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  • Out of hours0118 959 4007

If you are looking to book a cat vaccination, please be aware that there is an ongoing shortage of some cat vaccines affecting all UK Veterinary practices. Find out more here.

Lost, Found & Stray Pets

Our pets are a big part of our family and if they go missing it can be a huge worry

If your pet goes missing you can do the following

Contact all of the local vets in the area and give them a description of your pet

Contact the dog warden on 0118 937 3787 (Dog’s only)

Make posters with your pet’s picture and your contact details and put them up in your local area and distribute them to all the local veterinary practices.

Register your pet’s details with the following companies

Put information and pictures/posters up on Facebook and get your friends to share them. Useful pages include the Castle Vets Facebook Page (If you like the page you can post directly onto it),

Put notifications up on Twitter and get your friends to share them. You can tweet us @Castle_Vets and we will be happy to retweet your lost pet notification. We also recommend you end your tweet with the hashtag for your local area for example #rdguk is Reading, #Woky is Wokingham (if you do a search for your town on twitter you should be able to see what hashtags are being used).

If you suspect that your pet has been stolen you should also contact the local police station to report the crime.

If your pet is insured, notify your insurance company as some policies include help with posters and advertising and some also cover reward money.

Don’t give up hope some pets manage to find their way back home even after long periods of time.

If you find a pet

If you find an injured or sick animal you can take it to any local veterinary practice who will admit it for treatment (Phone for an appointment first). Be very careful when handling injured animals as they may bite or scratch due to pain and fear; if the animal seems aggressive or fearful it may be best to contact the dog warden or RSPCA to collect it instead of handling the animal yourself.

If the animal is not injured

  • Contact the local vets in the area to see if they have had reports of missing animals matching that description.
  • For dogs contact the dog warden on 0118 937 3787
  • For cats visit the Cat Protection website for your local branch’s contact number
  • Contact lost and found websites (see above) and add a description and picture  of the pet – this is a free service
  • Your local veterinary practice will be happy to scan the animal to check for a microchip (phone for an appointment first), but please be aware that they will not be able to take the animal off you unless it is sick or injured. If the animal is microchipped they will be able to contact the owners for you
  • For any animal you can also visit the RSPCA website to find the number of your local branch

Information on Microchipping Your Pet

Castle Vets Stray Animals Policy 

Unfortunately we cannot take in any stray animal unless it is injured or unwell.

After emergency treatment stray dogs will be immediately collected by the Dog Warden and placed into a rescue centre who will try to find the owner. Stray cats may be kept at the practice for a few days, while we try and locate an owner, but they will then be handed over to a local rehoming centre as soon as a space becomes available.

While they are with us, we make every effort to try to reunite them with their owners and also to treat any injuries and problems. Unfortunately, we don’t have the space to keep strays at the practice for long periods because our hospital kennels are just not big enough for healthy animals in need of stimulation and exercise (they are designed to house unwell pets) We also do not have the time or resources to devote to rehoming them.

Charities/rehoming centres can devote far more time to trying to locate the owners and then rehoming if no one comes forward. These centres do a fantastic job looking after and rehoming the animals in their care and without them many animals would meet a sad end because there would just be nowhere for them to go.

In rare circumstances, we may offer to rehome cats, but only if all of the rehoming centres are full and cannot take them on. In these cases, we will put a notice up on our social media pages to let people know that a cat is looking for a new home. If this happens, we will ask people to contact us at the time to register their interest, please note that we do not keep a list of people who want to be contacted in this situation.

If you find a wild animal

Please visit our Wildlife Page for information

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