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!

Just wanted to say thank you ALL for looking after Frankie (our dachshund) over the past few days. Glad you quickly diagnosed her bladder stone and operated to sort the problem. Sincerely appreciate everything.
Great Veterinary Practice. Staff all very welcoming. Would definitely recommend anyone to take their Loved Pets here 🐾💖🐾
Great service
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.
Very professional vets. Treated my dog with great kindness and compassion on his final visit. Thank you
Would be nice if a bench was provided in the car park to sit on. As our appointment was running late and we weren't in a car because Maisie Pearce doesn't like getting in cars. Staff were excellent though.
Took my cat in as an emergency as she had suspected eaten a poisoned mouse and seemed really unwell. The vet gave me two options but advised me on the cheaper one being that it was pretty obvious what she had done. He gave her an injection and a few days later she was back to normal. Prices are very reasonable and the desk staff were very pleasant and helpful.
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 😂!
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.
Brilliant quick service
They are amazing and really care about our pets!
Always amazing service. Quick & swift action removed a 2.5 cm piece of hawthorn from my dogs foot! 😬😬😬 Great vets, highly recommend. 🐕😻🐕😻
We are Very Happy with the Service, Care and Treatment given to Sydney by Kirsty, Giles and the support team.Highly recommended.
What a great team, from initial telephone conversation to my dogs operation - consistency in professionalism and customer experience 10/10. Would highly recommend.Thank you to both Weymouth and Dorchester ❤️
Lovely people friendly service
We have been using this vet practice for about 2 years now. We had three cats when we joined and they have cat surgeries and practioners. I would always take my cats here. I feel listened to and respected. And that the welfare of my cats is important. We recently had to say goodbye to one of our little cats. The care and consideration from the whole practice ( vet Ellie, nurses and reception staff) to us and our special family member was second to none
We've had multiple pets here over 17 years. They've always been amazing with the animals, even through covid. The way they handle animals and also customers is amazing. Reception team are always on it and the veterinarians have always made the animals feel comfortable.
Such wonderful professional service.Very sympathetic towards me and my dog when I had to let her go.All staff included especially when I had ring and book my dog on, thank you.
Truly caring fantastic vets, my wife and I can't thank and praise them enough, very highly recommended to any animal lover, well done all at Castle vets.
Most caring vets I have ever known...my boy was seriously ill and I couldnt have asked for better care for him...unfortunately he lost the fight but not without vets pulling out all the stops to save him....they let me visit and stay with him for hours while he was still here and after
These vets are the best I have used. All of the vets and staff are so friendly, caring and compassionate. We recently had to have our handsome boy put to sleep our dog and ourselves could not have been in better hands.A big thank you to all of you for everything.
I cannot possibly explain with words how amazing this veterinary clinic is, it was our first time going there and its also the first time I've ever felt just purly listened too and not pushed to do anything I wouldnt be comfortable with for my dog. I feel they genuinely want the best your your animals, to the point where they want to make sure there is an infection before just giving antibiotics, which other vets I've been too would have just prescribed them regardless. I cant express how much this helped me relax, and my dog also enjoyed the experience and got lots of lovely hellos and treats.Truly I feel over the moon that this is our vets!I am feeling so indescribably happy with my experience and I couldnt recommend them enough.
They are really good vets! They look after my dog and he even likes going to see them
As a new client bringing one dog and 2 cats for their initial appointments I have so far had only positive experiences, and have found it easy to get an appointment, easy to park, and so far have even seen the same vet each time which is nice for continuity. Reception staff are lovely, too!
We are new to the area and have had nothing but kindness and professionalism from the vets