Vet Visit Pricing - what would you prefer?

Gamebird

Gamebird

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It seems like a lot of vets are offering cheap/free zone visits these days but it has struck me that often it means on your non-zone day you can end up paying through the nose for visits.

Can I ask what you pay for your visits and is it on a zone scheme or not? If on a zone scheme do you have to pay a lot for non-zone days? Which form of pricing would you prefer?
 
Gamebird said:
It seems like a lot of vets are offering cheap/free zone visits these days but it has struck me that often it means on your non-zone day you can end up paying through the nose for visits.

Can I ask what you pay for your visits and is it on a zone scheme or not? If on a zone scheme do you have to pay a lot for non-zone days? Which form of pricing would you prefer?
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Our visit to our zone on normal days is £33 for a visit. I was told the other day we are just inside the zone otherwise it would be £43. I told the lady, don't worry I will bring the horse to you and it will only cost me about £7.00 in diesel (22 mile round trip). I may as well as I am paying for this claim myself so need to keep the costs down! And I think its £39 for 'examine equine'.

Not sure what it is on our zone day, but zone days are only for teeth, and routine vacinnations and not for anything else. I'm sure if an emergency cropped up they would deal with a life or death case whilst they were there, but nothing else.
 
I pay £37 for the standard call out which has increased from £35 last year. My vets don't offer any cheaper days for call out. I feel a bit miffed paying it as the vets is only about 2-3 miles away and as far as I'm aware I pay the same as someone much further than that. I would prefer vets to charge in zones ie within a 5 mile radius, then 10, 15 etc. However I may be biased as I am close to mine ;-)
 
My vets standard visit charge is £41.20 + VAT, they come about 20 miles to me.

They do zone visits - 1 day a week, you cannot specify time, they let you know the day before an approximate. These visits are free but only for routine stuff.
 
Zone day is Wednesday and no call out charge

Cheap day is Friday (where our zone neighbours the proper zone for that day) £25 callout

All other times are normal callout which I think is around £40-55 ish

I like the zone days but if I have to take time off work I have to consider the value - if its a long vet job then I am happy if not I leave pony in and my husband meets the vet

Zone days do include non routine things if scheduled in but if you call on the morning with an emergency and they dont have a slot for you I guess it would be different

What I have found though is that the consultation/examination charge makes the bill not a great deal different so zone days are good for jabs and teeth but for anything needing a consultation its not much better

Still...I appreciate the vets offering this and they always call with a timeslot which helps enormously
 
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My vet has a no call out fee for pre-planned visits, so you have to wait until he has a cluster in the area. For emergencies you pay through the nose though - swings and roundabouts, could be that the emergencies are insurance covered so maybe a good plan?
 
my vets call out is about £40, unless seeing 5 or more and then they don't charge call out, so we try to do things like dentists and vaccinations at the same time. they do free-zone visits, one day a week,but this is only for routine visits anyway like vaccinations, and you only know the time the night before, so not that useful as i'm normally at work on the day it is my zone.
call out fees are quite expensive i think, given they will still be able to charge you for everything else they do once they have arrived. i always try to do vaccinations on free zone day or group of horses, as otherwise with the call out fee it costs almost double
 
I think my vets are great and appreciate the facilities they have but my farm animal vet is much cheaper and I do think that is to do with the fact that people wont pay a lot to keep a sheep/goat/pig/chicken alive and they are usually not insured

Its a bit like car repairs suddenly costing more when its an insurance claim!
 
Mine also do if you have three horses seen the visit is free what ever they have done, so if there's an unexpected visit I try and get routine things done at the same time
 
Non zone day visits are £35 and zone day visits are £6. The zone visits are only for routine thinks like vaccinations/teeth. No time is given as emergencies are dealt with as and when. This works for me as I can work from home on these days. My previous vet was about £45 for call out whether routine visit or not and if seeing more than 1 client at same yard charged everyone the same call-out fee. Much prefer the new vet structure.
 
My equine vets don't offer zone/free visits, which is of no consequence to me as my farm vet does vaccinations, basic first aid and so on, and he is unbeatable on price for call out at around £15.
The equine vets, used only for very specifically equine matters and stud work charge just under £70 for call out to me, it's expensive, but I trust them, they are always on time and super easy to talk to. I think £70 for an opinion you trust is much better value than £25 for an opinion you don't.
I also take my small (well, not so small, but car transportable) pets to them, it roughly 20 miles away - they are VERY competitive on the small animal stuff.
 
Interesting question.

One vet does not do zones and charges £37 for a call out for routine booked appointment. Can be split if several people have the vet at the same visit. Out of hours is about £60.

The other does half price zone days but these are never on days when things need doing. Full price is £27 and out of hours is £30. BUT, costs of consultations, jabs etc. are more expensive than the practise above.

To be honest, what I much prefer is a consistent, easy to talk to, competant vet (who turns up quickly in an emergency) and I am happy to pay more for that if necessary. Hence my use of two practices.
 
I can never remember how much things cost, off the top of my head. Will look at my invoices later if I remember.

Not sure if they do Zone days, but mine does free visits for 6 or more horses (honetpot, 3? that's great!), for whatever it is, so for non-emergencies I tend to have enough to qualify for that at a time of my choosing, what with vaccs, stud work, tests/checks etc.

Oh, like Martlin, we transport horses over to them too, they are a bit of a drive but we use them over several closer vets as they are the best in the area imo, and for me that's more important than a few quid here and there :) (Made a huge mistake with choosing my first vet when I moved to the area and didn't know anyone or have any recommendations :o)
 
My current vets don't have zone days, but previous ones did a different "zone" typically of 15-20miles from the practice Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. No call out fee but they would ring you when they were on their way... I once waited from 9.30am till 3pm, only to be told a colic case had come up and no one would be able to get down to me that day to do jabs, so I ended up paying £32 for a slot.

Last call out fee I got was £35.
 
My vets have recently merged with another practice and now operate zone days. Visits for 'routine' stuff are free on zone days, but you don't really get a time, you just have to hang around and wait. Non zone days will cost me about £55 if i have understood their pricing structure correctly. What annoys me is that judging by the map they have sent out, i am on the inner edge of a zone, and therefore will be a similar distance/travel time from the practise to someone on the outer edge of another zone whose non zone callout is about £20 cheaper. This, and the fact that i no longer seem to get 'my' vet is making me seriously consider changing practise for the first time in 15 years.
 
We don't have zone days so a routine call out is £46 + £36 for the examination. That's a whopping £82 a visit before treatment. Is charging extra for the examination a new thing as I've never paid extra in other counties ?


Luckily, I had a shared visit the other day from another practice. The call out was £8 and the examination was £20. Excellent he also did a miracle cure for the price.
 
Hello,
Used to be one half price (calllout) visit a month, Big yards got a visit day once a month. I worked at the vets then and it was very compicated working out zones and dates etc with charts as it wasn't the same day each month (due to weekends bank holiday etc).
This changed recently to set days a week, e.g. monday one area. This I expect will take up a lot less reception time. These are at a set price of £20. Then friday is free to immeadiate area.
These are not set times as it is difficult to work out, times are rung for in the morning
I keep horse about 6 miles from vets callout about £30 shared between people if there is more than one and if more than 6 then free. So it worked out cheaper before but only 1 a month.
I would usuallly just take into vets though, unless vax
 
dogatemysalad said:
We don't have zone days so a routine call out is £46 + £36 for the examination. That's a whopping £82 a visit before treatment. Is charging extra for the examination a new thing as I've never paid extra in other counties ?


Luckily, I had a shared visit the other day from another practice. The call out was £8 and the examination was £20. Excellent he also did a miracle cure for the price.
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It is a reasonably newish thing, last 5 years or so! Depends on your vet, sometimes I get examination FOC for no real reason ;)
 
I have three large practises available (well actually more than that being near newmarket) two of them do zone days which is great but the one I use most recently tells you a three hour slot in which you have to wait - its not really a problem to save me the callout fee as I have a lot more time than money being a student, but there's not an awful lot to do at my field once I've poo picked, groomed, plaited manes... I would ride but then I want to be ready when they arrive. They are really nice though and do good offers like 'annual health check' which includes teeth, vaccs, worm count or blood test, and a lameness exam for 120 quid.

If I couldn't work with these zone days then the Cambridge uni vets are about 20 quid call out to me as it goes up in bands. Either way I'm pretty spoilt for choice!
 
I use 2 practices, neither have zone days.

Practice 1 is my preferred one: several vets, good horspital & facilities etc.
However I am on the edge of their boundary, so callout is £58 + VAT for pre-booked (more out of hours) + examination fee (this can go up or down depending on seniority of vet)
The cost of flu jabs is however, £12 cheaper per jab than practice 2.
Staff are all very informative on equine issues.
I can take fuzzies there for jabs/ consultations, but its 50mins each way in the box. (still cheaper than callout, but not time saving)

Practice 2: I will only use for routine work (fell out with chief vet 20+ yrs ago over a colic case).
Their callout is £37 +vat (have to come 3 miles). They also have a weekly equine clinic at a local yard; if needing flu-jab, you only pay for the jab, nothing else.
Practice 2 only has 2 horse vets & the reception staff are not very clued up on horse problems or even vacc's intervals. More small animal orientated.
 
Call out is £21.60 & it's split between however many they see. No zone days, but I'd far rather that & the low call out :)
 
A well known equine vets a 15 minute drive from us doesn't have a zone day for us and its £45 standard, however my cousin who also uses them when they're a 45 minute drive away gts free zone visits on a Tuesday and Thursday - go figure! Another local vet does free Tuesday visits and reduced Friday visits for us and £41 for the rest of the time - they also do a healthy equine plan where you have a direct debit set up and they do all you routine stuff at a reduced price. Plus I like their vet :)
 
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