Thankfully, vet visits are fairly infrequent for my 2 dogs but I did need to take one of them last week due to a tummy upset.  Unfortunately I saw the chief vet who, although renowned for his surgical abilities, is not exactly warm and friendly with his clients or their owners.
It seems that, if you have more than 1 dog, their details are both entered on the same card.  I (bravely) decided to query whether this might lead to some confusion over treatment etc but was told that two cards would mean double the filing and increase the chances of cards going missing (presumably they haven't heard of staplers or paper clips :) )  He said the vets in the practice would USUALLY indicate on the card which dog was being prescribed what. 
The thing is, it wasn't until I raised this that he asked me which dog I had brought in - and this was after he had examined him and given him an injection !

Although I am far from happy with this situation I felt I daren't pursue it further in case he blacklists me.  This has already happened at a different surgery when I expressed a wish for a certain drug not to be given. 
I just wish we had more surgeries in this area to choose from.

Our vets are computerised and each pet has it's own entry so there is never any confusion.  I have two rabbits with similar sounding names but at a glance on their system it is obvious which one hasn't been well and what medication he received.  There has never been any confusion what so ever, thankfully.

Hi Joyce,

I am no lover of vets in general, I did have a vet 15 yrs ago who was superb and I learnt so much from him but unfortunately he retired.

If I had been in your position, I certainly would have persued it. Bare in mind, you are the one that is paying, if you have bad service in any other industry you should quite rightly complain and I don't think that vets should be any different. I know what you mean about lack of choice with vets, we have tried all the local ones around here and I dislike all of them. I now travel 50 miles to see a vet that was recommended to me and whom I like, but that is my choice and I do worry that if we had an emergency it would be very difficult. My vet is also computerised, but has backup files for when the computer crashes :)

Yes h/p there is the worry of emergencies if you have to travel long distances.  Although I would imagine that you could still use the closest surgery if it was a case of life or death (?).
It seems there is quite a variance in the quality and services of veterinary surgeries.  Some are absolutely brilliant, some are dreadful and some just about adequate.  I suppose it's a bit like hairdressers - if you chance on a good one you hang on for dear life  :)

We use a local branch of a bigger vets from the next town. The man who the surgery is named after is the one who put the fear of god into my Hollie when she went for her very first injections and I'm sure it's because of him that she is now terrified.
But....the others are all fantastic and in all the 5 1/2 years since I have never come across him again.

I didn't realise that there were vets who weren't computerised these days. Its so simple to use, i couldn't imagine what it was like before hand.

I have to say that my vets are brialliant, I found them by accident 5 yrs ago as our old Lab was ill on New Years Day 2000, and they happen to be the one on duty. We took him there and the difference was amazing, so we decided to register with them and have to say have never looked back....they are also our vets for the rescue now, as they do lots of work for rescues, and the animals comes first.!!

How many vets do you know who sit on the floor with your dog,? and genuinely care?...there are other vets nearer, but although I travel 10 miles not a lot I know its worth it.They also let you pay bit by bit if you are hard up!!.....

So if you are not happy with your vet change and you do have a right to ask questions it is your pet at the end of the day, and you are the client, and without your custom where would they be??

Last year Amy who was diagnosed with osteosarcoma decided that she had had enough and wanted to go to 'the bridge'.  I phoned my vet to have them come out to her and they told me they don't do house calls on a Saturday and that I had to take her in to them.  As you can imagine I was very upset and told them that I didn't want Amy's last moments to be in a place she hated and slammed the phone down wondering what to do next.  They did phone me back and said they would come out later that afternoon and to be fair when they did come they were very kind and Amy went with her family around her.  Even now 3 months on my heart still breaks

CarolW

How many vets do you know who sit on the floor with your dog,? and genuinely care?

Mine!

Hi Sheena, I have a wonderful vet he also sits on the floor if needed

Our beautiful 11 year old Cavalier died in July 2004. I sat up all night with her and she had breathing difficulties from about 6 am onwards. At about 7am her lips and mouth went blue so I knew her heart was bad and she was clearly dying. I phoned our vet then and got her answer phone for over half an hour . I requested that HOLLY be put down in her bed at home as she was too sick to move and hated going to the vet. I recieved a phonecall at 8am from the vet who was half asleep and said "Oh just got your message, too late for me to come to you as I have a surgery at 9am, you will have to bring her to me". With tears streaming down my face I had to pick up this poor dog and take her on a 10 mile journey to end her suffering on the vets table. Luckily Holly was a happy dog and her tail was still wagging as she looked in my eyes as she died. I talked to her softly and she knew I was there. The vet was very clinical and seemed P***ED off that I had woken her up.    YES I HAVE CHANGED VETS, TOO RIGHT!!!

Danny, that is SO sad.  I am really sorry that you and Holly had such a bad experience.  Some vets have a lot to answer for.

We have a vet here who sits on the floor, and takes as long as is necessary for each consultation. She listens - and I know so many dogs that have been saved by her sheer determination to get to the root of things. People wait for long periods in the surgery in the full knowledge that when it is their turn their animal will be treated like the most important patient in the world.

Even though I moved over the summer I still kept my dogs records at our old vets (approx 40 miles away). However, I checked out all the local vets and now have one nearby that I can take my dogs to in an emergency, but for all other treatment I still take them to our old vets as I trust them.

We have wonderful vets - all of them at the practice are terrific. They treat you like an intelligent adult who knows your own dog rather than something off another planet. They are open to questions and even suggestions - when our young dog suddenly had rage attacks someone in the US suggested we test for thyroid problems - we passed this on to our vet who not only did the tests but sent the blood off to the US lab where the research had been done for their opinion.
They give you as much time as you need. They are great with the dogs. When we have had to have dogs put to sleep they couldn't have been more supportive and sensitive. They offer both conventional and alternative treatments - 3 of the vets are qualified in homoeopathy. AND they still do house calls!!

After the horror stories about some practices I don't think I will move too far away!

Janet
ps and yes they are computerised - I assumed most practices would be by now.

I live in Holland and we have the same issues over here. Huge differences between vets.
My parents had have their FC pts December 10th.
This after 3 months of fighting against cancer our beloved Bart lost the battle.
This vet was not our normal vet but a specialist (3 vets have their own practice and people travel from all over holland to come to them for specialist help)
During treatment he was so involved (he called us almost every day to check up on him)

We were given the choise to come to them or they would come to us (they offered this option, no need to ask)
We choose to go there since they would then keep him over night to be cremated the next day.
And the end of the afternoon my father and brother went there.
The vet came out towards the car. Saw Bart, shook his head (he knew there was no other option)
He sat down with Bart, stroked him, talked to him and he had tears in his eyes !!
He hugged Bart before giving the firts injection and said goodbye to him.

Bart got the first out of 2 injections in the back of the car, a place he loved (when the car was parked next to the house and my father was working around the house he had to open up the car for Bart so he could lay down in there and sleep while be close to my father)
Bart was unconsious before entering the vet where he got his final injection.

Since he is a specialist we are not able to have him a a regular vet but if there is any reason in the future for a specialist that is the place we will go and we will have the pups hips checked when needed (as rules state and is a good thing) by him.

I will travel to the UK March 10th to pick up my parents new puppy. He knows about this and said he really wants us to come by and show him the new puppy....

(I have to admit that for my own pets I have 2 different vets, 1 for my cats and 1 for my Iguana.
I have to travel almost 2 hours to get to 'the Iguana vet' but it's worth is since he knows what he is doing.
My 'cat-vet' is great but he doesn't know that much about reptiles. But he did refer me to my Igu-vet)

Three cheers for vets who sit on the floor with our animals.....we need more!

floors, or animals hairydog? :D :D

Mine gets on the floor too!
Raffie has only been up on the table once and that was to have some stitches out!

My best friend's Newfoundland recently had surgery for a torsion, went to the vet's for a wound check, obviously could not get on the table and was reluctant to lie on his side so the vet sat on the floor helped him into a "begging" position, the vet then peered down to check his wound and was rewarded with a lovely wet kiss to the bald spot on top of his head :D

At my last vets the vet got down on the floor to fuss my dog and unfortunately she growled and snapped at him, she was suffering form a phantom at the time thought! My present vets are brilliant, although i am a little biased as i am on the payroll there too!! ;-) All the vets will get down on the floor with the dogs, and some will even treat the dogs in the car, car park or where ever they are happiest. Mind you we are a predominately female practice (only the senior partner is male) so this may be why.