veterinary surgeon

animal care assistant

seasonal associate

veterinary nurse

veterinary receptionist

Vets-Now

The workload was excessive, and the assistants were often pushed to their limits. Managing a multitude of tasks with insufficient staffing significantly affected my overall experience. There was a noticeable lack of training, which left me feeling unprepared for the responsibilities of the role. Frequently, I found myself working shifts alone, even though there should have been at least three Animal Care Assistants (ACAs) present, leading to a constant state of stress.

The 10-hour shifts were both physically and mentally exhausting. Despite generally being a calm and composed individual, I experienced severe anxiety and occasional panic attacks due to the continuous influx of animals. The role required multitasking to an overwhelming degree, including restraining animals, conducting numerous diagnostic tests, cleaning over 20 rooms twice daily, maintaining perfect stock levels, and caring for the animals.


The cumulative effect of these demands was deeply concerning. Management appeared distant and unapproachable, which did not foster a supportive work environment. Based on my experience, I would advise individuals considering a position as an ACA here to carefully evaluate these factors before making a decision.

To begin let me start with saying that yes - the hours are long. It is complained about, however on application these hours are reviewed with you about 4 times to make sure you're definitely happy. They could certainly do with being a little shorter but you can't say you're not aware when you agree to the job.
It's busy! Like everywhere.... Its the pandemic there's tonnes of new animals, management are very supportive of clinic staff during this time.

ECC means buckets of variety and no night is the same.
Brilliant experience and learning curve for all nurses.
Lots of company collaboration - huge online community created soley for VetsNow. Lots of CPD available and huge CPD budget. 
Clinics have protocols to follow but also have the luxury to create their own rota's and shift flow patterns

**would recommend being >1 year qualified before joining, as need to have that experience and confidence to work sole charge on some occasions **

There is a lot expected from you and zero support in return.
Management happily turn a blind eye to everything that doesn't suit them.
A lot of people off with stress related issues and you are penalised for being off sick in the form of what feels like, an interrogation.
Nothing is good enough and you will work so hard but your team will be constantly critisied.
The pay does not reflect your role unless you're a vet. Vets get away with treating people poorly, management do nothing about it because they make them money.
They only care about money, absolutely nothing else.
Some management are brilliant but others are awful and again, simply get away with it. I saw so many people leave because of it and not a single thing done about it. Always being belittled and put down, never recognised for hard work.
Stressful long days, always put down and made to feel less than.
Very toxic environment, you will be constantly made aware you are replaceable, they don't seem to want to retain good staff.


This was an emergency vets so shifts are OOHs weekends and bank holidays.

Take on clients from many other vets in the area that are in need veterinary assistance after their own practices are closed.
This is one of the hardest parts of the job as it can become extremely busy with the practice covering such a large area so ability to prioritise cases and clients is essential.

The most enjoyable part of this job is providing a sympathetic, caring and friendly service whilst still being reassuringly knowledgeable so the client is confident their pets will get 100% of care despite not having any previous relationships as they would have with their local Vets.

Staff and all associates of this employment were fully supportive towards every member of the team. They are also highly skilled and knowledgeable whilst being caring and sincere.

Having come from a very large corporate environment, Vets Now was a big change for me. Thankfully I can honestly say I've never worked anywhere as collaborative, innovative or inclusive as Vets Now. The company values are obvious in the culture of the organisation, which genuinely loves and cares about pets, its staff and its clients. I feel for the first time that I have a real chance to make my voice heard within my team, to grow and to progress in my development. My job involves getting to know a lot of the strategy for the company's progression future plans and it's a very positive time to be part of such a fast moving industry. The support office is far away from where I live, but I knew that when taking the job and frankly I'm happy to commute as the role and company makes it more than worth it.

Certain days can be incredibly stressful, back to back calls and difficult clients. Hence the pay being so good! While not everyone will have a problem with management, as they are lovely and supportive, I ended up having a bad one. Being promised hours increases for my contract in writing then being told that they can no longer fulfil these promises which didn't help since I had already planned around the extra pay and would now need to completely rethink my money situation for that month. This happened 2 more times, which for a company like this is incredibly unprofessional. But this is just an experience I had and not necessarily the same for everyone. Overall great!

Company was good to work for at the beginning.  Over time the company has lost that and has become more and more corporate caring more for the money they make then the service they give.  
Staff are paid low wages but locums comes in on 6x the hourly rate to fill a shift last minute.  Staff are actually leaving in order to become locums so they can earn more money!
Management varies clinic by clinic with some who are really supportive and others who do not have a clue.  
At Southampton clinic the senior staff can be bullying especially to non clinical members of staff.  They load more and more of their duties on to receptionists which should actually be done by the vets and nurses and then complain when day to day reception duties are not carried out.

Vets Now have to rate as the worst company I've ever encountered. 
They sent an annualised hours contract which was not mentioned in the interview or in the job advert. 
They also expect administration staff to cover clinical shifts. The annualised hours contract effectively means that you earn below the statutory minimum wage. 
There is a constant lack of both clinical & support staff to cover shifts which means morale is low , staff are tired, unhappy & disgruntled & there are unpleasant office politics. Staff turnover was high.
I met some genuinely lovely staff but the site I worked in evidently had serious issues with staff management & a few toxic staff members.


I spent nearly 2 years here and the job itself was enjoyable it was just the attitude towards staff less qualified than the nurses and vets which drove me away. ACA's and receptionists aren't appreciated and the work does not match the pay, ACA's were on minimum wage whereas receptionists earned £9.50 when the ACAs do the same job and are responsible for the care of the animals and cleaning of the hospital, this made me feel very unappreciated. The attitude of some staff towards the ACA team was not very nice and often made us feel unimportant, I would recommend vets now for nurses and vets but not for anyone that is just starting out in the industry as it has made me lose my love for the job.

No training, told to get others to train you, but no one has time or wants to, you are blamed as a new person for not knowing how to do something. Different staff on nearly every shift, vets all locums. Some staff are friendly and supportive. One particular member of staff I was unfortunate to work with regularly was rude, aggressive and had filthy language, everyone else knew about it but would not say anything to management. Wages were often wrong, pressured last minute to do extra shifts, this even continued after I had left, had to block their phone number. Best thing you can do is not apply, false promises and not action. Would not bring my pet here.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Veterinary surgeon 29 salaries reported	£64,364 per year
Animal care assistant 150 salaries reported	£13.07 per hour
Seasonal associate 40 salaries reported	£17.00 per hour
Veterinary nurse 1 salary reported	£37,510 per year
Veterinary receptionist 48 salaries reported	£12.82 per hour

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