# How much is you out of hours vet?



## dingle12 (31 October 2010)

Today i had to rush my dog to the out of hours vets ( trust my vet to be on holiday so another practice is sorting his patients out)

Dog had and allergic reaction to something face all swollen and eyes all swollen  sick and diahorria anyway he had two injections in about 10 min bill was £134. £111 on out of hours call out and rest on two injections. Its cheaper to call a vet out to a horse.

So how much is yours??

Jake seems ok now thank god swelling going down and will have his piriton tonight.


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## CAYLA (31 October 2010)

Obs I don't pay any OOH fees, but it's £110 (before treatment) for the emergency practice here thats does all the emergency work for all the local practices.

My last out of hours bill to have my rotti dripped whe she started to puke and drool was £7.50


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## dingle12 (31 October 2010)

I think it was just a shock as im used to nearly free treatment 

Best thing about it too vet was already there and 4 nurses putting up halloween decorations


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## Vizslak (31 October 2010)

oooo gosh mines actually cheaper (a bit) its £90...although when I needed a call out for a ferret to be pts I said on the phone straight away to the vet ''now whats the reduced call out charge for a teeny ferret? or am I gonna have to knock it out with a brick?! '' I got it for 25 without any haggling!


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## Katikins (1 November 2010)

I had to take one of my rats to the vet this weekend... 5 minute consultation and an injection (which I could have done myself!).  60 euros consult fee, 3 euros antibiotics and 8.50 for giving the damn injection.  AND that's only to keep her ticking over till this evening when I take her to my normal vet!!  I don't think I'll be eating this month!  Just as a comparison, a normal consultation fee is 22 euros!  When I had my horse the call out fees were less on her than they were at the emergency vet, I was gobsmacked!


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## Tinkerbee (1 November 2010)

*falls over* Crikey! Tink only ever seems to injure herself out of hours, and the last was back in NI on the 12th July Holiday  Typical dog! Finally tracked down a vet and it was only £40 extra! Which I thought was a lot but clearly not! That said I cannot remember what it was for, something in her eye I think?


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## Cedars (1 November 2010)

God I think we only pay very marginally more...like £40 rather than £30....

However, I believe its down to the vets discretion. I.e. if you bring them in cos theyve got a paper cut, at 2am, they charge you through the nose. If you bring them in because they've ripped a leg off, they dont charge you much more than normal.

It also depends on if the vet is already in seeing another patient.

Tbh, whenever we've taken Chloe in late night, its always been so serious its ended up being an insurance claim so I never pay much notice...!


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## MikeOnline (9 December 2011)

The out-of-hours company that covers all the vets practices in our area charged £470+ to attend at 10.00pm (weekday) and euthenase our cat. They took an hour to reach us and their £30 taxi got lost three times.


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## CorvusCorax (9 December 2011)

It was £70 for me to turn up for ten minutes at 11pm with a dog full of the joys of spring, jumping all over the vet and mugging her for treats, who had been hopping lame and screaming 20 minutes earlier *sigh*

ETA Holy crap Mike that's insane. Sorry about your cat and welcome to the forum.


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## Naryafluffy (9 December 2011)

My friend took her dog to emergency vet because it had been (we suspect) hit by a car, £120 including the medication (£9.60)!!!
Then £400+ the next day to stitch him back together (that could have been to do with the screaming everytime the vet touched him, started screaming in the consult room when we picked him up because the vet tried to take the slip leash off him, stopped as soon as it was me that was taking off!!!!)


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## MikeOnline (9 December 2011)

Thanks very much. I was amazed when I saw this thread on the site, I am certainly not alone. We have a couple of other ruffian moggies, just hope they stay well out of hours!


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## Dobiegirl (9 December 2011)

I took Fred a year ago last July in on a Sunday morning it cost £90 to walk in the door, 4 hours later he went in again another £90 and he stayed in.

Ive since changed those vets, Mike that was daylight robbery how can they justify that charge.


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## gunnergundog (9 December 2011)

Mine charge £95 out of hours up to midnight and £125 thereafter.  To be honest, I don't begrudge them a penny of it;  they do their own out of hours (no sub-contracting out) and all the vets have a minimum of ten years experience.


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## Boulty (10 December 2011)

Out of hours consult charges are always going to be more as if your vet does their own out of hours then you're dragging your normal vet back (sometimes out of their bed if it's at stupid o clock) specially to see you and in some cases a nurse a well, both of whom will be still expected to be in at the normal time the next day. If your vet doesn't do their own out of hours and instead you have to go to whoever provides the emergency cover then the extra charges are covering them staffing the place all night and night staff usually get paid more than day staff because of the unsociable hours. Not quite sure exactly what OOH charges in my area are right now as haven't had to make use of them recently (thank god!). Have to say Mike yours does sound quite excessive though!


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## Wishful (10 December 2011)

OOH costs because the practice has to "pay" a vet (if the vet is lucky) a salary that reflects (a) being expected to sign away rights under the working time directive and/or (b) a salary that reflects the pain of being dragged from your bed having worked a full day and being due to work another day.

OOH practices generally have to pay their staff a LOT more than a standard practice - on job I saw advertised was 30k for just working 2 12 hour shifts a week (Saturday and Sunday nights). Expecting someone (especially a small animal vet who can quite easily get a job without OOH requirements at all) to give up their weekend nights) comes at a price tag.


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## zoelouisem (10 December 2011)

I had to have my elderly dog pts in July in the evening about 9.30 and the consult fee was £90 instead of £30. The injection to pts was actually cheaper than the consult. So was the cremation more expensive than the injection and i didn't have the ashes back either. It was about £250 altogether!!! And I no longer had her insured as she was elderly it was stupid amounts per month to have her insured.


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## CorvusCorax (10 December 2011)

I'm not complaining about the cost, by the way, I was sighing about my drama queen of a dog acting like his leg was broken in five places when all he did was land a bit awkwardly


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## dappyness (11 December 2011)

When my whippet had a small cut that needed stitches I took him to our normal vet practice. 20 minutes after stepping foot in the place and 6 stitches later I was £306 lighter! £90 to walk through the door, £30 for the consultation, £60 for stitches, £60 for surgical consumables ( I'm assuming Egyptian cotton thread and gold plated needles) with the remainder foe sedation and antibiotics...... I phoned to complain the next day only to find the owner was Chair of Goveners at my new school...  Complaint went out of the window!


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## MurphysMinder (11 December 2011)

A friends whippet cut himself whilst she was visiting, it was a Sunday afternoon and our vet charged £190 for consultation, stitches antibiotics etc.  Sounds quite reasonable compared to some of the above.


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## MikeOnline (12 December 2011)

I do accept that OOH is always going to cost more, our local vets used to charge about double their normal fee. What I object to is seeming profiteering - made possible by effective local cartels (ALL our local practices have handed over OOH to one company, Vets Now). Normal competition elsewhere seems to keep prices within touch of reality.


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## MurphysMinder (12 December 2011)

I think it is possibly these OOH companies like Vets Now who are pushing the prices up.  When they advertise for staff they offer very generous salaries, but  the vets who work for them are on permanent nights/weekends so it is justified I suppose .  I don't like the idea of not seeing my own vet in an emergency and was having a rant about such companies but it was pointed out to me that small 2 or 3 vet practices are really be under a lot of pressure to offer 24/7 cover, without working themselves into an early grave.


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## YasandCrystal (12 December 2011)

Our out of hours is a national chain - I won't name and shame but they warn when you call that the consultation alone will be £200!!!

That was enough to put me off taking my springer x lad one Saturday evening - she got some bute intstead. Infact she just had something called 'happy tail' where she was so pleased we were back from holiday that she had ended up straining the tail muscles through wagging so much and she yelped everytime she sat down

She had a more serious episode though that I could not leave (pyrometra) and the bill quoted for an emergency speying following antibiotic treatment and scans was £1,200.00. In the end I was charged a whopping £1,100.00 and they performed no op unbelievably - just gave her antibiotics and pain killers as planned and observed her overnight no reduction in the quoted bill though just £100 - they had her from 10.30 pm until 7.30 am when I collected her for my regular vets to operate and spey - that was an additional £400! So I was furious with the out of hours vets.
I won't use them now. I have moved all my domestic small animals over to Pets at Home in house vets who open on a Saturday and Sunday now and I always recommend to friends to do the same. 
I have no objection to being charged a whopping £150 extra one off out of hours fee - fair enough but I do object to every other service the out of hours vet perform of being often 4 x the usual cost - that is just darned greedy and outrageous. A friend srelative's cat was run over and had to be pts and they wanted nigh on £300 for that visit 

I blame the normal vet practices for these expensive chains. I know noone wants to cover nights and weekends, but my old vets had 7 vets working there - surely with that many staff the rota would not be so dreadful?


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## MurphysMinder (12 December 2011)

Those are crazy prices YasandCrystal,  not sure how these companies can justify that.  As I see it it will just cause people not to call OOH vets and possibly lead to animals suffering


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## YasandCrystal (12 December 2011)

MurphysMinder said:



			Those are crazy prices YasandCrystal,  not sure how these companies can justify that.  As I see it it will just cause people not to call OOH vets and possibly lead to animals suffering

Click to expand...

I know really scary. I earn a good salary, but their prices frighten me and as you say will only deter people taking their animal in as it did me. I must add when she had the sore tail I could tell she was not ailing with something really nasty. In future I would actually use my horse vets - they have a small animal practice too and they cover out of hours.


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## noodle_ (12 December 2011)

£120 before they do anything to her.

My previous dog had a stroke.  I cant remmeber the bill, but it was a sunday, i was hystericall and just payed up.

A lot of money tho :/


and- my horse is only £60 emergancy callout!


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