Romneys Vetbed Dog Blanket

A few years back I was looking for some decent bedding for my dogs. A lot of the cheaper ones I found in the past got very smelly over time, and when you washed them they took absolutely ages to dry, and I was never really convinced over how comfortable they actually were for my dogs.

Doing a lot of research on the internet, I found the choices absolutely immense and very confusing. I did eventually opt for some large flat beds from eBay which had a removable washable cover, where the centre cushion was covered by a waterproof fabric. But I found that the cushioning was only a few inches thick and I wanted to bump it up a bit. Then one day I happened to be in the vets and noticed that they were using this Romneys Vetbed stuff in their care cages. Thinking that they would probably want something of good quality for animals in their care to lay on during recovery etc, I asked my vet about it.

The basic idea is that you buy this bedding from a roll, or in ready made cut sections. When you feel it, it is quite thick and dense, being like a dense synthetic sheep skin on one side with a sort of non-slip coating on the other. Apparently it is made from a double strength polyester where the high density of fibres provide a comfortable bed for anything lying on it. It is also double woven to provide more resistance against chewing and the thickness and the density of the bed retains the heat from the animal, but also allows for sufficient airflow between the fibres to stop the animal overheating. In addition, the thickness also allows for ‘drainage’ should the animal have an ‘accident’ – a particularly good feature for puppies. Another good feature is that it is fully machine washable.

Nowadays there are many variants and colours of this Vetbed, but I think the original one, and arguably the best one as used by Vets, is the white colour with the green backing. This is the one that you normally cut to the required size from a roll or get ready cut into a matt. You can tell if it is the genuine Vetbed product because it will have the Vetbed logo on the back, and it is worth looking out for this because the cheaper imitations aren’t half as good.

In my case I bought 2 ready cut mats of 54 inches by 30 inches (my dogs are quite big) for about £20 each and ended up using the large flat beds I had previously bought from eBay as a padded base with these mats on top. The combination did look really comfortable and I have to admit I did try it out myself where it felt like a comfortable mattress topper on top of your mattress. I showed the dogs the new beds and left them to it. Came back half an hour later and they were both stretched out, legs in the air and fully snuggled in – a position I’ve not seen them in in a long while, so a definite approval from them.

Longevity wise, I’ve now had these beds for 2 years and they’ve been through a number of machine washes, yet they still look fairly new. The fibre pile still stands strong and hasn’t been crushed and my dogs still love it. It is kind of a joy to see them snuggling down into it every time.

So a definite 5 stars from me.