Vets And Lateness

[Elf On A Shelf]

So far they are 15 Mins late for an appointment booked in last week.

Don't worry I am not having a pop I know vets work hard and you always get someone who says - whilst your here could you just look at Aunty Mavis's 3 legged, blind, deaf donkey. And you get 2-3 of these a day.

This post is more because sods law works in such a way that means that as soon as I post this the vet will turn up!

 

[doodle]

Haha. I am currently waiting for vet too. So far 20mins late on an appt made on Monday.

 

[rachk89]

Lol not a vet but my Farrier was once 2 hours late. I think the van broke down.

 

[Goldenstar]

Sometimes it's your disaster who makes the day late so I take the rough with the smooth .

 

[poiuytrewq]

So did it work?! Has he arrived

 

[AFB]

I wish our vets would give you an appt! The best I can get around here is AM or PM with 30 mins notice that they're coming - not ideal when you work full time...

 

[Elf On A Shelf]

The vet arrived 3 Mins and 24 seconds after I posted! Sods Law does indeed work! The foal is now microchipped and the stallion passed his vve with flying colours - the colours my wrist is turning is not amusing! The Wee git has taken to nipping this last month or so. He will grow out of it, he's only 4yo and has suddenly realised he is a boy!

 

[Indy]

My vet never gives a time but he normally turns up at dinner time so he ends up doing the job and then stops for his dinner.

 

[Flicker]

Our vet practice, a general practice, contracts in an equine lameness specialist vet for a list every six weeks. The first time they did this, for some reason the practice manager just allocated one time slot to everyone in a particular geographical vicinity, and massively over booked him. So, my horse had a time slot of 2pm, but so did the three other horses also being seen on the yard. And the two horses 5 miles away had a 3pm slot.
My horse ended up being seen at 5pm (still a reasonable time for me thank heavens) and I understand he was still going at 9pm for horses booked in to see him at 4pm.
Some not very happy customers contacting the practice the next day...

 

[WandaMare]

Its just as bad when they turn up early Our vets will say yours will be the first appointment of the day so 8.30. Then just as you are doing that quick panic tidy up and removing all evidence of general slobbiness at 8.10 you hear 'good morning', arrgghhh....

 

[poiuytrewq]

The vet arrived 3 Mins and 24 seconds after I posted! Sods Law does indeed work! The foal is now microchipped and the stallion passed his vve with flying colours - the colours my wrist is turning is not amusing! The Wee git has taken to nipping this last month or so. He will grow out of it, he's only 4yo and has suddenly realised he is a boy!

Sounds like fun! At least it's all over and you didn't wait too long! Last time I had to wait for non emergency was hours!

 

[Wheels]

Oh jeez my vet is so flat out I might not see her til 10pm on the day of the appointment.

Of course for emergencies she is very prompt but for a simple flu/tet jab I have, on one occasion, already gone to bed and had to get up in my PJs to hold the horse for her

But she is good and always turns up eventually

 

[Feival]

Oh jeez my vet is so flat out I might not see her til 10pm on the day of the appointment.

Of course for emergencies she is very prompt but for a simple flu/tet jab I have, on one occasion, already gone to bed and had to get up in my PJs to hold the horse for her

But she is good and always turns up eventually

Poor Vet, she deserves a medal having such a work load and good on you for not complaining.

 

[Wheels]

She sure bloody does deserve a medal!

 

[Xtra]

this annoys me on our yard. I book in first take time out my working day and others jump in first then chat for ages on a small lump that they have never mentioned. Apparently the vets find it just as annoying as they end up late for clients

 

[little_critter]

My vet is particularly bad at timekeeping. To counteract this he started to log his appointments 15 minutes earlier than they had been booked, this took me by surprise when he managed to make an appointment 'on time' i.e. 15 minutes early!

 

[southerncomfort]

I waited almost 3 hours for a vet once, who unfortunately had to attend an emergency case before mine. They couldn't tell me how long the vet would be so I didn't dare go home for a cuppa in case I missed him!

 

[scats]

Ours give you a 2 hour window, so between 2-4pm, this helps them a lot when emergencies crop up, because they can move people around but still be within in the timeframe. They are very occasionally a little bit over that.
We had an emergency call-out yesterday on our yard. I got a panicked call off one of the teenagers to say she had had an accident out hacking, she was fine but horse was bleeding badly and could I come down. Im only 1 minute away so jumped in car and arrived to find horse with a shredded leg after an altercation with a neighbours garden wall (neither came off very well- the wall is also damaged). Vet was with us within half an hour and stayed for 3 hours, horse has been cleaned, stitched and bandaged and might be having x-rays today as slight concern about bone damage.

No doubt someone else will have had to wait longer for their appointment as a result, but that's the nature of horses, which is why I don't get worried about vets being late for routine stuff.

 

[sarahann1]

I waited almost 3 hours for a vet once, who unfortunately had to attend an emergency case before mine. They couldn't tell me how long the vet would be so I didn't dare go home for a cuppa in case I missed him!

I phoned a vet at the back of 9am on a Sunday for a cut eyelid, they unfortunately had a total disaster of a day with a plethora of emergencies far more serious than my guys, they eventually arrived a 4pmish. Like you I didn't want to leave the yard in case they showed up, it was a dull very hungry, day that day hanging about!

 

[be positive]

this annoys me on our yard. I book in first take time out my working day and others jump in first then chat for ages on a small lump that they have never mentioned. Apparently the vets find it just as annoying as they end up late for clients

The vets need to be more professional about this, having to waste time chatting to someone who has not booked them and is not paying is not acceptable and they need to point this out rather than get sucked in, sending the people a bill for the advice may make a difference, they should start the conversation with "I will take a look and the bill can be split with xxxx" they certainly shouldn't be diagnosing or recommending treatment without seeing the horse, unless it is an ongoing condition, and for that there should be a charge for their time.
It is no good them being annoyed when they are enabling the situation to continue.

 

[madamebonnie]

I have a great vet. Always go for an "after 5 appointment" Which is when I am normally down at the yard anyway. They ring about 4 letting me know where the vet is up to and what is the likely time she will make it. If emergencies happen or traffic is terrible-south Manchester so very easy to get stuck for hours on an evening, then I have the choice of waiting for the next day after 5 appointment. If its a routine visit it's absolutely fine by me as it makes no difference to my day. If I need them there that day they will get to me and keep me updated on progress. Its a risk you take with a later appointment, more problems can build up through the day, but at least I don't waste time off work.

 

[Elf On A Shelf]

To be fair my vets are great in that they will ring you if they have been divertedited to an emergency and will ask if you would like another vet or to wait. So you know if you don't get a call they are just running a bit late.

 

[spotty_pony]

I think I would be more surprised if my Vet was on time! I don't mind if it's an emergency obviously but when it happens regularly it does get annoying!

 

[Minnies_Mum]

When I was an equine vet I would quite often get to yards on time, only to find that the horse was still out in the field because the client thought they were seeing my (chronically late) boss and so they guessed that they still had a good half an hour to go!

 

[spacefaer]

If I have something routine, like a flu jab, then I take the horse to the practice for 1st thing - vets are still there, and I save the call out fee. And I don't take up their travelling time for an appointment that only takes a few minutes.

 

[Summer pudding]

To be fair my vets are great in that they will ring you if they have been divertedited to an emergency and will ask if you would like another vet or to wait. So you know if you don't get a call they are just running a bit late.

Our vets are very good and invariably arrive on time or ring to say when they are going to be late. At a recent call of mine the YO asked for advice and the vet said very charmingly AFTER he'd given his words of wisdom 'perhaps you'd like to share call out fee'....good result so I only paid half and it was done very professionally so no offence caused.

 

[Sparemare]

I use a fairly large equine practice. Touch wood I've never known one of their vets turn up late for any appointment and all vets are excellent. On the other hand the local one man band vet is diabolical at time keeping, or turning up at all. I'm always amazed that anyone still trusts him with their horses.

 

[MagicMelon]

Its just as bad when they turn up early Our vets will say yours will be the first appointment of the day so 8.30. Then just as you are doing that quick panic tidy up and removing all evidence of general slobbiness at 8.10 you hear 'good morning', arrgghhh....

Ha ha, I always wondered if that was just me that did that! I always feel a bit like I have to prove how well I care for my animals, like theyre inspecting the premises and my animals!

 

[Chinchilla]

Its just as bad when they turn up early Our vets will say yours will be the first appointment of the day so 8.30. Then just as you are doing that quick panic tidy up and removing all evidence of general slobbiness at 8.10 you hear 'good morning', arrgghhh....

An early vet? What witchcraft is this?!

In fairness we did have one vet who stuck around for 10 minutes after finishing just to gush about how lovely the horse was(!) Quite sweet but I imagine the appointment after us would have seen red it they'd known

 

[starfish8]

Vets I don't mind lateness, as they may have a genuine problem or emergency to deal with.

Saddle fitters on the other hand - I don't believe there is a life or death saddle situation that warrants turning up 2 hours late for an appointment booked weeks ago...