# Medivet



## chasper (Apr 20, 2008)

Just been watching a Panorama programme about Medivet and frankly i am appalled that this company is allowed to practice. Does anyone use them here?


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## higgy2 (May 5, 2009)

We use a large practice in the North East who are excellent
if a bit on the dear side.

I was amazed at the lack of care given to the animals.

Vote with your feet and leave Medivet.

Shocking.


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## shingi (Apr 18, 2008)

I watched a bit of this on our local news earlier but I did not watch Panorama. The little bit I did see however did not compare in any way to this





http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-10695037

which shows men (of course) strapping a donkey into a paresailing harness before launching the poor mite out to sea........................... absolutely APPALLING.


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## patp (Apr 30, 2007)

I use a large practice and they too are very expensive. They are called CVS and are quoted on the stock exchange 8O 

Having worked in vet practices for a number of years I can tell you that it is very rare for things like that to occur. You could tell from the atmosphere of those places that it was not very professional. 

All the times I was involved in taking bloods etc a vet would either be doing the procedure or supervising it very closely. Nurses very quickly learn that struggling with a dog or cat only makes it more stressed and therefore more difficult to handle.

It is also very uncommon to have so many trainee vet nurses. The last practice I worked at didn't have any. I know that is still the case with the branches of CVS that I use now. It seems to me that Medivet are using trainee nurses to save money on the salaries of qualified ones.

It is so sad that these people are making pet owners very anxious when they entrust their pet to a vet and his nurses.

There is a scheme run by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons whereby a practice is inspected regularly and if it comes up to scratch it is "approved". They have very strict criteria such as that all nurses taking part in procedures must be qualified. It was obviously set up to weed out people like Medivet.

My practice is "approved" and displays a sign on the door to say so.


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## Invicta (Feb 9, 2006)

patp said:


> It seems to me that Medivet are using trainee nurses to save money on the salaries of qualified ones.


This is happening too in the NHS!

Returning to the topic, Coc's vet was struck off as a result of spurious allegations of animal cruelty and insurance fraud being made against him. One of the main accusers, a professional lady on the register of her own profession, lied in her evidence at an RCVS hearing. She admitted during her cross examination that she had done so by obtaining an insurance claim form for one of her dogs that was insured but not injured for another that was injured but not insured. Coco's vet was not her usual one but as the dog needed immediate treatment he went ahead and gave it without obtaining the dog's records from it previous vet.

Coco's vet completed the insurance claim form under duress from this lady but did not return it to her. Instead he filed it in his cabinet as he was suspicious regarding the identity of the injured dog which was not microchipped by the way. This insurance claim form later, unknown to Coco's vet, found its way mysteriously out of his cabinet and was an exhibit at the RCVS hearing. The police were called to investigate this theft but failed to establish the identity of the person who had taken the form from the cabinet.

X rays of a certain dog had disappeared. The unqualified veterinary nurse employed by him at the time had said in her evidence that the x ray had not been taken yet there was a record of it in the X ray book. The RCVS failed to persue this.

Another gentleman claimed that the vet had failed to treat his animal's injured foot correctly. He had failed to return with his injured dog for three weeks after Coco's vet had treated the dog's injured paw. The dog's owner claimed that the dog's wound was infected and that the bandage had been too tight. The RCVS fell for this one and this was a further allegation against this vet at the disciplinary hearing.

A number of more than satisfied clients (over 300) of this vet formed a support group and together with a perceptive barrister, managed after a year got him re-instated to the RCVS register. The manner in which the RCVS conducted its investigations and appeals procedure was shocking to say the least. It cost Coco's vet nearly £100.000 in legal expenses to get back on the register.

What had this vet done? In my opinion and that of many others, he had refused to join one of the large companies now in existence providing veterinary services as he wished to remain in a situation where he offered a personal 24/7 service to all his clients.

As an independent vet he is able to keep his bills way down compared with those of the large companies. Recently a lady contacted him about her cat. One of these large companies offering veterinary care had quoted her between £2.500-£3.000 to repair the cat's damaged cruciate ligament. The bill from Coco's vet? £400 including all the aftercare!

It is about time that the RCVS put its house in order. Vets such as some of those shown in the Panorama programme will continue to hold animal owners to ransom.

Oh, I forget to mention in this tale that Coco's vet is from an ethnic minority here in the UK.


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## bulawayolass (Jul 27, 2010)

Can l just say if you are unqualified you are NOT a veterinary Nurse You are either a veterinary nurse, a student veterinary nurse or an auxiliary.
A Veterinary Nurse (VN) is someone who has taken and passed their Veterinary Nursing exams and is on either the rcvs veterinary nursing list or is a registered veterinary nurse. rvn is a new gimmic the rcvs are dragging in as l don't trust the rcvs l wont put myself on the list, in time who knows.

I did not see the programme as l was away but like all in the industry l heard about it so to be fair l can not comment. I take a lot of bloods and place a lot of iv catheters. Was told the other day that the practice used 9000 iv catheters last year. Not all go in first time but most animals coming in get them. My own rule on blood taking and iv catheters, as we all have off days is: if l don't get it on the 3rd go l hand it over. And you just know the next person will go straight in








Another rule l have is a cat is only scruffed if it goes schitzo and is about to rip me to bits and you are trying to save me. Cat bags are brilliant but always getting lost, l am going to get my own. Wrapping a cat in a towel can be useful but towel and scruffing are end game not first try. I would rather put it away for 30mins and come back later. 
Dogs can be good or need a bum stop if they are wriggly or nasty and l have no quarms about muzzling. 
Rabbits and me never get on iv wise so l always hold and don't inflict myself on bunnies ears unless they have hosepipes for veins. I don't know why l just have bunny ear block and have been a vn many years now.. ahh well such is life.

With regards to bills a referral centre is a centre of excellence, yes they are expensive but you have top care at them. That is not to say that a local vet can not do the operation but many do not want to or can not. Referral centres are specialised to the conditions they treat.
There is no nhs so people shouldn't be shocked by the size of their bills. Yes there is a mark up but by the same token there is staff to pay and especially in referral centres very expensive equipment and drugs.

Have to say that from a nursing point of view wages are not good in many many vets referral and general. Most VN are on basic or just over basic, 12-14k a year is not unusual and they will be doing night and weekend work. A receptionist at a practice is often on a better wage than a veterinary nurse.

The way the rules are you can work in tesco one day and monitor an anaesthetic the next as rules say the vet is in charge. Only thing is the vet is dealing with the op site so what can they monitor. Veterinary Nurses are trained to do anaesthetics and generally referral will only use qualified to do anaesthetics. General practice will use anyone and l know the scary stories about it and they are all true, hell most of us have been part of those scary stories.
So if your pet goes in for a ga ask if it is a qualified nurse or 2nd year student (we do anaesthetics in second year) or an auxiliary, don't be surprised if you are told they are trained by us have been here 5/10/15 whatever years are gods gift to veterinary nursing (only they are not veterinary nurses remember opening comment) So your choice what happens do you stay or do you go.
Not to say that VN can not have a problem but we stand more of a chance of dealing with it than an untrained person. And if the brown stuff hits the fan in my experience the vet has their hands full sorting out their end.

The work is not cute cuddling. I specialise in emergency work and last night we had an rta dog in who will loose his leg, possibly have a ruptured bladder, possible cracked skull, back leg fracture, poss fractured pelvis and defiantly high blood loss Was being stabilised overnight and x-rays today hence lot of possibles. What happens to it will depend on the ortho's and owners as it won't be cheap. 
Had several fitting dogs in, have some unstable diabetics, cardiac and renal cases, dog attack post operation, parvo case, caesareans, spleenectomys (spleen removals) dangerous dogs grabbed under police orders etc etc.
Not to mention the animals that have to be put down for whatever reason and the owners are distraught.
Dealing with phone calls about potential health problems.
The above is a normal case load at a specialist out of hours centre the fees are not cheap but there is 24hr vet on the premises, 24hr nurses on the premises and to deal with those kind of emergency's specialised equipment.

There is a place for all types of practice but you need to look very carefully at what is being offered before you slate the price you pay.

In general practice out of hours the patients will get a check at set times if you are lucky, some may get checked once some more, others tough till morning. As vetergesic the standard excellent pain relief has a maximum window of 8hours you have a time lag of no pain relief, especially if it is painful we do vetergesic now at 6hrs.
If the patient has a drip in and a vein blows then it is all to easy for the leg to blow up swollen or the giving set blocks. Very common and always happening it is a tiny catheter and it doesn't take much so no fluid goes in. 
General practice will not usually buy to much equipment as they do not see the volume the referral places do so it is harder for them to treat the above type of cases.

If you want general dental work done, neutering, nurse clinics, general health info, vaccinations and other basic treatment then that is where general practice specialises. And they are good at it because they do it all the time. 
Last time the vet decided to do a dental on nights at the emergency hospital it was his mates dog having an x-ray and he wanted the teeth cleaned. It was hysterical and pitiful looking at the 2 of us trying to work out how to turn on the devils machine... aka the dental machine. We gave up told him to book it in the daytime. 
Yet if your dog has a bloat then this particular practice has the highest case load of bloats in the country and your pet has the biggest chance of surviving than anywhere else. The same vet who couldn't turn on the devils machine is one of the top bloat vets in the uk as he does so many.

My advice with cost is get pet insurance l don't know if l am allowed to push it but petplan is the best something l feel very strongly about and l know the excuses used by other companies not to say you may not have problems with PP but they have about 99% less than the others.

As to rcvs no lets not go there l shall zip my mouth they know my feelings l have told them many the time publicly including the president a couple of years ago and since. Actually have to say she was a nice lady and at least took time to listen to us vn and the svn.


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