Help Us Upgrade Our Lifesaving Ambulance Service

We are Whiskers 'N' Beans, a 24/7 emergency animal ambulance run by two dedicated, registered veterinary nurses Ellie and Sarah. Day or night, weekends or holidays – if your pet needs urgent critical transport and care, we come.

After much deliberation and discussions with clients, we’ve made the decision to launch a Go Fund Me campaign. We want to be as clear as possible - we are neither a charity nor government-funded service. Although we charge for our services, most of our revenue is dedicated to providing high-quality care. Rather than taking full salaries, we reinvest in our service and always look for ways to upgrade our medical equipment.

Our aim is to keep the costs of this critical service as low as possible. This is where we need your help.

Why We Need Your Help:

• Our current vehicle is limiting the level of care we can provide.

• A larger ambulance will allow us to carry more advanced, life-saving equipment on every call.

• This upgrade will help us provide more in-depth critical care during transfer; something we’re fully trained to do, as qualified veterinary nurses.

• A second, larger ambulance allows us to help more animals in need and provide the capability to expand our team to cover more areas.

• Owning a second ambulance would eliminate the need to undertake locum shifts to cover personal expenses. Without the necessity of saving for a new ambulance, we would achieve self-sufficiency, ultimately resulting in greater availability.

We’ve made it our mission to be there for your pets when no one else can be; 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Now, we’re asking for your help to keep doing that, and to do it even better.

What we do:

Launched in August 2024, we transitioned from permanent paid work to enhance our nursing skills and fill a gap in the veterinary industry. We transport critical patients to referral centres or specialized clinics who would otherwise likely be euthanized. These patients often need vital life support for travel, which we provide, mimicking hospital settings in the ambulance. We transfer critical patients often requiring oxygen or are under anaesthesia so they can receive lifesaving surgery or treatment.

We are one of only a few animal ambulances in the UK that provide this kind of service, and to the best of our knowledge, we are the first of its kind to be owned and run by veterinary nurses.

What makes us different from other providers, is, as veterinary nurses, we work with referring vets to discuss treatment plans. We are qualified to administer medications where deemed necessary. We do not require a vet to accompany us in order to provide life-saving care.

We have not yet come across another team like us!

We have both been in practice for over 15 years and can honestly say we think we have found our true calling!.

How You Can Help:

We currently looking to raise between £35,000 - £65,000. We know this is a huge amount, but this is just too far beyond our reach to do it alone, and to do it in a timely manner.

Even the smallest contribution aids us in acquiring the new ambulance and ensures the continuation of this vital service.

What your donations provide:

• £2000 allows us to upgrade to a ventilator.

A veterinary ventilator is a machine used in veterinary medicine to assist or control the breathing of animals when they are unable to breathe adequately on their own. It provides respiratory support by delivering oxygen and removing carbon dioxide from the lungs, ensuring proper oxygenation and ventilation.

• £2000 built-in Shor-line Stainless Steel kennels.

This help provide a more secure travel environment for larger dogs. These kennels also have adaptable Oxygen therapy doors which would help give additional oxygen support to our patients and provides a clear view of the patient.

• £4000, we can upgrade to a wall-mounted multi-parameter monitor that provides ECG, HR, RESP, NIBP, SpO₂, Dual TEMP, and EtCO₂ (Water Trap Sampling).

Currently, we use two handheld monitors to cover all needed parameters, necessitating the connection of intubated patients to two machines. A single machine would reduce connection time and allow faster patient monitoring.

• £20,000 for a used van.

We are currently looking to upgrade to a van such as the Ford Transit Custom, a Volkswagen Transporter, Peugeot Expert or Mercedes Vito. Any van similar size to these will cater for our needs.

We are happy for a second-hand van that we can tailor to our needs, however, if we can push to a brand-new van we would be over the moon.

• £45,000 for a new van.

A new van means we can tailor and design the van of our dreams to get the best settings.

We approached the larger van companies for sponsorship to fund the upgrade, however (understandably) they did decline.

If you are not able to contribute financially, please share our story with fellow animal lovers.

Give us follow on social media and see first-hand the real-life stories and patients.

Thank you for reading and for believing in us and for standing with the animals we care for.