Veterinary fees have risen faster than inflation for a decade and it is reasonable to want to know why. Part of it is genuine: the standard of care available now — anaesthetic monitoring, in-house bloods, digital imaging, proper pain relief — is far beyond what was normal in 1990, and all of it costs. Part of it is less comfortable, and concerns consolidation, cross-selling and the pricing of practices owned at a distance from the people using them. We cannot speak for anybody else, but we can tell you what we do: every fee is published, nothing is added without being discussed, there is nearly always a cheaper way to treat something and we will tell you what it is, and no vet here has ever been given a sales target of any kind.

We do not sell insurance and we take no commission from any insurer, so none of what follows costs us anything to say. Insure early, while the animal is young and before anything at all has been diagnosed, because every condition seen before a policy starts is excluded from it for life. Buy lifetime cover rather than annual, and read carefully what the annual limit resets to. Expect the premium to rise sharply once the animal is eight or nine, and budget for that rather than being surprised into cancelling at precisely the age the cover begins to matter. And check that the excess is a fixed sum rather than a percentage, because percentages at fourteen years old are how people end up effectively uninsured while still paying every month.

If it is plainly an emergency, ring first and read this afterwards. Otherwise: write down when the problem started, whether it is getting worse, what the animal has eaten and drunk, and whether anything at home has changed. Take a short video if the problem comes and goes — limping, coughing, a funny turn — because these things reliably stop the moment an animal is lifted onto a consulting table, and ten seconds of footage is worth more than any description either of us can manage. Bring the packaging of anything they have got into. And if two of you have seen it happen, bring the one who saw it rather than the one who happens to be free.

You are entitled to a second opinion at any point and you do not need our permission or our blessing to get one. Ask at the desk and we will send your animal’s full history, the imaging and the laboratory results to whoever you choose, within two working days and at no charge — and we will do it without the atmosphere changing. It is your animal and it is your decision, and a practice that makes that awkward is telling you something about itself. The same applies to referral: if you would like to see a specialist and we have not suggested one, say so, and we will arrange it and tell you honestly what we think it will and will not achieve.