Standard of Care

At 387 Veterinary Centre, we strive to provide a very high level of care for our patients, your pets, whilst providing the very best personal and compassionate service for you, the owner, too. We run 15 minute consultations (rather than the standard 10 minute appointments you’ll find at most vets) because we don’t believe a quality level of service can be provided in 10 minutes. The extra time allows us to be more thorough when examining your pets, and means that our appointments are more likely to run on time.

We offer you real peace of mind because Hamish Duncan, vet and owner of 387 Veterinary Centre, holds the highest medical qualification in the area (certificate in Small Animal Medicine).This means that your concerns and your pet’s illness will be dealt with from a strong, certified knowledge base as well as extensive in-practice experience.

As Hamish is the only vet at 387 Veterinary Centre you will always see the same vet at every visit. This enables us to get to know you and your pets – and you to get to know us better too. We feel that a quality veterinary service is built on a relationship between the vet, the practice, the owner and the pet.

Fair and competitive pricing

We believe our prices are honest and competitive. Because we give you more of our time (15 minute appointments for both consultations and vaccinations) you actually get more for your money. We respect our clients and want you to feel you get excellent value for our professional care, so we always charge fairly and consistently.

Make visiting the vet a pleasure!

Getting to 387 Veterinary Centre is easy:

  • We are located on a main trunk road (A34) – easy to find and easy to get to!
  • No need to fight traffic going into Wolverhampton, Walsall, or Cannock
  • Jones Lane and cross country roads bring you directly to the practice making access from Norton Canes, Brownhills, Pelsall and other areas east of Great Wyrley simple whilst avoiding busier roads
  • Our free 13 space car park off Shaw’s Lane provides secure, well-lit off road parking, and a lit walkway takes you directly from the car park to reception
  • Blue badge holders are welcome to park at the front of the practice in the designated disabled off road space

Time is precious:

  • Three consulting rooms enable us to run nurse appointments alongside vet consultations to give you more flexibility when you book
  • We run 15 minute appointments so we can dedicate more time to you and your pet
  • 15 minute appointments help us to run to schedule so that you are not kept waiting

Feel comfortable during your visit:

  • Wait for your appointment in our large, bright 13-seat reception area and browse through leaflets advising on all aspects of pet care
  • Feel free to ask our qualified Veterinary Nurse, Nicky, any questions about pet management or diet
  • The waiting room is partitioned to ensure cats and small animals can wait in comfort, separate from dogs
  • Our three large consulting rooms offer seats for your comfort during consultations
  • Waiting and consultation rooms are all fully air-conditioned

Neutering

We recommend neutering dogs, females (spaying) and males (castration), at 6 months of age. Research shows that there are no significant disadvantages to neutering dogs/bitches before puberty, and that the surgery is simpler and that the animals recover much faster. We now recommend ‘early’ neutering in cats, between 4-5 months of age. This markedly reduces the risk of unwanted litters.

The benefits of neutering include:

Females:

  • No further seasons
  • No unwanted pregnancies
  • No phantom or false pregnancies
  • No potentially life threatening womb infections (pyometra)
  • Massive reduction in the risk of developing mammary cancers (if neutered at a young age)

Males:

  • More biddable nature and easier to train
  • Less frustrated
  • Less likely to inappropriately mark territory (including indoors)
  • Cannot develop testicular tumours
  • Massive reduction in the risk of developing prostate disease

  • Less male dominance aggression and in cats less fighting and roaming (statistically entire male cats are more likely to be involved in traffic accidents and more likely to catch fatal FIV infection from fighting).

  • Entire male cats smell very bad!!

Why choose 387 Vets to neuter your dog?

We treat neuterings with the same standard of care as all other surgical procedures. Although we have reduced our neutering prices to make them as cost effective as possible we do not compromise on safety or sterility. Reasons to choose us:

  • Every dog or cat that we anaesthetise has a dedicated intravenous catheter
  • Every dog or cat that we anaesthetise receives warmed intravenous fluids during anaesthesia
  • Every dog or cat that we anaesthetise receives gaseous anaesthesia
  • All bitch spays and early cat spays are kept warm during the anaesthetic using a forced-air warming system (Bair Hugger®)
  • Every anaesthetised animal is monitored with a pulse oximeter and capnograph (to check the amount of oxygen in the blood and the level of carbon dioxide in the breath).
  • Every operation is performed using sterile gloves and single-use disposable sterile drapes
  • Bitch spays have small wounds and no external sutures = quick to heal and minimal scarring
  • Our cases virtually never need distressing ‘lampshade-style’ buster collars and we definitely do not use them as standard

Vaccinations

A recent nationwide survey of vets through CICADA (Computer-based Investigation into Companion Animal Disease Awareness) supports fears that falls in vaccination rates since the start of the credit crunch may be leading to increases in potentially fatal pet diseases across the West Midlands and Britain in general. In the survey, completed in February 2011 for the preceding nine months, almost 50% of vet practices countywide had confirmed or suspected cases of the infectious killer dog disease parvovirus. Reported cases of cat flu had increased by a third for the same period. Leptospirosis, carried by rats and transmittable to humans, continued to be a significant risk to dogs. And the fatal disease myxomatosis which is spread by biting fleas and other insects, particularly during mild weather, represented a major threat to domestic rabbits.

Many people are not aware that parvovirus can kill, that cats can die from cat flu and that pet rabbits are at risk from myxomatosis, a disease commonly believed only to occur amongst rabbits in the wild. Vaccinating pets is absolutely vital to their health and well-being.

Supporting the Environment

At 387 Veterinary Centre we also care about the environment and we are very proud to have a green environmentally friendly policy. We will donate 20p to Sustrans (the UK’s leading transport charity) each time a client comes to the practice on foot, by bicycle or public transport.