I graduated in 2005 from Liverpool Vet School and was lucky to join a large practice straight away with a phenomenal surgeon as the owner. He gave me brilliant basic surgical training and instilled a lifelong love of the challenge of surgery.
After leaving my first post I took up a position as head surgeon at another large dog and cat hospital in North Wales. It was here that I started further training in surgery, completing a 3-year certificate course in 2014 and ever since being recognised by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) as an Advanced Practitioner in Small Animal Surgery. In 2020 I was asked to be part of the steering group on an exciting research project called the Canine Cruciate Registry. This is a brilliant idea to record cruciate surgeries in dogs in order to best understand what techniques work and improve outcomes for all, more info on it can be found here https://
In 2014 my wife Camilla and I bought Kelperland Vets in Berkshire and started running our own dog and cat vets together. Ever since our case load has steadily grown and my love of surgery is undiminished. In 2021 we completed an ambitious renovation project and now have a brilliant second operating theatre which we are opening to clients and their pets from other practices too. Since the Covid pandemic began it has been very difficult to find surgeons to operate on some cases – specialist centres have been very busy due to an increased workload, staff shortages, and covid issues. I’m hoping that by opening our facilities to clients from other practices we can ease that pressure and allow animals to get the treatment they need faster.
One of the things I love most about being a vet is building the relationship between myself, my patient, and his or her owners. I am offering a very personal service where I will be your vet throughout a surgical process (pre-op, the actual surgery, and post-op). All routine post-ops appointments are included here in the original surgery fee and will be with myself. Each case’s post-operative requirements are different but we find that a mixture of online video and in-clinic post-op checks works well. Putting a sore animal in the car 2 days after surgery for a quick check-up can now be avoided in most cases. This saves you as the client time too.
Outside of work Camilla and I have two young children, Theo and Elana. They certainly keep us occupied and entertained! We’ve also just acquired a border terrier puppy, Finlay, to add to the chaos 😉
My personal hobbies mainly revolve around sports – I am a keen cricketer, runner, and also paddle board at my local Bray lake a couple of mornings a week before work.
![Simon and Finn](https://kelperlandsurgicalreferrals.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Simon-and-Finn.jpg)