Hi all

Just wanted to tell you about my fab vet. He came out for a home visit the day after my bitch had whelped and never charged me a penny. He did an exploratory op on my Gordon today after various treatments for ear infections for a fraction of the normal cost and he always fits my dogs in even when the surgery is packed. He always spends ages with the dogs making a huge fuss of them and always has time to listen to what I have to say. I discussed the use of Thornit today with him for my girls' ears and he said that if it helps her then thats the main thing. This led us into a discussion about Homeopathic & Herbal remedies and he seems to be of the opinion that they should not be knocked until they are tried. Just wondered if any one else had a vet as good as this.

Alli

Yes - my vets are excellent too. I couldn't ask for better. If I want a vet in the middle of the night I have on on the doorstep 10 minutes later. They have looked after my dogs the whelping box to the grave and always remember the ones that have gone. It's great when your vet can ask 'didn't great-granny have something like this?' If you have a serious problem the partner who sees it first always tries to see it right through so you have continuity. I always get a vet out to the house if I think a dog may need PTS and this time last year one of the partners spent over 2 hours with an old dog that had an illness that wasn't going to get better, watching him and discussing whether the time had come or if he could go on a bit longer. I wasn't charged for that house call, and have never been charged for a PTS.

That's lovely.  When my parents had their cavalier pts, they rang up the vet as she was very distressed and coughing, eyes bulging, couldn't breathe properly, etc.  They decided that the time had come, so called to let the vet know that they were on their way.  The receptionist at the other end of the phone said 'you do realise we charge to euthanise a dog, don't you'?   As if that would have made a difference: they were hardly going to prolong the poor dog's misery just so they could save a few pounds :-(
Having said that, however, the vet himself was lovely.

Not nice :(. Reading boards like this makes me realise how lucky I am with my vets. The receptionists and nurses are all terrific too.

Hmmm vet receptionists can be a bit like doctors receptionists - dragons! (Until they realise they've put their foot in it and then they couldn't be nicer).  However, my vet (2 ladies and their able assistants) are absolutely fantastic and I wouldn't take my animals anywhere else.  Incidentally, if anyone has a vet they think is poor - use your feet and go elsewhere.

CG

My vet is fantastic too :) She always fits us in no matter what and returns all my phone calls even if it is after hours...She refers to my animals ar her babies :D I think that is great....

my vet is brilliant
There are 2 vets at the practice, 1 i see with my goats and cats and the other sees the dogs. He always says hello to the dogs and makes a fuss of them in the waiting room, when its our turn the dogs are called not us.
the vet that treats the dogs treated one of the pups which unfortunely had to be PTS at 16 weeks old, he was really gutted and cut up about it as were the rest of the staff. And when one of the goats was ill they fitted us in on emergency, but when we got charlie home she collapsed, we phoned the vets back and he came out straight away, she was sadly dead by the time he arrived(she died whislt we were phoning them :( ) but he never charged us for any of the treatment that day.
we see our vets so often (with the amount of animals we have we go at least once a month!) that we are on first name terms!!
tanya

My vets are fantastic too, and again this is a '2 lady' practice.  All the nurses and receptionist are frienldy, helpful and knwledgable as well.  However, I do see the other face of Vets around here!  We have a couple of local "big practice, multi surgery" set ups around here who are obvisouly only in it for the cash.  (And, I hasten to add also some very good big practices)  I get some real horror stories from grooming and puppy customers!  First question often is "do you have insurance?".  They recomend speying at 4 months, pressurize new puppy clients to change feed brand (on to one they supply of course), incredible prices for very simple surgery (such as cherry eye), and incredibly inflated medication prices.I could go on ando on.  thank heavens for my wonderful, caring vet.
bye
Gwen

My vets which was originally run by only two vets was taken over by a larger practice.  The up side of this is that they now
have better equipment but the down side is that you see a different vet every time.  I was at the vets tonight with my GSD
who is quite nervous of people and can be barky but the vet we saw tonight got down on the floor with my GSD and tried to calm
her and make friends with her.  She was very nice to my GSD and listened to what we had to say and didn't try and rush us out.
Generally the vets we see are all very nice and try to put the dogs at ease but we did come across one unpleasant vet at the main
practice when my mongrel Gypsy was very ill, he said to my boyfriend 'well you don't expect dogs to live forever do you'.  Not the
most sensitive thing to say when your dog has been in the vets for three days on a drip!  But thankfully we have not come across
him since.  The others have all been very nice though. :)

I had an awful experience with a vet's receptionist on the phone when telling them I was coming now with my old dog to have him pts (he was booked to be pts at home later that day, but just suddenly started crying - I knew he couldn't wait).  I was having difficulty saying the words on the phone as I was desparately trying not to cry - the girl laughed :-(.  I think it was her embarrassment and lack of experience more than anything - she was very young.  She was getting a telling off from the nurse about it when I got there!

My vet, however, was wonderful!  Dropped everything, came out to my car to meet me and gave me a hug afterwards.  He was nearly in tears.

Hi Alli !!

nowt to do with vets, but just wanted to say Hi to another Gordon owner!! not seen one on here before, my boy is now almost 5 months old, and the apple of my eye!! he's a nutter, but so adorable with it!! he has always been a Mummy's boy as I'm at home all the time, but now my hubby is away ( he's in the RAF ) he sticks right by my side - not in a wimpy sort of way, but like he knows I'm missing him and I need loving!!! trying to resist the urge to let him sleep on the bed, but dont want to get into bad habits!!! would be interested in "chewing the fat" with you over Gordons, have you owned many? he is my first, have had an Irish, and a Golden Retriever before - but he is totally unique - adore him to bits!! nice to see you on here!