Out of Hours

The hospital is staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for emergency cases and in-patient care.

When the surgery is closed, we always have a vet and a nurse on duty in case of emergencies and to deal with any animals hospitalised in the practice for treatment.

When the practice is not open ring the normal number and you will be given directions as to how registered clients can contact the emergency vet.

The out of hours will always be based at our own surgery with staff you know.

Emergencies

In the case of perceived emergencies please ring through before setting off. This will help us prepare for your arrival and can save vital preparation time and in the worst case scenario you may find that you arrive and the vet is off on a call and not even on the premises.

Please note that all ‘out of hours’ consultations which require to be seen will attract a surcharge in addition to the standard fees which apply during normal opening hours. These are listed in the Sutterton Veterinary Hospital Fees section.

House Visits

Being a busy practice we do try to limit the number of weekday house visits we do as to maximise the time spent seeing other clients at the practice premises. Many peoples initial response to seeing a seriously ill pet is to call the vet out to see the animal in the home. The trouble with this is that by the time the vet finds your home, valuable time is often lost and even then most seriously ill patients will simply be taken back to the practice as treatment and diagnostics in the home is impractical. To this end we would ask that unless an owner themselves is disabled or where a large animal is collapsed and it is not possible to get it to the surgery, that you make every effort to bring the animal in for treatment. {See Pet Taxi section below}
The only exception to this is where the owner wishes the animal to be put to sleep at home. In that case we are coming out for a pre-defined purpose & can carry this out appropriately in the home if requested to do so.

Weekends
We are often very busy at weekends and whilst we have 2 vets on both Saturdays and Sundays, the clients who are booked in to clinic are always going to be our priority and we have LIMITED SCOPE TO DO HOME VISITS. When visits are necessary they may need to be once the surgery is closed.

Distance
Whilst we are happy that clients wish to register with us who live some distance away, they need to be mindful that we will not be able to offer home visits to clients who live over 45 minutes away on weekdays and over 30 minutes travel time away when the surgery is closed or at weekends. If your pet is large or you have mobility/transport issues, then you need to think seriously about what you would do in the case of an emergency, and consider also registering with a more local surgerys in these instances.

Pet Taxi Service
Having read the above about our ability to do home visits, one potential answer is a Pet Taxi. When it is not possible to drive yourself and your pet to the surgery a pet taxi service may be the best option. This company are licensed to carry you and your pet to the vets for treatment, then take you home again once this has taken place. They will usually work out cheaper than a similar house visit.
PetToVet Holbeach 07470 708760 or PetToVet Boston 07472 816444.