Out of Hours call out fee

[SpotsandBays]

What do your vets charge for an OOO call out fee?

Just got my bill through for having my dear old pony put to sleep a few weeks ago and am abit shocked at the call out fee to be honest!

 

[meleeka]

The last one I had was last year. That was £155 callout and £65 examination fee.

 

[eggs]

Fortunately I haven't had one for a number of years (am now crossing fingers as hopefully I haven't jinxed myself) but I would estimate it would now be about £150 plus examination fee.

 

[mavandkaz]

One practice in my area charges £220. They do warn you of this before they dispatch the vet and check you are 'happy' to pay it.

 

[Fjord]

I'm sorry you lost your pony. A daytime call out fee at my vet is around £80 I think, so I'd probably expect around £150-180. It cost £100 to go to an emergency vet with my cat a few years ago, so I imagine it will be expensive.

 

[Snowfilly]

£180 here! Scary

 

[Peglo]

Goodness, I feel very lucky. Mine must be very cheap. OOH Call out, examination and buscopan cost me £150 altogether.

So sorry you lost your horse.

 

[SpotsandBays]

So call out/examination fee was £228. I knew it would be steep but there wasn’t really an examination. Friend who guided vet out to me had told her that I’d be putting her down, vet came over and confirmed that was my choice and then went ahead.
I don’t remember anyone mentioning the hefty call out but I was told I’d need to pay a deposit of £300 before the vet arrived which I did.
Bill was £507 total.

 

[SEL]

So call out/examination fee was £228. I knew it would be steep but there wasn’t really an examination. Friend who guided vet out to me had told her that I’d be putting her down, vet came over and confirmed that was my choice and then went ahead.
I don’t remember anyone mentioning the hefty call out but I was told I’d need to pay a deposit of £300 before the vet arrived which I did.
Bill was £507 total.

Ouch - that's a lot more than my planned call outs for PTS.

I haven't had an OOH with either of the vets you use but that seems steep. I did think normal call outs with WH were steep last time out though. Have they broken it down between the actual call out and the exam fee?

 

[suestowford]

Last year I had to take one of my pets in on a Bank Holiday for euthanasia. It was £175 just for the consultation, so I'd expect an OOH callout to be more than that.

 

[SpotsandBays]

Ouch - that's a lot more than my planned call outs for PTS.

I haven't had an OOH with either of the vets you use but that seems steep. I did think normal call outs with WH were steep last time out though. Have they broken it down between the actual call out and the exam fee?

Not sure whether it’s because the practice I used was the smaller one (who group together with other vets for sharing OOO responsibilities if you know what I mean). Call out and exam fee is bundled together

 

[criso]

Standard call out is about £50, out of hours whether it's weekend, evening or Christmas day is double so £100.

Charges for examination and any other procedures are the same.

 

[Alibear]

Your £507 seems in line with what I paid last year. Sometimes, the examination fee can seem like a lot for little actually done, but it seems to be a set price now. Sometimes I feel I've done well out of it which counteracts the times it isn't really needed.

 

[SpotsandBays]

Your £507 seems in line with what I paid last year. Sometimes, the examination fee can seem like a lot for little actually done, but it seems to be a set price now. Sometimes I feel I've done well out of it which counteracts the times it isn't really needed.

Yeah, I mean I can’t fault the service. They were brilliant when I was a mess.

 

[Indieanna6]

I had a recent call out and examination on a Saturday for £146.79 (86.22 call out + 60.57 exam)
then the vet insisted they saw her again the next morning for £130.74 (82.37 visit + 48.37 exam)
Plus actual treatment which was £142.65 altogether

 

[Lucky Snowball]

sorry about your loss. You must be upset. I’d just pay it. If they did a good job that’s the most important thing.

 

[Marnie]

I'm very sorry for your loss.

Cross fingers I haven't had an emergency horse call out for a long time, but 4 years ago it was £35 call out, £47 emergency call out and £44 examination plus drugs (my mare had cellulitis).

I recently had an emergency visit to an out of hours small animal vet for an abcess on my cat and that was £298.50 for the OOH fee and consultation and that had to be paid up front so I think I would rather have a horse call out as at least I wouldn't have had to drive for 3/4 of an hour to get there!

 

[SpotsandBays]

sorry about your loss. You must be upset. I’d just pay it. If they did a good job that’s the most important thing.

Oh I’m definitely going to pay it, just was abit of a shock that’s all

 

[Steerpike]

I had an emergency call out with examination which ended with PTS last year and it was a bit north of £450 if I remember correctly.

 

[suestowford]

Thinking back when I had the last callout for my pony, the bill came to over £500. That wasn't OOH though, but he had a carload of drugs to see if it would resolve the issue, plus the euthanasia kit on top of that. For what he had I thought it was reasonable.

 

[lynz88]

Standard call out is £50 for me. I can't remember what the emergency call out was back in Sept as that was when I had switched vets but I remember being impressed.

 

[maya2008]

OOH for us is £228 incl exam fee.

 

[Wishfilly]

Mine is about £100-150, depending on time/day and distance- they do various things to try and make standard call outs cheaper, so I do fully expect to pay through the nose out of hours.

I have always had in my head a figure of about £1000 for PTS and disposal, so I don't think it's a horrendous bill.

 

[Nicnac]

Approx 25 years ago I took my daughter's hamster to the vet early on a Sunday evening. It cost me £60 to be told there was nothing they could do and have him PTS so actually the above costs seem pretty reasonable to me!

 

[Aperchristmas]

Sorry for your loss. I agree that does seem a bit steep but looks like other posters on here pay similar. I'm interested in the £300 deposit though - are they your usual practice? I would be pretty unimpressed at having to faff around paying a deposit at what I assume was a very stressful moment if I was a regular & reliable client. I suppose fair enough if they're not your usual vets though.

 

[Ditchjumper2]

If I knew PTS was going to be the outcome I'd just call local hunt or knackerman tbh. But appreciate not for everyone.

 

[SpotsandBays]

Sorry for your loss. I agree that does seem a bit steep but looks like other posters on here pay similar. I'm interested in the £300 deposit though - are they your usual practice? I would be pretty unimpressed at having to faff around paying a deposit at what I assume was a very stressful moment if I was a regular & reliable client. I suppose fair enough if they're not your usual vets though.

Im registered with two, but these were the ones I use less regularly. Hadn’t used them in 18 months so I guess that’s probably why

 

[SpotsandBays]

If I knew PTS was going to be the outcome I'd just call local hunt or knackerman tbh. But appreciate not for everyone.

I wasn’t really thinking straight to be honest, I have a contact for a knackerman but I just went with the vet

 

[SpotsandBays]

The funny thing is that I figured it would be around the £500 mark so I don’t know why it felt like a shock? Just seeing it on paper with the breakdown is abit meh. It’s made me sadder than I thought it would to be honest (not the money, just the situation). Thanks all for your responses.

 

[lynz88]

Sorry for your loss. I agree that does seem a bit steep but looks like other posters on here pay similar. I'm interested in the £300 deposit though - are they your usual practice? I would be pretty unimpressed at having to faff around paying a deposit at what I assume was a very stressful moment if I was a regular & reliable client. I suppose fair enough if they're not your usual vets though.

I know of a practice that I've since left that would do this and then charge you on top still and for seemingly any reason that you could not argue about