Dr Kym Shrimpton

BVSc GDVWHM CVA CCRP NCAET

Kym grew up rurally in the Waikato and Bay of Plenty looking after and enjoying time with animals, big and small. She was one of the lucky kiwi kids who had the opportunity to rear a calf or lamb for yearly Calf Club Day events and this cemented her desire to be a vet.

After graduating from Massey University in 1998 Kym started practising in a holistic, mixed veterinary clinic in Tasmania and this opened her eyes to integrative medicine. Over the next 14 years she worked in busy small animal vet clinics in the UK, New Zealand and Australia.

While in Australia she fine-tuned her clinical skills working in emergency and critical care at a referral clinic. That experience was a turning point in understanding that there will always be animals who cannot be helped in the conventional medical model, no matter how much money is spent on care, because just treating the disease was not the answer. You need to treat the whole patient. This started a journey looking at other traditional medical systems and how they approach health and disease.

In Australia she completed the Certificate in Veterinary Acupuncture and learned about Chinese herbal medicine. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) explained  how the various problems an animal has are connected and how environment, stress, nutrition and emotions play a part in disease. Acupuncture could help to re-balance a patient, improve their vitality and treat pain naturally.

Kym then returned to NZ to set up Acupet in 2012. With an interest in acupuncture and pain management, studying rehabilitation was a natural progression to helping animals in their recovery. She completed an externship at the University of Tennessee in rehabilitation and went on to qualify as a Certified Canine Rehabilitation Practitioner.

As she works with animals with complicated chronic problems she had a need to explore holistic medicine more deeply and has since completed the Graduate Diploma in Veterinary Western Herbal Medicine, which has opened up many more treatment options using medicinal herbs.

Kym has a number of unique skills in her tool kit to help animals with a multitude of conditions. Her particular interest areas  are complex medical cases and neuro rehabilitation. It is her passion to help animals, alongside educating other vets and pet parents about integrative medicine and rehabilitation.

1998: Bachelor of Veterinary Science, Massey University.

2007-2010: Post graduate papers in Neurology, Oncology, Veterinary Law and Endocrinology, Massey University.

2010: Certificate in Veterinary Acupuncture, International Veterinary Acupuncture Society, Australia.

2012: Post graduate papers in the Diploma in Traditional Chinese Acupuncture, Auckland University of Technology.

2016: Certified Canine Rehabilitation Practitioner, University of Tennessee.

2024: Graduate Diploma in Veterinary Western Herbal Medicine, College of Integrative Veterinary Therapies.