This is a design mockup. Fielding Road Animal Hospital is an invented business. Every name, number, address, price and clinical statement on this page is a placeholder.

Fielding Road Animal Hospital

Richmond, Missouri. Forty-one years, two veterinarians, small animals in the building and large animals on the farm.

(816) 555-0137

Sorted by how fast your animal needs to be seen.

Almost nobody arrives at a veterinary website to browse. You are frightened, it is probably after five o'clock, and you want one question answered before anything else. So the page is built around that question and nothing is above it.

One thing worth saying at the top, because people ask each other rather than asking us: half of what we see is cats and dogs. A practice with a cattle chute out the back is still the right place to bring a kitten, and the appointment book has always been split about evenly.

Right now, tonight, do not wait until morning

Call before you leave the house so someone is there when you arrive

  • Gums are white, grey or bluePress a thumb on the gum. If the colour does not come back in two seconds, go.
  • A male cat straining in the litter boxCrying, going in and out, nothing coming. This is a blocked bladder and it kills in a day.
  • A big dog with a hard, swollen belly, retching but bringing nothing upBloat. Hours matter. Deep-chested breeds most of all.
  • A seizure lasting more than three minutes, or a second one within an hourTime it. Do not put your hands near the mouth.
  • Hit by a car, kicked, or fallen, even if walking normally afterwardsBleeding inside is quiet for the first hour.
  • Ate rat bait, antifreeze, a lily if it is a cat, grapes, xylitol gum, or your medicationBring the packet. Timing changes the whole treatment.
  • Cannot get up, or the back legs stopped workingEspecially in dachshunds and other long-backed dogs.
  • Laboured breathing, neck stretched out, open-mouth breathing in a catCats do not pant. A panting cat is an emergency.
  • Whelping or calving stopped for more than an hour with more still insideOr straining thirty minutes with nothing showing.
Call (816) 555-0137

The same number after hours. It rings the phone in the house, and one of the two of us answers it. If we cannot help you here we will tell you that immediately and send you to the emergency hospital on North Oak, which is 35 minutes.

Today, but it can wait for the morning

Call at eight and we will fit it in the same day

  • Vomiting or diarrhoea going past 24 hoursOr any vomiting in a puppy or kitten, where it is much more urgent.
  • Not eating for two daysIn a cat, not eating for two days causes a separate liver problem on top of whatever started it.
  • Holding a leg completely off the groundLimping and still using it can usually wait. Refusing to touch the floor cannot.
  • An eye that is squinting, cloudy, or being rubbedEyes go from treatable to permanent quickly.
  • A wound that is open, or a bite from another animalPunctures close over the top and abscess underneath. They need cleaning out.
  • Drinking and urinating far more than usual, over a week or twoThe three usual causes are all manageable if caught, and all bad if left.

This week

Book it, and please book it rather than watching it

  • Scratching, chewing feet, head shakingEars and skin are most of what we see. It is rarely one bath away from fixed.
  • Bad breath, or dropping food out of one sideDental disease is the most common thing we find and the most commonly ignored.
  • A lump you have not felt beforeA needle sample takes ten minutes and settles it. Most are nothing.
  • Stiff getting up, slow on stairs, not jumping onto things any moreOwners call this "getting old". Usually it is arthritis and it is treatable.
  • Losing weight while eating normallyCommon in older cats and worth a blood panel.
  • Behaviour that changed suddenlyHiding, snapping, house soiling. Sudden behaviour change is usually pain.

At the next routine visit

Write it on the back of an envelope and bring the envelope

  • Vaccinations and the rabies certificateMissouri requires rabies. Bring the old certificate if you have it.
  • Spay or neuterWe will talk through timing rather than give you one number for every dog.
  • Heartworm test and preventionYear round here. Mosquitoes in this county do not read the calendar.
  • Nails, anal glands, a weight checkTechnician appointments, and cheaper than an exam.
  • MicrochipFifteen minutes, and it is why farm dogs come home.
  • The questions you keep meaning to askFood, fleas, whether the older one is in pain. Bring the list. That is what the time is for.

What the routine things cost, printed.

People put off bringing an animal in because they cannot picture the bill. These are the real numbers for the ordinary work. Anything more than this, we quote before we do it, and we call you if the quote changes.

In the building

Examination, one animalHalf price for the second animal at the same visit.$58
Dog vaccinations, annual setDistemper combination, rabies, kennel cough.$96
Cat vaccinations, annual set$78
Heartworm test$42
Spay, dog under 50 lbIncludes anaesthetic, monitoring, pain relief and the recheck.$295
Neuter, cat$135
Dental cleaning, no extractionsExtractions are quoted from the X-rays, with you on the phone.$385
Microchip, registration included$45
Nail trim, technician appointment$18
Euthanasia, in the buildingIncludes sedation first, and as long as you want afterwards.$135
Euthanasia, at your houseWithin 20 miles. This is worth doing and we would rather you asked.$225

On the farm

Farm call, within 20 milesOne fee per stop, however many animals. $2.50 a mile beyond.$65
Pregnancy check, cattle, per headPalpation. Ultrasound is $6 a head.$4.50
Bangs vaccination, per head$16
Dehorn and castrate, per headPrice depends on age and size, this is for calves under 300 lb.$22
Caesarean, cow, on farmIncludes the drive out at any hour.$425 to $600
Prolapse, uterine or vaginal$250 to $400
Horse dental float, standing sedation$185
Coggins test and health certificate$68
Sheep and goat herd work, per hourPlus the farm call. Usually cheaper than per head for a flock.$110

There is a payment plan and you do not have to be in a crisis to ask for it. Ask at the desk before the work, not after. We also take CareCredit, and we will tell you honestly when a cheaper treatment is nearly as good, because on a farm that is usually the right answer.

The truck is a different practice with the same phone number.

Mixed practice means two businesses under one roof, and they behave nothing alike. In the building we run appointments. On the farm we run a route, which means the answer to "can you come today" depends on where the truck already is. Tell us your road when you call and we can usually tell you straight away.

What we ask of you before we arrive: have the animal caught and in a place with a gate that latches, have a halter on the horse, and have somebody there who can hold. A vet standing in a field waiting for a cow to be brought in is the most expensive part of the visit and it is the part you can remove.

Calving and foaling calls come first, at any hour, ahead of everything routine. That is the arrangement and it is why a Tuesday appointment sometimes moves. If yours moves, we will telephone you rather than let you wonder.

Provisional photograph. The truck with the box open at a working chute, early, frost still on the pens.

Late winter into spring

Calving. Scours in the young calves. Foaling. First round of spring vaccinations. This is the busiest stretch of the year and the one where we are hardest to reach in daylight.

Late spring

Turnout work, castration and dehorning while the flies are still down, breeding soundness exams on bulls. Book bull exams early, everyone wants the same fortnight.

Summer

Pinkeye, foot rot, fly control, horse dentals and Coggins for the show and hauling season.

Autumn

Pregnancy checking, weaning shots, pre-conditioning for the sale barn. If you want cattle checked before the November sales, call in September rather than October.

You will not get a phone tree.

Two veterinarians, four staff, one line. In the day it is answered at the desk and at night it rings in the house. If it goes to voicemail we are already on another emergency, so leave the message and we will call you back as soon as our hands are free.

Monday to Friday7:30 to 5:30. Surgery in the mornings, appointments from 1.
Saturday8 to noon. Appointments only, no surgery.
Sunday and nightsEmergencies only, same number, one of us on call.

2740 SE Fielding Rd, Richmond, MO 64085
Gravel drive past the grain bins, second building, park anywhere.