Derwent Valley Vets

25/12/2025

🎄🐾 Merry Christmas from the whole team here at Derwent Valley Vets 🩺 Wishing you and your pets a happy and healthy Christmas!

And a big Thank you to all of the generous people who have delivered Christmas gifts to our wonderful team this year, it is greatly appreciated 🐾🎄

23/12/2025

Reminder of our opening hours over this Christmas period 🎄

🎄 Christmas Opening Hours 🎄

With the festive season fast approaching, please take note of our opening hours over this period.

If your pet is on any prescription medication, we kindly ask that you order in advance, as requests may take a little longer during this busy period.

As always, our own duty vet will be on call throughout the holidays for any urgent advice. For cases needing immediate medical attention, our out-of-hours partners VetsNow (Chesterfield) will be available to help with any emergencies.

Thank you for your continued support, and we wish you and your pets a wonderful Christmas! 🐾❤️

20/12/2025

Vacancy! 🩺

Registered Veterinary Nurse – Temporary Maternity Cover (approximately 12 months)

We are delighted to invite applications from a passionate and skilled Registered Veterinary Nurse to join our busy, well-established independent practice, located on the edge of the stunning Peak District National Park.

This is a varied and rewarding position, offering the opportunity to work across multiple areas of the practice, including theatre, inpatient care, nurse clinics, and some reception duties.

Hours:

* Full-time: 35–40 hours per week
* Opening hours:
* 8am–7pm Monday, Wednesday & Friday
* 8am–9pm Tuesday & Thursday
* 1 in 4 Saturdays (8am–3pm)
* No out-of-hours work

What We Offer:

* A friendly, supportive team committed to delivering exceptional patient and client care
* Newly renovated premises equipped with modern, state-of-the-art facilities
* Ongoing training and development to support your professional growth
* A compassionate practice culture focused on animal welfare and high-quality service

Interested?
For further information or to discuss the role, please get in touch. You can email your CV to [email protected] or call Emma on 01629 55666 for an informal chat.

We would love to hear from you! 💙

18/12/2025

🐾 Early Closing Notice 🐾

Please note that our practice will be closing early today (Thursday the 18th) for staff training.

We’ll be closing at 7:00 PM instead of our usual 9:00 PM.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your continued support and understanding as we work to provide the best possible care for your pets 💙🐶🐱

17/12/2025

🎄 Christmas Opening Hours 🎄

With the festive season fast approaching, please take note of our opening hours over this period.

If your pet is on any prescription medication, we kindly ask that you order in advance, as requests may take a little longer during this busy period.

As always, our own duty vet will be on call throughout the holidays for any urgent advice. For cases needing immediate medical attention, our out-of-hours partners VetsNow (Chesterfield) will be available to help with any emergencies.

Thank you for your continued support, and we wish you and your pets a wonderful Christmas! 🐾❤️

16/12/2025

Toxic Tuesdays – Christmas Edition! ☠️🎄

The last Toxic Tuesday of this Christmas period is especially for the cheeky counter surfers & bin raiders 🐶

This week’s focus: LEFTOVERS!

Christmas leftovers can be dangerous in many ways, including:
🚫 Onions, garlic, leeks, chives & shallots
🚫 Cooked bones
🚫 Raisins & sultanas (hello leftover Christmas pudding & mince pies!)
🚫 Macadamia nuts
🚫 Mould (even small amounts are toxic to dogs)

Please keep festive food safely out of reach and bins secured as a sneaky snack could turn into an emergency visit 🚑🐕

Stay safe and enjoy the festivities! 🎅✨

12/12/2025

We are sharing this post from a local practice to explain what we have been told further to our post yesterday. We have spoken to McMurtry and Harding and they have apologised for any confusion caused. Unfortunately the central call centre was saying "we are phoning from your vets" so the clients of ours that were phoned thought it was someone impersonating us. However it now seems that their pets information had been obtained from a prior registration at the other vet practice.
Derwent Valley Vets is, and will remain, an independently owned practice and we are not part of a large corporate veterinary business. All of our services are therefore run from our practice and any phone calls from us will come from our normal practice telephone number 01629 55666. We hope this clarification helps.

11/12/2025

UPDATE
We have been made aware that these calls may be being made by a local corporate vets central call centre although the vets in question have not let us know this directly and we are currently unsure why some of our clients have been contacted. We will continue to look into this matter and will let you know if we find out any further information.

WARNING POTENTIAL SCAM
We have been made aware by one of our clients and by a post on Facebook that there is someone phoning local people pretending to be a vet from either our practice or Wirksworth vets asking about pet vaccinations. These calls seem to come from the same local number 01629 701323 and the worrying part is they seem to know the names of pets. Often this information can be found via people's social media posts but it adds credibility to the call. Luckily the people we have heard about have suspected something was not right and hung up on the callers. One of the callers was male.
We only ever would phone you from our practice number 01629 55666 and we currently do not have any male employees.
If you are ever unsure if it is us ringing, please feel free to phone us back to check first.
If anyone else has been called and are suspicious about the genuine nature of a call please let us know and we can pass that information on to the police.
Keep safe everyone 💙

09/12/2025

🎄 Toxic Tuesday: Christmas Edition! 🎅

This week’s spotlight is on… Mistletoe! 🌿💋

Mistletoe contains harmful compounds like polysaccharides, alkaloids, and lectins.

⚠️ If ingested, mistletoe can cause:

- Drooling
- Vomiting
- Diarrhoea
- Abdominal pain

And in large amounts, it can even lead to:
- An abnormal heart rate
- Collapse or seizures
- Low blood pressure
- In severe cases, it can be fatal.

Let’s keep those pets safe and keep that mistletoe out of reach this Christmas! 🎄

05/12/2025

🎄🐾 Feline Fridays: Keeping Your Cat Safe This Christmas!

You asked, we listened… Feline Fridays is here for the Christmas period only!

Thinking of having a real tree this year? 🎄 Here’s a few things to bear in mind…

🌲 Tree oils from some real Christmas trees can irritate your cat’s mouth or stomach.

🌱 Fertilisers and plant food used on potted trees can be toxic and may leak into watering trays.

🪴 Tree pots full of soil can become accidental litter trays.

🌲 Pine needles may be sharp and cause digestive issues if swallowed.

👉 If you choose a real tree, consider a non-drop variety to minimise needle fall and remember to use a sturdy/ heavy base to prevent your cat's shiny new climbing frame from falling over! 😹

02/12/2025

🎄 Toxic Tuesdays: Christmas Special! 🎅

Over the next 3 Tuesdays, we’ll be sharing some common Christmas dangers to look out for this festive season!

🐾 This week’s topic... Mince Pies!

They may be a Christmas classic for us, but mince pies can be very dangerous for dogs. Here’s why ⤵️

❌ Raisins, grapes, sultanas & currants - these are all toxic to dogs and can cause acute kidney failure and in worse case scenarios they can be fatal.

🍫 Chocolate & xylitol (found in some mince pies) - these are highly poisonous to dogs.

🧈 High fat & sugar content - can lead to tummy upsets and other digestive issues.

🥧 Foil cases - can cause choking or internal injury if eaten.

If you think your dog has eaten a mince pie, contact us as soon as possible.