£160 vet call out!!!

Cliqmo

Cliqmo

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I spoke to my vets today and explained my boy is lame, they said becase I am new I will need to pay by cash or cheque the first time and thereafter I can put it on an account- so I asked how much it will be...

She told me it will be a £48 call out and £112 an hour for the examination- any treatment/further examination inc x rays, bloods etc will incur additional charges.

Is it just me or is that mightily expensive??
 
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Are they the only vets in your area??
 
No but they are the ones everyone else at the yard is using, there is another surgery who are a lot more local but are generally regarded as "too expensive" by the ladies at the yard and the YO has fallen out with the Senior Partner so it is a bit of a non-starter.
 
That sounds like the going rate, call out is almost always dependent on distance from practice (£48 sounds at the higher end, so presumably you are a reasonable distance from the practice) and £112 per hour is about the going rate for veterinary professional fees, so for a 15 minute exam you would be charged £28. Not offering credit to first time clients is becoming increasingly standard practice, largely because a large number of "new clients/ new horse/ new to the area" are in fact old clients of the neighboring practice with an outstanding bill! I know Dorset is a large county but there at least 8 practices doing horse work. Shop around by all means but I suspect that the prices will all be of similar size.
 
Thanks for the info Stranger1612, I spoke to the girls at the yard this evening who said virtually the same thing, it just seemed a bit shocking at the time
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I've just read this and fell off my chair.

Are they taking the pisssssssssssssssss, IMO outrage pricing.

If it was me and was practiable I was always take my horses to vets, but have had to call them out BUT never at these prices!!!

And my vets are expensive!
 
Wow - glad I don't have your vet.

Usual prices around here are £30 is for a call out, and £30 ish for an exam. So vaccinations comes to around £75. And I think that's bad enough.
 
The call out fees seem to be reasonable.

The examination fee is quite a lot, BUT- if your horse is being examined for lameness it may be worth bearing in mind that it may take longer than 1 hour for the vet to get to the bottom of it and so then the fee would really start to add up! .

Hope you're insured!!
 
This The Barn by any chance?
Can certainly recommend them if it is as I'm with them, and bar the callout (we are a fair distance from them) the charges have been ok for me and believe me my mare likes to see the vet!

Remember them insisting on you paying for first visit on the day.
 
How far away is your vets? Mine is about 20 miles/30-40min by car and they only charge me approx £30 call out and then approx £30 exam fee (for a lameness exam)
 
just had a bill for a saturday call out (thou I rang before 1pm so apparently just normal call out charge) lameness exam, inj (not sure what painkiller) and 10 bute- £75, bargain and several follow up phone calls to them.
We are about 50mins drive from the practice. think they do call out charges in zones so we are more than some others think bout £30.

They also do free visit days in zones for vacs, re examinations and dental work.
 
Crikey! We had an out of hours call out a couple of months back for a nasty puncture wound. Vet must've been there for at least 45 minutes assessing it and cleaning it up we had a painkilling jab and sedation, a weeks worth of Danilon and a course of oral antibiotics and that came in at under £100.
 
It does sound a bit excessive.

My call out is £35 and the practice is about 3/4 hour away. They do not charge any extra for out of hours or weekends,if there are more than one person wanting the vet ie vaccinations then we only pay part visit.

Apart from vaccinations (which I need the passport to be signed) I do all my own injections.

I once needed some antibiotics and the surgery posted them to me, they cost twice as much as the vet dropping them in as he passed.

I have a very good relationship with my vet and he trust me .
 
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