Sometimes you don’t have two seconds in a busy working day to ring the vet clinic just to ask a quick question about opening hours, how to make an insurance claim or what to expect if your horse has to come in to the clinic. May be you got so caught up when you were chatting to us earlier just have just remembered something you needed to ask before your appointment tomorrow, but now it’s out of hours. Try having a quick look here at our most common FAQs.
If the topic you want to know about isn’t listed on this page, have a check through the menu as we’ve tried to provide as much relevant information as we can online so you can access it at any time that is convenient for you. Still have found what you need? Drop our office or one of our vets an email and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.
Thing about joining us? Strictly speaking we provide complete equine veterinary care across a 30 mile area from the clinic. Having said that we have clients in Richmond, London and Rottingdean, Brighton! Check out our map or ring us to ask more.
Our office hours are 08:00-17:00. Having said that we provide veterinary care 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We do not out source our emergency work, so you are guaranteed to have care from the team that you know when you need it. We believe in being as accessible as possible, so you can find out more about all of our vets, including direct contact details for non urgent enquiries.
We believe in providing you with a professional service coupled with personalised care. At the forefront of this is building and maintaining strong client-vet relationships. It is therefore critical to us to provide you with the vet you want. If you are unsure which vet you would like, our friendly office team will be able to recommend the most appropriate vet suited to your needs for each specific case. We actively encourage direct client-vet contact for non-urgent enquiries; however, emergency veterinary calls are best made directly via the office so we can get your horse treated as fast as possible.
You are required to contact your insurance company and inform them of any changes in your horse’s health status as soon as possible. Although you may decide not to claim for a particular problem initially, if complications were to occur, a claim may then be made. Some insurance companies require you to notify them about a potential claim within a set time frame, and if this is not done, the claim may not be settled.
Consent must be gained from the insurer’s prior to certain diagnostic tests or procedures being performed, so if you’re in doubt ring the company to inform them of the plan for your horse in advance of undertaking the procedure.
Once you have decided to make a claim, the best starting point is to notify your chosen company and request a claim form. Once received you should complete the form, sign your sections and then forward the whole form to us, along with payment for your excess. We will then complete the veterinary section and submit the claim form on your behalf. The invoices for the problem are accompanied by your horse’s full veterinary history and submitted to the relevant company.
We recommend contacting your insurance company prior to submitting a claim to establish if you have any relevant exclusions on your policy that may affect your claim and confirm how much your excess is for the claim.
Whilst we are happy to accept payment direct from your insurance company, please be aware that companies may only over the fees discounted for prompt payment and they will not pay for any interest that has been added to an overdue account. Insurers take the view that you should minimise the costs by using any discount system available. In light of this, it is financially beneficial to you to settle your account before your prompt payment discount is lost and then be reimbursed by the insurance company yourself.
Clients often worry that claiming for a particular problem leads to exclusions being placed on their policy. While, unfortunately, this may well be the case, avoiding making a claim is unlikely to change this. As mentioned above, your horse’s full veterinary history is required by the insurer’s as part of your claim. Depending on the company’s terms and conditions, if the insurers notes your horse has been treated for a condition they were previously unaware of, an exclusion may be placed on your policy regardless of no claim being made. Should the insurer’s feel that the present claim may be related in anyway to a previous problem, the claim may be refused.
Consequently, we recommend you claim on your policy whenever the fees are greater than your excess amount and/or you are likely to incur ongoing costs over a prolonged duration. If you are undecided, it is prudent to inform the insurer’s of this so they are aware a potential claim may arise.
Finally, certain exclusions may be reviewed and removed after a year. If you have existing exclusions on your policy contact your insurers to enquire if this can be re-evaluated. If so, you will need a visit so we can examine your horse and provide the insurers with a written report.
Some insurance companies require a completed continuation claim form to be sent with any further invoices, whereas, others just need any further invoices to be sent on as they occur. If your insurance company requires a continuation claim form this can often be downloaded from your insurer’s website.
It is prudent to keep in touch with your insurer to make sure you know where you stand with your claim and it you responsibility to ensure you provide any further information your insurance company requires.
A nominal administration fee applies for the processing of any new insurance claim; however, we do not charge you for submitting continuation claims forms. Due to growing amounts of written veterinary reports insurers require, and the time involved in producing these reports a separate administrative charge may be applicable
Just as we strive to offer a convenient and comprehensive point of care veterinary service, we offer a similar financial service with a prompt payment discount. 5% discounts available to clients who wish to settle their account at the time of their appointment or subscribe to Go Cardless.
We encourage clients to settle their accounts within our terms of business, and offer a number of methods to facilitate this. However, we realise life is tough financially sometimes, and unforeseen injuries or illness can lead to significant vet fees accruing in a short space of time. In exceptional circumstances we are open to discussion regarding payment plans, so contact us to discuss your situation and we will do what we can to help.
For clients who prefer to settle their accounts as they go we accept cash or cards at the visit and we will even reward you with a prompt payment discount. Often forget your wallet? Don’t worry, sign up to Go Cardless for a direct debit style method of payment and still receive your prompt payment discount! As we are conscious of our carbon footprint we try to email invoices and receipts where possible, but if you need a hard copy we can do that for you too. Equally with our online payment option you don’t even have to remember to post a cheque. Don’t forget, you are always welcome to pop in for a cuppa and make a payment in person. Whatever works for you.
We welcome all veterinary undergraduates going us for their intramural rotation at Lingfield Equine Vets. We have four clinicians who act as Clinical Instruction Mentors and will oversee IMR – Rachel Atherton, Kate Granshaw, Imogen Burrows and Lucy Carmichael, although students may benefit from working alongside all of our experienced clinicians.
The aim of IMR is to develop day one compentences, skills and attributes through their integration and application in a work-based placement providing a safe, authentic and supervised learning environment. We provide a varied first-opinion equine case load with hospital facilities but consider ourselves to be a predominantly ambulatory practice. We have with practical and highly qualified and experienced clinicians who share a passion for personal and professional clinical development. This helps align us with the University of Surrey’s mission to facilitate the transition from student to comfident, competent and compassionate veterinary surgeon.
We want to get to know the individual students during their rotation to ensure we work with you to enhance your experience and provide the best learning opportunities we can. We encourage students to share their strengths and weakness with us at the start of their rotation so we can develop the areas specific to each individual student as needed. We will regularly check in students during their rotation and ensure that relevant and constructive feedback to focus on knowledge, clinical reasoning, technical skills, communication skills, patient care and professional behaviours is given as we go. We also welcome feedback to us as a placement centre to ensure we are able to help you get the best from your IMR.
Our office hours are 08:00-17:00 Monday to Friday. As any veterinary practice we provide a 24/7 out of hours emergency service for our clients. IMR students are supported to get involved with clinical cases and we value and encourage contributions made to out of hours case management.
We have a significant rescue horse and pony caseload and are regularly involved with working alongside the RSPCA and a number of Police departments in these areas. This presents a unique opportunity to experience challenges infrequently encountered in first opinion practice, such as remote tranquillisation, sedation or anaesthesia (darting) of animals; handling of feral horses, intensive care caseload and biosecurity consolations in a clinical setting.
Our caseload varies significantly from week to week. The vast majority of our caseload is ambulatory, although we generally have hospitalised patients. We try to ensure that you get practical experience both in the clinic and ambulatory setting and encourage students to spend time with multiple clinicians. It is useful to identify communicate any specific aims you may have in advance so we can try to help you get the most from your placement.
Reception is easily accessible via a ramp into the main building.
The examination areas are accessed by ramps with no steps, however, some of the slopes are steep and stoney so may not be suitable for wheelchair access
To keep up with our clients’ needs we aim to be able to provide as much of our veterinary care at your yard as possible. Having said that, we also want you to have the best service possible; and that means discussing what techniques or procedures are required in each case and where this is best performed so you get the optimum result. Some cases may require stocks; hard standing; a menage; gallops or stabling – facilities that may not be available at your yard.
It really depends on the what your vet is testing your horse for. In many cases we will be able to report laboratory results within 24hrs; however, some specialist laboratories will run samples in batches and so there is a little delay before the results are ready. For accurate advise regarding a specific test, please ask your vet at the time of the sample and we will be able to prepare you accordingly.
We want our patients to have the best level of care, so we are happy to work closely alongside your EDT to ensure any work is safely and thoroughly performed. We strongly advise that you ensure any dental work is being performed by a suitably qualified and experienced Equine Dental Technician, before arranging any visits. Sedation is commonly used in equine dentistry to ensure the mouth is thoroughly examined and treated, although sometimes it may be required if more advanced work is needed, even in the best patients. We are happy to attend the visit and sedate the horse as needed; however, we will ask at the time of booking who is performing the dental work and for what purpose is sedation required. For further queries or to discuss your needs in more detail give us a call.
Many of our clients do not have their own equine transport, so we strongly recommend having a few numbers at hand for times of emergency should you need to move your horse to the clinic for further treatment. If you have friend’s with transport you can borrow, fantastic; however, in the middle of the night it can be a tough ask. We have a list of numbers we can pass on to you should you need to arrange transport, who provide DEFRA approved equine transport services. Please ring the office to find out more.
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