What's an acceptable time for vet to get to a emergency call?

Depends where they are in relation to you in the first place.

Are they 20 miles away?, half an hour by car?

Usually they could give you an idea of time when you call.
 
Not given a time on first call. Had to ring again then given a aprox time. Would you say it's reasonable to have only one vet on duty?
This was a life and death situation.
 
Not given a time on first call. Had to ring again then given a aprox time. Would you say it's reasonable to have only one vet on duty?
This was a life and death situation.
 
It depends where you are in relation to where the vet is and what the vet is doing when you ring. I once rang for a OOH vet to a colic, he was at an emergency lambing, so we waited. I knew we had spotted the colic early and vet was here within the hour.
On another occasion, same practice we had a Sunday evening suspected colic emergency, the vet who came to us was actually off sick herself but ready to back to work after tonsillitis. The practice had rung her because there was no-one else available, it was a very busy night apparently.

ETA, I would always ask 'how long will the vet be?' when ringing for the emergency vet.
 
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Mine are 40 minutes away if they are coming from the practice so could easily be more with traffic. I would expect to be told if they were with another call and for them to make the decision where they best needed to be. I wouldn't expect more than one vet on duty.
 
It very much depends but I'd hope within an hour under most circumstances. The times we've needed them vets have always seemed to turn up much quicker than that though.
 
Vets normally only have 1 vet on call unless they are a very big practice. Mine would speak on phone and ascertain problem and urgency. Tricky if they have two colics going on and a distance apart.
 
Sandstone1 said:
As title. How long would you say it's acceptable for a vet to get to you on a out of hours emergency call?
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Depends if they are at home or at the practice, mine is 45 minutes away from the practice, also depends if they are coming from another emergency.


* One thing which is NOT acceptable is 4 hrs to get to a colic case (saying the vet needs to finish at the practice first before they come out.

* The vets say * Oh the vets will be there after they have finished evening surgery* I think a mare who jumped the wire fence and ripped her kneecap off down to the veins is more important than cats and dogs vaccinations don't you !!!!
 
It was well over 2 hours for a very sick horse. Just wondered what's acceptable.
Realise vet can't be in 2 places at once.
Also it's a out of hours answering service so they just say they will contact vet.
 
I think it depends on what is wrong with horse, what a lot of owners think is an emergency isn’t in reality and an hour or two waiting won’t make any difference to the outcome. In a situation of serious bleeding, broken bone etc I would expect a vet to drop everything and arrive ASAP. What was wrong with your horse sandstone ?
 
It might be something you want to pursue further with the practice manager on Monday - but large animal practices are often very geographically spread out and it can take a couple of hours. That said if you have more than one equine vet available to you, you might want to consider switching practices.
 
Sandstone1 said:
It was well over 2 hours for a very sick horse. Just wondered what's acceptable.
Realise vet can't be in 2 places at once.
Also it's a out of hours answering service so they just say they will contact vet.
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I changed vet for this reason as the contact centre didn’t pass my message on about a suddenly laminitis Shetland.
I now have a practice where you get one of the actual vets, not a call centre or secretary.
 
Sandstone1 said:
It was well over 2 hours for a very sick horse. Just wondered what's acceptable.
Realise vet can't be in 2 places at once.
Also it's a out of hours answering service so they just say they will contact vet.
Click to expand...

We found a different practice from the one who had 'emergency cover', to a large practice which does their own 'on call'. I can't be doing with that sort of response but would expect the vet to ring you with an eta when they were contacted.
 
Depends on what is wrong with horse and where Vet is!
On the call centre type situation I would expect a call from a Vet within 10-15 minutes whereby the extent of emergency could be assessed by phone. Then if I’m call Vet will be too long to arrive at least there is the option call around other practices.

I’m quite lucky my vets are 15 mins from yard and I have the mobile numbers for 2 of the Vets that live very locally. I had an emergency call out on Friday night and they arrived within 20 minutes
 
our vets run that system too, but I've never then not had the vet call back promptly to tell me they were on their way and eta.
 
I would expect within an hour if will be longer I’d call other practices more locally but less Equine specialist.
We have the call centre they take message and Vet rings back within 10mins to ascertain situation and give telephone advice and eta, I have no problem with them taking longer if I am
Aware and it’s not life or death, we have numerous Vets nearby who in a life or death situation could be with us more quickly and I would happily call upon them if needed
 
So sorry to hear that the horse didn't make it, OP.

I use a largish equine practice that covers a fairly wide area. They only have one vet on call at evenings/weekends, but in an OOH emergency if the on duty vet is tied up with another case they will ring round the off duty vets to cover the new emergency.
 
Had one just over a year ago where the vet had seen the youngster in the morning, said he was extremely sick and went off to try and get hold of owner (who was difficult). Poor pony deteriorated suddenly but the vet was on another emergency and took 2 hours to get back - by which time he'd died.

Awful day. You have my sympathy OP.
 
ILuvCowparsely said:
* One thing which is NOT acceptable is 4 hrs to get to a colic case (saying the vet needs to finish at the practice first before they come out.

* The vets say * Oh the vets will be there after they have finished evening surgery* I think a mare who jumped the wire fence and ripped her kneecap off down to the veins is more important than cats and dogs vaccinations don't you !!!!
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How do you know there wasn’t any small animal emergencies or emergency put to sleeps ongoing? I think my pony (and dog) are the centres of the world but I appreciate actually so is everyone else’s too!
 
I appreciate that the vets cover a large area, however, if they are told its a emergency i do feel that there should be a second vet available to come out if the duty vet is not free to get to you within a reasonable time.
 
Sandstone1 said:
I appreciate that the vets cover a large area, however, if they are told its a emergency i do feel that there should be a second vet available to come out if the duty vet is not free to get to you within a reasonable time.
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Still doesn’t define what an emergency is or a reasonable time. I think every case is different and a good vet would act accordingly.
 
To answer the OP, I'd expect to be told if it was going to be over an hour and informed of alternative options (other local practices, take the horse into the practice etc). I have the biggest problem trying to get an emergency slotted into 'normal' morning hours when all the vets are already out on calls (yes, probably for vaccines). We're 15mins from the practice but once they're 'deployed' to another part of the county seem hard to get back! I have to be available within 20min at my small animal place at the practice, and call outs there is no formal time limit but we try to get people to come in as we can rarely leave for a good few hours, if at all some nights. Even that creates awkward triaging at times so when I'm on my own I let people know that and if they'd rather go somewhere they think can see to them quicker then I'm happy to get reception to forwards on the notes!
 
bonny said:
Would it have made a difference if a vet had been there sooner ?
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Possibly not, but it would have saved the horse suffering. Surely if they advertise 24 your emergency services then they should be able to get to you within a reasonable time?
I will in future insist on a eta. If not acceptable depending on what's wrong I will keep phone numbers of other local practices.
 
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