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!

Fantastic friendly service. Vet, we saw Kirsty, was informative and explained problem well. Very well covid organised so felt very safe. Thank you
Recommended so highly, this place and its staff are all amazing!
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.
Lovely people friendly 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.
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 😂!
Top quality vets with top-notch staff. They really care about running a good and ethical business. I trust them.
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.
Highly recommend, We've used this clinic for over 10 years and wouldn't go anywhere else.
Good care of our animals
We are new to the area and have had nothing but kindness and professionalism from the vets
I have been using Castle Vets for many years. I've always had excellent service from kind, thoughtful and highly trained staff. My dogs love trips to the vets.
a loving, caring, passionate and hardworking team....the animals are treated like their own would be...time is dedicated to each individual client and their pets and they work so hard behind the scene......awesome team.....rock on.👍👍👍
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.
Parker can certainly be a bit of a handful at times the staff are always brilliant with him no worries of leaving him there.Always so incredibly friendly and empathetic no matter how big or small a problem. I'm always confident in they're knowledge and wisdom.
Nice friendly staff and good service, but cost of drugs high
Wouldn’t take my cat anywhere else. Caring and professional. Not sure Moo would agree!
Great service for our fur babies. Only charged for necessary treatments. Recommended
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.
Special thanks to the vet and nurses for looking after Molly my beloved border collie in her final hours , being with her as she past on was so important , very caring and professional team .
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.
Great service with very experienced staff. Always greeted with a friendly smile.
I am so impressed with this Vets. Giles was particularly helpful, calm and patient with our many questions regarding our new dog. He was informative, kind and seemed to genuinely have the time of day (which from past experience is rare). The reception staff were courteous and helpful and we signed up for their monthly plan which started straight away with flea and worm treatment included. We are really happy customers and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Castle Vets to any other pet owner. Thank you!
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.
They saved my boys life when he broke his leg the other day. And now I can hold onto my purring best friend for hopefully much longer. Amazing team. Thank you so much.