Lifetime of jabs for £100-ish. Is it worth changing vets for?

lynnemcf

Just about around the time I got my rescue dog, a new vet opened in the next town. They did a special offer of £60 for lifetime vacs, with a free check-up every 6 months so I signed up. I dont know how the staffing works, but I have never managed to see the same person twice, health checks are done by a nurse, vacs by a vet. Its got one small waiting room (which is bad news when someone has a very sick or a very aggressive dog ... not much room to get away). I also managed to get my dog vacc'd against kennel cough when they were doing an intro offer of £10. However, they would not take my Dogs Trust voucher to have him neutered, so I went to another vet who did. So I guess my dog is registered at two vets.

candygirl

Sounds like a fab deal, but I feel a weird loyalty to my usual vets.They cost £60 a year for my two staffies, who are 8 years old:D:D

krlyr

And regarding checkups, vets should always give the pet a checkup before vaccinating as its not advised to give vaccinations to an unhealthy dog, so your current vet should do it at least once a year if you go for annual vaccs. Mine give a free "prescription checkup", i.e. before they will prescribe flea or worming treatment they want to have seen the pet within the last 6 months otherwise you haveto bring it in for a (free) checkup, which is handy.
I don't think free checkups would be the decision maker for me though as these checkups are very basic and you could just learn yourself what to feel and listen for - you can even buy cheap stethoscopes if you know what to listen for! They're not likely to pick up much that you wouldn't notice from the dog's day to day behaviour really, more serious stuff would require x-rays/MRIs/bloodtests/etc.

OnAndUp

You can have 2 vets - that's what I do.

Personally I think with the £99 offer especially if it's a young dog it's a great deal.

My Dog had it's first Booster at Vets 4 Pets when I signed up for the scheme. I have been to two of their branches (the vaccinate for life scheme is transferable between all Vets 4 Pets) and found the staff and service to be great. They gave him a very thorough check up before his booster and had plenty of time for him / me. By he's 4 it will have paid for itself thus saving me money in the long run which I can put towards insurance or something else.

I still use my other vets (which is closer than the 2 V4P branches) for anything else, but if for some reason I couldn't get in there I would be happy to take him to Vets 4 Pets instead (although I'm not sure what their day to day prices are like?) I think they do good prices on neutering though I know someone who recently had a Springer neutered there for £80 including medication, check ups etc.

Their vets still own and run the practices themselves but with a "joint partnership" with Vets 4 Pets.

narabanekeater

I cannot sing the paises of my local vets4pets enough. We had had one of our Kittens for just 4 days when she woke up very ill. Not only did they see us within half an hour. They were fab with her. Whe. it was vacination time because she has been ill they gave us extra appointments free of charge as they didnt want to give them her too many at once. No extra charge for that.
Now my big Tom cat often strays and the last time it was for 3 weeks. Id given up on seeing him when I walked in and found him bleeding on my sofa. Again we were seen within half and hour. The vet checked him and cleaned him up. Gave him a massive cuddle and wouldnt take a penny off of us for doing so. She was just glad he was home.

Desperate_Housewife_2-2

just looked on their website and it does not include kennel cough jabs so would be extra. http://www.vets4pets.com/healthy-pet-special-offers/vac4life/

OnAndUp

Desperate_Housewife wrote: »

just looked on their website and it does not include kennel cough jabs so would be extra. http://www.vets4pets.com/healthy-pet-special-offers/vac4life/

Pretty sure that's extra in most vets?

Croatoan

The vet I was looking at was White Cross. We have a Petmedics, White Cross, Vets4pets and a local private (who I use, but as anything important has happened out of hours I've gone through Petmedics more than most, and whose service has ranged from excellent to a bit slipshod to be honest) all within walking distance - though White Cross is the furthest - so spoiled for choice.

snowman2_2

The people who started Vets4Pets used to run White Cross vets. Not sure about the current management but the first Vets4Pets was a rebranded White Cross in Leeds.
Personally I would vote for your local private practice, but then that is what I am. We can respond very quickly to what our customers want and I would like to think that a good local, privately owned practice will give you the best customer service (sweeping generalisation I know )

PolarKitt

I've used Birmingham White cross vets since I got my cats last year, they've been nothing but amazing, for all 7 cats as I got them I signed up for the best start in life, I lost the vouchers for the microchipping and Neutering discounts but they still applied them because it kept a record of me paying for it on my account, Microchipping is also cheaper if 1) done while neutering and 2) done on more than one pet at a time and I've been looking into their vaccinations offer but the cats boosters are so far apart from each other I've no problem just paying when the time comes.

I understand that privates are sometimes better but at least with my white cross, if you get there early, they'll see you early if they're done with the last client, I'm usually in 10 minutes before my actual appointment, they're amazing and it's clear they're not just trying to fix it then get you out, they have a proper conversation with me and make sure everything is understood before I ever leave the room, they've been consistently amazing and are more than happy to give me a diagnosis and then let me go to a cheaper vet for treatment if money is a bit tight, which has only happened once but the fact they didn't make me feel in the slight bit guilty made me a very loyal customer, I know the staff differ from each one but mine are truly amazing, all my cats were actually microchipped while awake and none of them even noticed it happening, yet with the foster cats originally I took them to the Animal doctor and they yelped and the blood tests made them bleed all over where as blood tests done at white cross I couldn't even find where they'd taken the blood from and everything is always so clean, Dogs tend to get a bit over excited and wee on the floor and they instantly get on cleaning it up and making sure it's safe for all the animals.

And like others said, you can do the vaccinations at White cross then go to others for other things, just from experience ask your normal vets to send over the medical history just so the vets can work together if there's ever a problem concerning it.