If your pet is registered with the Cambridge RSPCA Clinic, you should phone the emergency number given on your registration card if you think your pet needs to be seen before the next regular session.
In an emergency owners who are on benefits and whose animals are not registered with an RSPCA clinic may be given some financial help to attend a private vet so that their animal does not suffer. To contact the RSPCA to ask for help, phone the emergency control centre on 0300 1234 999 as they will be able to put you in touch with your own local branch.
At present, the Cambridge branch is only able to offer very limited help with the cost of treatment at private vets because we do not have sufficient funds. This is why it is extremely important that you should register your pet with our clinic so that they are eligible for help in an emergency. You can register by bringing your pet to the clinic for a check-up or vaccination at any of the standard sessions. Vaccinations can also be given at the extra session on Wednesday mornings. They cost £7 for a rabbit and £10 for a dog or cat. Checkups cost £7.
If you are not on benefits, and are looking for details of out of hours vets in the Cambridge area you should phone the vet you normally use. All vets have arrangements for out of hours cover and their message system will give details of this. If you are not registered with any vet, we suggest you phone your closest vet (their number will be listed in Yellow Pages under the heading "Veterinary Surgeons"). In Cambridgeshire, most practices use "Vet24" to provide out of hours cover, so, if you cannot find the number of your local vet, you can phone them direct on 0845 500 4 247.
Find your closest local vet (not RSPCA). This link will take you to the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons website where you can enter your postcode to find the vet closest to where you live.
If you cannot get to our Cambridge clinic we suggest that you contact the PDSA on 0800 731 2502 to arrange to register with them, as they provide cover for Ely and Newmarket. If you are a homeless dog owner you can ask your local homelessness organisation to arrange for your pet to be registered with the Dogs Trust (020 7837 0006).
Our animal clinic in Cambridge is open to owners on means tested state benefits (including Working Tax Credit), State Pension (with no additional source of income) or disability benefits. We cannot accept child tax credit on its own as this benefit is paid to almost all families with children. There is a basic charge of £7 plus the cost price of drugs and operations. Registered patients of the clinic may be seen outside normal working hours in an emergency and will be issued with a card which gives access to the emergency system.
Users of the RSPCA clinic must bring proof of benefits or paperwork such as a bank-statement which shows that they have a very low income each time they visit the clinic. If you are unable to bring your pet yourself it's fine for a helper to bring them for you, but the helper must show proof that you are in receipt of benefit and needs to have a signed note from you confirming that they are bringing the animal on your behalf.
Vets are listed in Yellow Pages, Thomsons Directory and the Phone Book under the heading "Veterinary Surgeons". Outside normal working hours all surgeries will give an alternative number to contact in an emergency if you phone their usual contact number. If your pet is not registered with any vet it is generally best to phone the surgery which is closest to you. Be aware that many surgeries have agreements with other local vets to share emergency cover, so you may need to travel to the surgery whose turn it is to be "on-call".
Remember that vets are small businesses and have to charge in order to pay their staff wages and other costs of running a surgery. Most of them cannot afford to allow credit because they have too many bad debts from owners who did not make any attempt to pay off what they owed.
There is usually an extra charge to cover staff overtime if your animal has to be seen outside normal working hours (for most vets this applies to treatment after 6.30 Monday-Friday or between mid-day Saturday and Monday morning.) If your animal is ill during the week don't run up extra charges by delay. Nearly all veterinary surgeries have a nurse or trained receptionist who will at least be able to give some advice if you phone. Be aware that it is unlikely that a vet will be able to come out to your home and that it is important that you plan what you will do about transporting your pet to the surgery. If you are unsure whether your pet's symptoms are likely to mean something serious, such as being hit by a car, it is best to get advice from a trained person - again don't delay asking for help until everyone is running on their out of hours service.
Your pets depend absolutely on you to provide care when they are ill or injured. Before taking on the responsibility of an animal think ahead. There is no NHS for animals and animal charities are not rich enough to provide free treatment for all. If you really cannot afford the full cost of treatment there is help available but you must be prepared to pay at least part of the costs involved. If you cannot even afford the cost of routine vaccinations then you should think hard about whether you are really able to take on the responsibility of owning an animal.
No vet will refuse to treat your animal simply because you are on benefits, but they may well be reluctant to see you if they think you are not going to make any effort to find the money to pay them what you owe. This is not because they don't care about animals, but because they can't afford to pay the wages of their nurses and buy in the drugs needed to treat animals if there is no money coming in.
If you are not on benefits, you might still struggle to afford treatment if your pet was seriously ill or had an accident. Pet Insurance, such as the RSPCA pet insurance scheme can relieve some of the burden, although you do need to be aware that insurance does not cover routine treatments to prevent illness, such as vaccinations.
The amount of help we can afford to give via private vets is very limited in relation to the cost of emergency treatment. If you are on benefits and your pet has never been seen at any vet, we strongly advise that you register him/her with the clinic so that he or she is eligible for treatment in an emergency. If your pet is a dog, cat or rabbit they need to be vaccinated, and if you get this done at our clinic they will then be registered in case of emergency.
If you cannot afford the cost of veterinary treatment, you should think long and hard before getting more than one animal. Some charities can only afford to treat one animal per family and require that any others must go to a private vet. We have not yet reached the point where we have to do this, but it could well happen in the future if too many people ask for our help. You should also ask yourself whether you can afford the cost of a pedigree or very large animal or whether it would be better to put the money you could save on buying the pet towards planning for possible vet bills.
You can view our full policy document on help with veterinary treatment costs.
Flow Chart to show how requests for help with veterinary treatment are handled
Dogs Die in Hot Cars. In hot weather never leave any animal shut in a car - most furred pets are much less able to survive high temperature than we are.
