Yorkshire Vets - Meanwood

I have mixed opinions about leaving this review. We've been going to Yorkshire Vets for 3 years now, with 3 different cats. We've always found it easy to get an appointment in the right timeframe, and they've got us in on the same day or told us to come right in for any urgent issues. The staff are always kind, friendly and knowledgeable. We unfortunately had to have one of our cats put to sleep here, and everyone was so kind, supportive, gentle and respectful with us and our cat. I have no complaints with the service I've received and if I was only rating based on this, I'd give them 5 stars.However, recently they've been having problems with staffing. There's been a few times I've called up and they've said 'we don't have a vet today, but we will call you back tomorrow' etc. This has been fine for more routine things. However, last week the difficulties with staffing actively caused my pet harm.We noticed that while my cat was breathing at a normal rate, his breathing sounded slightly noisier than usual. My cat was ok in himself temperament wise in that he was excited to see us, begging for fuss, running round the house, playing with his toys etc. The noisy breathing was a concern to us so we called Meanwood vets to see if we could bring him in.The opening times are meant to be 8.30-6pm, and we called around 3pm, but the phone had a prerecorded message saying they were closed, with no explanation as to why. We had no option but to call Thornbury who asked us to bring him in. Our cat is incredibly nervous and highly strung. He's terrified of the vets, and putting him in the carrier and taking him anywhere in the car is very stressful for him. We are registered with Meanwood to try avoid this as it is a 5 minute walk for us so minimises the time he is stressed for.Instead, we had to drive 40 minutes in school run traffic to the other side of Leeds. Our cat got very stressed on the journey and his condition rapidly deteriorated - he went from being largely himself, a normal breathing rate with slightly noisy breathing, to extremely fast, laboured breathing, panting and drooling. I genuinely thought he was going to die on the journey. It was a really traumatic experience and one I hope to never encounter again. Our cat was admitted to Thornbury overnight and it took til 1am for his breathing to return to normal. We found out at Thornbury that Meanwood was closed due to lack of staff.Obviously our cat had respiratory problems before the car journey, and we will never know whether he would have had that acute attack without the car journey or not. However, it is clear that putting a cat with respiratory issues through a prolonged, hugely stressful ordeal will only have caused his condition to deteriorate. Even if he had had an acute attack without the car journey, if we had been seen at Meanwood it would not have lasted for so long because it is only 5 minutes away. Instead, he had to spend 40 minutes in a car in this state. When we arrived at Thornbury we were told he was in critical condition and highly unstable.It's always been a comfort to me knowing the vets were just around the corner. While I always knew registering with Yorkshire Vets meant that there was a risk we would have to go to Thornbury for out of hours care, I wasn't expecting to have to do it at 3pm on a Wednesday because the surgery was inexplicably closed. I'm now terrified of ever going away and leaving my cat with a catsitter in case my cat has another episode and Meanwood are closed with no notice again.I don't blame the staff at the practice for this and I don't know the cause of the staffing issues, but this experience has left me wanting to find a different vets that I can trust will be open when they say they will. I don't ever want to be put in the position I was put into last week where I thought I was watching my poor, terrified cat die in a car.

Really good experience. Friendly and helpful staff throughout the business. Meanwood is our local vets but we’ve also used Armley and Thornbury and we’ve received the same welcome and care and honest advice at every location. Wouldn’t take our pets anywhere else.

Lovely vets! Always take great care of your pets, the staff are super friendly and helpful.

I have been coming to this practice for many years now. The service me and my pet have received has been excellent. The staff are always very friendly and you feel at ease as soon as you walk in. We got our dog as a stray and she can be a little nervous of new things so it is always nice to see how calm and gentle they are towards her, so it makes her experience less stressful.I would definitely recommend Yorkshire Vets to my friends and family.

Friendly, genuinely caring and professional staff team. They go above and beyond to help and care for pets. Highly recommend! Thank you for being so passionate about your work and so helpful.

The team at Yorkshire vets are brilliant. I highly recommend them . They have looked after my pets for the last 15 years. They are friendly, kind and caring. 10/10

Friendly and caring staff. Used Meanwood practice for many years for this very reason!

Really helpful with everything we needed for our bunny. The vet gave all the information we needed before the procedure as well as for after the procedure. Great place!

I have been a client at Yorkshire Vets Meanwood for about 5 years. they are always kind and courteous, and lovely with my pets and I always recommend them to friends

A very good experience. A caring vet who spent time and care treating my border collie who is nervous at the vets. The reception staff were friendly and helpful.