Out of hours vets

[SR04]

My poor 10 yr old lab has just had a seizure in our living room.
I called the vets to see if they could come outas trying to get her in the car would be extremely stressful and I'm not sure if we would manage it as shes not bearing weight on her back legs and is very heavy.
I was completely panicked but was greeted with " you do know there's £180 out of hours fee". I was then told to wait whilst she got the vet to call me.

10 mins later the vet calls to tell me she doesn't do call out as she will be leaving the surgery unattended and I can either take her in (virtually impossible and highly stressful for dog) or I can make an appointment....so basically an animal could potentially suffer all night.

Is it me or is this just ridiculous, do they really have the animals welfare at the heart of what they do.

My dog seems to have settled and is sleeping with me in the living room tonight but I was thinking that this was end and she we needed to let her go at home peacefully to prevent any ongoing suffering.

I'm just completely stumped and can't believe that there is no help available for us at home.

This is a big vetinary hospital thats literally 5 mins down the road from me.

Is this across the board for vets?

@mountainsunsets I didn't claim they didn't care about animals welfare. I asked of they had the animals welfare at the heart of everything they do. At the end of the day they are a money making business.

I never understand why the welfare/love of animals thing is always brought out aimed at veterinary staff.

Why is anyone expected to work for the love of it? Do people who work in supermarkets get shamed about having feeding families at their heart or is it just veterinary staff who have to care about other peoples pets more than feeding themselves, their own families and their own animals.

Most practices now are corporate, none of the profits are paid directly to the vet or the nurse other than a basic salary, which for a new grad can be pathetic and for a nurse even less.

The veterinary industry staff are constantly shamed for not loving animals enough every time someone isn’t happy. Without making a profit vets can’t pay staff, turn on the electricity or even pay the rent on the premises so without making profit the whole business is screwed. Yes, animal welfare is paramount but it’s the owners responsibility to ensure their pet receives care, financially or logistically as they took responsibility for the pet when they took ownership of it. We all want the best for the animals and want to do our best with what resources we have but ultimately the responsibility lies with the owner. Shaming vets because the owner can’t afford treatment or can’t for whatever reason provide care for their animal is wrong.

Out of hours is extremely expensive to run,
because of this generally it operates on skeleton staff. For the vet and nurse to leave the practice (most vets won’t go alone because of the constant abuse, especially not at night) to come out another vet and nurse must be called in to cover. That’s 4 highly qualified staff members/4 wages plus equipment, diesel, premises costs. Then you get there and there’s nothing you can actually do because all of the equipment is back at the practice and the animal ends up driven in anyway so a huge waste of time! It gets to the point it’s a logistical nightmare compared to the owner just bringing the animal.

We've got a service through our pet insurance called First Vet and did a facetime with a vet at 2am when our dog was taken ill on holiday earlier this year. That may be an option for another time? It was really reassuring as we were miles from anywhere in Cornwall and they were on the phone for around 20 minutes with the option to call back at any time.

I think you should still take your dog for a check up. A seizure is not normal and could be the sign of something more sinister. Better safe than sorry

@Mad1988 if you read back you will see that I took her the day after.