Vet call out charges

Hfd Cattle

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Hereford
My biggest gripe with the vets is TB testing . We used to get clinical work done during the TBTest ...pd, castrating etc .
Now you can't do that cos the TB vets can't do it . A pre movement test is expensive . I appreciate the TB test is not of the vets making but their decision to employ 'vets' that can only do TB testing and nothing else works out expensive .
When doing health work I shudder every time the vet opens his little box and pulls out another bottle and fills up yet another syringe of something or other . Every time the put something in a syringe it seems to cost £25 or more ! (Well it seems like it)
 

penntor

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
sw devon
My biggest gripe with the vets is TB testing . We used to get clinical work done during the TBTest ...pd, castrating etc .
Now you can't do that cos the TB vets can't do it

I still get the cows pd'd and BVD bloods taken during my annual TB test, also parade the dogs past them for their annual inspection rather than having to take them to the surgery.
Had a prolapse and a few weeks later a calving case, both after 10pm. Call out was £55 each time plus time spent on job. My large animal vet practice is about 12 miles away. Local vet practice, 3 miles away, gave up large animal work in 2007. Last year had to take one of the terriers to the local vet practice in the evening on an emergency, it cost £80 to walk through the door. I now don't moan about cost to get large animal vet on to farm.
 

Treecreeper

Member
Livestock Farmer
My biggest gripe with the vets is TB testing . We used to get clinical work done during the TBTest ...pd, castrating etc .
Now you can't do that cos the TB vets can't do it . A pre movement test is expensive . I appreciate the TB test is not of the vets making but their decision to employ 'vets' that can only do TB testing and nothing else works out expensive .
When doing health work I shudder every time the vet opens his little box and pulls out another bottle and fills up yet another syringe of something or other . Every time the put something in a syringe it seems to cost £25 or more ! (Well it seems like it)
I had a pre movement tb test recently and wanted 1cow pd'ed , tester was unable to do. Very frustrating as the cow would have went on the lorry if sure she was not in calf. I'm now waiting for the clock to run down.
 

JP1

Member
Livestock Farmer
I always speak to my vet before treatment. Normally we can sort out a more cost effective course of action for dogs. They are perhaps too used to dealing with insured pets or owners with bottomless pockets?

I wouldn't call a vet out for a sheep. I've taken them to the surgery before, for diagnosis etc.
All these large animal vets have been reigned in on dogs now. You have to book a walk in surgery appointment for the dog now with the small animal department
 

gwi1890

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
North wales
How much are you paying for taking bloods? I had funding up to £250 to take bloods , yet I had to pay a bit on top it worked out £24 per sample + £35 call out and vet time @ £35
 

Doc

Member
Livestock Farmer
Re ‘other’ jobs whilst TB testing.
This was stymied by APHA from some expensive legal challenges by farmers on test results.
It seems no one could prove that interfering with cattle to do other things during a TB test, may or may not influence the result of the SID TB test.
You only have yourselves to blame...
 

Andrew1983

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Black Isle
The big problem I see these days is corporations buying up vet practices, the staff get better pay and conditions with less on call etc but the trade off for this is higher fees. The independent practices find it hard to recruit staff when they can’t afford the same conditions as the corps..... the corps are all about milking the customer and their insurance company.....

I have said it before but there really needs to be an agricultural veterinary technician degree where clever but practical and able people are given the opportunity to learn the trade rather than the out and out brain boxes which you are required to be to get into vet school these days.
 

Farmer Fin

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Aberdeenshire
The big problem I see these days is corporations buying up vet practices, the staff get better pay and conditions with less on call etc but the trade off for this is higher fees. The independent practices find it hard to recruit staff when they can’t afford the same conditions as the corps..... the corps are all about milking the customer and their insurance company.....

I have said it before but there really needs to be an agricultural veterinary technician degree where clever but practical and able people are given the opportunity to learn the trade rather than the out and out brain boxes which you are required to be to get into vet school these days.
There is no difference between pay and conditions between corporate and independent. If anything corporate are leading to lower drug prices.
The issue with veterinary has always been the amount of knowledge you are expected to retain in your brain at any one point and seamlessly put this into practice at 3am in the morning.
 

Farmer Fin

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Aberdeenshire
9 sheep including lab fees , wasted alot of time having a student not being able to find the vain tbh 😅 sound like a right tight git Now 😆
Most vets would reduce the time to take into account a slow student. Unfortunately when sampling a low number the cost seems high as their are not enough animals to dilute the “fixed cost” part.
 

ilyria

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
wales
One of the local practices got taken over by a chain and callout doubled. Worked out at 96 quid for one injection in normal hours. They don't want to dispense a bottle of antibiotics to long standing clients. Same practice won't go out to an emergency without a 90 pound payment over the phone. The other practice has a habit of charging for callouts you didn't authorise or sending out other people's bill's in with yours. The one who has been taken over by the chain has been through more vets than hot dinners recently and put their prices right up, reduced the length of their prescriptions and are losing clients left right and centre. It's sad that people are now having to use a vet from 2 counties away to be able to get a decent service
 

kill

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
South West
Just got in from a cow that I found down in a robot at midnight as something musta spooked her ( possible rat maybe or loud noise) and she put her foot out between the doors and under the bottom rail and was hooked by that.
Once freed ( not straight forward at all ) she was found to have a really horrible and nasty cut across her full ankle at a angle between her Dew claws and all but to her tendons but not actually hit them. No way was leaving her until the morning and phoned the vets and within half an hour the on call vet was here and throughly cleaned, stitched and bandaged and an excellent job was done but the last thing on my mind was the call out charge as my only concern was the cow
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Re ‘other’ jobs whilst TB testing.
This was stymied by APHA from some expensive legal challenges by farmers on test results.
It seems no one could prove that interfering with cattle to do other things during a TB test, may or may not influence the result of the SID TB test.
You only have yourselves to blame...

The testing v. other work is certainly a no no if testing done by a 'lay tester', but other work can and is (by our practise) done on reading day, if a vet does the test. They usually ask if you need other work done, prior to booking the test.
 
The big problem I see these days is corporations buying up vet practices, the staff get better pay and conditions with less on call etc but the trade off for this is higher fees. The independent practices find it hard to recruit staff when they can’t afford the same conditions as the corps..... the corps are all about milking the customer and their insurance company.....

I have said it before but there really needs to be an agricultural veterinary technician degree where clever but practical and able people are given the opportunity to learn the trade rather than the out and out brain boxes which you are required to be to get into vet school these days.
As I pointed out earlier, the last vet salary survey had wages reduced in the face of an apparent vet shortage. The increased corporate charges seem to be going in directors'/shareholders' pockets IMO.
 

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