Welcome to The Veterinary Surgery

Yarrambat and North Warrandyte

We pride ourselves on providing quality veterinary care to all species of pets, horses and production animals. We hope you will enjoy browsing through our facilities, reading about our friendly staff or finding out when our next puppy school or information night is on.

Equine Hospital

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Our clinic offers a large animal breezeway, complete with crush, to provide an ideal area for our vets to perform minor procedures on your horse. Our equine facilities also include stables, yards and paddocks to provide suitable accommodation for your horse regardless of its requirements.

Meet Koda

Hear His Amazing Story

He may be Australia's smallest horse, but his personality is as big as a Clydesdale. Koda is smaller than a labrador, weighs just 35kg and can travel on the back seat of a small sedan.

The Vets

Dr. Suzanne Craddock - BVSc

Suzanne is one of the three principles at The Veterinary Surgery.  Suzanne has lived and worked in this area all her life.  Her family have strong associations with the equine industry and are well known in many fields including pony club, showing, eventing, racing, breeding and droving.

Suzanne has a passion for equine practice, however she is also a skilled soft tissue surgeon and enjoys both small animal and farm work.  She has completed post graduate training in Equine Dentistry and Opthalomogy and is a regular part of the Veterinary team at Melbourne 3DE (that is if she is not competing) and at Olympic trials.

Suzanne is an accomplished horse rider, having ridden with success at many Royals, advanced level eventing, FEI level dressage and is a holder of the PC ‘A’ certificate.  She lives with her family on a beautiful farm near Kilcunda.  Their menagerie consists of cattle, horses (of course), four dogs, two cats, geese and chooks.

 

Dr. Andy Lynch – BVSc

Andy is the second principle of the practice and has been working at The Veterinary Surgery since 2006.  He came to us after returning from veterinary work in Sheffield, England.  His areas of special interest are small animal orthopaedic surgery, small animal medicine / soft tissue surgery, equine dentistry (having completed the dentistry course in 2008), lameness and surgery involving animals of all shapes and sizes.  

In 2013 Andy attended an Equine Dentistry workshop in which he furthered his skills in this field.  He has also completed a Post Graduate Foundation course in Equine Medicine.  

Andy is a very committed practitioner and always demonstrates a superior level of care and commitment to every one of his patients.  When he is not working he loves sailing and even has a keen interest competitive sailing. 

 

Dr Rob Hilton - BVSc (Hons) MACVSc CertVD MRCVS

 Many will know Rob as a long time practitioner from this area.  Rob graduated from Melbourne University with first class honours in 1975 before moving into mixed practice, then small animal practice.  He qualified for membership of the Ausralian College of Veterinary Scientists by examination on Canine Medicine in 1985.

Since 2001, Rob has focused on his long time interest, Veterinary Dermatology.  In 2006 he completed the requirements of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons Certificate in Veterinary Dermatology.  Rob is a member of the Dermatology chapter of the Australasian College Veterinary Scientists and the European Society for Veterinary Dermatology.  We are indeed fortunate to have Rob working part time at The Veterinary Surgery.  

He offers an advanced level of service to skin, ear and allergic disease of small animals and horses (www.ozskinvet.com.au). Rob also assists where needed with general small animal cases.  

Outside of work hours,   Rob has a passion for traveling the world, he loves skiing, walking or mountain climbing with wife Sue and keeps a menagerie of rescued cats and sheep

 

Dr. Kate Harslett- BVSc (hons)

Kate graduated with honours from the University of Melbourne in 2010, after growing up in country Victoria. She joined The Veterinary Surgery in 2012.

Kate has a passion for working with horses and is particularly interested in equine reproduction and medicine. Her other interests include equine dentistry, soft tissue surgery and emergency medicine. Kate has done an intensive course in Veterinary Equine Dentistry to further develop her skills in this area.

She has also attended conferences in feline medicine and equine podiatry and lameness. Kate has an Australian Stock Horse, Molly, and a big fluffy cat called Maestro who is permanently on a diet. 

She lives with her husband, Phil, and daughter Samantha and son Lewis.  She enjoys playing basketball and netball with friends.

Kate is on maternity leave and we look forward to having her back soon.

 

Dr. David Howes- MA vet MB, MACVSc, cert AVP (ES-O)

David is a mixed animal veterinarian who started in January 2018.  He qualified from Cambridge, UK in 1994 spending the first 5 years in mixed animal practice. He then went on to a large equine hospital in Wiltshire as one of the surgeons following a year at Liverpool University as the soft tissue surgical resident. 

David and his family moved to New Zealand in 2004 where he spent over 10 years in Waikato as the principle surgeon in two separate practices.  

David has had experience teaching which he says is the best way to discover what you don’t know.

He has had a few articles published in internationally recognised peer reviewed veterinary publications. 

David’s interests include: surgery, diagnostics, imaging, lameness examinations and pre purchase examinations.

In 2015 David and his family sold their property in New Zealand, bought a yacht, spent one year decking out the yacht and have been sailing around.

They arrived in Australia recently after 6 months sailing between the South Pacific islands from Tonga to New Caledonia, better sailors than when they left and with a few more stories to tell.
David is married to wife Holly and they have 4 lovely children. His other hobbies are camping, sailing, renovating and mountaineering. They are now settling in Melbourne. 

We are very excited to have David work with us at the Yarrambat and North Warrandyte Vet Clinics.

 

Dr. Aurelia Verdin

Aurelia started working as a locum at the Yarrambat and North Warrandyte Vet Clinic in 2017.

She grew up in the UK and graduated from the Royal Veterinary College in London in 2009.  Aurelia worked in a mixed practice in Carmarthenshire, Wales for 2 1/2 years before returning to her come country of Oxfordshire, where she was also in mixed practice.

Aurelia moved to Australia in October 2016 with her gorgeous dog Ozymandias (Ozzie) and her husband and spent the first year and a half working in various practices in Victoria as a locum vet before settling down at the Yarrambat and North Warrandyte clinics in March 2018.

She enjoys all aspects of mixed practice, especially surgery and farm work.  She is also a keen baker in her spare time which all the vets and nurse love. 

 

Dr. Cara Roic

Cara graduated from Melbourne University in 2017 and started working with us soon after graduating.

She is passionate about both large and small animal work. 

She grew up on her parents beef farm in Sandy Point.  Cara grew up helping a huge amount on the farm from calvings and all the going ons that happen on a beef farm.  So lets just say she enjoys her cattle work and is very knowledgable. 

She has 2 cats and a horse and she loves going for a ride at her parents property at Sandy Point.  Cara has done work on an alpaca farm and sheep farm. 

Cara enjoys swimming and horse riding. 

 

Dr. Phil Downey
 
Phil started working at The Vet Surgery in 2019. 
 
He grew up in suburban Adelaide where he attended university for far too long. After graduating with a maths and computer science degree, he soon realised his passion did not lie in front of a computer for 40 hours a week. He started the new DVM program and graduated again from the University of Adelaide in 2018. During his studies he spent his weekends working with the South Australian Jockey Club. He went straight in to mixed practice as he was interested in all animals large and small.
 
Phil moved to Melbourne straight out of uni where he lives with his partner and two dogs, Jessie and Eilidh. When not at work he enjoys playing board games and going to the gym.
 
 

Dr. Amy Hitchins

Amy graduated from Melbourne University with honours in final year and started at The Vet Surgery in 2019.  She grew up in Eltham (you may recognise her from working at Bunnings Eltham or volunteering at Edendale community farm). 
 
Her main interested is in exotic and unusual pets with her placements at both Werribee Open Range Zoo and Monarto Open Range Zoo. She spent time in South Africa working with a rhino vet and volunteering at a rhino orphanage. Lets just say that her favourite animal is a rhino.
 
Amy has recently completed a course in backyard chickens, so she would love to meet your feathery friends.
 
Amy has a keen interested in horses – and had volunteered at the Melbourne University Equine Hospital. She won a scholarship to complete placement in New Zealand at an equine specialist hospital (Matamata Veterinary Services). 
 
Amy loves baking which is great for all her colleagues and has a large interest in  environmental sustainability – always trying to reduce everyday plastic use and make sustainable choices. This knowledge we are hoping she can bring into our clinics. 
 
Her home consists of her lovely partner, a fox terrier called Lana, tortoishell cat called ally and a central bearded dragon called Elvis.