Dr Patricia Carnovale BVSc(Hons) MACVSc

Practice Owner

The loving, caring and selfless Dr. Patricia Carnovale is unquestionably the heart and soul of Abbotsbury Veterinary Clinic. Her passion for improving and maintaining the wellbeing of each and every animal that walks through our doors allows for us as a clinic, to consider all possible treatment options. Whether it be medical or surgical, Patricia is thourough and cautious with every case. Her nurturing and giving nature ensures that your pet will be given the attention they require. Her patience and eagerness to educate all pet owners makes her highly approachable and will often take the extra time to answer any pet-related questions.

Patricia graduated from the University of Sydney in 1996. She mastered her Bachelor in Veterinary Science with First Class Honours. She then went on to acquire experience, working in varied styles of surgeries and clinics. This included working in an emergency hospital and also, a country practice.

Patricia is always entirely focussed on her job, despite having to often juggle several tasks at one time. When it comes time to let her hair down, though; she enjoys a good laugh and sharing cute, quirky stories about her two children. Dani-Elle, is already following in her Mum’s footsteps by caring for their 2 staffies and rabbits. She also claims ownership of clinic cat, Tiger. Tristan is more like his Dad. He often helps with counting out change and cleaning around the clinic.

Patricia has been the proud owner and Head Veterinarian of Abbotsbury Vet Clinic since 2003.

Karina Diaz

Veterinary Nurse

The fun, caring and compassionate Karina has been a hard-working member of the Abbotsbury Vet Clinic family since 2006.

Her empathetic, but efficient personality allows her to provide every patient with the TLC required when in hospital, while remaining sufficiently focused on the task at hand. She is competent in all aspects around the clinic and is always easy-going under most circumstances.

Karina’s bi-lingual and social skills also assure that she remains a great asset to the clinic.

It also helps that she’s a genius in the baking department. Karina makes every occasion memorable - staff birthdays, christmas parties or just nights out for the girls; she organises, prepares, bakes and puts a smile on everybody's face. She is our social butterfly and when the pressure is on, she is the one who keeps a cool head and keeps the team going.  

After a long day at work, Karina returns home to her own furry and feathery friends; her loyal Rhodesian Ridgeback x, Rouxfess, her shy DSH, Donnie (Don Gato) and her recent adoption Pickles a crazy ginger and white kitten- all rescues from the Clinic - and her array of birds.

Karina obtained her Certificate IV in Veterinary Nursing, graduating from TAFE in 2010.

Lauren Withers

Veterinary Nurse

Lovely shy and quiet Lauren.  She is a little gem. Her lovely, caring personality and her calm gentle ways make her a great team member.

She makes the Clinic sparkle with her never ending energy to clean. It is quite rare to catch Lauren sitting down she is always on the move helping out where a hand is needed or just finding work that needs to be done.

Her compassion to animals is endless. Long term patients and boarders always get quite excited when Lauren enters the room with lots of wagging tail, meows and woofs.

Since Lauren started with us a few of our kittens went home to her place to be nurtured and reared. No surprise that four have found their way very deep into Laurens heart and found their forever home.

Naughty little Ducky, Severus, Burberry and Helga turn Lauren's house upside down and keeps her dog Rexxx very occupied.

Lauren obtained her Certificate IV in Veterinary Nursing, graduating from TAFE in 2015.

Adriana Rullo

Veterinary Nurse

Adriana Is the youngest of our nurses to join the team. She studied vet nursing while doing her work experience here until she graduated in mid 2016. With her energetic personality, she is always ready to get going with the task at hand. 

When Adriana is at home relaxing she gets to enjoy the company of Whisky the very energetic family Poodle, Jett her loving Border Collie and the newest member of the family, Moe a handsome black and white kitten.

Tiger, Pepa, Felix and Ron

Client Relations

Introducing Tiger (Tabby)

Tiger is the youngest of our team. He was also brought in by a member of the public.  He was perfectly healthy and when handed over started to purr and rub himself all over the Nurses. The strict ‘He has to be rehomed or go to the rescue’, was soon forgotten, especially after he broke his leg playing around in the cage. Cage rest, cuddles and visits from Gin made him recover quickly.

Tiger is very affectionate and quite often you don’t know what hit you, when a bundle of fur comes out of nowhere and jumps in your arms ready for cuddles. His gentle way makes him perfect for kids and it's no surprise that he has a very close bond with Dani-Elle and Tristan the practice owners kids.

Introducing Pepa (Grey and white)

Pepa was brought in by a memebr of the public after being found a few times stuck in the drain the owners surrendered her to us as she would keep running away from home. Since being settled into clinic life she has very little interest in going outside and is very content with sitting on the front desk and waiting for people coming in and out of the clinic to give her a pat.

Once you start patting her she will make it her mission to keep you there as long as possible.

Introducing Felix (Black)

Felix was our foster child, it soon became obvious that he had made his way into our hearts. Our grumpy old man (16 years old) has attitude to spare. He likes to talk back and makes sure you are watching him as he walks into a room he knows he isn't allowed in. You won't often see him as he thinks he is the guard cat of the clinic and likes to tell the dogs who is boss, he does prefer to spend his days alseep on the couch and being the perfect lunch buddy. His spunky personality makes you fall in love with him.

In May 2016 our beloved Felix became very ill. He had stopped eating and we discovered he had a mass in his abdomen. After doing an ultrasound we found out the mass was cancerous.Unfortunately there was not much we could do but make him comfortable and happy until it was time. On the 6th of August Felix lost his fight and we had to make the hard decision to let him go. He will always be part of our clinic and part of the lives of the people that knew and loved him and he will never be forgotten. R.I.P Felix.

Introducing Ron (Ginger and white)

Ron is the youngest and cheekiest member of the clinic. At just over 1 year our super model cat has a lot of learning to do to match up to Tiger and Pepa. Ron absolutely loves making friends with all the cats that come into the clinic whether they want to be friends with him or not. He loves to try everyones food to make sure it is of good quality and sometimes likes to steal food from the kitchen bench as well. You might not always see Ron as most of the time he is running around out the back but every once in a while he will make an appearance out the front, it is very quick because he still isn't too sure what he is meant to do when people come up to him for a pat.

We are blessed to have such lovely, cheeky and loving furry members in our Abbotsbury Vet Clinic Team.