Australia’s Small Animal Specialist Hospital (SASH) is celebrating 15 years of practice and the almost half million pets and families helped so far.

Growing from a team of 15 across four services in 2007, SASH now has 700 team members who treated nearly 38,000 pets in the last year alone.

Dr Justin Wimpole, Co-founder and CEO of SASH, said they’ve listened to the needs and wants of their pet families to become a leader in the Australian vet industry, now offering specialist services and medical facilities previously found only in human hospitals.

“Every person in our team is committed to provide exceptional care to pets and their families and knowing that the pets will have the best possible clinical outcome is extremely rewarding. Our view is that we will always continue to grow and expand to anywhere we can make a difference.”

SASH’s specialist services now include 24/7 emergency and critical care, internal medicine, surgery, oncology, dermatology, neurology and neurosurgery, ophthalmology, avian and exotics, sports medicine and rehabilitation, anaesthesia, diagnostic imaging, and pathology.

“While dogs and cats remain the most popular family pets, we’ve also seen an increase in other pets including birds, snakes, lizards, fish, guinea pigs, rabbits and ferrets – which is why we opened a dedicated Avian and Exotics department in 2016.”

With research by Animal Medicines Australia (AMA) suggesting that 69 per cent of Australian families now own a pet, Wimpole says today’s pet owners seek a very high standard of care for their pets.

“General practice vet check-ups will always remain incredibly important, and there is now more demand than ever for SASH’s specialist veterinary services. It’s a fully integrated and multidisciplinary approach to pet care, often involving multiple specialists working as a team, with the latest technology to help pets and their families live their best life.”

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