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English v French vets


PaulT
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On Friday took our dog to our UK vat for his injection and checkover. The checkover was completed very quickly and my experience with a number of UK vets is that is the norm.

When we go to the French vet for his Passport to be completed he gets a thorough examination. In the case of our previous dog he found some heart problems and explained all that was wrong and that we needed to see our UK vet on our return.

Now we have only used one French practice so may have just found a very good one with caring vets. In addition, if there have been problems whilst we have been in France (our current dog is one that has been mistreated and is getting over them) always superb service.

Is this general with French vets or have we been lucky?

Paul

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I can't fault my UK vets, both in terms of the care and thoroughness of their approach, and of the ancillary services, such as free checkups on weight, teeth, behaviour, socialising and other "extras".

I didn't find my French vets (and, over the years, I saw each of the vets in the practice at one time or another) any better or worse, and at the start of the pets passport scheme, I often found I was having to tell them what to do and how to complete and stamp the passport. They were friendly, sympathetic and helpful, but I wouldn't have regarded them as particularly thorough. On one of the last occasions our now departed dog went for a visit, he was seen, passed fit for travel after a cursory exam, and, by a few hours later was in the full throes of vestibular disease, which we thought initially could be a stroke. We got him back to the UK with difficulty and in great distress (us and him) and rang the emergency vet in the UK on a Sunday afternoon. When we drove there, the vet was waiting for us and he was seen and treated immediately, and luckily fully recovered with no lasting effects. I'm certainly not blaming the French vet, but I feel there's a possibility that a more thorough exam might have highlighted something amiss.

Aside from this, I've found French vets very accommodating with regard to passport issues, but I won't elaborate in case I upset someone.

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I have only used one vets practice in France and one in the UK. Cannot say I found any difference between the way the vets were with our animals. (Did go to one at Calais, when our french vet had put the wrong date on the passport, but he just signed off the paperwork for about 30-40€ and did not check the dog at all).

We only have the cat now, but he gets a much more thorough check than he likes at the moment.

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YCCMB, I have discussed this with Mrs Rabbie who is a vet and she says that it can be impossible to spot Vestibular Disease before it occurs. Usually there are no signs until it strikes so it was just bad luck.
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Some vets in France don't seem to be qualified in the way UK vets are. We had some very inefficient treatment for our dog and cat from one, and later found he was only trained for large animals.

The practise we go to now is a husband and wife team - she treats the small animals and he treats the large animals.

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[quote user="Rabbie"]YCCMB, I have discussed this with Mrs Rabbie who is a vet and she says that it can be impossible to spot Vestibular Disease before it occurs. Usually there are no signs until it strikes so it was just bad luck.[/quote]

I don't disagree, Rabbie, and indeed WE, as his owners, didn't really spot it, but (and of course, 20/20 hindsight is a wonderful thing) what we put down to him being unusually stiff and clumsy - more so than usual as he was getting on a bit and had had problems with arthritis ever since we took him on as a rescue at around 18 months - was, in fact, the first sign of the verstibular disease, and he was presenting with those symptoms before we visited the vet. I would not have expected the vet to spot it, certainly not as I didn't point out anything amiss as the owner. Just making the point that the vet certainly didn't ask, question or check why my dog was finding it difficult to get up or walk straight.

I can state without fear of contradiction that it's hard work carrying a labrador, though...

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In my experience of British vets there are many excellent ones and some who IMO are lucky still to be in practice. I suspect that this is the also the case in France.

Nowadays vets are becoming more and more specialists in either small animals, horses or farm animals.  One area of UK practice that does concern me is the reluctance of some vets to refer complex procedures to more specialist centres. After all I would not expect my GP to perform major surgery on me.

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  • 1 month later...
I think Rabbie has a good point. We are in a farming area and although there is a large vet's practice in the local town I now only accept one of the vets for the cat (known as the cat man!) and another for our dog (he has been treating our dog with her numerous allergy problems now for 7 years and we know that he at least understands what the problems are and when she is in crisis mode). We avoid (unless an emergency) the extremely nice vet who is known as the 'cow man' - for obvious reasons. I think if there is a large vet practice then the key is to find the vet who deals best with your animal and do not be worried about asking for that particular vet - no-one at our surgery seems to take offence when we ask for a specific vet.
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