Right, I'm after some advice and opinions please, but please make it constructive, not just how **** an owner I am. Warning- this is likely to be relatively long.
Before I moved to my current vets I used the local practice and didn't know much about rabbit medicine and treatment. When I found out and started thinking I realised that over the period of about 15 months I had lost several bunnies (who may well have died anyway, but whom didn't have the best chance at life with the treatment they received- including ODing a rabbit on meds because they weighed her wrong). So when I found my current vet, I was overjoyed.
They have mostly been brilliant. They want to learn, they want to work with me, they love and respect the animals, etc. I've been very happy. I've had two preferred vets and it's always been easy to get in to see either one. They have always been the most expensive vets in the area but I've been happy to pay because I've trusted them and felt my bunnies were worth paying that.
Over the past 18 months things have gone downhill. Commuication has been bad, wrong medication put up (or not put up at all), wrong treatments given to animals, telling me they would do something and then not doing it (i.e. giving fluids to a bunny with a blockage), giving the wrong doses for meds, etc, etc.
They have also changed the times so rather than an appointment every 10 mins (so six an hour), they now last 15 mins (so four an hour) which makes it harder to see a chosen vet. I do understand why they have done this, but it's just made things harder.
Now, one of my preferred vets has gone on Maternity leave, leaving only one preferred vet (who incidentally is the owner bloke- wel, one of them). So I was aware of two backups, one of whom has also gone on maternity leave. Leaving me with one vet I struggle to see, plus one I can try to see if needed and a mitful of vets I don't know (have never met and have no idea on rabbit knowledge), plus two I need to avoid at all costs (having both done their best to kill two of my rabbits during this time and they just don't know enough).
So I find myself using a practice I used to trust, but don't have faith in, who have become sloppy and make errors and seem to constantly be apologising and where it's hard to see the vet/s I trust/respect.
To add to that, their prices have been hiking up ridiculously over the past couple of months. I never minded paying more if the service was worth it and it was best for my bunnies. Now I don't know if it is best for my bunnies, especially with them getting so sloppy. I find myself thinking that I'm paying an extortionate amount for a service I don't trust when I could pay a lesser amount for vets I don't trust elsewhere.
So I don't know what to do. I'm tempted to put together a whacking great big e-mail and contact all the reachable vets to see if I get a decent response back to give me an option to move somewhere else. I was really miss my vet though, my actual best, favourite vet. but if I never see him anyway, and he never seems to get anywhere near my animals, then I'm not really benefitting from him anyway. But what if I change vets and then my rabbits suffer or its the wrong choice, or whatever blah blah. But then what if I stay and the same (although if I stay they do know me and do hear what I say, even if I have to say it to someone at the top).
Does anyone have any thoughts?
I always said I could only have my rabbits because I had a decent vet (I only took the complicated ones on after finding a decent vet). Now I'm stuck.
Before I moved to my current vets I used the local practice and didn't know much about rabbit medicine and treatment. When I found out and started thinking I realised that over the period of about 15 months I had lost several bunnies (who may well have died anyway, but whom didn't have the best chance at life with the treatment they received- including ODing a rabbit on meds because they weighed her wrong). So when I found my current vet, I was overjoyed.
They have mostly been brilliant. They want to learn, they want to work with me, they love and respect the animals, etc. I've been very happy. I've had two preferred vets and it's always been easy to get in to see either one. They have always been the most expensive vets in the area but I've been happy to pay because I've trusted them and felt my bunnies were worth paying that.
Over the past 18 months things have gone downhill. Commuication has been bad, wrong medication put up (or not put up at all), wrong treatments given to animals, telling me they would do something and then not doing it (i.e. giving fluids to a bunny with a blockage), giving the wrong doses for meds, etc, etc.
They have also changed the times so rather than an appointment every 10 mins (so six an hour), they now last 15 mins (so four an hour) which makes it harder to see a chosen vet. I do understand why they have done this, but it's just made things harder.
Now, one of my preferred vets has gone on Maternity leave, leaving only one preferred vet (who incidentally is the owner bloke- wel, one of them). So I was aware of two backups, one of whom has also gone on maternity leave. Leaving me with one vet I struggle to see, plus one I can try to see if needed and a mitful of vets I don't know (have never met and have no idea on rabbit knowledge), plus two I need to avoid at all costs (having both done their best to kill two of my rabbits during this time and they just don't know enough).
So I find myself using a practice I used to trust, but don't have faith in, who have become sloppy and make errors and seem to constantly be apologising and where it's hard to see the vet/s I trust/respect.
To add to that, their prices have been hiking up ridiculously over the past couple of months. I never minded paying more if the service was worth it and it was best for my bunnies. Now I don't know if it is best for my bunnies, especially with them getting so sloppy. I find myself thinking that I'm paying an extortionate amount for a service I don't trust when I could pay a lesser amount for vets I don't trust elsewhere.
So I don't know what to do. I'm tempted to put together a whacking great big e-mail and contact all the reachable vets to see if I get a decent response back to give me an option to move somewhere else. I was really miss my vet though, my actual best, favourite vet. but if I never see him anyway, and he never seems to get anywhere near my animals, then I'm not really benefitting from him anyway. But what if I change vets and then my rabbits suffer or its the wrong choice, or whatever blah blah. But then what if I stay and the same (although if I stay they do know me and do hear what I say, even if I have to say it to someone at the top).
Does anyone have any thoughts?
I always said I could only have my rabbits because I had a decent vet (I only took the complicated ones on after finding a decent vet). Now I'm stuck.
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