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Companion care rather than emergency vet?

AnnieElms

Mama Doe
A new companion care surgery (the ones in P@H) has opened not too far from me. I have been in contact with the vet to try and find out whether they are bunny savvy/specialists, but I have decided to stick with my current vet, as I didn't feel from the answers like I would be gaining anything by moving as I am happy with my current vet, just didn't want to be missing out if a bunny specialist was in the vicinity!

The thing that made me interested as well, was that I saw that the surgery would be open on a Sunday, and normal consultancy fees would apply. My current practice is closed on a Sunday, and you have to use Vets Now, which I find a bit hit and miss to be honest, and very expensive for what you get sometimes.

I think I know the answer to this, but I can't help wondering whether it would be ok to go to this new vet on a Sunday if we ever need to see someone during their opening hours. My head is saying no that isn't a good idea because they would have no history of my bunnies, and notes would not be fed back to my vets as they are with Vets Now. However, my purse is saying it's a great idea! I don't even know whether it is even possible to register at two practices? It doesn't seem very fair on either, but the high cost of Vets Now is making me consider it :(
 
I am registered with two vets and neither minds about the other. Because I work ten miles from where I live it makes sense to have a vet near home another near work. It's just about making my chance of getting the best care for my rabbits as high as possible regardless of when they become ill. It would be handy if they all confined their illness to days when I was on holiday and my home vet had free appointments, but it doesn't always work out that way. :roll: If I've had to change vet mid treatment, when the vet themselves has gone on holiday, I've had them fax the notes across to maintain continuity. There are also details like age/date of most recent weighing/vaccinations that you can hold yourself so a new vet won't start with a completely blank slate.

Regardless of it costing you money or saving you money I think you need to focus on which arrangement will get the best care for your buns. Emergency vets can be a lottery - you could always talk to the emergency vet on call before making a decision though?
 
I must admit I've taken animals to Companion Care on a few occasions on a Saturday afternoon or a Sunday as I know my own vet charges a fortune then. My local Companion Care does charge more on a Sunday but it is nowhere near as much as my own vet does.

The things I have taken pets for are things that didn't need previous knowledge. I took Tigger when he had an abscess - as it was obvious what was wrong and I needed medication. I've taken a bunny with a sore eye too and Pippa when she first turned up as a stray to see if she was micro-chipped.

Other things I still use my own vet for - I make a judgement call depending on what is wrong. My own vet is only open for two hours on a Saturday an charges and out of hours fee even if you are half an hour after that - despite the fact he only lives above the surgery. I've paid an extra £100 just for being half an hour after closing time - and I think that is a bit steep.
 
Personally I don't like Vets Now and I worked for a vet practice whose out of hours was covered by them -they sent through illegible case histories and often seemed to show only basic knowledge of some species plus being extremely expensive.
My old boss is now the principle vet at Woking Companion care after selling up his part in a joint practice.
 
I am registered with two vets and neither minds about the other. Because I work ten miles from where I live it makes sense to have a vet near home another near work. It's just about making my chance of getting the best care for my rabbits as high as possible regardless of when they become ill. It would be handy if they all confined their illness to days when I was on holiday and my home vet had free appointments, but it doesn't always work out that way. :roll: If I've had to change vet mid treatment, when the vet themselves has gone on holiday, I've had them fax the notes across to maintain continuity. There are also details like age/date of most recent weighing/vaccinations that you can hold yourself so a new vet won't start with a completely blank slate.

Regardless of it costing you money or saving you money I think you need to focus on which arrangement will get the best care for your buns. Emergency vets can be a lottery - you could always talk to the emergency vet on call before making a decision though?

This is a really good point, and one I probably should have been thinking about before my purse :oops:.

I suppose it's a case of weighing up the pros and cons apart from the costs. I don't know enough about the new vet to know whether the care would be better or worse than Vets Now, but my experiences with Vets Now have been a bit variable, and I've never once seen the same vet twice, so for me some continuity of who we saw might be an advantage, but as it would be only very infrequent anyway (hopefully), if we ended up with poorer care overall it wouldn't be worth it.

Will have to have a think!
 
I once went into the vet centre of a Companion Care chain for some Biolapis on a late Saturday . . . none of the vets had ever heard of it or understood why I needed it (rabbit on penicillin course started to get a slightly odd poo). I mentioned Questran and they looked similarly blank . . .

I backed out slowly and then ran . . . . .

Several years before the same chain had diagnosed an EC rabbit being sold as a baby in the adjoining Companion Care as having (I quote) Rabbit Epilepsy . . . . . well . . . good guess . . . . but no. (he had classic one cloudy eye, was having classic head tilt and rolling episodes and partly incontinent)
 
we use p@ h vets but only for non emergency bun /piggie things ...and any cat issues..our nearest good bun vet is 45 min drive in maidstone:roll:
 
I work at a Companion Care Surgery :wave:

Like every single Veterinary sugery in Britain you can go to one and it be absolutely brilliant and another that is not so good. We are nothing to do with P@H as such and just rent space from them.
We have 3 surgeries in Norwich, all of which have a good standard of rabbit knowledge (I went to one before I started working there) but we have recently taken on a really rabbit savvy vet in one of our practices.

I can't speak for all of the practices though as Parsnipbun above had a bad experience of one. We stock Biolapis and know exactely what it does etc, but the others obviously didn't, you can just as easily go into any other vets randomly and they not stock the product, I know some surgeries use Avipro for example. We have the same Head Office but each practice is run/managed/owned by a different person, like a franchise really, so each surgery is completely different (the 3 in Norwich are owned by the same 4 people).

As for using them as out of hours/sunday vets you will be charged extra, we charge £25.70 for a normal consult but £45 on weekends for someone who is not our client, your local Companion Care may be different prices, I don't know.
If it is an ongoing problem you are going for you are best off going to your own vets out of hours as they will have all your history and know what they are being treated for. We tend not to like people doing this as it is bad etequette between practices and it means that neither practice has a full history for the animal, and also one practice may stock products that the regular one doesn't or give treatment that contradicts what the regular practice has given if the O doesn't give the correct info or we don't have a full history. I hope that makes sense :)

If you were in Norwich I could recommend one of our surgeries as I know we are decent vets and Aggi at our Hall road surgery is brilliant with buns, but I have no idea about the one where you are.
 
My bun got ill on a sunday I took her to Companion care and subsequently cause of their obvious lack of bunny knowledge (and mine at the time) she was then PTS 2 days later. I will always regret my decision to take her there
 
I use a Companion Care surgery, and I agree that they are all different, as all vet surgeries are.

The thing that has been most useful to me is the opening hours. As we all know, so many times pets are sick at weekends and bank holidays! Plus it's easy to fit in around work etc for more routine matters.
 
I work at a Companion Care Surgery :wave:

Like every single Veterinary sugery in Britain you can go to one and it be absolutely brilliant and another that is not so good. We are nothing to do with P@H as such and just rent space from them.
We have 3 surgeries in Norwich, all of which have a good standard of rabbit knowledge (I went to one before I started working there) but we have recently taken on a really rabbit savvy vet in one of our practices.

I can't speak for all of the practices though as Parsnipbun above had a bad experience of one. We stock Biolapis and know exactely what it does etc, but the others obviously didn't, you can just as easily go into any other vets randomly and they not stock the product, I know some surgeries use Avipro for example. We have the same Head Office but each practice is run/managed/owned by a different person, like a franchise really, so each surgery is completely different (the 3 in Norwich are owned by the same 4 people).

As for using them as out of hours/sunday vets you will be charged extra, we charge £25.70 for a normal consult but £45 on weekends for someone who is not our client, your local Companion Care may be different prices, I don't know.
If it is an ongoing problem you are going for you are best off going to your own vets out of hours as they will have all your history and know what they are being treated for. We tend not to like people doing this as it is bad etequette between practices and it means that neither practice has a full history for the animal, and also one practice may stock products that the regular one doesn't or give treatment that contradicts what the regular practice has given if the O doesn't give the correct info or we don't have a full history. I hope that makes sense :)

If you were in Norwich I could recommend one of our surgeries as I know we are decent vets and Aggi at our Hall road surgery is brilliant with buns, but I have no idea about the one where you are.


My problem is that my own vets are brilliant (not a problem) but they do not have an out of hours service - the out of hours service is a totally XXXXXX 24 hour provider who covers all locally and charge £150 a consult. I only went to the Companion Care to pick up some drugs one time 9which they did not have), and the other I had actually been called by the pet shop who were worried about the advice the vets had given to them about a baby bun they were selling - and I immediately took him from that vets and adopted him and took him to mine.
 
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