If you’ve gone through the trouble of importing a pet into Cambodia or adopted one here, you may be wondering where to go for veterinary services for your pet. Most expats agree that it’s worth splashing out to get veterinary care in Cambodia from an expat veterinarian, as the local vets are mostly untrained and are just as likely to make the problem worse as they are to make it better.
Wondering where to get care for your pet? We’ve got our paws on the pulse of vet care in the Kingdom.
Phnom Penh
PPAWS (Phnom Penh Animal Welfare Society) has a clinic that offers spaying, neutering, and vaccinations for dogs and cats. Proceeds are used to support PPAWS programs to spay and neuter stray animals and help find homes for pagoda pets. Vaccinations cost between $10 and $25, cat spaying costs $65 and dog spaying costs around $95, depending on the size of the animal. Discounts are sometimes possible based on need. The clinic is open Tuesdays through Friday and Sundays, but call or email in advance because it can be difficult to find.
PPAWS (Phnom Penh Animal Welfare Society)
Beoung Tumpun, Phnom Penh
T: 017 293 654 (English); 078 611 289 (Khmer)
ppaws.com
Agrovet is considered the best veterinary clinic among all Cambodia vets. Run by a French veterinarian, the hospital is run to European standards and have prices to match. And while expats do gripe about the cost (consultations start at $25), most will admit that the place is the best option for your pets. They treat all types, but specialize in the canine and feline variety. There are several local vets on staff, but you’re best off with the French vet. If you’re outside of Phnom Penh and haven’t had luck with the vets in your town, it’s worth a visit to the capital and an appointment at Agrovet.
Agrovet
33B Street 360 (between Monivong Blvd and Street 63), BKK1, Phnom Penh
T: 023 216 323
agrovet-cambodia.com
Siem Reap
Sadly, American veterinarian Dr. Don Gillespie has left town, but Siem Reap is still lucky to have veterinary nurse Katie Russell, who owns a small veterinary clinic, Siem Reap Veterinary Services. Ms. Russell, an Australian-certified veterinary nurse has more than ten years experience in Australia and Southeast Asia. The clinic primarily treats cats and dogs, and she offers consultations, vaccinations, parasite treatment and prevention, grooming and general health care advice. The clinic gets regular visits from vets every few months for neutering and spaying, and is looking for a Western vet to bring on full time. Consultations are available by appointment weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Siem Reap Veterinary Services
Wat Damnak Village, Siem Reap
T: 071 998 4413
facebook.com/Siem-Reap-Veterinary-Services
Sihanoukville
Expats speak highly of Dr. Roman Kuleshov, a young Russian veterinarian who runs the Happy Pets Veterinary Clinic in Sihanoukville. He does consultations by appointment only between 9:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. daily, but takes emergency calls at any time. He also makes house calls!
Dr. Kuleshov has a complete price list on his Facebook page (and we do mean complete). Consultations are $10 or $15 and he administers various vaccinations that cost between $10 and $30. For $5 you can get an international health certificate, aka a pet passport. Happy Vets treats dogs, cats, birds, and wild animals.
Happy Pets Veterinary Clinic
Emario Beach Resort, Victory Hill, Sihanoukville [map]
T: 098 215 104
facebook.com/Veterinary-Clinic-Happy-Pets
Kampot
PPAWS (Phnom Penh Animal Welfare Society) has recently started a program to bring a vet to Kampot on a regular basis, to offer vaccinations and spaying and neutering services. Contact PPAWS for more details, or watch the Kampot & Kep Noticeboard for Expats & Locals Facebook group for upcoming dates. The next date is October 11th, contact Rainer at 096 77 64 128 to make an appointment.
Got a suggestion for where to get vet care in Cambodia or want to update one of our listings? Submit it here.
We would like to hear from you. We found a dog that needs attention. He is a puppy living on the beachs of Koh Rong in Cambodia. He most likely hasn’t had any shots and seems to have a slight case of mange and possibly fleas. If you could get back to me ASAP that would be great. Thank you
Whom do you want to get back to you? I’m not a vet! Try contacting Pups in Paradise
I need to find a good vet in Phnom Penh. I am living in PC Market, it’s in the southern part of Phnom Penh but anywhere in the city would be OK. Does anybody know one?
Did you comment on the post without bothering to read it?
I’m not at all surprised to read of Agrovet’s inconsistency. Having believed they were #1 in PP and cost being not very relevant considering it cost several thousand to bring Jackson Dog here from NZ, Agrovet was an almost automatic choice, by reputation. Reality however was sloppy service underlined by record-keeping so inaccurate it would have been better to have had nothing – luckily was keeping my own as well. When questioned on that, responses were defensive denial and blame-laying back to the customer – with a liberal dose of Gallic arrogance! Needless to say we left, vowing never to return.
Since then we have been using:
Happy Dog Pet Shop, 233 Kampuchea Krom (Street 128) next to Paris Hotel
This is professionally run “full-service” outfit; in addition to a well stocked shop they have a decent vet clinic and grooming services on-site. We’ve been very pleased with service at Happy Pet for more than a year now.
Hope this is helpful and sorry to hear of the lost pussies.
Steve
I’m sorry to hear the unfortunate incidents above. We’ve had nothing but good experiences with our animals through Agrovet for the past 8 years (we see the manager resident vet, and I understand that some of the other team are on rotation); they have helped our dogs survive distemper (locally trained vet in SR diagnosed this as “worms”), tick fever (Frontline is essential for dogs here and a few weeks delay in the re dose caused this potentially deadly illness for our dog. She would have died if she had not gone to Agrovet straight away), and were the only veterinary centre in Cambodia able to provide treatment for leukemia when our beloved golden got ill….we felt we were given all the available information and told when the treatment, which initially worked well, was simply prolonging suffering. Our current lab has arthritis, as her bred is prone to, and she has been prescribed human arthritis medication for this, which I’m happy with. Agrovet even told us where to buy it locally in SR cheaper than available through them when we needed more. I only wish they were based in SR to save us and the animals the 7hour taxi ride each way for treatment, when needed. Even for yearly adult vaccines sometimes the full combinations are not available in Siem Reap. We would support an internationally trained vet here in SR (Khmer or other as long as the communication was clear), but at least four have come and gone over the past decade so we have limited options a 6 hours taxi ride from PP (buses won’t take pets anymore!).
If planning a move over with cats or dogs, frontline is available widespread but revolution for cats (which combines heartworm but doesn’t cover ticks) is not available here; I’ve pretty much asked everyone. I’ve never seen a single tick on any of our cats, dogs is another matter, so this would be my parasite prevention of choice for cats and you’d need to bring it with you!
My experience with Agrovet: Megan and Anna, I’m truly sorry to read about the deaths of your kittens. You have my sincere condolences. My own experience with Agrovet was much more positive, and for the sake of fairness, I feel I should share it. I went in with my adult cat who had gone off her food and was behaving very erratically. There were no other physical symptoms that I could see, but the cat was clearly unwell. I was apprehensive about showing up at the clinic with such a vague, nebulous complaint, but after 3 days of kitty malaise, I didn’t dare wait longer.
We saw Dr. Emma. She did the routine things — took temp, listened to everything, asked me about vomiting, etc. Then she palpated the cat all over and discovered that when she touched the lower back, the cat howled. She ordered a blood test to check kidney function; that came back 20 minutes later and was normal. (Phew!) She noted some inflammation around the lower spine and concluded that my cat had hurt her back somehow. (The cat is absurdly clumsy, so this seemed very plausible.) She gave an anti-inflammatory jab; the cat wolfed down her next meal and has been fine ever since. Dr. Emma was thorough, attentive and thoughtful, and I was very grateful to have met her that day.
I hope the vet care generally improves … Or I will have to move there. ;) (I go to Cambodia for other work but I’m a vet in the United States).
Where in Cambodia do you visit? Lots of places would be overjoyed to have even a once-off vet clinic.
I go to Siem Reap and will be headed there in a couple of weeks. Hope to see Katie while I’m there.
Hi Lina– Thank you for creating this excellent resource for expats! Just wanted to add that I also lost a kitten at Agrovet and apparently the staff hadn’t even written in her file that she had died, so when I brought in a different cat to be spayed they confused the new one with the old one. We had also seen the French doctor. Now I take my pets to Navetco for routine vaccines/neutering because it’s near my house, and if they’re sick I go to Dr. Lim Pak on street 174 between 63 and 51, near Walkabout. He’s Khmer but was educated abroad, excellent English, and he’s much more thorough and way cheaper than Agrovet.
My pleasure, Lina. We actually went in and met with the French doctor for a half minute long diagnosis (that I looked up later- and my kitten had none of the symptoms). I’ve heard positive things about another vet who works there, I believe she’s Spanish, but overall have not heard of many an animal coming out of Agrovet alive and well. Maybe the negative just overshadows the positive, but losing a kitten because of incorrect diagnosis and finding that the French “antibiotic” we were given to administer to the kitten was actually an adult human painkiller was a twist of the knife.
Great advice and much needed. I would look into the Agrovet Clinic a bit more though- there have been a string of very negative incidences from a number of people- including myself- where pets have been killed because of sloppy diagnosis and incorrect treatment. I’m no vet, but giving a weeks old kitten adult aspirin as an “antibiotic” seems like a prescription gone wrong. PPAWS was fantastic though and took care of my remaining cats perfectly!
Thanks for the tip, Anna. Do you know which vet at Agrovet gave the incorrect diagnosis? I’ve always heard good things about the French doctor, but I haven’t gone there myself.
Hi Lina! I’ve also heard very good reports of Navetco Animal Clinic, on Sts 173/318, near Tuol Sleng in Phnom Penh. The vet there worked at Agrovet for some time before establishing his own practice. I don’t know what he has for diagnostic equipment as compared to Agrovet, but it sounds like he’s well worth trying for at least routine things, including surgery, and his fees are lower. Phone: 023.638.9498
Thanks, Amanda! I’ll check it out. :)