If you ring the Donegal Animal Vet hospital in Letterkenny you are greeted with a messaging service.

“The fee to have an emergency treated after 6pm and before 9am reflects the additional expense incurred hiring an on-call locum vet which are in very short supply,” the message says.

“This fee is a minimum €200 for an animal seen at the animal hospital and €500 for an animal on-farm and can be paid in cash or by credit card or by debit card. Our normal fees apply from 9am to 6pm on the seven days a week.”

The emergency vet service supplies you with a Dublin number to ring at the end of the message which “will put you in a queue of emergency calls to the on-call vet”.

When the Irish Farmers Journal called that number we were asked for our name and contact details so that the on-call vet could return our phone call.

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