If you could change one thing about your vet....

A

Aru

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What would it be?

Im going to be seeing practice for the 1st time this christmas and im getting(very excited! but really worried about not knowing enough!)
.....but one of the thing s ive been wondering lately is what do the clients think of the service vets give?
and what would ye like to change in your vet?
plus any tips on what a client really doesnt want would be helpful!
To start
Mine is puntuality!i really wish our vet could run on time!i know he's always late and theres reasons for it... but hey if there was something id change that would be it.......
 
Another vote for punctionality!! I just waited one and a half hours for my vet to come this afternoon!! Bloody annoying especially when you have to drag two sick children with colds too!

Honestly don't get me started...........
 
That he was married to me
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Lovely, lovely Javier .....
 
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That he was married to me
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Lovely, lovely Javier .....

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Thats not fair ChicoMio, I was going to say that
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Except lovely lovely Mark in my case....fab NZ accent too....
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That they here hot and cheap. OH dear that sounds quite wrong!!
My vets are actually very good, but sadly mainly female! no complaints on their service though, in answer to the actual question.
 
Generally my vets are great, not too expensive, and they have recently started doing half price visits one day a week for routine things like vaccs. Pretty good punctuality wise in that they will phone if they are running late. My only real grievance is that the best vet (who is absolutely mustard with horses) is hopelessly disorganised, never fills in insurance paper work etc, and never turns up on time . He drives everyone at the practice mad as well because of all these things, so if I could change one thing it would be to make him more efficient with these things. Wouldn't swap him as a vet though despite this.
 
I wish my vet practice was closer to home! I refuse to use the local practice after I fell out with them a couple of years ago on discovering they were utterly useless. All the vets at my current practice are fabulous, "my" vet in particular is the bees knees as far as I am concerned, but if Maiden colics she is going to have to be seen to by the local practice because it would take them 20 minutes to get to her, rather than 30+.
Sorry, not much use is it?!
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Ok, one of the things that really, REALLY got to me about my local practice is their paperwork... they never flipping do it! If I need my horse to go for an MRI scan, I need it done THIS year not next! I can't keep the poor mare on box rest for months just because you can;t be bothered to send off the referral paperwork...! (Rant over, sorry
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The absolute only thing I'd change about my Vet is his age, he is 70 and I am dreading him retiring. Good horse vets here are hard to come by, the small animal practices don't do horses, neither do the farm practices (unless you need one shot in a hurry). So if he could be 15 years younger that would be great.

I never complain about him being late, for routine visits he generally makes me his first call of the day (as I live very close by) he'll roll up about 6-6.30am, for vaccinations etc, he just leaves everything in my mailbox as he passes and I do it myself, he has better things to do than stick needles into horses at the break of dawn. He's turned out at 3am before now in 7 minutes flat, and talked me through unsticking a stuck foal from another stud emergency 4 hours away.

I love my Vet.

What I do not want from a Vet (and which is why I sacked my last small animal Vet) is to be patronised and told what to do at every visit. Hello, I pay YOU for a service, I do not expect to be lectured or told what to do unless it is specific to treatment, and if I have a query I will ask, but each visit I get the same old
"You HAVE to castrate your dog"
"Errrrrr No, actually I do NOT"
She breeds dogs - talk about being a hypocrite!

Why do Vets in the UK not call themselves Dr? Or do they?
 
I'd like to bring my vet back from Spain - not much chance of that eh?
He was brilliant and punctual and I haven't met a better vet but sadly he got an offer he couldn't refuse earlier this year and went back to Spain, I think to work with the Spanish national team... Ah well, luckily the practice have another brilliant female vet who is a good replacement. I was just very disappointed because having had him treat Jesper for many years I always imagined he'd be the one who was there when we eventually call it a day...
 
Not charge the earth for travel and general call out, £90 just for a (literally) 5 min appointment where he said hello, stuck the vaccination in my mare and tootled off! Grrrr! And to be less prompt with their billing :P
 
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What I do not want from a Vet (and which is why I sacked my last small animal Vet) is to be patronised and told what to do at every visit. Hello, I pay YOU for a service, I do not expect to be lectured or told what to do unless it is specific to treatment, and if I have a query I will ask, but each visit I get the same old
"You HAVE to castrate your dog"
"Errrrrr No, actually I do NOT"
She breeds dogs - talk about being a hypocrite!


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I really agree with this one Enfys, I used to get it from my dog vets too - luckily they have stopped it now because I slay them with one look
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but they used to endlessly lecture me about had I wormed/de-flea'd my dogs, what did I feed them etc
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Just vaccinate the blessed thing like I asked you to do, I really do know what I'm doing after 39 years of dog ownership
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that they were more organised! My vet has been really good, but frgot to send out copy of blood test results, always forgets to leave things out for me to collect! Also i really do think that if u have a long term issue with your horse it would be good for the vets to call once a week, to see how its getting on, rather than having to ring them the whole time!
 
Vet's in the UK and Ireland arent called doctors as we dont do a doctorate degree.
We do a MVB, Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine here in Ireland and those in the UK get a BVMS Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery. and MRCVS (Member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons)

I think the after reading this thread im gonna have to work on my organisation skills...im rediculously disorganised!
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im glad ye lot seem to like your vets!they dont seem to be very popular on this forum...but i guess thats cos its a great place to rant
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Not surprised that punctuality is the bggest issue! Tough in the last fortnight I have been early (between 15mins and 1hr early) on more than 8 occasions and only once did an owner actually appeciate it! Obviously 1hr is very much ahead of schedule and I ring ahead if it looks like Im going to be 1/2hr early or late, but if I turn up 5minutes before Im due for a routine call out I would still expect owners to be there, have their horses in and ready for vacc/microchipping etc - especially as they dont pay a call out fee and I need to work to a tight schedule to make that possible.

Personally, I hate to be late to an appointment or for it to take ages for me to get there. Unfortunately, its very very easy to get delayed - emergencies call in, traffic can be a pain (try friday eve traffic when trying to get to a horse with fractured leg and the motorways have been blocked so country roads are mayhem), for me - getting lost has been the bain of the last few months(!) and of course on almost every call you have that dreaded "while you're here...". So, vets do their best to be as efficient as possible I promise you, but it certainly isnt easy!
 
tbh my vet is wonderful - I now don't bother calling the practice and just ring her and book her directly... She explains things in a way I can understand, takes her time and is always kind to both the horses and I...

Previous pet peeves with vets though have been not listening to me when I say my horse isn't right even though there isnt something obivous - 5 visits and 2 vets missed River's spavin and navicular even though I insisted he wasn't 'quite right'.
 
Mine seem to have got worse at prioritising call outs - we had a pony a couple of weeks back who we found at about 8am in a bad way colicing , we phoned at 8.30 when the surgery officially opens was told that someone will be out soon,11am still no sign -phone again someone will be with us in the next hour ,1pm still no one. Ended up phoning a rival practice who were with us within 30 mins of phone call even though we have no history as such with us . Pony was put to sleep later that day - chances are nothing would have helped but her last hours could have been alot easier. For me the most important thing for vets is punctuality,professionalism and to not be patronising (was told by a vet once that I shouldn't worry about my horse being 1/10 lame behind as he was a friend and I probably wouldn't do much with him anyway
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I like to know roughly when the vet will be arriving. Morning or afternoon would narrow it down a bit. They won't commit themselves to an appointment, because an emergency might come up.

Fair enough. I expect the vet to prioritise colic over vaccinations. But how on earth can I arrange to be there if I don't know when they are coming? I have a job too!

Needless to say, I won't be using these vets again.
 
My vets are quite punctual, but out of the 4 or 5 vets at my practice, only one has had any real experience. Unfortunately the other newly qualified ones don't really fill me full of confidence.
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I know its unfair, as everyone has to learn, but I want a long serving vet who has experienced many scenarios, there is no substitute for experience. I have had so much conflicting advice from the newer vets, that I really don't rate them much.
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Also they seem to be more interested in "selling" me services I don't need.
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Wish my old vet hadn't emigrated
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I dont like the vets thats say "what do you think it is" and "are you insured" within the first 2 lines

a) if i knew what it was i would not be spending next months shopping bill on you
b) what differacne should it make to the care of the horse if i am insured or not.

Dont ever call someone to give them really bad news, then have to go half way through the conversation, promise to call them back and DONT - very very distressing for owner (well it was for me) and cost the vets practice my custom (i have 3 horses, one with a death wish, and one old arthritic whom they could have made a fortune out of)

Please dont become a vet that is keeping little old scruffy going on tables costings £3 per day just for a few more weeks - do the decent thing and tell the owner to save there money and he is better off going for a walk in the great dog park in the sky. To often animals that would have been pts years ago are being kept going when they really should be said goodbye to. I had to make my friend take her old lab to a different vet to be pts - this poor dog was shaped like a whippet and wimpered everytime it moved - it could not see, it was weeing itself and yellped if you touched her. Her vet gave it some really expensive tablets and said bring it back in a month - that dog was in agony! The new vet took one look at it and it was pts the same day

What i do like is a vet who greats the animal like someone who wants to be with the animal ie lets horse sniff, strokes them, uses soothing words and gives them a pat and a fuss after doing something nasty. One vet i knew up north always asked you for a treat to give to the animal after he did something particulary horrid to it.

I also like vets who write down what to do, many owners brains are mush when we are getting loads of advice about a really ill animal and we often forget exactly what was said and then worry even more.

Good luck and sometimes the best thing you can do is the hardest thing to do
 
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Dont ever call someone to give them really bad news, then have to go half way through the conversation, promise to call them back and DONT - very very distressing for owner (well it was for me) and cost the vets practice my custom (i have 3 horses, one with a death wish, and one old arthritic whom they could have made a fortune out of)

Please dont become a vet that is keeping little old scruffy going on tables costings £3 per day just for a few more weeks - do the decent thing and tell the owner to save there money and he is better off going for a walk in the great dog park in the sky. To often animals that would have been pts years ago are being kept going when they really should be said goodbye to.

What i do like is a vet who greats the animal like someone who wants to be with the animal ie lets horse sniff, strokes them, uses soothing words and gives them a pat and a fuss after doing something nasty. One vet i knew up north always asked you for a treat to give to the animal after he did something particulary horrid to it.

I also like vets who write down what to do, many owners brains are mush when we are getting loads of advice about a really ill animal and we often forget exactly what was said and then worry even more.

Good luck and sometimes the best thing you can do is the hardest thing to do

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Thanks for the advise Gingerwitch
I do always try to introduce myself to the animal and fuss them after ive done something bad to them to remind them that we are friends im glad to hear owners think it is important to!It just seems like good manners to me and it helps stop the pet hating the vet.

The 3rd one about writing things down for the owners is a really good point.It never really occured to me beforel I know i always end up trying desperately to remember exactly what the vet had told me to do and when!Writing it down is a really good idea.

As for keeping things alive for the sake of an exra few weeks im a great believer in the saying
"Better a day to early than a day to late"
Apparently this doesnt translate quite as well into small animal practice though.Although id quite like to do small animal and equine most people who know me think i wouldnt have enough fluffiness to deal with some of the small animal customers
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