Allpets Veterinary Clinic celebrates five years

Narrabri’s Allpets Veterinary Clinic has celebrated their fifth birthday, a special achievement for the clinic run by an even more impressive girl gang of vets and nurses.

You’ll feel the love right as you walk, wiggle, or waddle through the door of the bright Cooma Road Clinic, where it’s not unusual to see a family gathered around a vet who’s sitting on the waiting-room floor giving a beloved pup some cuddles as she runs her consult.

Founding vet Stacey Dunn has seen it all, from varying sorts of patients to the good times and the bad.

“We’ve had so many interesting patients, we see everything,” said Stacey. “We see dogs and cats, and go out to horses and cows, then we have pet snakes come in, and birds and wildlife, alpacas, but we haven’t seen a camel yet.”

Pride in their patients extends to an obvious love of all pets, and you’ll catch the team in matching Christmas pupper scrubs if you head into the vets leading up to the holidays.

“It has been a bit of a milestone getting to that five-year birthday,” said Stacey.

“We fitted out this building and we’ve grown from one vet and two nurses to two vets and six nurses here.”

“It’s grown hugely.”

Starting with her original nurse Vicki Allan, who is still on the team and running her own pet motel in Bohena Creek, the two have seen some wonderful changes over the years, including welcoming their second vet Michaela.

“So, it really is a whole girl gang?” we asked Stacey.

“Wow, it really is,” said Stacey, “I guess it has always been one.”

The current overnight visitors are bright and inquisitive, and though no one ever goes to see their doc for a good time, give happy barks and tail wags from their comfy lodgings.

“We have a lot of fun during the days, and that’s what helps us get through the tough ones sometimes,” said Stacey.

“It’s also great that we share our after-hours with another clinic and we work together, so the whole town can have 24-hour access to vets too.”

In the fast-growing rural town of Narrabri, Allpets has welcomed plenty of new clients and a loyal customer base over the years, becoming a true community fixture.

“You’re such a big part of the town because it’s hard to get vets out here,” said Stacey. “There’s been a huge growth in town, and that has changed the way pets are seen in town as well.

“Pets are sort of more of the family, but there’s a big shift, they are like children now and treated as such.”

Service to the community is one of the most rewarding parts of the job for Stacey, who also takes any opportunity to sponsor sporting teams and events and make donations to different communities.

And though the years have had their challenges, COVID stood out as one of the most significant and busiest times at Allpets, along with the mouse plague.

“There are lots of patients that stick in your memories – the ones who were really sick and pulled through, and even the ones you’ve had to say goodbye to, or the ones you’ve seen for a long time, and dealt with a lot of their long-term illnesses. It’s important in a rural town that we’re there for people when they really need us.

“Thank you for the support, it’s not hard being a new business in such a tight-knit community, but the support of the whole community is just huge,” said Stacey.

At home, Stacey has four dogs, a cat, heaps of ducks and chickens, and lizards, and while she’s busy taking care of the community’s pets, her boys have goals of adding to her horde with goats, horses, and who knows, maybe even a camel.

Allpets Veterinary Clinic is one of the participating businesses in The Courier and Wee Waa News’ Have a Cracker of a Christmas – Shop with our Superstars Christmas promotion. The campaign, which is sponsored by Santos and community radio station 2MaxFM, features fantastic prizes totalling $7000.