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Exotic vet which has out of hours?

Graciee

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Staff member
Anyone know of any in East London? Essex? Nearby any of these? :)

My current vets it's great, but out of hours is far away and they don't have any exotics specialist there.

My local vets4pets is 24 hours but again no one there is rabbit savvy.

Just wondered if anyone knows anywhere near ish me :) x

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Anyone know of any in East London? Essex? Nearby any of these? :)

My current vets it's great, but out of hours is far away and they don't have any exotics specialist there.

My local vets4pets is 24 hours but again no one there is rabbit savvy.

Just wondered if anyone knows anywhere near ish me :) x

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These are on Harcourt Brown's list ...

https://www.harcourt-brown.co.uk/ve...t-owners/copy_of_county-or-city/england/essex

Not sure if they are out of hours though.
 
These are on Harcourt Brown's list ...

https://www.harcourt-brown.co.uk/ve...t-owners/copy_of_county-or-city/england/essex

Not sure if they are out of hours though.
Yeaa there's none really good near me. One on that list gets bad Google reviews too.

What does everyone do out of hours? Like it baffles me, my vet flat out said their out of hours doesn't have any exotics vets. In the past I've rushed them down to vets4pets but they have no clue unfortunately :(

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I am lucky in that my usual vets is OOH, however there was no one particularly small animal savvy on the current night team. I tend to just go and request the medication/ask if they agreed that would best, ie if it's a bunny not eating get the usual pain relief, gut stimulant etc if a blockage isn't suspected. I have had more complex issues where they have said they're not sure but I could at least get pain killer and any other appropriate meds and an appt made the following morning with the usual savvy vet.
 
What does everyone do out of hours? Like it baffles me, my vet flat out said their out of hours doesn't have any exotics vets. In the past I've rushed them down to vets4pets but they have no clue unfortunately :(

I share your anxieties! I don't think there is an easy answer; hardly any vets round here do their own OOH so I find it's really just a case of using the best vet you can most of the time and then worrying about the worst if/when it happens. When Delilah fell ill on new year's eve I was left in exactly that situation - who the hell do you go to for emergency veterinary care for a rabbit? Fortunately my usual vet was open on NYE and she was ok through that night and the following day, but if she'd needed emergency surgery I genuinely don't know what I would have done. The nearest exotics referral place would be RVC in London, but even they seem to only have skeleton cover and as I understand it, emergencies go to Queen Mary hospital in Hertfordshire, not to the exotics unit. The saving grace of using someone who has vets now OOH cover is that Great Western Referrals (as it used to be called) in Swindon is part of the Vets Now group, so any vet can contact them for advice - and they do have exotics cover 24/7, so even if the vet you see isn't great with bunnies, they can get good advice.
 
My usual vets is a typical vets practice, but has 2 exotics trained, and a 3rd with an interest in them. (The other is more of a cat specialist.) They do OOH treatment in the surgery. In an emergency, I would go there, but there wouldn't be a guarantee that one of my preferred vets would be on duty that night.
 
For OOH emergencies I usually use Wanstead Animal Hospital. Not sure how close Wanstead is for you to get to. There are lots of different vets and it's pot luck if you get a really rabbit savvy one on the night you need them. So far I've only had to go for suspected stasis. Generally though I've found the examinations are usually pretty thorough, checking gut sounds, teeth, temperature, blood glucose etc.

All the vets I've seen there have prescribed courses of pain relief and gut meds for stasis as well as syringe feeding. The experiences I've had suggests to me that they routinely treat a rabbit refusing food as an emergency (and that includes the receptionists when I phone) and are very proactive in getting bunnies eating again and kick starting slowing guts. They've always let me come straight down when I've phoned to tell them I have a bunny not eating. They also have round the clock nursing care if your bunnies need to stay in.

Having said all that, one of the vets did say to me once that they are only general vet practitioners. So they know how to deal with the more common problems. They are however limited with what they can do for more complex cases.


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For OOH emergencies I usually use Wanstead Animal Hospital. Not sure how close Wanstead is for you to get to. There are lots of different vets and it's pot luck if you get a really rabbit savvy one on the night you need them. So far I've only had to go for suspected stasis. Generally though I've found the examinations are usually pretty thorough, checking gut sounds, teeth, temperature, blood glucose etc.

All the vets I've seen there have prescribed courses of pain relief and gut meds for stasis as well as syringe feeding. The experiences I've had suggests to me that they routinely treat a rabbit refusing food as an emergency (and that includes the receptionists when I phone) and are very proactive in getting bunnies eating again and kick starting slowing guts. They've always let me come straight down when I've phoned to tell them I have a bunny not eating. They also have round the clock nursing care if your bunnies need to stay in.

Having said all that, one of the vets did say to me once that they are only general vet practitioners. So they know how to deal with the more common problems. They are however limited with what they can do for more complex cases.


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Thanks everyone for the replies I really appreciate it! I just never know what to do really it's not as simple as it is with a dog or cat.

Wanstead is like a 30 min drive down the a12 so easy to get to for me! Thanks for the suggestion I'm gunna put the details in my phone as another possibility if I need it, really good to know :) x
 
Thanks everyone for the replies I really appreciate it! I just never know what to do really it's not as simple as it is with a dog or cat.

Wanstead is like a 30 min drive down the a12 so easy to get to for me! Thanks for the suggestion I'm gunna put the details in my phone as another possibility if I need it, really good to know :) x

You're welcome [emoji3]

Just one thing to add and that is that they're part of the Goddard veterinary group and require people to register with them. Only takes a few minutes to do online. Thought I'd better mention it as I don't know what their policy is with non registered clients. I'm assuming they wouldn't turn you away at the door in an emergency but it's something I can envisage being a bureaucratic pain in the bum faff. Not something you want during a bunny crisis!

Shouldn't be a problem being registered with more than one vet. I'm registered with the Walthamstow branch and the RVC in case I need specialist help. They both know about each other!


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You're welcome [emoji3]

Just one thing to add and that is that they're part of the Goddard veterinary group and require people to register with them. Only takes a few minutes to do online. Thought I'd better mention it as I don't know what their policy is with non registered clients. I'm assuming they wouldn't turn you away at the door in an emergency but it's something I can envisage being a bureaucratic pain in the bum faff. Not something you want during a bunny crisis!

Shouldn't be a problem being registered with more than one vet. I'm registered with the Walthamstow branch and the RVC in case I need specialist help. They both know about each other!


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Yea I'll register with them :) I'm already registered at 3 or 4 vets [emoji38][emoji38]

They sound good - issue I have with my local vets4pets is they seem to have no clue about medication strengths for bunnies and what to give them,or that lack of eating is even an issue... [emoji38] x

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