Pets at Home vets - possibly unfounded concerns

Has anyone had any experience in using the Companion Care Vets/Pets 4 Vets that come part and parcel with Pets at Home these days?

My older girls have a regular vet whom I trust. They spayed all three of my girls prior to Athena, and have offered excellent continual care to them. They know us well, which is also very important. Naturally, Athena's care will be transferred over to them.

However, the neutering and vaccination certificates insist that Athena has her spay and vaccinations at the further-afield Companion Care Vets that is in the Pets at Home where she was offered up for adoption. I know that they probably spay a fair few does which have grown "too big" for traditional selling and so they'll have experience. But that doesn't stop me from being nervous as it isn't the one I'd ordinarily go to.

But yeah, assurances/experiences with these type of vets, please?

hated the two practices i've used (both companion care), would say use the vet you trust.

tlcwrites said:

Has anyone had any experience in using the Companion Care Vets/Pets 4 Vets that come part and parcel with Pets at Home these days?

My older girls have a regular vet whom I trust. They spayed all three of my girls prior to Athena, and have offered excellent continual care to them. They know us well, which is also very important. Naturally, Athena's care will be transferred over to them.

However, the neutering and vaccination certificates insist that Athena has her spay and vaccinations at the further-afield Companion Care Vets that is in the Pets at Home where she was offered up for adoption. I know that they probably spay a fair few does which have grown "too big" for traditional selling and so they'll have experience. But that doesn't stop me from being nervous as it isn't the one I'd ordinarily go to.

But yeah, assurances/experiences with these type of vets, please?

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I'm afraid that, if it were me, I would give up the spay voucher and take her to my normal rabbit-savvy vet. Perhaps I'm over-cautious though.

I have had completely mixed experiences with the Vets4Pets branches that go with Pets at Home.

Milo and Finn were neutered at the Vets4Pets where I live in Hartlepool, they were fine but when checking for Finn's ''bits'' the vet there put Finn on his back and tried to trance him, which I didn't like, they also didn't give me any follow up pain relief to take home afterwards, which they should have. They also told me once when I was concerned about finding some smaller droppings in the pen that it ''wasn't a problem''

However, when Milo went into stasis I took them to Vets4Pets in Sunderland who were fantastic, the vet there did everything I expect, she checked Milo's teeth, tummy, did a blood glucose to check for a blockage and gave me all the meds I would expect. She handled him really well too. I thought it was much much better care rabbit wise....

The vet at Sunderland told me that all of the Vets4Pets are separate and not affiliated with each other., so you may well get different care at every site...it might be a good idea to see if any other rabbit people have had their rabbits go there, I hope you find someone soon who can advise you. Sorry I can't be of more help x

Thanks for the advice. I'll go to the appointment booked and trust my gut. I'll be signing her up for the HPC anyway, so giving up the spay/vaccs wouldn't be a huge deal. Hmm. Will have to talk with Mum about this. I don't want to waste her time, especially having to travel 15 odd miles instead of half a mile (at most) for this.

They are all different, as individual vet practices are. Even within the practices you will find that some vets are better than others. I use a Vets4Pets practice, but only a particular vet. That doesn't mean I'd be willing to use just any Vets4Pets practice.

If you have a vet you particularly trust elsewhere, I'd use them.

i've used mine had 3 girls and 6 boys done only 1 boy had a problem and that was due to a locum vet who i didn't know was in and the new receptionist didn't inform me i had a feeling but went through with the neuter mylo ended up with an infection in 1 of his balls when i returned him it was the good vet who was on he was really good with him and gave me more painkiller and antibiotics the nurses are also brilliant at my local

Yes agree that they're all different. Unless someone has had experience at that branch no one would be able to advise. It depends on the vets working there

I have been trying to find reviews for Norwich Longwater, which is where she'd be going, and it seems mostly positive. However, nothing specific about rabbits. But my usual vet isn't necessarily rabbit specific, although they have always appeared to be rabbit savvy.

My two girls have just had their spays on Wednesday at Companion Care in the Farnborough branch of P@H. I also had the vouchers as that's where I adopted them but I was concerned about them. I already had a pretty good vet that I took Willow to so I wasn't sure what to do. I decided that I would ask them questions and if the answers sounded dodgy to me I would take them to the other vet as I'd rather pay to know they were safe.
The nurse there answered every question I had, several before I'd even asked them and I was extremely happy. It sounded like they knew what they were doing so I went ahead. Both girls came through extremely well and are back to themselves now The only cost so far has been about £18 on Metacam and Fibreplex (though the Fibreplex was thankfully not needed - both started eating pretty quickly).
I would say the advantage to Companion Care of Vets4Pets is that because they are based inside P@H who give out the spay/neutering vouchers they do see and neuter a lot of rabbits (the nurse also told me this). However as someone on here reminded me, just like with any vet surgery each one is different. One may be excellent and another may not be.
What I would suggest is doing what I did - ask them questions. I asked things like would they require fasting (obviously a no in rabbits), what type of anaesthetic (they used isoflurane), what was the mortality rate and similar questions.
I was personally so impressed with how they looked after them (they all remembered them when they went back for their first post-op check, too!) that if we stay in Farnborough I will keep them as the bunnies regular vet. But as has already been emphasized, each one is different.
I would suggest you talk to them, ask them questions and see how you feel. Trust your instincts on it and if you're not happy about anything I would go with your original vet
I hope little Athena has a speedy recovery. I now know just how worrying a spay can be (I nearly called it off - my Mum was with me at the time and we found out on the way home that both of us nearly picked them up and said 'we've changed our minds, you can't have them!' :lol but once it's over and she's had a day or two to recover I'm sure she'll be absolutely fine
My thoughts are with you both

Babsie said:

I'm afraid that, if it were me, I would give up the spay voucher and take her to my normal rabbit-savvy vet. Perhaps I'm over-cautious though.

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Nope, not after my experience last year. I wish I'd trusted my gut instinct and only ever used my own vet.

I adopted a rabbit from Support Adoption and after careful consideration let store's branch of Vets 4 Pets castrate him (simple enough operation, which I thought I could trust them with) so used my voucher. The rabbit in question got a very nasty infection in his scrotum and they didn't diagnose/treat on post-op check up, at which point I took him to the rabbit savvy vet that I'm registered with for a second opinion on the seriousness of the 'lump' and she performed the surgery to clean out the infection within a few hours of seeing Theo - she felt it couldn't be left any longer.

I have since twice more adopted from Support Adoption but did not use the voucher but instead paid for my own vets to do the surgery. I was offered the option of using another branch of V4P. No way am I ever risking taking them anywhere else, he could have died because of their lack of care. I also questioned V4P very closely before the op about how they don't have over-night facilities - this is an absolute must for me. I want any rabbit of mine having surgery to be in a place that is a 'hospital' and staffed overnight.

tlcwrites said:

Has anyone had any experience in using the Companion Care Vets/Pets 4 Vets that come part and parcel with Pets at Home these days?

My older girls have a regular vet whom I trust. They spayed all three of my girls prior to Athena, and have offered excellent continual care to them. They know us well, which is also very important. Naturally, Athena's care will be transferred over to them.

However, the neutering and vaccination certificates insist that Athena has her spay and vaccinations at the further-afield Companion Care Vets that is in the Pets at Home where she was offered up for adoption. I know that they probably spay a fair few does which have grown "too big" for traditional selling and so they'll have experience. But that doesn't stop me from being nervous as it isn't the one I'd ordinarily go to.

But yeah, assurances/experiences with these type of vets, please?

Click to expand...

You are definitely not obliged to use them for the spay and vaccination, just that you can use the voucher there. I was also told (after the member of staff made a phone call to check) that you can use the voucher at another branch. I nearly chose a different branch for my subsequent rabbit but chickened out as, if there were any complications it would be very tricky/too cheeky asking my own vet to pick up the pieces again! I just decided to go to the place I trust as the peace of mind was more important.

If you get good recommendations for somewhere you can use the voucher that's a different story though, it's just a case of one bitten twice shy in my case!

Bunny Buddy said:

You are definitely not obliged to use them for the spay and vaccination, just that you can use the voucher there. I was also told (after the member of staff made a phone call to check) that you can use the voucher at another branch. I nearly chose a different branch for my subsequent rabbit but chickened out as, if there were any complications it would be very tricky/too cheeky asking my own vet to pick up the pieces again! I just decided to go to the place I trust as the peace of mind was more important.

If you get good recommendations for somewhere you can use the voucher that's a different story though, it's just a case of one bitten twice shy in my case!

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That was a slight misphrasing - I apologise. I meant that I am obliged to use the Vets 4 Pets or Companion Care vet groups for the vouchers as opposed to the group I already use. I was told I could use the voucher at either Norwich branch (but not any other branch) - which could just be down to the sales staff or the fact they automatically assumed Norwich is the most convenient for us.

Ultimately, I will probably just go to the initial appointment, question them and if I don't like what they are saying, I will bring Athena back home with me. Then I will just take her to my usual vet practice instead. Either way, she will be spayed sooner rather than later and I won't "adopt" from Pets at Home again as I was unimpressed with their lack of care for her.

I would never ever use companion care again after my bun could have had her eye taken out and would probably have lived but they gave me some eye drops and no pain relief and sent me away (first bun and I was completely ignorant just trusted them to know what they were talking about and it was a sunday so my couldnt see my vet), she had to be PTS 2 days later. When I look back I should have put a complaint in about it. I have used vets4pets and found the vet there to be very good, but I suppose its luck of the draw as to which vet you get.