Your local, independent, trusted vet - Castle Vets (Dorchester) Skip to content

About us

Your local independent and trusted vet

Our practice was founded by Rip Kirby in 1992 with the ethos of being a friendly and approachable place to bring your pet. We are still committed to this, whilst providing the best possible care and treatment for all your pets. The practice remains independently owned by the vets who work in it, the only one in the area now. Being independent ensures the practice employees are motivated only by making pets better, not by keeping shareholders happy.

We have highly trained and experienced staff who will work with you to keep your pet in the best of health. We offer a full range of veterinary services, preventative health care, consultations, in-house diagnostic testing, imaging, and surgery. We have also partnered with Virtual Veterinary Specialists to ensure almost every problem imaginable can be dealt with right here at Castle Vets. We also offer a monthly budgeting plan and provide our own out of hours care to all our registered patients.

Many clients have been with us years and we consider them old friends, but we are always happy to welcome new faces, paws, tails and whiskers! Please do not hesitate to contact us about any matter big or small.

Reviews

Meet just a few of our happy owners and their pets!

5*’s. highly recommend them, a great team of caring professions from the reception team to the nurses and the vets...Can’t fault them. They still look after my geriatric rabbit who is still going strong thanks to their ongoing care and treatment
The team have always been excellent with our late cat Sammy over the 18 years of his life, thank you for everything
Just picking up flea treatment for our 7 month old kittens. But very friendly and willing to chat and show interest in what happened to our cat who died, which I appreciated.
My Nelly has had a few issues and had to have an emergency op due to eating a fish hook! She was referred by Castle to a vet hospital and it was arranged very quickly. I can't fault the team at both Dorchester Road and Poundbury at all. Reasonably priced in vet terms I think and I would highly recommend.
Such a good vet. Been with them for years for both my dogs. Trust them implicitly.
Wonderful vets and staff, kind and professional.
All our cats are registered here. Compared to two other veterinarians in Dorchester, we find these the best. A little bit more expensive, but they do have our full confidence.
Did lots of homework about vets before relocating to Weymouth and Castle Vets came out top for us. We made the right choice because the vets here have been superb when needing to visit with the feline member of our family.
I would recommend this veterinary practice to anyone . They genuinely care about the animals (our babies) over charging extortionate amounts for treatments and extra services that you don't need ! From the lovely receptionist to all of the other amazing staff the care you and your animals are given is five star absolutely !! The vets actually get down on the floor with your pets and are so friendly and minimally clinical.
Wouldn’t take my cat anywhere else. Caring and professional. Not sure Moo would agree!
Independent vets surgery. Brilliant vets. Wouldn't take our dogs anywhere else.
Kind friendly staff. Clean and well equipped. Good vets who care for their patients!
Absolutely the best. Looked after our best boy Jake for nearly 14 years and were always kind, compassionate and supportive. All round lovely team of people.
Lovely, Caring and Realistically priced.
Brilliant vets
Fantastic vets, caring, welcoming, knowledgeable and friendly. Take both my cats here and would highly recommend.
Still an independent practice with real affordable prices
We can never thank Castle vets enough for the outstanding care over 10 years for our amazing dog Alfie. As well as all the routine checks, vaccinations and general care, they recognised aged 3 that he would need life changing knee surgery to prolong his life, which would have been shortened considerably had we opted for pain relief only, and which also improved his quality of life. He loved visiting both the Weymouth and Dorchester surgeries and all the staff always welcomed him despite his boisterous greetings which sometimes involved paws on the reception desk and knocking down of displays! When we became concerned that he was seriously ill, they were prompt and sensitive in their investigations and in giving us dreaded news, helping us to digest the implications for Alfie. This meant that we made the right decisions for him and he had a good last week of life with a final walk on the beach, a final visit to his favourite dog friendly pub (the Springhead at Sutton Poyntz and the last thing he actually ate - some carvery pork) - and time at home resting on the sofa, going down the garden, or sitting outside sniffing the air. When we saw a deterioration which signalled that he was uncomfortable, we called the vets and within 40 minutes, despite being nearly midnight, Kirsty the vet and Roxy, veterinary nurse, arrived at our house and made sure that Alfie's death was a calm, peaceful and dignified one. They must have been tired, but they sat on the floor with us all reminiscing about him, stroking him, talking to him and crying and only left, over an hour later, when we were ready. Alfie loved Castle vets and we do too.
Did a good job with looking after our dog she is back to her old self...
Excellent vets, frendly and helpful staff, highly recommended for all your pets needs.
So caring and efficient, cannot praise the whole team enough for how well they looked after our cat, and us.
Excellent service. Vets obviously love the animals and deliver the best care.
Very good place. They seem to be good value.
Lovely kind staff. Great facilities.
Recommended so highly, this place and its staff are all amazing!