Arg Beiyn, the island veterinary practice, has had to stop taking on new clients.

This is as a result of increased demand during the pandemic and staff shortages caused in part by Brexit.

Louise Bawden, practice director at Arg Beiyn, said staff were ’exhausted’.

She said: ’We don’t want to turn anyone away, we’re just trying to protect the wellbeing of our staff at the moment, they’re really worn out.

’We currently have a third of the vets we used to have so two thirds have gone because of Brexit.

’We’ve also had Covid where we’ve had a huge increase in people getting new pets that has never been seen before.

’The pandemic has been really, really tough and now we can’t get veterinary staff and our current staff are worn out from the increased workload.’

Staff have been leaving due to stress in an effort to protect their health.

She continued: ’Some are leaving because it’s not a very nice profession to work in anymore.

’We’ve had the effect from both the Brexit side and the Covid side.’

Laura Bruder, also a practice director at Arg Beiyn, added: ’There used to be a lot more vets but it’s been challenging because you’re asking someone to move their whole life over here.

’Veterinary as a profession has really grown and we train our own nurses, we are the only training practice in the island currently, but that’s not quite enough.

’We actually thought since we were Covid free for so long that might entice people here but it didn’t.’

Based in Onchan and Ramsey, Arg Beiyn provides emergency care for animals 24/7.

Ms Bruder added: ’That’s one of the things that’s different in the Isle of Man - regardless of how many people we have working for us, we provide emergency care all the time.

’Obviously as the staff numbers drop, that pressure gets worse and the staff become more tired.

’It’s not necessarily something that’s very attractive to vets who could be in England where they can go home at the end of the day and switch off.’

The practice is not currently filling out animal health certificates which allow owners to legally bring their pets to the UK without any sort of quarantine.

Ms Bawden stressed the process of filling one out took two hours.

’When we have a full practice and we have two hours allocated to those, it just makes no sense when we’ve got sick animals that we can’t fit in because of it,’ she said.

Ms Bruder added: ’They did do pop ups to allow pets to be seen by a vet if you were travelling - they would specifically do the animal health certificates.’

Both directors made it clear that though they’re not taking on new clients, they are happy to give advice on the phone if a person is worried about their pet.

’If there’s an animal that is suffering we would do our best to help,’ Ms Bawden added.