Vets at Christmas & out of hours

Discodog

A number of posters have commented that their Vet is not open & there is no emergency cover over Christmas. Have others experienced problems with out of hours services ?.

It would be the first question that I would ask before choosing a Vet. I have been in a Vet surgery twice before on Christmas Days :eek:. My own Vet gave me her mobile & I know that I could call her at any time day or night.

Wisco

I'm pretty sure vets MUST provide out of hours service. If they don't do it themselves, they provide contact details for another vet or vet group (like the DAEC in Dublin, for example). Like the OP said though, it'd definitely be something I look for when choosing a vet. Some vets may not go out of their way to advertise OOH service, but it's often there anyway.

hadook

Thankfully I've had no cause to call recently but my vet operates a full out of hours service that includes public holidays.

Our last vet (based in Kildare, where we used to live) directed out of hours calls to the emergency clinic a 30 minute drive away in Dublin & our Dane probably would not be here this Christmas if we were still with that vet.

mymo

I met my vet Christmas eve in the supermarket, had a chat and he told me he's on duty until monday evening then his assistant is back from visiting family, so he'll be off until New Years eve. He's then working new years eve and day.
He's worked pretty much every Christmas since he started up on his own and thinks its unfair to ask the various younger assistants to work holidays, so does it himself.
He has a message when you call out of hours with a mobile number on it, you can call that anytime and whoever is on duty will call out to you.
This is in a small town and a lot of farms around here, I know he covers a large area.
I do know however there is another vet in town, I have never used them as the vet is never there, you have to call and make an appointment as he has a larger practice elsewhere, they seem to mainly do grooming there (and badly from the dogs I've seen that have been groomed there) and he charges a €80 call out at weekends or evenings(other vet just adds €10 or so to price) before treatment cost,so dread to think what he'd charge at Christmas.

Discodog

I had assumed (bad idea) that all Vets provided out of hours cover. It was only reading some posts, where people had experienced problems, that made me wonder.

boxerly

My old vet didnt come out,they had a message on their phone to ring UCD.My new vet calls out as soon and as quickly as he can.He is in Leixlip xxExellent vet

portgirl123

my vet was on duty all over xmas. all they charged was extra €10 over the xmas period

dvet

Wisco wrote: »

I'm pretty sure vets MUST provide out of hours service. If they don't do it themselves, they provide contact details for another vet or vet group (like the DAEC in Dublin, for example). Like the OP said though, it'd definitely be something I look for when choosing a vet. Some vets may not go out of their way to advertise OOH service, but it's often there anyway.

Yup, all vets have to provide an out of hours service, either themselves, or as you said, or another nearby service.
This counts for the middle of the night, the weekend, and all public holidays, 365 days a year. Every practice has a rota where the vets take turns covering different nights/weekends etc, so there should be always someone available.

One common misconception though is that when you ring the vet at night time/weekends, that the vet 'on call' is already in the practice, waiting for patients to come in. So people may get a surprise when they ring and the vet is at home/or has been asleep. But this is normal - how most practices arrange to cover the nights is that each vet will work during the day from mon-fri as usual, but 1 or 2 nights during the week they each have to leave their phone on to answer any calls that come in. So at 5pm they go home and eat/sleep etc, but if the phone calls they have to go in to work.
(An exception is the DAEC in dublin, where the vets work only at night time/weekends, and not during normal hours.)

Another thing is that out of hours calls are for emergencies only (or that is what they're meant for). So if your pet has a non life threatening illness or injury that can reasonably be put off until the next morning, your vet may recommend that you leave it until then. But if there's any doubt about it being an emergency, they'll see you.