. In her spare time she enjoys horse riding and baking. Finally, Pembury building work update. The new unit behind the main building is taking shape - the walls are up, the roof is on. Once complete, we intend to move out of the main building into the new unit to allow the main building to be overhauled - a new roof and some other structural changes. Once complete, we should have provision in Pembury for two consulting rooms and a surgical suite with two operating theatres, x-ray and ultrasound imaging facilities.

In staff news, congratulations to vet Matt who is now a proud dad to a gorgeous baby daughter. Matt is now to be seen spending his spare time looking at baby paraphernalia and discussing the varying sleep regression stages.

We are also delighted to welcome a familiar face to our vet team – Stephanie has seen practice with us over the years and is very familiar with all things Dacre House. Having now graduated from Nottingham University she is excited to start her career with us. Stephanie’s particular interests are small animal medicine and veterinary public health. In her spare time, she helps with the audiovisual team at a local church, and is involved with the Veterinary Christian Fellowship. She also enjoys watching films, swimming & eating ice cream!

Furthering the expertise of our veterinary surgeon team, Gabriella has now started a Postgraduate certificate in feline practice. We are looking forward to Gabriella’s insights and expertise in all things cat-related as her studies progress.

On the staff news front, nurse Lydia put us all to shame by running a half marathon at Battersea Park recently, making a respectable finish within 2 hours 53 minutes – well done Lydia! We may be putting your gained skills to use on the endless road closure days as a runner between Southborough and Pembury…

We are also pleased to welcome a not-so-new face, Alice, to the nursing team. Alice has been training with us and we are delighted to have her officially employed as part of the Dacre House team. Alice comes to us with lots of expertise and a wonderfully calm demeanour. She loves all aspects of veterinary nursing, though says her favourite shift is always ‘kennels’. Alice is owner of elderly (yet sprightly!) jack russell, Bella, but is also a huge cat enthusiast at work.

It is our ethos to continually support training and development. Ellie and Abi have now enrolled with the College for Animal Welfare and are undertaking their Diploma course for Veterinary Care Assistants. We look forward to supporting and encouraging them in their studies alongside their work.

Ellie joined us in August having completed two years' of animal management training at Hadlow College. She is confident with all small animal species having her own menagerie at home: 3 dogs, 1 cat, 8 rabbits and a coup of chickens!
Izabel has changed career from primary teaching assistant to working with animals, inspired by her earlier experience of being a meercat keeper at the Hop Farm. Having studied Pyschology and Sociology she is particularly interested in the people side of the veterinary and the care of animals especially after surgery.
Abi has just joined us from the Big Cat Sanctuary. A lover of cats (and big dogs!), she is looking forward to learning more about veterinary nursing. At home she has a cat and a chameleon.

Also, you may have spotted we are doing a bit of building work over in Pembury. We are pleased to say that work has finally started on the first phase of our building project which will eventually mean that we will be able to carry out a range of surgical procedures in Pembury as well as in Southborough. We’ll keep you updated as work progresses.