Santa
Wise Old Thumper
Well here's the thing, we are hopefully moving house at the end of this week. I currently use a local companion care vets practice which is hugely convenient as it is open 7 days a week, I have been with them for a long time and have a good relationship with the owner. The vet I have been seeing for the past few years has recently left to set up her own practice, and originally this was going to be opening in November, which would have been perfect as it is about 20 minutes from where we are moving to. But the building works have been put back and now it won't be open until some time between march and may next year. When it is open I will swap to that practice in any case.
So the question is, do I change practice now to one nearer to where we will be living, or do I just stick with it for now.
Pros of changing include:
- more convenient to get an appointment after work, it would be really pushing it to be able to get home and back to my current practice after work, especially if I got home and found I needed to rush an animal in
- easier and quicker to get to in an emergency
- I could go to a practice which does acupuncture for my cats (I currently have a referral elsewhere but that vet is off long term sick with a nerve injury) which would be easy as the notes etc would all be in one place
Cons of changing include
- having to start building relationships and trust all over again - is it worth it just until next mar-may
- probably won't be open on weekends (maybe sat am only) meaning more likely to need out of hours care with an unknown vet and harder to get routine appointments
- unknown quantity in terms of their bunny-savvyness
Pros of staying with current vet are
- already know them and have good relationship with owner and nurses
- no faff of transferring records/insurance issues
- open 7 days a week for routine appointments
- near where I work so if an animal is very sick in the morning I could just take them to work with me and drop them off at the practice to be admitted
Cons of staying with current vet are
- probably a 45 minute journey on a reasonable run, could end up getting stuck on the A12 for ages
- wouldn't be able to get there after work in an emergency
-no-one available to do acupuncture on the cats at the moment
I need your collective wisdom, RU, should I stick with my current vet until the new practice opens next year, or should I move to one closer (but with shorter opening hours) in the meantime? At the moment I have 2 cats and 2 bunnies and I just can't for the life of me work out what is the best thing to do!
So the question is, do I change practice now to one nearer to where we will be living, or do I just stick with it for now.
Pros of changing include:
- more convenient to get an appointment after work, it would be really pushing it to be able to get home and back to my current practice after work, especially if I got home and found I needed to rush an animal in
- easier and quicker to get to in an emergency
- I could go to a practice which does acupuncture for my cats (I currently have a referral elsewhere but that vet is off long term sick with a nerve injury) which would be easy as the notes etc would all be in one place
Cons of changing include
- having to start building relationships and trust all over again - is it worth it just until next mar-may
- probably won't be open on weekends (maybe sat am only) meaning more likely to need out of hours care with an unknown vet and harder to get routine appointments
- unknown quantity in terms of their bunny-savvyness
Pros of staying with current vet are
- already know them and have good relationship with owner and nurses
- no faff of transferring records/insurance issues
- open 7 days a week for routine appointments
- near where I work so if an animal is very sick in the morning I could just take them to work with me and drop them off at the practice to be admitted
Cons of staying with current vet are
- probably a 45 minute journey on a reasonable run, could end up getting stuck on the A12 for ages
- wouldn't be able to get there after work in an emergency
-no-one available to do acupuncture on the cats at the moment
I need your collective wisdom, RU, should I stick with my current vet until the new practice opens next year, or should I move to one closer (but with shorter opening hours) in the meantime? At the moment I have 2 cats and 2 bunnies and I just can't for the life of me work out what is the best thing to do!