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Forget everything you thought you knew about Medivet

VikkiLou

Young Bun
Ok, so I am well aware of all the bad press that Medivet get as a company BUT knowing how hard it can be to find a rabbit savvy vet I thought I would post this for anyone looking for one in Hertfordshire

(Apologies I didn't realise quite how long this post was until after I wrote it, [emoji51])

I will give you a little back story....So, about 2 years ago one of our bunnies, Willow began fitting and these would on some occasions be a daily occurrence and they were bad at one point we sat up with her all night and she was fitting almost every 20 minutes or so. We were at that time registered with the vets that's was at the back of Pets at Home where Willow and her companion had be purchased from. For about 3 months the best the vet could do was put her on Panacur for a brain parasite. This was doing nothing so we were back and forwards I would say weekly to the vet. On one occasion Willow was so bad that she was fitting in the car on the way there. While waiting in the waiting room she seemed fine and then wasn't. After grabbing a receptionist, while attempting to comfort a fitting rabbit the vet came out and i have never seen someone goes as pale in my life he looked completely terrified. We took Willow in and he didn't have a clue, decided he would get in touch with someone with more rabbit knowledge, so we thought great this is finally gonna be sorted. Wrong. What our lovely vet had failed to tell us was that the person he was contacting was in central London and they would want to see Willow, this would involve a train journey with an unpredictable rabbit. i don't think so. Another few months of out of hours vets, blood tests, emails and various discussions about how we get a rabbit on a train he realised that it wasn't going to happen he mentioned that he knew of a vet in Radlett, not a specialist but knowledgeable in Bunnies. Great we thought, took the number and Googled it when we got home. Medivet came up and our hearts sank we've all heard the Medivet horror stories so after about 2 hours of debating we rang expecting an appointment in weeks to come. The lady on the other end of the phone was amazing and Willow would be seen as soon as we could get her there. We said today and yes she will be seen today. Took Willow all the way to Radlett showed him the videos of her fits, confirmed we had tried Panacur and were unfortunately considering that there really was nothing more that could be done. He looked at us and said "if I didn't think I could help, you wouldn't be here". He told us about a drug used to treat epilepsy in dogs, it wasn't licenced for used it rabbits but given the right dosage could be used. We decided that this probably was Willow's only choice, signed the waiver and to be honest we haven't really looked back. All our animals (3 rabbits, 2 guinea pigs and a kitten) are all registered with Medivet Radlett so despite a small journey (Just outside Watford to Radlett) we have a house of happy bunnies and Willow has been completely fit free for around a year, it took us a little bit to get the phenobarbital into her system and sort out her sensitive stomach, but that's a different story. All treatment was also paid in instalments and were never asked for payment up front.

So despite this super long and rambling post (Sorry 🙏) I guess basically if you are looking for the most rabbit savvy vet I have ever met in Hertfordshire get in touch with Medivet Radlett and ask for Alan. You will not regret it and I hope this goes someway to repairing the Medivet reputation

Sent from my E5603 using Tapatalk
 
Ok, so I am well aware of all the bad press that Medivet get as a company BUT knowing how hard it can be to find a rabbit savvy vet I thought I would post this for anyone looking for one in Hertfordshire

(Apologies I didn't realise quite how long this post was until after I wrote it, [emoji51])

I will give you a little back story....So, about 2 years ago one of our bunnies, Willow began fitting and these would on some occasions be a daily occurrence and they were bad at one point we sat up with her all night and she was fitting almost every 20 minutes or so. We were at that time registered with the vets that's was at the back of Pets at Home where Willow and her companion had be purchased from. For about 3 months the best the vet could do was put her on Panacur for a brain parasite. This was doing nothing so we were back and forwards I would say weekly to the vet. On one occasion Willow was so bad that she was fitting in the car on the way there. While waiting in the waiting room she seemed fine and then wasn't. After grabbing a receptionist, while attempting to comfort a fitting rabbit the vet came out and i have never seen someone goes as pale in my life he looked completely terrified. We took Willow in and he didn't have a clue, decided he would get in touch with someone with more rabbit knowledge, so we thought great this is finally gonna be sorted. Wrong. What our lovely vet had failed to tell us was that the person he was contacting was in central London and they would want to see Willow, this would involve a train journey with an unpredictable rabbit. i don't think so. Another few months of out of hours vets, blood tests, emails and various discussions about how we get a rabbit on a train he realised that it wasn't going to happen he mentioned that he knew of a vet in Radlett, not a specialist but knowledgeable in Bunnies. Great we thought, took the number and Googled it when we got home. Medivet came up and our hearts sank we've all heard the Medivet horror stories so after about 2 hours of debating we rang expecting an appointment in weeks to come. The lady on the other end of the phone was amazing and Willow would be seen as soon as we could get her there. We said today and yes she will be seen today. Took Willow all the way to Radlett showed him the videos of her fits, confirmed we had tried Panacur and were unfortunately considering that there really was nothing more that could be done. He looked at us and said "if I didn't think I could help, you wouldn't be here". He told us about a drug used to treat epilepsy in dogs, it wasn't licenced for used it rabbits but given the right dosage could be used. We decided that this probably was Willow's only choice, signed the waiver and to be honest we haven't really looked back. All our animals (3 rabbits, 2 guinea pigs and a kitten) are all registered with Medivet Radlett so despite a small journey (Just outside Watford to Radlett) we have a house of happy bunnies and Willow has been completely fit free for around a year, it took us a little bit to get the phenobarbital into her system and sort out her sensitive stomach, but that's a different story. All treatment was also paid in instalments and were never asked for payment up front.

So despite this super long and rambling post (Sorry ��) I guess basically if you are looking for the most rabbit savvy vet I have ever met in Hertfordshire get in touch with Medivet Radlett and ask for Alan. You will not regret it and I hope this goes someway to repairing the Medivet reputation

Sent from my E5603 using Tapatalk

Some individual Vets within the Franchise are excellent. It's the Franchise I and others have issues with. But I am glad that you have found an excellent Vet whom you trust. The 'trust' element being invaluable :)
 
Alan is brilliant! I used to work with him and we referred all our odd exotic cases & rabbit spays to him when I started working in Borehamwood.
He's a very funny guy and always so happy!
We had a few lovely Christmas meals and he'd always have the best stories at them.

Sent from my SM-G903F using Tapatalk
 
Ok, so I am well aware of all the bad press that Medivet get as a company BUT knowing how hard it can be to find a rabbit savvy vet I thought I would post this for anyone looking for one in Hertfordshire

(Apologies I didn't realise quite how long this post was until after I wrote it, [emoji51])

I will give you a little back story....So, about 2 years ago one of our bunnies, Willow began fitting and these would on some occasions be a daily occurrence and they were bad at one point we sat up with her all night and she was fitting almost every 20 minutes or so. We were at that time registered with the vets that's was at the back of Pets at Home where Willow and her companion had be purchased from. For about 3 months the best the vet could do was put her on Panacur for a brain parasite. This was doing nothing so we were back and forwards I would say weekly to the vet. On one occasion Willow was so bad that she was fitting in the car on the way there. While waiting in the waiting room she seemed fine and then wasn't. After grabbing a receptionist, while attempting to comfort a fitting rabbit the vet came out and i have never seen someone goes as pale in my life he looked completely terrified. We took Willow in and he didn't have a clue, decided he would get in touch with someone with more rabbit knowledge, so we thought great this is finally gonna be sorted. Wrong. What our lovely vet had failed to tell us was that the person he was contacting was in central London and they would want to see Willow, this would involve a train journey with an unpredictable rabbit. i don't think so. Another few months of out of hours vets, blood tests, emails and various discussions about how we get a rabbit on a train he realised that it wasn't going to happen he mentioned that he knew of a vet in Radlett, not a specialist but knowledgeable in Bunnies. Great we thought, took the number and Googled it when we got home. Medivet came up and our hearts sank we've all heard the Medivet horror stories so after about 2 hours of debating we rang expecting an appointment in weeks to come. The lady on the other end of the phone was amazing and Willow would be seen as soon as we could get her there. We said today and yes she will be seen today. Took Willow all the way to Radlett showed him the videos of her fits, confirmed we had tried Panacur and were unfortunately considering that there really was nothing more that could be done. He looked at us and said "if I didn't think I could help, you wouldn't be here". He told us about a drug used to treat epilepsy in dogs, it wasn't licenced for used it rabbits but given the right dosage could be used. We decided that this probably was Willow's only choice, signed the waiver and to be honest we haven't really looked back. All our animals (3 rabbits, 2 guinea pigs and a kitten) are all registered with Medivet Radlett so despite a small journey (Just outside Watford to Radlett) we have a house of happy bunnies and Willow has been completely fit free for around a year, it took us a little bit to get the phenobarbital into her system and sort out her sensitive stomach, but that's a different story. All treatment was also paid in instalments and were never asked for payment up front.

So despite this super long and rambling post (Sorry 🙏) I guess basically if you are looking for the most rabbit savvy vet I have ever met in Hertfordshire get in touch with Medivet Radlett and ask for Alan. You will not regret it and I hope this goes someway to repairing the Medivet reputation

Sent from my E5603 using Tapatalk

Thanks so much for posting this. There will always be folk who bash Medivet :roll:

I have had nothing but good experiences with them. My 'normal' vet was like yours, completely at a loss as to what to do about rabbit seizures and admitted so (thankfully!) so I was able to seek guidance elsewhere quite quickly.

On another occasion a few years ago my vet said that she wouldn't give penicillin injections for dental abscess as they would kill the rabbit - she would only prescribe Baytril. I went to Medivet and they immediately dealt with the abscess, gave me a bottle of Duplocillin and saved my rabbit's life :D

Thanks so much for the recommendation for Alan :D
 
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I don't want to go into a load of detail here, but the vets at Medivet Watford are also TOTALLY rabbit savvy. They have saved the lives of my buns on many occasions (several bouts of stasis, a jaw abscess with osteomyelitis on CT scan, a retrobular abscess). I can't speak highly enough of them - in particular Guy Carter, Candice Summers and Andrea Centinaro. Things are certainly looking better for sick rabbits these days :)
 
I don't want to go into a load of detail here, but the vets at Medivet Watford are also TOTALLY rabbit savvy. They have saved the lives of my buns on many occasions (several bouts of stasis, a jaw abscess with osteomyelitis on CT scan, a retrobular abscess). I can't speak highly enough of them - in particular Guy Carter, Candice Summers and Andrea Centinaro. Things are certainly looking better for sick rabbits these days :)
Apart from Guy, a lot of their calls will go to Alan xx

Sent from my SM-G903F using Tapatalk
 
I don't want to go into a load of detail here, but the vets at Medivet Watford are also TOTALLY rabbit savvy. They have saved the lives of my buns on many occasions (several bouts of stasis, a jaw abscess with osteomyelitis on CT scan, a retrobular abscess). I can't speak highly enough of them - in particular Guy Carter, Candice Summers and Andrea Centinaro. Things are certainly looking better for sick rabbits these days :)
Have only ever visited on two occasions in emergencies with Willow and they were very good with her, wasn't aware how rabbit savvy they were. Thanks for the tip, good to know if we have any more bunny emergencies [emoji195]

Sent from my E5603 using Tapatalk
 
I don't want to go into a load of detail here, but the vets at Medivet Watford are also TOTALLY rabbit savvy. They have saved the lives of my buns on many occasions (several bouts of stasis, a jaw abscess with osteomyelitis on CT scan, a retrobular abscess). I can't speak highly enough of them - in particular Guy Carter, Candice Summers and Andrea Centinaro. Things are certainly looking better for sick rabbits these days :)

Exactly so! If anyone can save a rabbit's life it's Guy Carter :thumb:
 
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