Out of hours service - Vets

Just interested to see how much people have to pay for access to the Out of hours service and who provides it?

I've never had to use mine as yet, my Vets has its own service which is provided from its main animal hospital as it was custom built to be a vets downstairs with living accommodation upstairs, this means they are open everyday of the year.

The fees are after normal surgery but before midnight £98.50 and after midnight £128.50

£120 for small animals (and birds) and cats, £170 for dogs. Don't know why cats and dogs aren't in the same price bracket

Where I used to work we charged £80 before midnight and £120 after but the Vets down the road was £160 for a Consultation OOH. Hospitalisation charges depend on whether there is a Vet on site or a Nurse on site or both. We didn't have anybody in the building but the Head Vet lived on site so anything critical would sleep in his bedroom!

£110 for ours - I don't think it varies before/after midnight.

For Harcourt-Brown's it's £70.87 for between 7pm and 11pm and 7am - 8.30 am and somewhere about £120 for between 11pm and 8.30am. That includes the consultation fee. If you call them out at the weekend/bank holiday before 7.30 pm it's only about £50 including the consultation If it's stasis and there's any queries they will usually do the x-ray there and then. ... and there's no extra charge for Nigel Harcourt-Brown's humour either

At my local vets it about £80 call out evening before 11.30pm and consultation fee on top, consultation fee being about £21. After this time its about £150 + consultation fee... so it cost about £170 for Esme to be seen at 2.00 am :shock: It was worth it though as her symptoms were very scary and it's reassuring having somewhere only 10 minutes away.

In both cases when they are doing OOH there is someone medical on site with the patients. I did briefly use another local vets for OOH but they offered to keep Elijah in but said there's be nobody there The consultation was good but if they need admitting I want someone to be around.

sorry all lower case cos i am having to stroke the cat and he wont take no for an answer. so typing with one hand and cant reach the shift key cos he keeps head butting me, maybe i should just put the laptop away.

my vets arent 24 hours so i have to go to another vets for out of hours i believe its about 90pounds, cant even do a pound sign, but he is very happy lol

the out of hours vet is my old vet that i left cos i didnt like their rabbit care and my favourite vet left, having said that i love the new vet so decided it was worth the risk of hopefully not needing the out of hours

£100 plus VAT to walk through the door, but, they are also really good on the phone. When the cat came in one Sunday with his ear pouring with blood from a bite they told me to put pressure on for 5 minutes (he's very good and just sat there) and rang me back 15 mins later to see how it was. She actually said "let's see if you can stop it at home so you don't have to come in until tomorrow when he'll need an antibiotic shot".

Also £100 to walk through the door, but good, helpful advice also given on the phone and generally good standard of care exhibited whenever we've needed it (obviously some vets savvier than others!) x

mine give free advice over telephone. I'm not sure of the consultation fee but my buns had an overnight stay and including meds for stasis it was £150. She needed feeding every hour and was very difficult to syringe so was time consuming. It was worth every penny as the staff seemed to dote on them and they let them have the run of a big room for the night, I think a bit sad when they left with me!!

My vets use Vets Now for their out of hours service. It's a half hour drive and it costs around £100 to walk through the door (more after midnight).

I've been twice with Smokey when she has had GI Stasis. I thought that they were pretty good but I disliked it that when giving Smokey the medication, they took her elsewhere in the surgery out of my sight (maybe for needle safety?), she was upset enough without being separated from me.

One closest to me is £150 to walk in, so by the time stasis meds have been given it's £200.

One I go to now which I prefer was £70 for consult and meds. With the extra visit for meds and fluids the next day, the total was less than £100... Much better than the old vets too!

FriskyClover said:

I've been twice with Smokey when she has had GI Stasis. I thought that they were pretty good but I disliked it that when giving Smokey the medication, they took her elsewhere in the surgery out of my sight (mpybe for needle safety?), she was upset enough without being separated from me.

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They did this for my bun too, was awful Think it cost about £270 for him at vets now when he had stasis. I think there needs to be some regulation for OOH vet charges - especially for small animals, had a hamster that fell sick on a Sundays evening and they would have still charged the standard £100 :shock: