Kerikeri Highway Vets - Kerikeri Highway Vets 1526 Springbank Road

David Dowd is a kind, caring man - a quality not always there with some vets.

Always friendly, great service, good parking and they don't charge the earth for quality pet care.

Lockdown but still great survice here. Knowledgeable and caring. My old cat near the end, and was told "i am here if you need me 24/7. Thankyou so much for opening just for me

Mike Dave & the reast of the staff are an amazing team of people! So helpful & we always had Excellent service from them. They have an awesome range of tropical fish, food and maintenance items (the only place in kerikeri/waipapa that stock tropical fish now). So sad that we had to move 5 hours away otherwise I wouldnt be taking my pets anywhere else. I Highly Recommend them A++++

Responded to a call out to foster a litter. Got the house set up, and scheduled a time to come pick up. Took off work, and drove over. The kittens were not there, they had randomly sent them home with a "regular" earlier in the day and didn't even bother to let us know. The worst part is the staff lied and said they were trying to get in touch with us. However, no missed calls, no emails, no fb message. Had they of been honest and owned the mistake, it would not have been as insulting. It's worth noting that we had confirmed over the weekend and called 9:30 the morning of to make sure the kittens still needed to be picked up. Surely if someone else were scheduled to pick them up, we could have been told in the morning when we called. Sadly, this seems symptomatic of worsening management problems.

I purchased a kitten from this "vet, pet shop". They couldn't tell me how old she was. The man fronting the place said she was between 12 and 16 weeks old, a huge amount of time in the life a young animal. i was surprised as any vet would have a pretty good idea at that stage of life. They had vaccinated her once but the vaccination for her booster was three weeks overdue. The man couldn't tell me when she had been defleaded and wormed. He said it was about two weeks ago but couldn't be sure. She had a "vet book" but nothing was written in it as to her treatments for parasites. I had her second vaccination done while I was there and was struck as to what an odd man David Dowd is. Very scruffy, completely without any charm or "bedside manner" and, in fact, he didn't say a single word to me while we were in his surgery while he gave her the vaccination. I was struck by this odd behaviour. After all, I was buying an animal from his shop, surely he had SOMETHING to say, even if only good luck. Anyway I got my beautiful Willow home and the first night I saw fleas running around on her head. Because she'd just been vaccinated I didn't want to treat her for fleas that night so I waited, which meant that I was bitten by fleas. I'm allergic so am still scratching. She was also VERY thin and underweight. Every bone in her body was sticking out. So obviously the animals he sells are underfed because she's gained about 1/2 a kilo since I got her last week. That's a huge amount for a kitten. I owned a pet shop for eight years and can say without any shadow of a doubt, that I never sold a single animal that had fleas, be it puppy, kitten, rabbit or guinea pig. Nor were any of them underfed. I think it's really wrong that a vet would sell an animal that was infested with fleas. A vet knows better than anyone the proper time frame to treat for fleas and the detrimental effect they have on an animal and the humans around them. My advice to anyone buying an animal from this premises is to beware, the animals aren't properly looked after. I will say that my kitten Willow is turning out to be wonderful. She is very loving and, except for her obsession with food, in every way a curious, lively, happy little soul. My two dogs love her and she is definitely becoming the "Boss". This review isn't written to be mean. It's just what I experienced and I thought others might be forewarned.

Many thanks to David and the team at Highway Vets for kindly helping me re-home my big, beautiful boy cat Winston. David seems to understand cats very well and knew exactly the sort of home Winston would be happy in.. Winston now has a lovely new caring home and I couldn't be happier with the outcome for this boy. I am leaving Northland but if I was staying I wouldn't hesitate to head back to David for the wonderful care and knowledge he offers ..???

I've had to take my musk lorikeet, Yoshi, to the vet far too many times these past few weeks. David is an excellent vet, and very patient both with my little bird and my anxiety over his health. He's gone out of his way to see him during an after-hours visit and is always very clear about the treatment given and why. Many thanks!