Two German Shepherd brothers were born ten years ago and then lived with us until one, Mat, passed away a couple of years ago and Brinks passed away on Sunday night October 5th. 2025.
Naturally we laid him in a bed and decided to contact the vets at Well House next morning.
When we did we were horrified to hear that after a near ten years of both dogs being registered with them for health checks, nail clippings and the thousands of pounds paid to them for the general car of our dogs, including monthly Librella injections at £140 per month, and a one week stay for Brinks when, at three years old, he came down with Dog Meningitis resulting in xrays, scans and three months of medication after an operation and a near £5K bill.
At the moment when we needed them Well House showed their true colours and would do nothing unless we could manage to bring a dead, 7.5stone German Shepherd into the surgery!!
They claimed they never collect a dog that has passed at home as their insurance doesn't cover them to take your dog to the surgery. They even put the elusive Kelly Chantner on the phone to repeat it. I will explain about the elusiveness later.
We were shocked at the reply to our request for help for a number of reasons.
Not just the amount of money we had spent with them, nor the fact that they used to come to the house to administer Brinks' Librella as he had great difficulty getting up the ramp to get into the car. Nor was it the home visits that stopped suddenly without warning because they could not travel the less than a mile journey to the house but forgot to tell us, relying on me calling them asking where they were. Or the fact that they promised to book a home visit a couple of times only for them to cancel it at the last minute and failed to tell us, even though they sent six text messages reminding us of each appointment as if WE needed reminding!
They were also using the excuse that the 'practice manager' Kelly Chantner was the only person who "carried the insurance to travel with Librella'" and she was never there to speak to as she 'covered other surgeries' and, the best/worse excuse of all, "We do not have access to her diary!"
It was lucky Kelly Chantner was there to take over the call when I enquired about them collecting my dog after he passed as they could never find her any other time. Perhaps she was actually hiding from the phone calls before when they couldn't see her diary rather than being out and about at other practices as they said. What were the chances that she was there that morning?
Once when we had queried if they could, this time, visit the home to administer the librella the response we got was, "we only visit to carry out an 'end of life' procedural visit. Strange, as they are willing to come to your home to euthanize your pet as an end of life visit but, by their logic, they must leave the dead animal behind for you to deal with?
As it happened, we rang them once to ask why they sent six messages and they claimed that there was no appointment for our dog on their system even though we were receiving reminders!
We hardly ever saw the same nurses as their turnover of staff is high. Three veterinary nurses that used to meet our dog left and moved to other practices.
The car park is usually empty too I don't think they have many clients. I wonder why.
We had some very good experiences with Well House over the years but in the last few years it has deteriorated badly and I will never forget or forgive them for letting our dog down on appointments and not dealing or helping with his passing.
You need to make your own mind up whether you use them but I would say they are good to use when your pet is healthy, otherwise...!
