Have you ever used or heard of a veterinarian who makes house calls?

Of course I have. Haven't you ever read any of James Herriot's books ("All Creatures Great & Smal"l, etc.)? This is quite common, especially if you have a farm or ranch. It would be difficult to take a cow or horse into a vet's office. The vet comes to the farm or ranch to take care of large animals such as these.

It's actually not a rare thing in Missouri. Where I came from the vet would go to the animal owner's farm to treat a cow if needed.
We were friends with a Vet for a while. There were times when he got emergency calls from farmers or even your regular family who was having problems with their family pet.

The clinic where he worked took on the case for my mom's monkey. He let her know that he didn't know much about monkeys, but he'd do his best.

I havent used this service but my grandfather has, a vet. came out to his farm to deliver a breech calf.

Yes, my uncle. He does large animals.

I would have said that I never heard of it, but I was reminded in qualification that farm animals get this all the time. I read those James Herriot books when I was a lad. It slipped my mind.

I've never heard of this, although it's not like it's a completely shocking concept. It sounds very convenient.

Oh, Of course I've heard of it where farms or ranches are concerned! But I haven't heard of it in any of the cities in which I've lived, which is what I automatically thought of.

It wasn't quite in the context that I think you mean, but our veterinarian did make a "house call" after a psychotic neighbor stabbed my cat to death in my front yard. What a fudgeed up situation. It was about 14 years ago, but I remember it so clearly.

This is normal for big animal vets. It's just ever so much easer for the vet to come to the horses and cows than the other way around.

I have a vet, that often comes to my house to mend my dogs normally because the german shepherd gets into a fight and the wound starts to get infected

My previous vet would come to my house and vaccinate all the cats at once. Saved me from multiple trips to his office.
I would think that in the country vets pretty much would still do housecalls for horses, etc.

There are several vets in Hong Kong that make house calls. Haven't had to use one, but will if I need to put my cat down. She's hanging in there at the moment, but I'm pretty sure she has cancer. She eats all the time and is losing weight rapidly. (No parasites or anything.) She's 17 years old, not in any pain...we almost lost her this summer when she became very dehydrated.

Never heard of this service but it sounds like a really good idea.

I've heard of them before, but as far as I know it's not standard in cities, not mine at least, we only have two 24 hour animal hospitals.

I think the vets that make house calls are in the more rural places, where the larger animals can't fit in the back of a truck like a horse or a cow

Sure... Well they're more like "barn calls".

I even knew a vet that did "car calls"! When my Dad would take his wussy Newfoundlander to the vet, he wouldn't budge from the back seat of the van so the vet had to come out to the parking lot to give him his shots!! Just try moving 150 lbs of scared dog!!

> It wasn't quite in the context that I think you mean, but our veterinarian
> did make a "house call" after a psychotic neighbor stabbed my cat
> to death in my front yard. What a fudgeed up situation. It was about
> 14 years ago, but I remember it so clearly.

Your neighbour stabbed your cat? Did it survive? Did you see him do it? Why did he do that - was the cat in his garden or something? One of my cats was shot with a pellet gun by my neighbour - he ended up needing an operation to get some lead out of his front paw. My cat's brother (owned by another neighbour) disappeared entirely. We know which neighbour was doing it; another witnessed him shooting at his dogs... Crazy old crap bag!

Yes - my brother has one that comes and sees his goats

I'm not aware of any that don't, although I suppose that a solely small-animal practice might never need to do so in normal circumstances.

My neighbor uses one. We have a vet that we've been going to for a long time, though, so we trust him... even if he doesn't come to us!

*smacks forehead* I completely forgot about the horses. We do use that kind of vet for them. I was thinking about small animals! Boy, do I feel sheepish...

I just recently was in need of a new vet and found one that came to your house with a RV that was converted into an exam room. I was very pleased with the experience.

Maybe I should have specified that I was asking about for pet type animals.

I was not aware that veterinarians made house calls. I have never used this service.

I had totally forgotten about James Herriott. I love his books. Just last night, I got my new bookcase, and put all my books in it (including James Herriott books!)

That's what I need...more bookcases! I've got more books than bookcases.

Baaaaaaaaa!

Oh my god! I'm sooo sorry to hear about that.. It must have been absolutely terrible for everyone

I recently read this thing on snopes about this pro baseball player who was accused of doing somthing very similar and it broke my heart.

Used to have a vet that ran a mobile clinic and did nothing but house calls.

Well it's kinda hard to drag my horses into the vet's office. Honestly, I didn't know anyone wouldn't know that vets made house calls. Well, farm calls anyway!

i've heard of this but never had a need to use it. ya see, here in wisconsin we have a lot of farms, and if your cow is sick it's kinda hard to pack 'em up and take 'em to the vet, so.........but yeah, a high school friend's dad was a vet and occasionally made house calls, or rather, farm calls.
a side note, when i first glanced at this question i thought it asked about 'vegetarians' who make house calls...now THAT i've never heard of!

I didn't see it happen, no. A neighbor from across the street saw it, and came banging on our front door, screaming about calling the police. Apparently my cat was walking through the psycho's yard, yeah. So he came out (with a fudging scythe!) and slashed my cat. The vet couldn't save him. I don't know why the guy did it. He had threatened other neighbors before, a total nut. We didn't feel like it would be safe for us to press charges, so he got off free. It was a lot for a nine year old to handle, I'll tell you that much!

Thank you! It was really a horrific time. See my reply to Irene for a little more detail. Luckily my family and I were in the middle of moving house across town. That helped a little bit.

I used to have tons of books! When we moved from our old house to this apartment, I left hundreds of books behind (mostly old textbooks, stupid paperbacks I bought years ago and never finished reading, books I never STARTED reading that no longer interest me, things like that).

I got rid of a lot of books when I moved to my current place, but unfortunately I keep acquiring more and more!

I love books. I bought "Skipping Christmas" by John Grisham Saturday. Haven 't started it yet, though.

I doubt I'll read that book. I'm just not much of a John Grisham fan. I'm currenty reading "Life Expectancy" by Dean Koontz and just finished "State of Fear" by Michael Crichton. Both are library books...I didn't buy them.

I seldom read scary books. I'm kind of a wuss about them.

That's so sick! After our crazy crap bag moved out, he was replaced by an middle aged man and his trashy girlfriend (she used to mow the lawn in ruby, red high heels and dressed like she was still 22 yr old!). Her 23 yr old son lived with them for a while (you know - the real "Gino Camaro" type?) and he had a 3 yr old of his own. One day I caught him showing his boy how to throw rocks at the bullfrogs in the lake, another time, he took their kitten (about 6 months old) and threw it in the lake from their pier! As soon as it managed to get back; he picked it up and threw it right back again! I was boiling I was so mad!! He'd also open the patio door and heave the poor thing onto the roof! One day Ben told him to stop abusing the poor thing and he became verbally abusive and threatened to kill him - so we called the cops and had him arrested. She and her son moved away before it went to court but we showed up at his trial anyway - they didn't expect us and he was going to plead innocent. NOT!! He changed his plea when he saw us. We didn't expect him to go to jail but we wanted it on his record that he had a propensity to violence. If he'd dare anything, he'd be the first suspect!

How sad and terrible. I know such things are common, but man.

What would you do with a psychopathic neighbour who does not want you to park in front of their house? My best friend is stuck with one of those!!
We purposely park there just to bug them!

"State of Fear" isn't really a scary book, but it's too soon to tell with the Dean Koontz. He does, however, write non-scary stuff from time to time as does Stephen King.

Most farm folks are used to vets making "barn and field" calls. It is a tad tricky to take a sow having trouble berthing or horse that has a cut from trying to kick down the fence to the vet. You are probably thinking about house pets and their care.

My parents have used this service. They have horses, and they frequently receive house calls. The worst was one time when my parent's first 100% theirs colt (being trained for horse racing) ran head-first into a barb wire fence while showing off. One cut-up nose and late-night house call for the vet was the result.

Based on my history, I would steer clear!

I like some Stephen King, but some of the stuff I don't even want to try reading. I loved Bag Of Bones, even though it didn't get good until about 200 pages into the book

That was the same with "State of Fear", but once I got part way in I started liking it. On the other hand, I finished the Dean Koontz book in 2 sittings because it just grabbed you an pulled you in. It reminded me a great deal of another of my favorite books by him, "Lightning". In "Lightning" one of the messages was that "destiny struggles to re-assert itself" and there was a similar message in "Life Expectancy" as well. I wouldn't recommend that anyone who has a clown phobis reading it, however, as a rather vicious circus clown is one of the key characters.

Don't recommend it to Dino, then! He has (or at least, used to have) a clown phobia. I love books like that, that just grab your attention and pull you in. Even they are totally different types of books, that's how I felt about "The Five People You Meet In Heaven" and "Tuesdays With Morrie", both by Mitch Albom.

I liked both of those, but I liked "The Five People You Meet In Heaven" more. Did you watch the movie they made based on the book...it was on T.V. recently.

I liked "The Five People You Meet In Heaven" better, too. I missed the movie. I meant to watch it, or at least tape it, but for whatever reason, I didn't. I really wish I had.

It's been reshown several times so chances are you'll be able to catch it eventually. At the very least you'll be able to see it as it's likely to be released on VHS & DVD sometime in the future.

That's good to know. I'll keep an eye out for it.

You do that. The adaptation is fairly well done.

No kidding!

It sounded like it would be. Thanks!

You're welcome!

I just got the beautiful postcard you sent me! Thanks so much and no, you don't sound like an informercial!

You're very welcome for the postcard. I'm glad you got it and liked it! Glad I didn't sound too much like an infomercial!

James Herriot.

Well, in a rural area you're going to find vets that make house calls, but they would be more like 'farm calls'. I did have an animal behaviorist come to my apartment to have a look at my cat's behavior. She was biting, not the behaviorist, the cat. It was expensive. The cat bit her too. Probably the most expensive laugh I've ever had.