Market Drayton vets start own ‘independent’ surgery as they pledge to give pet owners ‘an alternative’

The Little Vet Company based in units one and two on Talbot Way, Market Drayton officially opened on Monday, welcoming animals and their owners from across the region.

Business partners Sarah Temperton and Tracey Pendlebury have both worked for more than two decades at nearby Tern Vets, and will be familiar faces for customers and their furry friends.

The new vets features two operating theatres, digital and dental x-rays, and an ultra sound machine, and is pets only – no farm or equine animals – and are “happy to see” reptiles and birds, but are not specialists.

Director and vet of more than 28 years, Sarah said: “Open day was fantastic, we've had lots of people popping in to wish us well and good luck cards.

“It was a really lovely day, everyone seemed really happy. One thing we didn't anticipate was we didn't realise how thrilled and excited everybody would be.”

Adding: “We felt we've got the skills now and started a nice way to be able to offer an alternative to people around here. Most of the practices are corporate.

“We liked the idea of re-introducing our own independent practice, something that is our own and having it as an alternative offer.”

The vets is not offering 24-hour care services, but Sarah says the goal is to work towards providing emergency out-of-hours care.

However, the vets has teamed up with Garden Vets at Keele to provide emergency care.

“We're really well equipped to deal with a wide range of things,” added Sarah.

“Eventually we would like to work towards having our own out of hours team but it’s not something we can offer right at the start.

“Our current plan is to be as good as we can be on a small scale. Our main focus is to give the best service that we can.

“We're in a good place that people can travel to. We think we can cover a reasonable radius.

“We want to be friendly, we want to be welcoming, and we want to be good value for money, and for people to have trust in us and enjoy coming to us.

“We want to have a happy, trustworthy environment, be clinically as excellent as we can be and make sure people are comfortable speaking to us. We will do our best for them.”