Carla Puime Costoya
Veterinary Surgeon & Partner
I qualified and graduated in Spain, in Santiago de Compostela University and then spent time in America volunteering in several hospitals; subsequently I moved to England where I have been practising veterinary medicine for 12 years.
Firstly I worked for a large veterinary group in Yorkshire, eventually taking on a senior position at the main hospital; here I developed one of my two passions: diagnostic imaging, mainly ultrasound and endoscopy. My other passion is challenging cases of internal medicine: I love complicated cases that need lots of investigation, especially when it involves imaging.
I also worked as a locum before taking a permanent position as Clinical Director at the Vale Veterinary Group in Devon; here I attended several courses on Western Acupuncture and I'm now able to treat pets with traditional manual acupuncture as well as electro-acupuncture. I stayed at the Vale until I recently decided to take on the path of Joint Venture Partner at Vets4Pets Bristol Emersons Green.
Due to my love for cats we are applying for the surgery to have a special focus on them, we will hopefully have special designed cat kennels (cat condos) that help cats to cope better with stress and recovery while away from their owners. We are going to apply for icatcare status so our practice is recognised as a cat friendly clinic. I also have a great passion for pugs, sadly I recently lost my pug Winston. I have many friends especially from the North of England who breed and show pugs professionally. I used to show Winston until he got tired of going to dog shows. He actually got placed numerous times. At home I have a French bulldog called Darwin. It is thanks to my dad's love for dogs. that I became a vet; I grew up surrounded by 30 dogs, cats, fish and budgerigars.
My other interest, together with my husband, is the great outdoors, we love canoeing, cycling, climbing and our son Theo, who is 3 years old, does too.