Oakham Vets or Gibson & Lee ?

SCG

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Anybody use these vets, who do you think is better? I know Gibson & Lee are much cheaper but are they as good/better than Oakham? I am currently registered with both
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and I will be having the vet out to give my horse his last flu jab later this month and at the same time would like him to check my boy's back/hocks as he has been slightly scuffing his hind toes. Could be saddle, back, laziness, lack of schooling etc or worse, hocks so thought if vet coming anyway could at least have back/hocks checked out. Has also been stretching his head down alot whilst hacking out and sometimes hesitant/reluctant to go forward especially in trot and I've a gut feeling he's uncomfortable somewhere, although not too much of a problem at the moment as not riding in this dreadful weather. Will be getting saddle fitter out once weather is better. In light of this any feedback about which vets would be best to come out?
 
I use gibson and lee... Did use Oakham till Michael & Roger left & I went with them.

Edited to add They are both very good and both more than capable of doing what you want done, I guess it all comes down to personal choice
 
Gibson and Lee for me everytime been spot on treating the herd and even getting the pain in foal for this year. We are lucky to have Roger Lee living not to far away from the yard and he can make our call the first or last of the day.
 
we are going to oakham as one of our placements for rotation.
Neal ashton is really knowledgable (feel like a right thicko next to him!
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) but all the vets we have met from there so far are really exceptional, and a number of our university lecturers work there part time for specialist requirements.

However I cannot comment on the other practice as I have no experience with them. sorry.
 
Thanks all, well looks like 50/50 at the mo
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thanks too for the recommendations of which vets at Oakham, I had heard Neal was very good but sounds like they all are tbh. Michael Gibson of Gibson & Lee came out and gave my horse his 2nd flu jab last year, he certainly does have a no nonsense approach, he arrived early and I went and got my boy and was leading him up out of the field towards the yard, he started walking down to meet me and without saying a word suddenly jabbed the needle into ned's neck - I don't know who was more surprised me or my horse. Certainly an interesting technique and I was a bit taken aback by this but presumably it was done this way as no time for horse to get nervous/suspect anything?
Don't know, gut feeling is that if my horse does have any probs with his hocks, may be better going with Oakham if it ends up going as far as x-rays etc (God forbid and lets hope its just the saddle/back/schooling issue)
 
Both Gibson & Lee used to be at Gibsons (which is where Oakham came from). Michael is one of the original Senior Partners and Roger Lee was also a partner there. When Michael sold up Gibsons the others went their seperate ways and set up Oakham.

Peoples preferences are based on how they have been treated by the different vets and the conditions diagnosed/treated.
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I am very local to both and have had dealings with both as has every body around here - you will hear good and bad about both.

Lucy_Nottingham - I wouldn't worry about feeling stupid next to Neal Ashton - he does that to paying customers to.
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Oakham they explain to you and the A.I. vets actually know what they should know. I am not one of their clients but they vetted two horses I sold.
 
i used oakham (neal ashton) for surgery on an infected hock joint on my mare. was very impressed with him, discussing everything with me, but the nurses were a bit rude towards me when i visited her. i was also a little concerned at the after care for her, as she dropped a huge amount of weight in the week she was at the vets, but they would allow me to provide her with haylage as their hay was 'the best quality' but she wouldnt touch it! i also had a few other issues with the nursing staff, but none at all with the vets!
 
we have used both and found that oakham appear to only care about money wheras gibson and lee are much cheaper and we were very impressed with their kiwi girl vet who is amazing. we stopped using oakham when a vet made several bad judgements and then we found that this was indeed the same vet as was responsible for the STAMFORD HORSES !!
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