Animal Referral & Emergency Centre

11/06/2026

Applications for our 2027 Graduate Development Program are now open!

Looking for hands-on experience, supportive mentorship and real opportunities to grow in Emergency and Critical Care? Our Graduate Development Program is designed to help you build confidence, develop your skills and feel supported as you begin your ECC career.

You’ll join our busy Emergency and Critical Care service in a fully supported role, with dedicated mentoring, study and learning days, and a strong focus on work-life balance.

AREC is an outstanding non-corporate practice based in sunny Newcastle, and we’d love to hear from you.

Applications close 30 August 2026.

Find out more and apply via -
https://arecvet.com.au/positions/grad-development-program/

05/06/2026

05/06/2026

Free online seminar for vets!

Join us online for an evening of practical internal medicine with Dr Ferran Valls Sanchez, Internal Medicine Specialist, as we explore one of the most common and challenging findings in practice: elevated liver enzymes in small animal patients.

This session will cover differential diagnoses, practical investigation approaches, and when liver biopsies may be worthwhile, helping you navigate these cases with greater confidence.

📅 Tuesday 30 June 2026
⏰ 7:00pm to 8:00pm
💻 Online via MS Teams

Please note: The Teams link will be emailed to all registered attendees the week prior to the event.

Register here! https://forms.cloud.microsoft/r/FA7P3GJU7R

04/06/2026

We’re pleased to announce the launch of Internal Medicine to AREC, providing advanced investigation, diagnosis and management for pets with complex, chronic and difficult-to-diagnose medical conditions.

Leading the service is Dr Ferran Valls Sanchez, who joins the team in July as our Internal Medicine Specialist, with consultations available from 10 August.

A European Specialist in Small Animal Internal Medicine, Ferran is passionate about collaborative patient care and working alongside referring veterinarians to achieve the best possible outcomes for pets and their families.

We look forward to welcoming Ferran to AREC and expanding the specialist services available to our veterinary community.

29/05/2026

CPD is coming to Port Macquarie, and we couldn't be more excited!

The North Coast Veterinary Education Summit 2026 is heading to Port this August — a full day of practical learning built specifically for vets and vet nurses across the Mid North Coast, Northern Tablelands and surrounding regions.

Saturday 1 August — Optional CPR workshop (non-certified)
Sunday 2 August — Full summit day, up to 6 CPE hours

@ Rydges Port Macquarie

No long-haul travel. No big city prices. Just great education close to home.

Early bird registrations are open now until 15 June for just $89* — grab your spot before they go!

Check out the full program and register at www.arecvet.com.au/NCVES2026

See you in Port Mac!

29/05/2026

*** EVENT POSTPONED and RESCHEDULED ***

Our free CPD event - Practical HR strategies for veterinary teams - scheduled for next week has been postponed to August.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, we have rescheduled our event to Tuesday, 25 August. Location and time remain the same.

This is a professional development and networking event for practice managers, vets and nurses involved in hiring, onboarding and retaining great staff in the veterinary industry.

You can register for the new date at https://forms.cloud.microsoft/r/wcaaaLHkzL

Hope to see you there!

25/05/2026

Thank you to everyone who stopped by our stall to say hi at the Pets Life Festival at The Station in Newcastle yesterday.

We met so many beautiful people who had used our emergency services in the past, as well as loads of people learning how to find ticks on their pets through our demonstration cat and border collie.

Big congratulations to our guessing competition winners and everyone who had a guess. Valley (pictured) was the closest guess and won the big bag of dog food, feed barrel and jar of snakes. And Kelly, the second closest, who won the small dog food and feed barrel.

We loved getting out and meeting our local pet-owning community. And soooo many beautiful pets!

22/05/2026

We loved welcoming a group of specialist vets from China a couple of weeks ago, as they made their way from Brisbane to Melbourne on a motorcycle tour.

They stopped in Newcastle to tour our new facility, with Dr David showing them through the hospital, introducing our team, and sharing a behind-the-scenes look at our work.

They even got to meet our visiting echidna, which was a definite highlight and a rare opportunity to see one of our native species up close.

Thank you for visiting us. We hope to see you again on your next trip.

19/05/2026

Little Dachsund, Rory, suffered devastating injuries after being attacked by a larger dog.

He suffered multiple deep wounds to his neck, with damage to the surrounding muscles and soft tissues. After emergency surgery with his local vet, Rory was referred to our hospital for intensive post-operative care and remained with us for over a week.

During his stay, Rory received around-the-clock monitoring, strong pain relief, intravenous fluids, antibiotics, nutritional support and careful wound management to keep him as comfortable as possible while he healed. When he was feeling up to it, he loved his little strolls around the hospital with our nursing team.

In the photos, you can see the seriousness of Rory’s injuries when he was with us here in the hospital! And how well he looked when he came back to visit.

We all fell in love with Rory while he was here with us, but very happy he’s at home with his family continuing his recovery.

His owner sent this update: "Rory is living his best life and still enjoys his walks. He has nerve damage on the right side of his face and will need eye drops ongoing. He also drools on the right side and food tends to fall out on that side as well 😞 but seriously he is lucky to be alive. We thank everyone from the bottom of our hearts."

18/05/2026

Did you know we’re a drop off point for the Australian Reptile Park’s funnel-web spider venom milking program?

You can support the Australian Reptile Park’s lifesaving antivenom program by safely collecting funnel web spiders and egg sacs. By dropping them at an official collection point like AREC, you’ll help provide the precious venom needed to produce antivenom and help save lives.

What to do:

🕷Carefully place the spider in a plastic or glass container with a screw on or snap lock lid with no holes, e.g. Tupperware container or glass jar. See the Reptile Park’s video on their website for a how-to!

🕷Place a wet cotton ball or moistened dirt in the container with the spider

🕷Only 1 spider per jar/container

As a collection point, we need to be careful too, so we will only accept spiders in closed containers. We’re not able to move spiders between containers.

Find out more: https://www.reptilepark.com.au/about/venom-program/spider-drop-off