Has any1 had bad experiences with out sourced out of hours vet companies that r outside your usual vet's hours?

I've had good and bad experiences. The cost is of course very high, but if it's an emergency, you have no choice. If you have more than one ER vet clinic, you may want to ask around and find out which is better. If you only have one, well, you may need to just take your chances.

I recently had a dog who needed to be on an IV overnight. My vet wanted him to go to the ER clinic. I suggested he come home with me on the IV. I have a nurse next door and she helped me set up the IV. I got no sleep, but I think my dog was more comfortable and certainly got better one on one care.

Another option, if you are close enough to a veterinary college is to bring your dog there....again, expensive, but the one I've used in California gave wonderful care.

Not sure where you are, but in the UK the vast majority of vets cover 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Many big vets cover this themselves and the smaller ones get together and take it in turns to cover each others clients.

Get to know your vet and ask this question about what happens in out of hours need for vet treatments, if they have none change your vets as you can be sure that when you really need a vet it will be a Sunday evening at 11pm.

i know they can be a LOT pricier. There is one about 2 min from my home, that charges 150 just to be seen (doesn't include any tests). Unless it's a life or death situation (i.e my dog is bleeding to death) i will drive the half hour to the one that is owned by my vet, that is open 24 hours.

i had a very good experience. when my pup had tick paralysis our normal vet told as to take her to the pet ER to be monitered as if they vomit as they have no control of the muscles in their throat and therefore some could go in their lung and thy can develop pnemonia. anyway. they took great care of her and clearly all the people must have talked to her as when we picked her up they were all exclaiming about how she is the sweetest little pup. they also told us to call when we got home and then that night and then that morning. as they knew it would be comforting to know how she was doing. then when she was almost better they had as ringing every hour as they made sure she was absolutly ok to go home.

then to make matters even better they charged us $100 less than they quoted!

No bad experience, just really expensive. I have used them on several occasions when our vet was closed and our dogs were sick. They were life savers literally.