Yew Tree Veterinary Surgery

Excellent vets highly recommend

It’s always nervewracking taking a baby animal to the vet. What if it embarrasses me, you’re thinking. What if there’s something wrong with it? What if I’ve been a really bad owner and not known it? All these things were running through my head when young three month old Phoebe was popped in her pet carrier and taken to Withington’s Yew Tree vet today.
First of all, I love dogs and I love cats. But good lord, this is where dogs have the advantage. Most travel so well, and they’re usually keen to meet new people so the strange man with the big needle doesn’t seem in the least bit threatening. Cats, well, they’re the misanthrope of the animal world. They adore a few select people but it takes a while to make friends with them. Now, Phoebe likes her cat carrier, for sure, which is a huge positive for a kitten… but she doesn’t like being contained and she does NOT like engine noise. So here we were, taking what is normally rather a nervous, skittish and anxious kitten to an unfamiliar place in a now more heightened state of nervousness, skittishness and anxiety. Great. Just what on earth was going to happen on that table.
I needn’t have worried. Not only do you get a warm, lovely, friendly welcome at the reception desk, you get James. He’s amazing. He’s seen it all — nervous cats, cats who are phobic of everything from bins to bags to binbags to doors to shoes… like mine, angry cats, evil cats… he has one of his own. Our kitten was very healthy, he checked her over 100% and asked lots of questions about her behaviour and diet. We got tons of great advice about cat food and what little Phoebe would be needing in terms of shots and whatnot over the coming weeks.
You can’t put a price on a good vet, and now that there’s a feline in our lives we’re even happier we’re moving closer to this establishment. Yay to the Yew Tree vets!

Last year, I moved into my first flat alone in Withington. Solo. No flatmates. I was a bit lonely, naturally, with the boyf living in a different city and all my mates living in Manchester city centre. I decided that the only thing for it was to get a cat and thus cement myself in my friends’ collective consciousness as their gin-​soaked mad aunt.
The first place I went was the Yew Tree vet surgery, as I knew they’d have a list of rescue centres, and they did. I made plans to visit one or two, but then by chance found Alan (née ‘Taz’) going free to a good home, from a good home.
Instantly, I loved him. Instantly, he loved getting under my feet. It was truly special. Then I noticed that Alan wasn’t eating much and seemed pretty sluggish. Obviously I did what any normal cat owner would do. I cried, I panicked, I lambasted myself for being a rubbish cat parent. I went to the vets.
The service we got at Yew Tree was fantastic. I burst in with my cat carrier and lay prostrate at the receptionist’s feet «I am awful!» I wailed «my cat is ILL!» James the vet was lovely and calmed Alan down instantly, with some sort of vet magic, did a thorough once over and pinpointed the problem instantly. 20 minutes later, with a prescription, all of Alan’s vaccines etc, a charity catnip toy and the advice «Do not feed your cat Go-​Cat, it is MacDonalds for cats!!!» ringing in my ears, I was off home, happy again, and not crying.
I know that it doesn’t seem much; cat ill, vet see cat, cat get better, but as pet owners know, it is so important to know that there’s a vet you can trust. The Yew Tree vet surgery is a great place to go. As well as saving your fluffy friend’s life, they sell a great range of healthy vet-​approved pet foods, and animal toys, a lot of which are charity affiliated. Even now that we’ve moved into the city centre, we still make the journey into Withington when Alan needs a check up, because we know we can trust them to be thorough and professional, and nice to the cat.