The Accidental Smallholder Forum

Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: Bionic on July 05, 2012, 02:14:02 pm

Title: Vets costs
Post by: Bionic on July 05, 2012, 02:14:02 pm
I called the vet out on 4th June, to see one of my pigs.  This was the first time I have called a vet out and I knew the bill would be horrendous as it was a house call on a bank holiday but it wasn't as bad as I expected.
It came to £83.51 which included a jab of Alamycin and of Metacam.
 
How do these costs compare to what other pay?
Sally
Title: Re: Vets costs
Post by: P6te on July 05, 2012, 02:39:23 pm
It compares very favourably, we recently called the vet at 6pm one weekday (not Bank Holiday) and the bill was:

Visit £52.45
Examination £43.86
Pen   Strep (Norbrook) 100 £12.30

Total £108.61

This includes VAT and a 25% surcharge for being 'out of hours'

Pete
Title: Re: Vets costs
Post by: Tamsaddle on July 05, 2012, 03:56:40 pm
Our vets costs are more than Pete's.  Always find it extraordinary that they charge separately for the "visit" and the "examination", considering they cannot do an examination without visiting.   These days I do my best to explain the symptoms over the phone, then drive over there to collect the medication and administer it myself, even though I dread having to do pig injections of any kind as pigs hate them so much.   Tamsaddle
Title: Re: Vets costs
Post by: princesspiggy on July 05, 2012, 04:22:35 pm
we callled th evet out on sunday to put an elderly sheep to sleep as itd given up. no treatment just a jag.  it cost £120 - ouch
Title: Re: Vets costs
Post by: SallyintNorth on July 05, 2012, 05:21:00 pm
Our vets costs are more than Pete's.  Always find it extraordinary that they charge separately for the "visit" and the "examination", considering they cannot do an examination without visiting.   
Errr... if you took the animal to the surgery, then they could examine without visiting.  Farmers often take a sick animal to the surgery in the livestock trailer for exactly this reason.

Title: Re: Vets costs
Post by: Bionic on July 05, 2012, 05:42:59 pm
It looks as though I got off lightly then  ;D
Title: Re: Vets costs
Post by: kaz on July 05, 2012, 06:42:02 pm
I think you paid pretty much the going rate for where you are. ;D
Title: Re: Vets costs
Post by: omnipeasant on July 05, 2012, 07:14:20 pm
princesspiggy, it seems you need to find a local chap who can come and do the deed for you. The hunt kennels can be very accomodating.
Title: Re: Vets costs
Post by: Tamsaddle on July 05, 2012, 07:19:48 pm
I am most surprised to learn you can take sick pigs to the vet - does one need to do any sort of eaml2 if you do that?  When they come home again are they then subject to a 21 day standstill?
Title: Re: Vets costs
Post by: princesspiggy on July 05, 2012, 08:48:43 pm
princesspiggy, it seems you need to find a local chap who can come and do the deed for you. The hunt kennels can be very accomodating.


our knackerman wont come on a sunday.
are there hunt kennels in scotland? our nearest  draghunt was 3 hrs drive.
maybe i should have had him shot but i didnt think it would have been that expensive. was v expensive i thought.
Title: Re: Vets costs
Post by: Anke on July 05, 2012, 08:55:52 pm
I am most surprised to learn you can take sick pigs to the vet - does one need to do any sort of eaml2 if you do that?  When they come home again are they then subject to a 21 day standstill?

Visits to the vet are an emergency and as such excempt from movement regulations. Also excludes standstill period, and you don't have a standstill after it either. And if too young your animal doesn't even have to be tagged. (Unless you do a bloodtest like CAE, where they need to check the eartag number to make sure it is the right one on the sample).
Title: Re: Vets costs
Post by: SallyintNorth on July 05, 2012, 09:36:31 pm
I am most surprised to learn you can take sick pigs to the vet - does one need to do any sort of eaml2 if you do that?  When they come home again are they then subject to a 21 day standstill?

You can take any animal to the vet without needing paperwork or standstills, I think.  The vets make sure there's no possibility of cross-contamination their end.
Title: Re: Vets costs
Post by: princesspiggy on July 05, 2012, 09:54:06 pm
you can also take them for a "ride out" as i found out when i asked the AH if i could take lambs/piglets to school. aslong as they dont leave the trailer there is no movement as such, an no standstill on return. and i didnt need a movement license with me, "just make a note at home".
that was from a fone call, but id rather have that in writing cos im sure theyd disappear like snaffled eggs if need be...
Title: Re: Vets costs
Post by: robert waddell on July 05, 2012, 10:07:38 pm
they are part right prior to e aml you wrote a paper movement out carried that with you  (if stopped ) then when back with no incident the movement was destroyed     we have been doing this for for the last 5 years  with there blessing       it was a struggle to get them on board  (AH) but it can be done :farmer:
Title: Re: Vets costs
Post by: Beewyched on July 05, 2012, 10:11:00 pm
princesspiggy, it seems you need to find a local chap who can come and do the deed for you. The hunt kennels can be very accomodating.


our knackerman wont come on a sunday.
are there hunt kennels in scotland? our nearest  draghunt was 3 hrs drive.
maybe i should have had him shot but i didnt think it would have been that expensive. was v expensive i thought.
There's a hunt kennels in Houston Julia - they'll take cattle & sheep, but not pigs.  But I guess that's a bit far for you?
Title: Re: Vets costs
Post by: princesspiggy on July 05, 2012, 10:19:38 pm

There's a hunt kennels in Houston Julia - they'll take cattle & sheep, but not pigs.  But I guess that's a bit far for you?


america?  ;D ;D
Title: Re: Vets costs
Post by: Beewyched on July 05, 2012, 10:24:58 pm

There's a hunt kennels in Houston Julia - they'll take cattle & sheep, but not pigs.  But I guess that's a bit far for you?


america?  ;D ;D
;D  It's not that far from us, but anytime we go over that way one of us always comes out with Houston, we're coming in to land  ;D ;D
Title: Re: Vets costs
Post by: princesspiggy on July 05, 2012, 10:56:11 pm
 ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: Vets costs
Post by: Polished Arrow on July 06, 2012, 09:51:53 am
Please can someone explain the term 'Hunt kennels' to me, and explain who or what they are and what they do in relation to killing/removing sick animals off a smallholding?  I mean, I am guessing that it is a place where  dogs are kept for hunting purposes...  but what has that got to do with a sick or elderly farm animal?


Thanks in anticipation  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: Vets costs
Post by: robert waddell on July 06, 2012, 10:00:12 am
they feed that animal to the hounds     saves them from buying n meat to feed them :farmer:
Title: Re: Vets costs
Post by: Berkshire Boy on July 06, 2012, 10:05:49 am
Our local hunt kennel told me they didn't take pigs because the dogs don't like pork, obviously no one told my 3 that. ::)
Title: Re: Vets costs
Post by: Fowgill Farm on July 06, 2012, 10:13:12 am
Our local hunt kennel told me they didn't take pigs because the dogs don't like pork, obviously no one told my 3 that. ::)

Ditto our don't take pigs either told me was too much cholestrol in pork for the dogs!?
Mandy :pig:
Title: Re: Vets costs
Post by: princesspiggy on July 06, 2012, 10:52:10 am
my dogs are sick on pork especially if its fatty.
Title: Re: Vets costs
Post by: SallyintNorth on July 06, 2012, 11:22:10 am
Hunt kennels is where they keep the hunting hounds.  They often offer a stock dispatch and disposal service to the local area - and generally, will do a humane and sensitive job.

Re: dogs not eating pork - the kennels will feed meat raw.  There used to be - and may still is, I'm not up-to-date on these things - a very rare but very lethal bug that was found in uncooked pork.  Salmonella cholerei suis, or something of the such which.  Because of this, people my age don't feed raw pork : although the risk of the meat carrying this bug is tiny, the consequences would be too great to take the risk.

There could be another reason, but that'd be my guess.
Title: Re: Vets costs
Post by: Tudful Tamworths on July 08, 2012, 12:46:43 am
Normally, larger hunt kennels have approved incinerators for disposing of unwanted bits of carcasses etc. That's why they are often recommended as places for unwanted/dead animals.