Vet call out fee?

[MagicMelon]

I got my recent vets bill and am slightly horrified I am now charged £25 for a "call out" fee and then another £25 to "examine horse". I mean, surely that should just be one fee anyway (you wouldn't get one without the other would you!). So its now £50 before they even do anything. Is this standard? What does your vet charge? One of mine is due to a vaccination soon and I'm considering driving her to their practice so I might avoid these fees...

 

[AppyLover]

Our vet luckily has zone days so for simple things teeth/jabs or just a normal appointment etc you only pay the cost of them doing what they came to do. Call on the Monday and they give you a time slot the day before your zone day. I think if you don't do that call outs around 30 but not 100% sure

 

[rowan666]

yes it's normal, well one of my vet does too, the other doesn't

 

[superpony]

Yes completely normal I am afraid. I would say that is very reasonable call out fee and consult though!

 

[Tiddlypom]

My vets charge £47 for a visit.. Am very pleased with the quality of the practice, though, and there's a good emergency service so I don't begrudge it at all.

 

[MontyandZoom]

I am a vet in a mixed practice. We charge around 35 pounds for a consultation for both small animals and equine. Appointment slots in the small animal hospital are 15minutes so I will see 4 animals in an hour. We charge a 35 pound visit fee to go out to a horse. On days when I am on the equine rota I will only see one horse an hour (more if a shared visit but then the fee is split between the different owners). Considering petrol and travelling time I think it is perfectly reasonable to charge a visit fee.

 

[AShetlandBitMeOnce]

Lucky You!! My call out is £30 and 'consultation fee' is £52!!

 

[FlyingCircus]

Recent bill-

Visit fee £32
Examination fee £49

 

[Boulty]

About the going rate by the sound of it. A lot of places have a callout of £30-50 anyway. If literally just for vaccs I wouldn't expect to be charged an exam fee as well normally if there aren't ant problems with the horse / things you want looking at though. Tbh if you have your own box and your vets have the facilities to see you onsite then you probably would be cheaper driving them over

 

[ihatework]

Completely normal, and in the grand scheme of things cheap for a ugly skilled professional person travelling to you

 

[eggs]

Completely normal.

 

[popsdosh]

Completely normal, and in the grand scheme of things cheap for a ugly skilled professional person travelling to you

Your Vet will love you! LOL

 

[Kezzabell2]

That's cheap. My vet charges 50 plus examination and advice, which varies depending on the vet and what they do. Then you have treatment on top

I looked at changing and the other vet in the same area is 85 call out

 

[teddypops]

Completely normal. The vet is not doing 'nothing' they are examining the horse to see what needs to be done!

 

[NiceNeverNaughty]

recent bill call out £75, examine horse £25.

 

[Toby_Zaphod]

I load my horses onto my lorry & take them to the practice for their jabs, it saves me a fortune!

 

[happyclappy]

Normal here too but still more expensive here.

 

[Nudibranch]

30 here then time charged in 5 minute blocks.

 

[pippixox]

normal, my vet is about £40 call out, then the examination fee varies depending on the issue!
on out of hours it is over £100! (horses love to rip legs open on Sunday mornings and get infections on my wedding day!) but they will get to you ASAP what ever the time of day or night so really could be worse cost wise
if you calculated transporting your horse to the vet it would be possibly more

 

[Limbo1]

Mine is 30 examination and 30 callout - although the callout is zoned so I guess you pay more the further you are - my vet is 2 miles so must be the cheapest. I will take mine down for jabs etc as can ride/walk them there. Also they are building a horse hospital on site - will be very convenient if we need anything.

 

[jrp204]

£30 call out the. £1.75/min.

 

[Orangehorse]

Sounds OK. Our vets introduced a once a week Zone free visit for vaccinations, which is helpful. They want payment same day, no putting it on a monthly bill.

 

[catroo]

Same here, my vets do a area day once a month where there's no call out for routine things like vaccs and teeth.

I can see why they split the charge for call out and examine as I know quite a few that go to the vet rather than the vet coming to them

 

[rachk89]

Our vet luckily has zone days so for simple
things teeth/jabs or just a normal appointment etc you only pay the cost of them doing what they came to do. Call on the Monday and they give you a time slot the day before your zone day. I think if you don't do that call outs around 30 but not 100% sure

My vets do that too thank god.

 

[ester]

I got my recent vets bill and am slightly horrified I am now charged £25 for a "call out" fee and then another £25 to "examine horse". I mean, surely that should just be one fee anyway (you wouldn't get one without the other would you!). So its now £50 before they even do anything. Is this standard? What does your vet charge? One of mine is due to a vaccination soon and I'm considering driving her to their practice so I might avoid these fees...

Well no, there isn't always an examine fee, vaccinations being a case in point!

£27 for a shared call out here. I can't remember what it is otherwise about £50 I guess! My old vets used to do zone days which was great but current ones don't but they are good vets so worth it.
I've booked Rara007 to vaccinate him next year when she is qualified She might do it for supper

 

[Orca]

Call out fee is £35 and £17.50 on a zone day (recent vacs, IV sedation for first dentistry and float cost £100 in total). Haven't been charged a consultation fee yet but I know another local vet has started charging per minute, regardless of what the visit is for.

 

[Tiddlypom]

Well no, there isn't always an examine fee, vaccinations being a case in point!

Quite, which reminds me to pay current bill (due end of month)!

I am due to pay £47 for call out, £26.60 for flu/tet per horse, plus £5.71 to pull one set of bloods, lab fees for blood another £39 on top, no examination fee this time, though.

My vets encourage clients to take their horses to the horsepital if they'd prefer to, even just for jabs, rather than visit at home. The examination fees vary depending on what's involved, and how long it takes.

 

[ihatework]

Your Vet will love you! LOL

LMAO *highly*

Where the hell did predictive text get ugly from!!

 

[irishdraft]

My vet charges £50 call out plus £46 consultation fee, I take my horses to his house to save the call out recently went over with my mare £46 consultation then took her back for treatment another £35 examination plus the treatment

 

[PolarSkye]

Why do we keep having these threads? I am proud to call myself a horsewoman, but I am not a vet. I have learned a few things over the years, but I wouldn't dare perform intravenous injections or try and diagnose an illlness/lameness. If I want to keep my horse healthy, or have a query about his health, I call a professional - who has invested £££££ in his/her education, and carries the cost of (sky high) insurance, equipment rental costs, transport, etc. Fees are in line with the associated costs of running and maintaining a veterinary practice. They are not charities.

P

P.S. Oh, and when my boy died on Friday night (after hours) my vet came out, didn't charge me for the call out because Kali was already gone AND collected the almost full box of bute he had sold me the day before and the tube of Finadyne and took them off my bill.