I'm absolutely disgusted and appalled by the attitude displayed to me several times recently by a local vet i've been using over the last few years. It seems to me that all they care about is the money really (whilst also being slightly judgemental about breeding) and when push comes to shove they couldn't care less if our animals live or die, their main concern is making sure they get paid.

Are there actually any good caring vets left out there who know how to properly look after their clients and their pets!!!!!
Good customer service seems to be seriously lacking in the veterinary trade these days.

CHANGE. You really need to vote with your feet. I had a horrible, horrible vet -the stories I can tell are quite incredible. There was a great dislike of breeders there. I changed to a different one and now have wonderful service, vets that listen, that give me 10 % discount on everything due to being a breeder, let me run an account, and where nothing is too much trouble. I stayed 2 years with the previous one and wish I hadn't! That one lost several thousand pounds a year when we left so hopefully his pockets felt it.

I am very lucky with my vets, they can be a bit abrupt and certainly tell it like it is but they are fantastic with my dogs and very practical about treatments and the like, prioritising the animals health over their profits!  They do exist and everyone I have met there always says they won't go anywhere else, so definitely change and look for somewhere else.  I found mine on recommendation of a friend so it's worth asking around, perhaps worth asking at a local dog club or at shows if you go to anything like that

Change vets, why should they have your service! My vet is a breeder of 23 years and superb, he always has the time of day for me if I'm worried about something and never overcharges.

Without a doubt, change vets.
My friend has recently dumped her vets. She had to have her old girl Peggy pts last week and had already asked if she could be pts at home , vet said " of course " when she phoned up a few days later to make the appointment, the vet on duty said " can I ask why you want her pts at home ? " she then went on to explain just how inconvenient it would be for her to travel the 5 min car journey to my friends house.
My friend slammed the phone down and got her horse vet out to put Peggy to sleep at her stables, even he was shocked at the other vets attitude.

We are very lucky as our vet is brilliant was very interested in that I had changed over to raw and also one of the receptionist is an ABS breeder so they are very interested in health issues and testing.

I currently have two vets, One in my town and another in the town where i work that work use. The one in my town i never had a problem with untill i had an out of hours emergancy, i called there number as they have an out of hours number and i rang it 3 times and no one answered. Phoned my works vets, spoke to a guy and got a call back from the vet within 5 mins. Since then ive just stuck with going to them. They have a sign up saying they dont except cheques and want prompt payment to keep costs down, but ive gone a few times befor and forgotton my card and they have been fine with me phoning up later to pay. Allthough one of the vets did realy tell me off when i took a rabbit in for work about how long the spurs on its teeth was, but id rather have a vet talk to me straight. The vets in my town refused to operate on my rabbit i had years ago as they felt it wouldnt be in his best intrest and said it would be better for him to put him down, i respected them for that as they could have just taken my money done the op then charged me again later to put him down when it didnt work, they have also not charge me for stuff befor.

What did your vet do?

This sounds absolutely horrendous and most of you are going to recoil in horror, but I don't have a MASSIVE idea of how good my vet is!!

Our last vet that dealt with anything serious (and this was about six year ago) has moved out of the area. We have since had one dog who we had to re-home at the age of two and with him, we only ever visited the vet for inoculations and neutering! Everything went well but we didn't ever have any major dealings with him (since there were no complications probably.)

We are with the same vet surgery for Nando but they have 4/5 vets in the same practice and so his puppy vacs were done by a different vet as it was fairly routine we didn't specifically request him. The next time was when he had a bout of conjunctivitis and again we saw a different vet for that who we were NOT happy with and have request no more appointments with him.

This sounds absolutely horrendous and most of you are going to recoil in horror, but I don't have a MASSIVE idea of how good my vet is!!

If you just have one healthy dog you won't necessarily know. :) If you, like us, have vets appointments at least 3 times a month every month of the year, then you DO get to find out. But then we have a lot of animals and so get a lot of routine visits. Just come back from the latest, one cat, one dog for boosters. Back tomorrow already with an oldie who has 3 issues that needs looking into and for that I have requested my favourite vet as I want the very best (i.e. somebody I really trust) when it is more than routine.

I think you've hit the nail on the head there! Obviously we used them based on experience of friends etc so we have a general idea, but that's about it!

With my tortoises it was horrendous as I knew damn well the nearest vet that was any good is an hour and a half away so when I had an emergency situation I had to make do with a vet that's close. They could all operate on a tortoise etc etc but their general knowledge was shockingly bad.

We have been with our present Vet practice for the 27 years or so that we've lived up here and are extremely happy with them, although quite expensive we've never felt that they overcharge. If you are unhappy with your Vet the only thing to do is change.

My vet appointments are in line with Marianne's as far as frequency of appointments go.  You do tend to build up a rapport when seeing them every month!  I have my favourite, and when I phone to make an appointment, most of the girls recognise my voice, and are already checking when my favourite vet is taking consults.

If I am pre-booking an operation that is a "normal" procedure, such as a dental, or a spay, I check first when my vet is on the rota for surgery.  I think this is what happens for most people with a large number of dogs.  Naturally I take whatever vet is on out of hours if I have an emergency, but it will always be a vet I've met, as they do their own OOH.

I do spend a few thousand a year at the practice, so am there often enough to get a few perks.  I get 20% off my boosters, and although consults are around £36, I mostly get billed as a "follow up."  Which makes it quite a bit cheaper.

I hadn't seen Kennel Cough in a dog of mine for 19 years, but recently had a visitor that  brought it to my house!  One dog after another went down with it, and I was phoning every day to ask for more meds.  The 2 main guys charged me a very reasonable amount for meds and I looked shell shocked when a young lady vet charged me over £70 for Antibiotics and Metacam.  The veterinary nurse saw my surprise and told me not to pay, as she would have a word with the boss.  I received a phone call telling me that all the meds had been billed for each dog, so a dispensary fee was charged for each dog.  She told me that she had been instructed to bill to one animal, so only one dispensing fee.  My revised charge was just over £30!  But I guess most folk wouldn't be asking for meds for so many dogs.  As all mine live in the house, there is no way that I could isolate them - I don't have that many rooms!  And some were so poorly, I couldn't risk one racing up to the spittle and slime to investigate if I didn't get there in time.  I chose to treat them all due to the number of dogs, and it was the right decision for me. 

I could phone at 2 or 3 in the morning, and never be refused attendance.  And any dog needing an overnight stay has their own nurse and duty vet.  You can phone at any time through the night to ask how your dog is, and you get to speak to the people looking after your dog.  That meant a lot to me recently when I had a dog in that had had an accident and I didn't know if he would live.  Being a hospital, it is a bit more expensive than some, but I rate the treatment I receive very highly.