100%. Vets should never feel bad about charging people for treatment, you provide an invaluable service to animal owners. I was trying to say that anyone with any sense knows the alternative (no vet) is so much worse and that if people are reluctant to pay then we simply will have less and less vets which is a terrible situation to be in.
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I just paid a farm call fee of $85 in zone 1 for them, Iâm about 30 minutes door to door from their clinic, so I imagine thatâs their cheapest tier. She left here and was headed 20 minutes away to the next place, then an hour away after that. 90 minutes give or take of her expertise in transit. Someone has to pay for that, and itâs not her.
I have zero issue with that.
OP putting you on their schedule means someone else isnât seen in that slot.
My former vet ( i miss her!!) Split farm calls if I and someone else they were seeing that day was maybe 10 -15 minutes away. She quit doing it when too many folks complained when they got a full charge fee. People are too dumb sometimes.
Time is money.
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Once upon a time I had a vet who billed a farm call fee per horse. He was a small animal vet but the BO insisted he be used for all vaccines and Coggins. BO would schedule all the boarded horses at one time, line them up in cross ties, and heâd show up and go down the row. If you had three horses like me you paid three farm calls.
See THAT would piss me off royally. I completely understand a farm call fee, but to not split it between the actual owners and charging a full fee per horse, that is ridiculous.
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My vetâs normal farm call fee is $60 and her emergency call is $100. I donât mind paying those, especially since for pre-planned stuff, we split the farm call between three of us
I loved my horse vets and happily paid every bill in full. The first one I had (who was also my small animal vet) came out to treat my Hackney ponyâs eye shortly after the vet had knee surgery. He said he was only doing small animals during his recovery, but would make an exception for my pony as he knew the pony was well behaved. That vet retired (I was so sad to see him go).
Then I engaged a one man practice who also was one of the local race track vets. He came out multiple times when my pony colicked, recommended euthanasia but agreed to try one more round of banamine and sedative. That meant he came out at ten oâclock at night, which was greatly appreciated. The pony recovered.
The farm call charge for non emergencies was shared with two neighbors, which I really appreciated as the vet still went to each property and one was about half a mile away.
After I was down to just my grade pony and boarded him, I boarded near where the vet lived, and Iâm pretty sure he didnât charge me a farm call for any of those visits.
When my regular vets werenât available, I used what was then called Littleton Large Animal for emergencies. Their farm call and service fees were a lot higher than my usual vets, but i happily paid them because they always came out when I needed them.
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That would annoy me too. I remember when there was a call for the visit regardless of the number of owners that was split between owners. Itâs not like they are making five or twenty (depending on the size of the barn) visits to the farm, itâs one. Surely with the software available now, they should be able to split it out if given to the barn has given the clinic the correct information. I remember our vet back in the day would ask who the owner was and make sure everyone was billed appropriately.
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If I went to a barn and treated a number of horses belonging to multiple owners, but was paid with a single check by the barn management, I might charge one barn call fee.
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If I had to deal with multiple owners and multiple accounts, I would charge each of them a barn call fee, but it would be lower than the âstandardâ barn call fee.
I had a minimum split barn call feeâI did not divide by the number of owners involved.
Part of what the barn call fee covers is maintaining all the record keeping and accounting and communications for a client, and while the actual physical location of multiple horses in the same place is convenient, the rest of it has little to no bearing on that.
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Bottom line is the bottom line.
If a DVM cannot generate enough income to cover their expenses and make them a decent income, they arenât going to be there.
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Most large animal/equine vets in my area have a minimum fee, so splitting the farm call fee never gets below that minimum fee, no matter how many owners there are.
I think it makes sense because a large barn of lots of owners might mean less driving but it means lots of chaos and coordination, all of which takes extra time.
Edit to add, I should have read Ghazzuâs post before posting. She said it far better than I did.
Yes to all this. I get it and why vet does it, but it would have been nice to know prior to the first couple visits where one was split and the other wasnât. Clear criteria would have made me a much happier client vs vet discretion.
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Communication works in both directions. You could have inquired about fees in advance.
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I used to use a vet that charged an âexamâ fee which was not part of the issue you brought the horse to them in the first place or they coming to you. All they did was listen to the heart and take itâs temperature. Thatâll be $100 please.
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Thatâs insane! Talk about a money grab.
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Correct and I did, was sent a patient contract and an estimate.
No where did it show the protocol for split fees or no split fees, just that you will be billed a farm call and exam fee each visit. Thatâs fine.
Iâm not complaining, just makes it harder to guess what my bill is as 125.00 farm fee or a 25.00 farm fee. I never know whatâs getting charged.
Mind you, I have a credit card on file that gets charged in full 48 hours after any service under 10k. So they arenât chasing me down for payment.
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I wonder (just a rambling thought) if this is a case of needing to ask why there is sometimes a split and sometimes not a split, and it would get resolved?
Maybe the junior office person does not know there is a split thing and they were all at the same barn or such?
I did and itâs vetâs discretion. Vet practice is fabulous and great to deal with so itâs fine.
I just found it relevant that sometimes fees donât make sense to us everyday folks but make sense to the vet and office.
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Thatâs what my vet does. Actually they donât even take the temp. Just quick listen.
In addition to the $75 farm call
And the mileage
And the exam fee for the actual reason you called. General exam fee is $100.
So I pay about $300+ before anything even happens
Iâm in Maryland. My vetâs farm call fee is $76. Add $105 to that if itâs an after hours or weekend emergency. Thatâs as an established client - I know the fee increases if youâre not. The small animal ER clinic a few miles from the barn charges a $205 emergency fee to even be seen.
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I totally get an extra (considerable) fee for emergency/after hours stuff.
The charges I posted above were for a prescheduled a few weeks in advance routine appointment.
