Let’s say that you have an appointment time, pull up in the parking lot and check in at the office. You’ve scheduled the appointment well in advance. 

How long do you typically expect to wait on your vet for routine care? (Non-emergency)

I’m writing this as I sit in my truck at the vet clinic. I’ve been waiting for one hour right now. I have not been allowed to pull into the unloading zone, so my horses are still on the trailer. I’ll add that this is not an uncommon experience... 

This is a clinic with a large staff and multiple veterinarians. Please tell me what you expect when you arrive for an appointment time. 

Thanks!

We have waited 2 hours multiple times over the years with different vets.

I think a lot of it is emergencies that come up or people bring/or want a vet to look at more horses than scheduled.

Mine usually gets me in when I’m scheduled. However, they’ve also switched at the drop of a hat for me and made it to my place in the middle of scheduled appts when my old mare colicked within 30 min. They’ve come in on sat and sun for me, too. I have no problem waiting on them. If I need to be somewhere else, I’d just ask if it would be easier for them to reschedule. Mine lets me unload and hang out in the parking lot. 

I never expect to be in and seen tight at my appoiment time. There is ALWAYS an emergiency when I go it seems. I honestly don't think I've ever not had to wait lol. 

Theres times I come in with an emergency and others have to wait too. It all evens out in the end for me I feel.

Mine is almost always on time, but Yes emergencies do come up. I get that. But I would be upset if the vet was onsite and just made me wait for aparently no reason. 

Vet #1.... I pull up to the office check in, then pull up the drive way to opening of big covered area the entrance and the vet tech will come out to get my horses or horse and take them in to the area where the stocks are and then I wait no longer then 15 mins some times no waiting at all.

Vet #2.... I pull in to the horse area and park close the big gate, go check in at the office then unload horses and then Justin [Vet] comes out to help bring them in to get what ever I am there for done. Never have a waiting period, when my Vets scheduled a time for me to be there they are always on time themselves. Unless like other's have said a emergency happens to come in, but there is others Vets on call too. I have never waited for no more then 20 mins at the most, Lucky to have these great vets..

If Justin does get a call out they will call me to let me know hes going to be running behind.. 

Last time I went, the vet let me know that the appt prior to mine showed up two hours late, and let me know that they would be booting him out when it was time for my appt. and finishing him up after me.  Never had that happen before!  Booting someone out for me, that is.

I am ususally always waiting, sometimes up to an hour, sometimes he is available right away.  I LOVE my vet clinic and hanging  out there and visiting with everyone plus he is very,very good to me giving me breaks on my bill- I don’t mind waiting.   I unload and put my horses in a stall. 

Thanks for the feedback! I guess I should be a little more patient. I do appreciate my vet and I know he does good work. I certainly don’t want to hold it against him that he needs to see emergencies first. I would want the same attention if the roles were reversed. 

I think I just get frustrated in the parking lot because my horses are on the trailer. I would love to unload right there but the clinic sits right up against a busy highway and they have a no-unloading policy until you’re behind the gates... I’m going to try to be proactive in communicating in advance next time to at least get behind the gates and have the horses out of the trailer. 

I would go in the office and make sure everything is ok?  maybe they had an emergency.....communication is key!

Next time just tell the office people that you want to get your horses unloaded so you can be really when the vet gets to you, I wonder why they just didnt tell you to go on in and close the gate.. 

It’s very hard to predict when a given horse/dog requires more time than anticipated.  Sometimes someone makes an appointment for something that sounds pretty straightforward or routine, and it turns out the animal needs a procedure of some sort, and just that alone can create a backup of 1-2 hours.  Imagine things like that happening 2,3, 4 times a day and you end up with a big log jam.  That doesn’t even take into account the emergencies that might pop up. I always assume my vet visits for something straightforward will chew up my afternoon.  One way around it might be to book the earliest, first morning appointment.  Otherwise, I don’t have a magic answer. Same thing happens with human docs and dentists.

I don't mind waiting. I've had emergencies and I know others have waited because of me. I always remind myself that the person with the hurt/sick/colic horse would trade places with me in a heartbeat...

Ditto this.  My vet also has a couple pens that are undercover you can use if the wait is going to be long. She has certainly fit me in when her scheduled is packed and I have an urgent or emergency issue, and I totally understand if I have to wait because someone else has an emergency and I'm there for routine care or a less urgent matter.  She's good at communcating when that happens and making sure our wait is comfortable. 

Our clinic only has appointments for surgery and ranch calls, the rest is walk-in only. So I expect to wait when it’s routine stuff.

they do have a policy that people with simple thungs (vaccines, coggins and such mostly) will be helped as soon as to keep the wait down. 

Of course any emergency will be helped first, but there are multiple vets at our clinic so usually it doesn’t take to long.

But since I have a preference for a vet it might be a bit longer than normal.

however, there is plenty of room to park and unload, so that does help.

It would depend on the time of day and how but they are. What get me is I had one that cut up his face really bad once and needed stitching. We called and she said she could see him in about 20min. She was finishing with one and didn’t have anyone else scheduled. So we loaded up and went. Got there and another lady pulled in behind us that needed routine stuff for her dogs. She saw the dogs first. About 2 hours worth of stuff while mine is sitting on the trailer was gashes all in his head and face. That was poor choices on her part. When she finally did see him she said she didn’t think it was as bad as it was or she would have went ahead and seen him. I’ve been there for routine stuff with horses and emergencies come in. Me and my dad even helped with a c-section once.  But this was inexcusable. 

I’ve waited an hour or so, but they’ve always let me know what is going on. I’ve been at appointments myself where something routine ends up turning into bigger /longer than expected. If I want to be seen right away I ask for this first appointment of the day. 

I don't mind waiting. I know that diagnosing lameness doesn't have a time period. Sometimes a visit may take 3 to 4 hours with all the diagnostic testing. My horses seems to always have problems and those things just take time because you don't know what you are going to end up needing to do.

However, I've always had room to park and unload my horse. I wouldn't like to not be able to unload them when we arrive. I don't mind waiting but I do not like to leave them on the trailer (probably bothers me more than it bothers them, though).

Sometimes I have waited close to an hour, but not usually. I make sure to show up early so she can start if she's ready but I also expect to wait.

 I will be the odd man out and say I have never once waited for a Vet appt.  Even when I get there early and expect to wait. 

I guess I am blessed with many good Vets around so there is not a log jam at one place.

One vet I go to will cancel your appt if you are more than 20 mins late.  He is very punctual and doesn't mess around when it comes to his appointments.

Most of my appointments have no wait time to see me. But I am the newest vet at the practice so I do have a lighter schedule so I have less over flow from the previous appointment. 

What usually happens is this- a person makes an appointment but runs late, or they show up early on top of your other appointment. Now you have two people at once who were supposed to be spread apart and you have to accommodate both. 

Or it can be this scenario- a person schedules an appointment for one thing, so we schedule enough time for what was requested. When they arrive, they add to their appointment with multiple horses or multiple requests.

Or it can be this- you bring your horse for routine injections and we realize there’s a new problem and we have to do a whole in depth lameness exam that takes way longer than we anticipated. 

And then there’s always the actual emergency that comes in that ties us up. 

Its a tough situation because when you get your appointment you want to get your problem solved. That can take longer than we thought. Then it runs into the next appointment slot. Or if your first appointment of the day runs late, everything else for the rest of the day is pushed back. 

The one center I go to (not the local vet, but the vet hospital for lameness or more in-depth stuff), has you go to the counter first to get your card on file. Then, you can unload your horse and a vet tech meets you to take your horse into a stall complete with alfalfa. Then, you wait for the vet to finish up with the previous appointment. I'm fine waiting since my horse is in a posh stall with 8" of shavings and alfalfa and water. LOL

THIS!! ^

Im a technician at a small animal clinic and for an ambulatory equine practice. I wish every person could work just a week in the veterinary field to understand how it is. I love both jobs to pieces but yes some days we get behind more than we would like and it can get frustrating. Every scenario you mentioned happens every single day. 

I've had to wait days for my vet before. Emergencies come up, and my horses get pushed to the back burner. Luckily I can do some things myself, but man, sometimes it will be weeks before I get a few of my horses' teeth floated. Other times though, like when I have emergencies, or middle of the night foals, my vet is always at my beck and call. Some days, being married to an equine vet is the best thing in the world (I wouldn't trade him for anything)- other days, we joke about how I picked the wrong type of doctor

Oh goodness. lol thats funny! But I might be willing to wait 2 weeks for FREE vet care! 

Yeah, that's why I can't get *too* upset 

My last job was a receptionist for an equine veterinary practice, who was also an emergency referral/surgical clinic. Really great vets, so they were in pretty high demand anyway, and being an ER referral clinic anything could drop in at any time.

Communication is definitely key. Some vets are better than others at this, and many truly want to see and help EVERYONE and there just aren't enough hours in the day. The office staff can and should help in this area.

As the receptionist, I was usually the first one to know if an emergency was coming in, or an appt was running longer than expected. In those cases, I always tried to call and give following appts a heads up. We always tried to provide options; client could be seen by a different vet, come in later, drop off the horse (we often offered free overnight boarding in these cases), reschedule for another day, or wait if they wished.

If an ER arrived at the same time as a scheduled appt and I didn't have a chance to call ahead, our vets were great at assessing the situation quickly and giving me an ETA so I could discuss options with the client. We had awesome, understanding clients, and much of that was due to customer service.

After waiting 15-20 minutes, somebody should have at least approached you with ETA info, and offered you some options.

I think the longest Ive had to wait was maybe an hour but that was rare and the tech and the vet both told me what was up. I really didnt mind because I was able to observe while we waited. And my horses were unloaded and tied in the shade. I miss that vet but hauling 250 miles to see him isnt exactly feasible. 
Now I did have something happen a several weeks ago that turned me off from using a specific vet. I had an appointment set up several weeks in advance. This vet drives 2.5 hrs 1 day every few weeks and works on horses in the area. Great huh? I was already having second thoughts about this vet when things kind of went south at a previous visit. Id spent alot of money and my mare was still "not better" in her words. The sad thing is, she was/is better but I wanted the ok to start hauling her again. Id been ponying and riding her the last few months but hadnt entered a race. Anyway im off track... So in order for me to make the appointment on time, I have to leave work 2-3 hrs early. Takes that long to get home, change clothes, hook up, catch the horse and drive to where they meet. No biggie.... I lose 3 hrs of work. I purposely set my appointment later so I dont lose more time. At 1pm I get a message saying they were running 2 hrs behind. So I stayed at work about an hour later. I leave work around 2-2:15 and head home. I get home, hooked up and about to go catch my mare when I get a second message.... All my clients cancelled because Im running late but I can still come check your mare. It will be a $150 trip charge and Im still 2 hrs away. Its 3:30 maybe closer to 4 at this time..... I told them to forget it. No way was I paying a $150 trip charge on top of the $300+ that it seemed to run everytime I saw this vet, when it wasnt my fault everyone cancelled...... I was mad. And that was the final straw. I will not use that vet again. 

I took her to Dr. Lee of Double X Equine. He watched her move. Blocked that foot. Said lets inject her bursas and she will be fine. He wasnt lying. 2st run back in 5 months and we were a second off at a salty race this weekend. She felt amazing. Her rider didnt perform up to standards but thats ok. 

It really just depends on that given day at my vets office. I use a rather hight in demand vet that always and I mean always has a line! Sometimes you only have to wait 15 minutes and others I've waited almost 5 hours before. Everyone knows that it's first come first serve so I normally try to leave a bit earlier to get a jump on a couple people in line. My vet is wonderful and I wouldn't trade him for anyone. Yes it's a pain to have to make an entire day out of going to the vet but I wouldn't trust anyone else with my horses. Anytime I have an emergency he is there 11 at night, day after Christmas you name it. I understand that emergencys come up or that people regularly bring in more horses than schedule and that's not his fault. So it's a sacrifice that I'm willing to make yes I have to wait longer than a normal vet office but the quality of vet services by far out weighs the inconvenience.