Seadown Veterinary Services Limited

Seadown Veterinary Services Limited provides small-animal care for dogs, cats and rabbits, and the practice website also mentions equine medicine. The clinic appears set up for higher-acuity and referral work, especially ophthalmology, alongside routine care, with reviews describing hospital-style treatment for serious emergencies and same-day eye surgery when needed. Recent feedback is mixed overall: many owners praise compassionate emergency handling, clear explanations and regular updates, while others raise concerns about cost, delays and not seeing the same vet consistently.

Services

•Small-animal care for dogs, cats and rabbits.
•Equine medicine, as listed on the practice website.
•Eye referral and ophthalmology, with reviews highlighting thorough, unhurried consultations, entropion assessment, and same-day surgery when an eye ulcer was suspected.
•Emergency and urgent care, including out-of-hours help and rapid triage for serious cases. Recent examples include a dog seen within an hour on a Sunday morning, immediate intake of a cat hit by a car, and treatment for a toxic medication overdose.
•Hospital-style inpatient care and referrals for more serious cases, with reviews describing multi-day drip therapy, regular progress updates, and the Hythe site being used for severe medical problems.
•Veterinary nurse training facility.

Pricing

A very limited amount of published pricing suggests the clinic may sit below average, but this is based on very few comparable services. Review feedback on value is mixed: some owners describe the practice as expensive or overpriced, while one owner felt a surgeon reduced the bill to help with treatment choices.

People

•Ophthalmologist Miroslava is praised for being thorough, clear, calm and unhurried, with one owner saying their dog felt very at ease during the appointment.
•Dr Palenikova is credited with recognising the urgency of an eye problem from owner photos, asking the patient to come in immediately, and carrying out same-day surgery for entropion when an ulcer was present.
•Vets, nurses and reception staff are often mentioned positively for compassionate emergency handling, kind support when owners were distressed, and regular updates during inpatient stays. Some reviews, however, mention not seeing the same vet consistently.

Reviews

Google reviews show 4.3/5 from 232 reviews.

•Emergency and urgent care is a major positive theme, with owners describing prompt weekend help, fast handling of road-traffic injuries, and successful inpatient treatment after a serious overdose.
•Ophthalmology stands out in the feedback, especially for detailed explanations, specialist eye care, and rapid intervention when a condition worsened.
•Several reviewers praise the team’s communication, including clear plain-language discussions, time spent in consultations, and twice-daily updates during hospitalisation.
•Negative themes include cost, waiting times, continuity of care, and a handful of more serious complaints about clinical decisions, medication changes, supervision, and billing descriptions.

Reviews for Seadown Veterinary Services Limited

Note: Showing the 10 most recent Google reviews out of 232 we track in total. Recent reviews may not be representative of overall sentiment.

S Reynolds

4 weeks ago

They operated on our dog to remove a cancer lump but failed to properly check prior to operation if cancer was elsewhere. £3k and 3 weeks later we had to pay another £700 for exrays and for her to be put down. They also prescribed the wrong medication for the infection that she had and they took a week to decide on correct tablets. Visited Seadown at Hythe @ 6 times with this condition and never saw same vet twice. Most seemed inexperienced and unqualified.

Trudy Smith

1 month ago

From the phone call 7.30 am on a Sunday morning the staff at seadown couldn't have been more kind . Our darling Doberman Coco wasvery poorly she was seen within an hour unfortunately the outcome wasn't good but it was delt with compassion and kindness thank you so much to all the staff involved

Christine Scott

Andrew Twydell

2 months ago

This was one of the most upsetting and poorly handled experiences I’ve had with a veterinary practice. I attended for what should have been a routine second vaccination for my dog. I was clear that he had been completely fine following earlier ear treatment. Despite this, the vet insisted she could see something concerning, described as a possible foreign body (“a yellow stalk” or grass seed). I was told sedation would be required to remove it. Based on that assessment, and trusting the advice given, I consented. After my dog was sedated, I was told that no foreign body was present and that only a very small piece of wax had been removed. Despite this, I was charged almost £300 for a procedure described as “grass seed removal.” After escalating through the formal complaints process, CVS later acknowledged that this billing description was misleading, but stated it was used because their system lacked an alternative code. They also forgot to clip my dogs nail as requested during the sedation. Ultimately, my dog was put at unnecessary risk of sedation for no reason. During the same visit, my dog who I had explicitly flagged as anxious, was left unattended in a kennel with his lead still attached. While unsupervised, he chewed through the lead. Being told this after the fact was extremely distressing and raised serious concerns about supervision and basic safety. I pursued this through the full complaints process, escalating beyond the practice to CVS at Regional Director level. The process involved repeated delays, missed response deadlines, and multiple follow-ups. Ultimately, the response focused on defending internal records rather than addressing the clear inconsistency between what I was told before sedation and what was actually found afterwards. Although some communication failures and procedural “learnings” were acknowledged, no responsibility was taken for the misleading procedure description, the unnecessary distress caused, or the handling of my dog while in their care. The only resolution offered was reimbursement for the damaged lead. This experience fundamentally undermined my trust in the practice. I would urge any pet owner to be extremely cautious, ask detailed questions, and ensure they fully understand and are comfortable with any proposed procedures before consenting.

Spew

My cat is a fighter and regularly has to visit the vets since he was a kitten, at least twice a year for injuries from fighting. He received an antibiotic injection often. Now, the last two times they have talked to me as though I am stupid and said they do not provide this injection, the second vet said the only way, would be for me to take him up there every day for the injection where as it used to last for 14 days. It is impossible to give him pills or even the liquid, it must taste nasty because he will take a syringe of painkiller with no problems at all but will fight me with the antibiotics. When I looked into this, I found out that there is still an injection which will cover 14 days but some cats have a bad reaction to it so they must be careful. As my cat has had it so many times now, I think it is completely unnecessary to start refusing him at 9 years old and just makes life extra difficult trying to manage the stress of these visits to the vet. It wouldn't have been so bad if they could have just been honest and explained rather than talking to me as if I was a complete idiot and must have got it all wrong. I keep all his vet receipts so it is all there in black and white what he has previously been given. I think we need a new vet in the area.

adam holmes

3 months ago

Prompt and efficient care and advice

Mark Robinson

I’ve had to use sea down around a half dozen times, never seen the same vet twice, always running late, overpriced and whilst the service has sometimes been good, at others it has been dismal.

Chrissy Russell

paul Richards

4 months ago

Due to a severe medical issue with our dog we were advised to go to Hythe which is more of a pet hospital, from the moment we first walked in ,to the point we left ALL of the staff were ,fantastic, the surgeon was very thorough and even though we had the last appointment of the day and I’d imagine the lady wanted to go home at one point I was in with the surgeon with my 20 year old daughter, I had to go out to move my car and the lady spent a further 45 mins talking and explaining very concisely but also in “laymen’s terms” so my daughter fully understood everything she needed to know and she highlighted my daughters choices. At the end of the appointment my daughter was expecting to have to pay more for her time but she actually reduced the bill to help my daughter with her choices . Her empathy, understanding and care was absolutely amazing, I think a score of 10/10would fall way short of the mark for everything the practice did, would I recommend them? Without any doubt whatsoever