vet examination- description

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Ottinmeg

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when you call a vet out to your horse and he examines it what do you expect him to do ?
my daughter went off to uni in september,took her horse (who she is paranoid about ) with her. couple of weeks later a new horse comes on the yard and develops strangles, two or three other horses come down with it. they all recover and no more outbreaks for 3 weeks then daughters horse becomes unwell. yard owner trying to save her money says lets just weather the storm and keep an eye on him. daughter being a drama queen calls me to ask what she should do. i'm 100 miles away so i told her to get a vet if she was concerned. vet comes out, yard owner fill's him in and he apparently looked at the horse,didn't even touch him, and said yeh. gave her some anti b's and bute and left. two days later the horse was fine. turned out he just had a stinking cold... anyway today she phones me and says she has the bill and the 'examination' charge is 38 quid !! should i really pay a vet 38 quid whose idea of an examination is to look at the horse and say yeh as he just assumed the horse had strangles given that there had been cases on the yard?
 
Be very careful about this type of situation if you weren't actually there yourself.


I have had a number of clients ring after a visit to question the exam as I didn't take the temp (despite me having a record of what it was....) or not taking the heart rate (despite recording what it was etc.)

If you or your daughter was present and witness that the vet did not physically examine the horse that's different. How long did he/she spend at the yard discussing the case and answering questions?

We work on a consultation fee system rather than an examination fee one. This is to emphasise that you are paying for the examination as necessary of the said patient and also the consult itself, i.e. then time taken discussing the case.

If I had not seen the horse before then I would do a exam. However, if this vet has been to the yard repeatedly for the strangles outbreak then he may have seen the horse before as part of a group and so the exam would be briefer.

I would encourage you to ring the vet in question and discuss your concerns openly to find the full story. £38 would likely be a discounted consult fee (by our fees anyway) and so the briefness of the consult may have already been taken into account without you realising. It is certainly not wrong to discuss these things but I'd urge you to ask the vet in questions before issuing a complaint. If they are aware of your concern and see your point then they are far more likely to adjust the fees accordingly.

Additionally, bear in mind, strangles more often than not, is also no more than a stinking cold. I'd be inclined to be recommending a scope or 3 x nasopahyrgeal swabs at 5-7day intervals of your horse before giving him/her the all clear. - Food for thought.

Good luck, hope that helps

Imogen
 
I think £38 is an extremely reasonable fee! Don't forget you're paying for their training, experience, fuel, surgery, office staff, equipment etc etc etc. That's why experts are expensive! If I've understood the story, your daughter's horse had been off the yard some time by the time the new horse arrived with strangles. So how could your daughter's horse have caught strangles off the new horse? If the story was explained like this to the vet then s/he would have no reason to suspect strangles?
 
Box_Of_Frogs said:
I think £38 is an extremely reasonable fee! Don't forget you're paying for their training, experience, fuel, surgery, office staff, equipment etc etc etc.
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Only if there's no call-out fee! Most vets charge a call-out fee (mine is about £29 +Vat) to walk onto the yard. That covers fuel and travelling time (hopefully). My vet then charges on a time basis - if he's only seeing the one horse it will probably be a minimum of £20 +any drugs. If he's seeing several, he has been known to charge the 'minimum examination fee' which is £12 - that usually covers walking into the stable, giving a poke and a prod to offending part, and agreeing with me on the cause and follow-up treatment - about 5 minutes!! Well worth it for peace of mind.
 
it does get my back up a bit as to why vets charge for the call out AND then examination fee then all the treatment on top of it. surely they should just charge the call out or even just add £10 to the call out and that's it.
some vets in my area charge £32 + vat for call out and £38 + vat for exam and i find that alot of money.
maybe if they reduced their charges they would have more people going to them for the treatment.

also if the horse in question has been seen one day (all the above charges) and the vet insists they have to come back out the next day to check on it then how come you get charged the same rate for a second visit.

i think by reducing the fees they would have more clients, happier clients and also horses would probably be taken care of better. <<<< as in the owners would be more willing to call a vet sooner rather than waiting until it's absolutely essential (sometimes critical), that's not saying that people can't afford the vet fees but it would be easier for the owners to take if cheaper.
 
riding_high said:
it does get my back up a bit as to why vets charge for the call out AND then examination fee then all the treatment on top of it. surely they should just charge the call out or even just add £10 to the call out and that's it.
some vets in my area charge £32 + vat for call out and £38 + vat for exam and i find that alot of money.
maybe if they reduced their charges they would have more people going to them for the treatment.

also if the horse in question has been seen one day (all the above charges) and the vet insists they have to come back out the next day to check on it then how come you get charged the same rate for a second visit.

i think by reducing the fees they would have more clients, happier clients and also horses would probably be taken care of better. <<<< as in the owners would be more willing to call a vet sooner rather than waiting until it's absolutely essential (sometimes critical), that's not saying that people can't afford the vet fees but it would be easier for the owners to take if cheaper.
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Surely the call out covers the vets time to travel to you, the cost of running & maintaining the vehicle & the fuel, then the consultation fee, my vet calls it "examine & advise" covers the time spent with you, admittedly sometimes this could be an hour, sometimes much less. I think expecting them to add £10 on for travel is a bit unrealistic. I pay £32 call out, the practice is based a good hour away, & £38 examine & advise, I think these are fair charges & I know I can call my vet on his mobile for advice any time which to me is priceless. Andrew once came out of hours, miles out of his way to look at Kizzy & only charged me the usual call out, top vet!
 
riding_high said:
it does get my back up a bit as to why vets charge for the call out AND then examination fee then all the treatment on top of it. surely they should just charge the call out or even just add £10 to the call out and that's it.
some vets in my area charge £32 + vat for call out and £38 + vat for exam and i find that alot of money.
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Beliieve me that's pretty reasonable going....

maybe if they reduced their charges they would have more people going to them for the treatment.
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Don't forget there are people like me that give up a fairly large chunk of free personal time to help owners....e.g. helping (I hope) on forums such as this....

also if the horse in question has been seen one day (all the above charges) and the vet insists they have to come back out the next day to check on it then how come you get charged the same rate for a second visit.
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Vets can't insist on a revisit - just suggest it. You can say no and we won't come back. I think you'll find most suggest it to complete the high standard of care you have come to expect from the profession. We could just ignore all our patients, but I'm guessing you wouldn't really like that either.

i think by reducing the fees they would have more clients, happier clients and also horses would probably be taken care of better. <<<< as in the owners would be more willing to call a vet sooner rather than waiting until it's absolutely essential (sometimes critical), that's not saying that people can't afford the vet fees but it would be easier for the owners to take if cheaper.
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I think you'll find that you should make yourself aware of the routine veterinary costs you are like to incur PRIOR to owning a horse TBH. Everyone would like something for nothing and my job would be great if the money thing didn't come into it. If you own a horse, you take on the responsibility of financing the horses care, if you can't afford it then I'd ask you to question whether you should actually own a horse, or maybe share until you can.

I realise that fess mount up quickly, but we work hard trying to make the financial side of things as easy as possible but vets run a business at the end of the day. Welfare is always at the top of the list but we have to make the business work to survive.

The call out covers the vehicle costs and fuel (ever increasing) and the time lost travelling...i.e. I could be working on a case during the 30minutes trip to your horse and 30 mins back.... whereas the consult/exam covers our professional expertise.

Next time you consider you vet is over charging...think about, I don't know, what a plumber might charge.....;)

(back in my box now ;))
 
Our vets are very expensive, however the service they provide is excellent and they will always cast half a glance at a second horse on the yard without charging ;) ... only HALF a glance, mind! It's def worth calling to ask for a more detailed invoice. A livery on my yard was charged full callout on a day when three people were seeing the vet and she got upset about it and never queried the bill because she didn't want the vet to think she was a difficult customer. I feel that a phonecall would have resolved this very quickly and avoided upset all round!

I will also add that our vets are always helpful on the phone, too, and I consider that some of the fees I'm paying for random things throughout the year are funding my right to call and ask for advice when I need it.
 
ImogenBurrows said:
Beliieve me that's pretty reasonable going....


Don't forget there are people like me that give up a fairly large chunk of free personal time to help owners....e.g. helping (I hope) on forums such as this....


Vets can't insist on a revisit - just suggest it. You can say no and we won't come back. I think you'll find most suggest it to complete the high standard of care you have come to expect from the profession. We could just ignore all our patients, but I'm guessing you wouldn't really like that either.


I think you'll find that you should make yourself aware of the routine veterinary costs you are like to incur PRIOR to owning a horse TBH. Everyone would like something for nothing and my job would be great if the money thing didn't come into it. If you own a horse, you take on the responsibility of financing the horses care, if you can't afford it then I'd ask you to question whether you should actually own a horse, or maybe share until you can.

I realise that fess mount up quickly, but we work hard trying to make the financial side of things as easy as possible but vets run a business at the end of the day. Welfare is always at the top of the list but we have to make the business work to survive.

The call out covers the vehicle costs and fuel (ever increasing) and the time lost travelling...i.e. I could be working on a case during the 30minutes trip to your horse and 30 mins back.... whereas the consult/exam covers our professional expertise.

Next time you consider you vet is over charging...think about, I don't know, what a plumber might charge.....;)

(back in my box now ;))
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Couldn't agree more...
 
Wish I could get my doctor to come out after a phone call for just £38...!

Think the charge is very reasonable, particularly if you take into account their travelling time and fuel etc. I have no problem with this and would think it's better to be safe than sorry.
 
I do think those prices are quite reasonable tbh - however, just to say, for a 20mile round trip costing approx £35 I get £5-£8 for petrol. I pay for my own vehicle costs and the excess on that fuel allowance doesnt go far when you do excessive mileage (=excessive wear!). Time taken up for travelling when I could be doing other work accounts for much of the rest! I also spend most of my day (and night!) on the phone talking to clients including many hours when I am not (apparently!) working. Im sure the same goes for all other practices.

As has been said many many times before, few professionals are as accessible, flexible and reasonably priced as vets! Believe it or not!!
 
i wasn't speaking about myself not being able to afford the vet fees, if my horse needs a vet then i get one and don't hesitate in the cost. my vet is excellent and i recommend him to others, i've had a few vets over the years but this is the first time i've been able to my trust in a vet. so i know how hard they work.
my vet takes pride in his job and puts the horse before owner, he will find a way to help you out so that costs are kept to a minimum. he is also always on the end of the phone if i need help/advice or anything.

i guess what i'm saying is that in my previous post i wasn't slating vets, just making an observation, i could slate farriers/mechanics/plumbers and phone companies! ;)
 
Count yourself lucky it was only £38. At least 5 years ago my vets were charging £43 for call out, plus £20 consultation = £63 before anything else was added. In the end it was cheaper to take the horse to them! I changed vets 2 years ago as one of the senior partners left and I followed him. Now the call out charge is half of the original practice's charge all these years later!
 
Makes sense to charge separately for visit and examination. Several of us share same vet so on joint visit charge is split amongst us but all pay own examination fee.
 
I'm more than happy to pay for my vet's expertise! They know a darn sight more than I do and I have always found their advice invaluable which is priceless!
 
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