Emergency and out-of-hours care
All vets in practice must take steps to provide 24-hour emergency first-aid and pain relief to animals according to their skills and the specific situation.
You have a legal responsibility to care properly for the animals you own, and a duty of care to take reasonable steps to ensure that your animal’s welfare needs are met.
On this page
- Location
- Costs
Your responsibilities
You are responsible for the welfare of any animal(s) you own, keep or care for.
We strongly encourage all animal owners, keepers and carers to register their animals with a veterinary practice and to find out what arrangements are in place for their animals outside normal working hours.
You are also responsible for transporting your animal(s) to a vet practice, including in an emergency, so you should plan ahead.
You could use your own transport, a family member’s, friend’s or neighbour’s transport, an animal ambulance or a taxi service that will transport animals.
In all but exceptional circumstances, the interests of companion animals will be served best by being taken to a veterinary practice.
Vets’ responsibilities
Providing the service
Although vets must take steps to provide 24-hour emergency first aid and pain relief, this does not mean they must do this themselves, or remain constantly on duty.
If your vet practice does not offer its own 24-hour emergency cover, it should direct you to another appropriate service and provide you with these details in advance of any emergency.
Other appropriate services may include shared arrangements between local practices, or a dedicated emergency service clinic.
First-aid and pain relief
In an emergency, your vet’s priority will be to relieve your animal’s pain and suffering by administering first-aid and pain relief. Sadly, in some cases, euthanasia may be appropriate. (‘Euthanasia’ is defined as ‘painless killing to relieve suffering’ but is often referred to as ‘putting an animal to sleep’.)
A vet should not unreasonably refuse to provide first-aid and pain relief for any animal of a species treated by the practice during normal working hours, or to help do so for all other species until a more appropriate emergency veterinary service agrees to take over the case.
Providing information
Your vet practice should provide you with full details of their 24-hour emergency cover arrangements at the point you first become a client.
These details should be publicly available, for example, via the practice website, and your practice should tell you about any changes.
Location
If your practice shares or outsources its 24-emergency cover, you might need to travel further than usual to reach the service provider. Travel times and distances must remain reasonable, although this will be influenced by local conditions.
Online services
Any vets providing services online must ensure they have a pre-existing arrangement in place with local vet practices so their clients can access 24-hour emergency cover within a reasonable time and distance.
Response time
We do not expect vets to respond to emergencies within a set timeframe. They should respond with reasonable promptness, depending on the circumstances.
If an on-duty vet cannot attend an emergency in a reasonable time, they should let you know and they may be able to make alternative arrangements.
Home visits
Most of the time, it will be better for you to take companion animals to a practice where the on-duty vet will have access to a full range of medicines, equipment and facilities.
Only in exceptional circumstances may a vet decide it is in your animal’s best interests to be visited at home, or elsewhere away from the practice, but they do not have to do this.
The opposite is normally true for large animals such as horses and farm livestock. Normally, the vet will visit you at your premises, and only occasionally might ask you to bring your animal into the practice, where practical to do so.
Non-clients
If you are a client of a vet practice, an on-duty vet of a different practice may decline to provide an emergency consultation and instead redirect you to your own practice.
If, however, you cannot contact your own vet practice, or there are other exceptional circumstances, an on-duty vet of the different practice should provide first-aid and pain relief if your animal’s condition means it should be seen immediately.
The same applies if you are not registered with any vet practice.
Costs
There are no fixed fees for vet services, and the costs for out-of-hours services are generally more expensive.
Vet practices may also charge higher fees for unregistered clients
Likely costs and payment arrangements should be discussed at an early stage, but these discussions should not delay first-aid and pain relief for your animal.