vets and charges

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tinafletcher1

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query. I know that our vets are invalueble, but ! ... I have had to have the use of my vet considerably over the past year, and so yes another bil, but can anyone explain this.

call out charge £40 plus.
examination. £20 plus.

ok so we call out the vet, why? to examine said animal, or to say Happy xmas, Happy new year?. I would think that we call out vet to examine animal!! question is. Why call out charge + examination fee. answer anyone. Happy to pay for drugs, happy to pay call out as not easy taking horse to vet, not happy about examination fee.!!!
 
Because I suppose they will not examine your horse for free!
If they rolled it into the call out fee then it would end up being more expensive when you have routine vacs as they dont charge for examination then. Sometimes I think it is a bit strict when it is something visibly obvious but sometimes I feel you get your money's worth if they have to start doing flexion tests for lameness for example which can take some time.
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Of course they have to charge for examination fee
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It all takes time and work. If you cant do it yourself and get someone trained to do it to come out to you then obviously you pay for the service and the time it takes, Its a buisness remeber and if they only charged you call-out then if you took it to the clinic it would be free- doesn't sound right to me
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Our vets charge you exactly same wether you take to practice or not!Friend took horse for annual jags,horse never left lorry and got same charge as call out - for use of facilities!!!Needless to say won't be doing that!!That really annoys me
I must admit to being irked by this in past,used to say much the same (what do they expect to do tell me what a pretty pony I've got) but just accept it as norm cos they have given me advice when on yard/phone that they haven't charged for so guess it balances out.
 
Charging for use of facilities when the horse never left the lorry- now that seems a bit off! But again come on of course you pay for examination its work and time isnt it! If you payed for you car to be fixed then you wouldnt just pay for the new parts you would pay labour costs aswell
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Oh agree would expect to pay something for time but not the same as call out as you've used fuel to get there they haven't had to use theirs or travelling time. just went up jagged on kneck then left so not really a lot of work,no examination.
I mean would you do it again or sit back at yard and wait for vet to come to you if it was going to cost you less in hassle and money as no fuel needed,then tvet get bogged down with the 'corridor consultations' that can (usually on our yard)happen.
I'll be staying at yard for jags etc.
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I have noticed that our examinaiton fee varies-
sometimes it is an hours worth of work, sometims 10 minutes, so not always £20, could be £5 or £50.

I have just got a bill--
call out, 38.64 + VAT
examine £30.40 + vat
Buscopan 18.05 + VAt
But she was with the pony for nearly and hour.
OK, we sat with a cuppa for ten mins whilst seeing if the IV treatment was working, of if she needed to do more, but for an hour of expert help on a Saturday afternoon, not bad.

To get it into perspecyive, try getting a plumber to come direct to you at noon on a Sat, and fix a blockage, that takes nealry an hour and pay less than £100. Dynorod cost me £90 for schduled midweek call that took them 40 minutes.
 
I agree, i just got the bill from when my horse cut his leg over christmas (called out on 29th dec so a 'normal' day) but was still charged
visit - 41.25 (ok normal call out)
surcharge emergancy call - 2.35 (can only assume this is the phone call I made to speak to the vet whilst on her way)
after hours surcharge - 32.90 (huh, it was a normal day and about 1pm)
examine and advise - 29.38 (I know he'd cut his leg, thats why I called them out)
plus another £100 for all the drugs he had. Total was £215.05 and she was there no more than 45-60mins
 
29 Dec was a Saturday, which is OOH! You're paying for someone to be available at a weekend, when most of us are off having fun.

Yes, you know he cut his leg, the vet would be assessing if it needed stitiching, if the cut needed further investigation - near joint or tendon?

The vets I know don't go out of their way to charge extra - unless they've been called out at midnight for something that should have been dealt with at 9pm (dog coughing since 6pm...) or could wait until the morning.
 
I was so cross last month; I was awaiting a bill for the annual vaccinations on my two. The bill arrived only to be twice the amount I was expecting! Luckily I went through the bill with a fine tooth comb to discover that they had put on another vaccination and call out (for someone who loves 10 miles away with the same surname) and charged me for 2 sedatives when I had only had one.

I really had to battle it out with them and they have now had the cheek to send the correct bill with 'please hurry payment' on when it was them who made a mess of the bill in the first place.

It is worrying : I wonder how many people send the cheque without looking at the bill closely.

I'm so angry I'm considering moving vets. So do go through those bills with a fine tooth comb!
 
I had to have the vet to my horse in November. One vet came on the Monday, call out fee, examination fee, injection, blood test.
Another vet (from same practice) came to see other horses at our yard the following day, but had a quick look at my horse while he was there (not at my request), then original vet came back on the Wednesday as blood tests had come back with anaemia, and Mars needed another injections, and some haemolyte.

Anyway, vets bill came to about £300 (which included an extra £70 for extra visit).

I queried it with the vets, and said that as I hadn't asked him to examine my horse on the 2nd visit, why was I being charged for his call out and examination - they did take it off the bill eventually, but don't think I've made myself very popular.
 
I'd have been delighted that the vet had taken the initiative and taken a look at my horse to check on it's progress...........
 
Friend had exactly the same thing.When she queried it,as she felt exactly same as you was told that insurance was paying for it anyway so they couldn't see why she was querying it.
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If I'm honest it would annoy me too.Fair enough if they said horse needed another visit and phoned to say so but to just have a look then charge you, nah would query it too!!
 
Call out fee is exactly that, the cost of the vet getting to you.

This will obviously be a one off fee, therefore if 2+ horses are being examined this would be split

You then have examination and treatment fees on top specific to each horse that is being seen.
 
the call out fee covers the time and petrol getting to you, the examination fee is for the exam.

i work in small animal practice - obviously there's no call out fee as people come to us, so just an examination fee.

to the person who said they were charged a call out for taking their horse into the clinic - i do think that is very OTT! i took my horse to my vet once for his vacc and didn't get charged a call out - i would object to that!

you have to realise with horse practice that the travelling between yards takes a long time - most vets only see 6-8 clients a day unless they have lots of yards with multiple animals to see. in small animal practice i can see 6 people an hour!
 
I was only charged for the jabs when I to the practice.....

But at another practice I was charged for Merlin to stand in a space between two stables, which he didnt soil for 10 mins to have an xray........ it was put down as 'admission to clinic'.... x rays were charged separately.

Now that I objected to, in what way was he admitted, where else were they going to x ray him???
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