Rase veterinary Centre	Disabled Access	Out Of Hours	Distance
Reliability	Charges	The Difference	Unable To Do

 

Rase Veterinary Centre

Our practice is here to help you with any queries you may have about your pets, their health, feeding and behaviour; and to provide both you the owner and your pets, with a quality cost effective service.

We care for most domesticated animals, including the more common domestic pets, agricultural (farm) animals, and horses. We do see some of the more exotic species, such as members of the parrot family, reptiles, and amphibians. Birds of prey are increasingly common - both the smaller UK species and larger more expensive and exotic species. The practice does have a particular interest in horses; especially pre-purchase examinations and lower limb lameness.

Click here to view some very useful EQUINE and pet info. Referrals from other local veterinary practices are regularly received. Referrals accepted at our surgery are most commonly for lameness investigations, cryosurgery and other types of sarcoid removal, and medical problems which require in-patient care. We also accept equine colic referrals for surgery.

 

Disabled access

To accommodate our disabled clients we have disabled access (without the use of ramps), disabled toilets and wider doors. We also provide home visits for those clients who are unable to get to the surgery.

 

Out of hours

We offer a twenty four hours emergency service  (for all species). The practice always has two  of its own veterinary surgeons on call.   They  can be contacted via the usual  practice telephone number,   which will  be answered by either a veterinary surgeon or  by  the outside  answering service. The obvious emergencies, such as  significant haemorrhage, swinging limbs,   persistent signs of  severe colic and  protracted births are given priority. 
All the veterinarians have access to mobile phones and can usually be contacted quickly.      They respond  as soon as they can; which means as soon as the case in hand is ‘fixed’.  

 

Distance

The practice has  had regular clients  for several years,  as far apart as Mablethorpe and Worksop, Goxhill and Newark,  and  Crowle and  Boston.     They  believe that they  can continue to offer a cost effective veterinary service  even if  they  are a few miles away.  The more clients  seen in a particular area the same day,  the cheaper  visit charges can become as  they can be shared between the clients.     If clients get together  and are able to   synchronise visits,     then it will help to  keep the  travelling costs down.  Now such costs have increased, anything clients can do to keep costs down s welcomed.

 

Reliability

Many of  the  clients have used  the practice service  for  the full fifty years of its existence;  and the service   offered has been provided for,    in some cases,   four generations of the families.
The practice has attended  Market Rasen racecourse, in order  to deal with the emergencies,  consistently for approaching forty years. If clients are prepared to stay with   the practice  for these substantial periods of time  we  must have something special to offer in terms of  quality and reliability.    We will do our  best to  continue to provide something special, worthwhile and cost-effective. 

 

Charges

Proper veterinary care, especially for horses,  is  never going to be cheap.
The practice does try and keep the  charges reasonable.   As we  wish to stay in business,  and  offer a good service,  and have good facilities for the benefit of our clients,   we do have to send  out accounts - monthly.   It is  expected that  the accounts will  be paid  within thirty days.   Rest assured  the  accounts  are tempered with mercy.    Very few complaints are received each year…..not even about the charges.

In order to charge consistently, there is a computerised accounting system with a fixed price list.  Discounts may be available for quantity  and  also for rapid payment. 

The practice accepts credit card payments (even over the telephone with an appropriate plastic  card) cheques, cash, PO,  BACS  and Standing Orders.              

 

The Difference

The practice has recently introduced a Health Plan for Horses – the  Healthy Horse Scheme  - which will enable most of the routine health care required  (worming,  vaccination, routine dental care )  to be paid for on a monthly basis.     It is to be hoped that this service will be taken up by a substantial number of clients, as we feel that it will help both the horses’ health  and their owners’ pockets.  It is not an insurance,  and is meant to complement an insurance policy,   and so  cover those items which an insurance does not cover.   Items which still cost money on a regular basis.

 

Tasks not performed

The practice maintains useful contact with most of the veterinary schools and generally knows where there are people to contact with  particularly difficult or non-responsive cases. This means that medical  and surgical cases which the practice feels would benefit from the expertise of others are sent willingly and promptly  to people in who the practice has complete confidence and trust.  
The practice performs little in the way of bacteriology; and swabs from mares for CEM culture prior to breeding are all sent away to approved laboratories.     Nasal or naso-pharyngeal swabs for culture for  Strangles bacteria – Streptococcus equi  -  are sent to laboratories which we believe are most likely to find the organism if it is present.   

Blood samples for examination for evidence of exposure to viruses are again sent to reliable laboratories.    Evidence of EVA infection is sought in brood mares before breeding; evidence of exposure to  Equine influenza and respiratory Herpes viruses is  increasingly looked for in horses where there is a nasal discharge and a cough.  
The practice does not have facilities for either  scintigraphy (bone scanning involving the use of radioactive material)  or MRI scanning.     These are both expensive and time consuming techniques; both are valuable in obtaining a definitive diagnosis of lameness problems. MRI will be increasingly used for  investigating   problems   ( and obtaining a very  accurate diagnosis)   which have been isolated  by nerve or joint analgesia to the lower parts of the limbs.        

Samples of tissue taken from tumours is sent to a specialist laboratory for histo-pathological examination.      Specialist  allergy laboratories are used for blood samples taken from horses with recurrent skin lesions or hair loss.