At Letchworth Veterinary Centre we aim to provide a friendly and personal service for you and the best medical care for your pets.

We have 3 consulting rooms, all of which are spacious, light and well equipped for your vet to carry out a thorough examination of your pet.

Our two main consulting rooms are air conditioned and the third is used for nurse consultations.

The practice is fully computerised with terminals in all consulting rooms.

At Letchworth Veterinary Centre we aim to provide a friendly and personal service for you and the best medical care for your pets.

In 2002 we renovated our hospitalisation area with a large block of modern, comfortable and easy to clean kennels.

We have a wide variety of kennel sizes to suit all patients, from smaller kennels higher up, to larger kennels big enough for a giant breed dog.

We also have a seperate cat only ward.

The kennels are positioned across a corridor from our 3 operating rooms, and large windows in these rooms enable constant visualisation of your pets whilst working in these rooms.

Our on-site laboratory is well equipped with biochemistry, haematology and electrolyte analysers as well as a binocular microscope.

We can perform a wide range of tests and get immediate results, which can be essential for emergency cases, and also allows us to run pre-anaesthetic blood screens (strongly recommended prior to surgery on elderly or sick patients).

The microscope is used for assessment of skin, urine and ear samples as well as analysis of needle biopsies of suspected tumours.

More complicated laboratory tests are carried out at an external commercial laboratory and we have a nightly courier service removing any delay in getting samples to the laboratory.

Letchworth Veterinary Centre have 3 connected rooms for performing operations on your pets.

A central preparation room is used for inducing anaesthesia and then patients are taken into our main operating theatre for sterile operations, or into our second operating theatre for dentals or other non-sterile procedures.

Powerful operating lights along with a fully adjustable operating table ensure optimum operating conditions for the veterinary surgeon.

Anaesthetics are closely monitored by our nurses with the additional help of pulse oximetry (monitoring the oxygen level in your pet's blood).

Although anaesthesia these days is generally very safe, having this monitoring equipment gives us very early warning of any problems should they arise.

We have a powerful x-ray machine enabling radiographic examinations to be easily performed.

In 2009 we upgraded to digital radiography providing the benefit of rapid assessment of images, a reduced time your pet is sedated or anaesthetised and improved diagnostic quality.

If a specialist second opinion is ever needed the images can be emailed to the specialist.

Digital radiography - what are the benefits?

Apart from the convenience of easy storage and retrieval of images there is a marked increase in the amount of information that can be gained from each image compared to conventional radiographic film.

This is because each image can be manipulated to show maximum detail in all parts of the image. For instance when we radiograph a chest the image will contain lung tissue, the heart, and the surrounding bone. With conventional radiography, in order to examine both lung tissue and bone in maximum detail we would have to take 2 pictures, one exposed for the lung tissue, the other exposed for bone. With digital radiography we can take just one picture.

Hence, as well as improving our ability to diagnose any abnormalities we can also reduce the amount of radiation your pet, and our staff, are exposed to as well as reducing the time your pet is under sedation or anaesthesia.

Our nursing staff are available to answer your general queries, book appointments and dispense non-prescription medication such as wormers and some flea treatments.