O’Callaghan Parade Veterinary Clinic veterinary nurse Jane Moore said there were signs of trouble on Friday.

“It was playing up on Friday, but over the weekend we’ve just lost everything,” she said.

“We’re an emergency business as well, and now the phone line is not working.

“I just want to reassure people we’re not closed, because when people ring our number it says it has been disconnected.”

Clinic staff were told their tele- communications service provider Conec2 had gone into liquidation.

A Conec2 spokesman has denied the company is in administration.

“One of our wholesale customers, iBoss, is,” he said.

On Monday afternoon, Conec2 sent its customers an email saying disruptions to their service were due to be resolved within 24 hours.

“Conec2 is in dispute with an upstream provider which has resulted in a temporary interruption to some services,” the email read.

O’Callaghan Parade Veterinary Clinic staff are relying on their mobile phones to make or receive business calls until their phone service is restored.

Miss Moore said Horsham Veterinary Hospital had been helping direct calls from concerned O’Callaghan Parade Veterinary Clinic customers who were having trouble phoning their usual vet.

But O’Callaghan Parade Veterinary Clinic senior veterinarian Penny Schwarz said the confusion had caused a noticeable drop in business.

“We’ve probably got about half the amount of work this week as we had last week,” she said.

“Obviously it’s an enormous inconvenience, but people have been really good about it.

“We thank our clients for being so helpful and understanding.”

Miss Moore said people could call the clinic on 0417 821 004 or 0427 846 219 during business hours. 

After hours, people could call 0487 293 696 on Wednesday night, on Friday and throughout the weekend.

Miss Moore said 0427 846 219 would be the after-hours number on Thursday.