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!

Very professional vets have looked after our dog for years always great advice and they talk u through the costs which is helpful. Would recommend these vets to anyone.
Communicated and were responsive, not used their services with a visit yet...
Did a good job with looking after our dog she is back to her old self...
I've got a puppy who needed his vaccination, they responded very quickly
I stopped to pick up a wounded hedgehog this morning from the road in Charminster and drove it strait to Castle Vets being the nearest and near where I work.Having never been there before and walking in with this little hedgehog in a bad state the lady I dealt with, Amanda, was so kind, friendly and empathetic.She immediately took him to a nurse to be looked at and took my details to keep me informed as to his condition which she did later that morning.I am so grateful and impressed.Thank you Amanda and Castle Vets team!
1st consultation appointment with Eva this evening and can not thank her enough , she was so welcoming to us as a family had already read through missys notes which the past vets hadn't, and gave us more advise and information on an eye issue missy is currently going through than the last 4 vets we have seen. The receptionist were all lively and welcoming and had bloods taken expecting them to be back tomo and recieved a call 15 mins after leaving with the results, can not fault any part of our appointment. Thank you so much 💓
Just started taking our kitten Nimbus to this vets recently, vet instantly told us hes actually a boy 😂 Extremely friendly vet and reception staff so thankful we chose such a friendly vet. Only thing to mention is theyve got his name on file wrong as Nimba we learnt when i got an email for the cat plan 😂!
An excellent vets in Poundbury that we bring our cat too. The vets and staff are brilliant always a smile and a greeting whenever you visit. We now know why there is a queue waiting to register their pets.
Very friendly and helpful.
Only used the vets once, it was very well organised for corona restrictions.
We have had 2 late night accidents resulting in an off duty call and requiring subsequent surgical procedures each time. All of the staff were so reassuring and looked after our dogs with such care. One of our dogs, Izzy had to return for dressing changes once every few days. The care she received was in my opinion better than in any human hospital, using a mixture of modern and natural techniques. The bill was amazingly reasonable too. Thank you all so much
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
Caring, reliable veterinary practice. Very pleasant staff, well equipped surgery, cat- friendly waiting area. Recommended.
Lovely, Caring and Realistically priced.
Top quality vets with top-notch staff. They really care about running a good and ethical business. I trust them.
What an amazing service from the vetinarian, who looked after our dog while on holiday. He was very caring of both the dog and us.If we lived in the area, we would use this practice for all our dogs 🐕Thank you. Well deserved 5stars.
Good vets, they were really caring when we had to put down my mums dog. Sad times
Very pleased with treatment our cat received very kind would recommend this practice to anybody
Always has the pets' best interest at heart, rather than the profit driven experience I've had at other multi national owned vetinary surgeries. Good common sense approach, kind and caring.
Recommended so highly, this place and its staff are all amazing!
So good. So professional. Lovely service. Very happy.
They are amazing and really care about our pets!
Always friendly and helpful, and the dog doesn't mind going there which is a bonus 👍🏻
Exceptional Veterinary Practice.Although I have been a client for many years, my dog Jack seldom needs care. Recently however he was suffering a gland problem.. Jack is an imported rescue and the BVA recommend a safeguarding procedure (blood test) prior to any surgery in such cases due to possible Brucellosis infection. I was uncertain of the benefits, but was able to have a practical and sensible discussion with Giles, beforehand Jack had the procedure under sedation & Giles whipped out a loose back tooth too. Jack is not insured, but I was given an estimate of cost at our initial consultation which matched our final invoice. Thank you Giles, it seems to have done the trick and Jack has forgiven you (almost!)
Amazing vets always been there for my animals especially Gill always try to have her for my fury friends she was excellent when i had to say good bye to my Joe Joe dog and now she takes care of my two I have now. All the vets i have seen have been brilliant keep up the good work team