My Jack Russell, Ripley, was found to have a kidney issue so it was important to get his blood pressure reading. While Ripley's vet is amazing, he was not at all happy with being in the veterinary practice and his readings were ridiculously high. He’s 16, nervous and anxious in his old age. His vet recommended Carla, a district veterinary nurse. I did not know that this service existed. Carla came to our home and took a lot of time to be with Ripley and when she thought he was happy and calm, she took his blood pressure without issue. We have known Carla for 3 years now and highly recommend her to other pet owners. The service she provides we cannot do without.

I am a veterinary surgeon and have known Carla as a co-worker and friend for over 10 years. I worked closely with Carla at New Priory Veterinary surgery in Brighton from 2011-2012 at the PETS emergency clinic. I found Carla to be a wonderfully caring and competent veterinary nurse. I again worked closely with Carla from 2015 to 2019 during my time at Wilbury Vets in Hove when she was offering her district nurse services to local practices. As a vet at the practice I found her service to be of great value to our clients and patients. She regularly performed ‘at home” blood pressure measurements, blood glucose curves and other care services for my clients and patients, under my direction. Her communication was excellent throughout both with the client and with me. She only ever performed procedures that had been requested by a vet and always gave thorough and timely feedback on the results. The care that Carla provided was always under direction and as instructed by myself in my capacity as the veterinary surgeon and I personally deemed the care she provided to be of huge benefit to the clients and to the patients.

I am an advanced diploma nurse and RVN of just under 20 years, and had the pleasure of working with Miss Carla Finzel in practice a few years ago. I always felt that she gave her absolute all to the patients in her care, was an advocate for their best interests and nursed them all with kindness, compassion and solid dedication. Since then, I have been involved with recommending and referring patients to her care under the District Vet Nursing scheme. With regard to these cases, she always insisted on a full referral form from the veterinary surgeon in charge of the case and sent back a comprehensive report. I believe the District Veterinary Nurse is a concept worth supporting and is a much needed requirement within the owner community, in particular for those with disabilities and health issues that mean they are fully supported in caring for their pets whom are an integral part of their wellbeing and family.

“Over the past few years we have used Carla Finzel’s excellent service to help manage several complex patients in their owners’ homes. It has been invaluable to aid our communication with owners who are often struggling to come to grips with on-going medication administration, giving injections at home, blood pressure monitoring in a calm environment, etc. Carla works very well with the practice: clearly communicating progress and our wishes to the owner. I wish Carla well in furthering her district nurse project.”

I was lucky enough to meet Carla whilst volunteering with Streetvet - we discussed her initiative and i was very impressed with her dedication and passion. Fast forward a couple of months and i was contacting Carla to help me with a wonderful family and their cat who had recently been diagnosed with diabetes. Although clinically he was doing well our curves or nadir samples weren't matching the clinical picture. Carla has been instrumental in tailoring this cat’s treatment by doing blood glucose curves at home. This has enabled me to accurately assess the current trends and treatment protocol for our patient. My client has been delighted this service was available to her and we are now managing this case very successfully. Carla is easily contactable, and the service provided to my clinic has been fabulous. I love being able to have this tremendously important service to offer my clients when needed and hope that the RCVS recognise this as a very important area worth their support."

"Carla’s service working in the community to enable and empower owners to care for their unwell pets at home is invaluable. We have had many cases where she has been instrumental in getting patients home from our hospital much sooner than would have been possible without her assistance and support. The animals thrive in their home environment and the owners value the precious time with their companions, particularly if their pets are receiving palliative care. But, even more importantly, Carla helps those who are physically not capable of dealing with an unwell pet: owners with dementia, elderly owners learning to give insulin to a diabetic patient, owners with disabilities and owners who are anxious about how to administer medications, injections, and tube feeds. As vets, she is our eyes and ears in the community and our go to whenever someone needs a little help, guidance and a kind ear. The District Veterinary Nursing movement seems a trivial concept but has a huge impact on the wellbeing of owners and animals within our society. "

Carla has in the past few years proved herself invaluable in supporting our patients, their owners and us a clinicians. Roxy was another cat for whom euthanasia was considered, had it not been for Carla. Roxy had a very large wound on her neck. The position and character of the wound meant that it could not be stitched, but had to be managed as an open wound. This involved very frequent bandage changes, again Roxy’s owner was not able to bring Roxy to us for these very frequent visits, but Carla managed the wound very skilfully with home care. There is a need for district nursing. This is treatment that cannot be provided within the veterinary clinic, but which some owners are not capable of providing themselves.

Carla has in the past few years proved herself invaluable in supporting our patients, their owners and us a clinicians. Roxy was another cat for whom euthanasia was considered, had it not been for Carla. Roxy had a very large wound on her neck. The position and character of the wound meant that it could not be stitched, but had to be managed as an open wound. This involved very frequent bandage changes, again Roxy’s owner was not able to bring Roxy to us for these very frequent visits, but Carla managed the wound very skilfully with home care. There is a need for district nursing. This is treatment that cannot be provided within the veterinary clinic, but which some owners are not capable of providing themsel

So good to hear Buddy is doing so well. Thank you for all your support for the Brilliant family! They are so thankful and say they couldn’t have done it without you.

Carla took on a job that seemed impossible at the time I just want to send out a HUGE “Thank you” to Carla and the Veterinary District Nurse service and Southdown Vets for being so supportive and wanting to find an affordable solution for me. All through this, Carla was also there for me, reassuring me and providing support!

Unfortunately many pets and their owners have suffered but thankfully she did not give up and devoted all her strength and passion into what she believes in. The devotion between humans and their beloved companions.

To have DVNs working alongside the vets is common sense. To have both a DVN and Fitzpatrick Referrals around over Christmas means a relaxed and happy Christmas with our dog Magic.

We would like to express our support for Carla’s campaign for District Veterinary Nursing. We hope that, in the near future, this level of in-home support will be available to all who need it, for whatever reason.

I sincerely hope that soon everyone will be easily able to access the help of a DVN as it would save so much distress to both pets and their owners. Thank you so very much Carla, we will always be grateful to you for saving “Gentle Troy”

Quite remarkably Buddy has now completely recovered and is in rude health. For that we thank a whole team of vets and veterinary surgeons (across the country!), and critically one amazing district nurse.

We would have given up on Tigger without Carla’s support and we need, without question, more veterinary nurses like her to bridge the gap between vets and the communities they serve.

I have been veterinary nursing for over 20 years and in my current position as Head Nurse at Coastway Veterinary Group in Shoreham, West Sussex; I often find us in situations that require us to be able to offer help and support to our clients in their own homes for various reasons. These can include lack of existing help with people living alone, physical disabilities or limitations of physical abilities, lack of confidence in putting in place recommended treatments or monitoring following instructions from our veterinary surgeons; all the way through to simple everyday care procedures such as weigh-ins, nail clips and the like. We are so lucky to have Carla on hand to be able to offer essential help in clients’ homes for such a large range of things. Carla runs her service with every bit of efficiency and care that one would expect from an RVN, but with the added personal touch of being able to come into the clients' own environment. She provides comprehensive notes and dialogue after every visit, which we collate with our own to form a thorough clinical history. We then liaise over treatment plans for many different conditions such as diabetes mellitus, hypertension, obesity, and our requests are always followed strictly, and excellent feedback is given by Carla and also the clients who have made use of her service. Often, diagnoses that involve long term treatment can be daunting at the very least for clients; Carlas’ in-home support allows them to gain confidence with medicating and monitoring their pets’ condition and we have the reassurance that that animal is being very regularly checked upon in the stress-free environment of their own home. We have also found that it improves their education of the complaint they are dealing with on a day-to-day basis. Carla is passionate about the service she offers to our clients, and we are 100% confident that they are in great hands when she attends their homes to offer support and care. We do not hesitate to recommend her in a variety of situations and view her as an extended member of our team.