FAQs

You pay a monthly premium to the insurance company and in exchange, if your pet becomes poorly and needs veterinary care, the insurance company will refund you the costs of this treatment, subject to the terms of their contract with you.

If you need to make a claim, our office will help you fill in a claims form. All insurance policies take one excess per condition claimed for and some policies take a percentage of the remaining fees in addition to this.
The premium paid will depend on the company you choose and the cover you request. A major consideration is whether to choose ‘lifelong cover’ or ‘annual cover’. You must also be careful to read the small print as some insurance companies can refuse, for instance, to pay for hospitalisation fees and some companies prove difficult to contact once you make a claim. Sadly, we are not allowed to advise you specifically on providers.

With Annual Cover, your policy will only pay out for 12 months from the first time your pet had symptoms, or symptoms that could be related to the disease claimed for. These policies can be very frustrating for the owner. They are in my opinion good budget policies and better than nothing BUT you must understand the limitations of the policies.

With a Lifelong Policy, should the illness last more than 12 months, for example arthritis, the policy will not stop covering your pet 12 months after the first presentation. Lifelong policies are much better BUT cost more. You get what you pay for! Our advice would be to search out a Lifelong Policy and several companies now offer these.

We understand the reason many people have taken out pet insurance is to better budget for unforeseen expenses. Therefore, we offer an option wherein the owner pays us the excess due and can sign the claims form over to us. However, there are a couple of companies we have had very poor experiences with, unfortunately, if your policy is with one of these companies, then this option will not be open to you. We are happy to advise you of this before we proceed with the work.

It is worth noting that an excess is taken for each condition claimed for AND once yearly in addition to this. The year is taken on the policy anniversary.

If there is doubt as to whether a policy will pay out, you can request a pre-authorisation from the company and we can help with this.

Martin & Carr is a private veterinary practice and receives no state help. The fees charged pay towards the building and running costs, the staff salaries, investment in the most up to date diagnostic equipment, staff training and continued education.
For up to the minute quotation of fees, please ring our reception on 01386 553631. We are also happy to provide a quotation for any work we propose to do for you.

Here at Martin and Carr Vets we have chosen to partner with Vets Now, the leading provider of out of hours care, to make sure you have access to high quality care at night, weekends and bank holidays.

Vets Now are the equivalent to an accident and emergency department, they will take over from us when we close in the evenings and over the weekend. It is always best to call us first as we will either be there to answer your call, or will have an answer machine message with Vet Now's details for you. Vets Now can give you advice over the phone and arrange immediate appointments to see you if required.  We will continue to provide overnight/weekend care for any inpatients at the surgery.

In the event of an emergency, either before or after the 1^st December, please phone the surgery on either 01386 553631 or 01386 41360.  Have a pen and paper to hand as there will be an answer machine message with the on call providers phone number on it.

                                                                                      Please see the Emergencies Page for more details

Pre booked appointments only. 

Please contact us to book an appointment. 

We understand sometimes a home visit may be necessary. There is an extra charge for this service as inevitably it takes up more time for our staff.

We reserve the right to judge whether a home visit is safe for the attending vet to perform.

Insurance companies will rarely pay for home visits.

Please phone the surgery for further details.