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Emergency vet in London at night: what to do
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The short answer
Ring your own vet's normal number now. Out of hours it should divert to the emergency provider or play a message; ring before you travel, ask what it will cost, and take your insurance details.
Something is wrong with your animal, it is the middle of the night, and you are searching for an emergency vet.
Stop searching and ring your own vet’s normal number. There is a professional rule behind that advice, and it is the most useful thing on this page.
If your animal is struggling to breathe, bleeding heavily, collapsed, having a seizure, unable to urinate, has a swollen hard abdomen, has suffered a road accident, or has eaten something you believe to be poisonous — ring now and travel now. Do not wait for morning and do not wait to read the rest of this page. We are not vets and this page gives no clinical advice; the whole point of it is to get you to someone qualified faster.
The rule that tells you where to go
Under the RCVS Code of Professional Conduct — the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons is the regulator for the profession in the UK — “all veterinary surgeons in practice must take steps to provide 24-hour emergency first aid and pain relief”.
Two clarifications in the Code make this immediately practical:
- They do not have to provide it personally. Vets “are not expected to remain constantly on duty”; they may direct clients to another appropriate service, and that arrangement is supposed to be made in advance and confirmed in writing.
- They must tell you what the arrangement is. The Code requires practices to make “full details of their 24-hour emergency cover provision” publicly available, via their website or otherwise — including telephone numbers, where to go, availability, the nature of the service, and the likely initial costs.
So the information you need at 3am is something your vet is professionally obliged to have published. You are not looking for it. You are collecting it.
Is this immediately life-threatening?
Ring the emergency number now and say you are on your way. Ringing first matters — it lets them prepare, and they will tell you whether to travel to them or to a different site.
Still ring your own vet's normal number. The out-of-hours message or service will tell you whether to come in tonight or wait. Triage is their job, not yours.
There is no third branch where you sit and search the internet. Ringing is faster and better informed than anything you will read, including this.
What to do, in order
- Ring your own vet's usual number. Out of hours it will either divert to the emergency provider or play a message giving you that number. This is the arrangement the Code requires them to have.
- Check their website if nobody answers. The emergency cover details are required to be published there.
- Say what is wrong, plainly, and ask whether to travel. Do not set off before you have spoken to someone — the emergency provider may be at a different address from your usual practice, sometimes a long way from it.
- Ask what it is likely to cost before you leave, if you can. Practices are required to publish likely initial costs, and out-of-hours fees are substantially higher than daytime ones. It is a fair question and they are used to it.
- If you have no vet at all — a new pet, a stray, a friend's animal — use the RCVS "Find a Vet" register to find a registered practice near you and ring the nearest one. Anyone who answers is bound by the same obligation. findavet.rcvs.org.uk
What to have ready before you ring
It makes the call shorter and the triage better.
- What happened, and when. Times matter more than descriptions.
- What your animal has eaten or been exposed to, if that is the question. Keep the packet.
- Species, breed, rough age and rough weight. Dose calculations need weight.
- Current medication, including flea and worm treatments.
- Your insurance details and policy number, if you have cover.
- How you will get there. Many taxi and minicab firms will not take animals without notice — say you have a pet when you book, and take a carrier or a lead.
- Your vet’s name and practice, so the emergency provider can request records.
What “24-hour hospital” actually means
The phrase is used loosely, and the differences matter at 3am.
| What it means | Overnight | |
|---|---|---|
| Your own practice | Normal daytime clinic | Not reliable |
| Out-of-hours provider | A separate service your vet has an arrangement with, often shared between practices and sometimes at a different address | Usually |
| RCVS-accredited Veterinary Hospital | Must have team members on site at all times for inpatients — but the person there overnight is not necessarily a vet. You will be asked to sign that you understand the overnight care level | Always |
| “Emergency” in a business name | A marketing description, not an accreditation | Check live |
The question worth asking on the phone: is there a vet on the premises now, or on call? Both are legitimate; they mean different waiting times.
If your animal is kept in overnight, read the consent form. Since 2021 the RCVS has required accredited Veterinary Hospitals to get owners’ signed consent showing they understand the level of overnight care — which tells you exactly who will be with your animal.
How to verify any practice, including one you found through an advert: the RCVS publishes a register of practices and of individual veterinary surgeons. Check the practice on Find a Vet. That register is the authority — a claim on a website is not. This is the same discipline as checking a tradesperson.
What changes after midnight
- Your practice is closed but its obligation is not. The number still leads somewhere.
- The address may change. Out-of-hours cover is often at a different site from your daytime clinic.
- Costs rise sharply. Out-of-hours consultation fees are much higher, which is why the Code requires likely costs to be published.
- Getting there gets harder. No Tube, and many cabs refuse animals without notice.
- Nothing about 999 applies. The emergency services do not attend animals; the exception is a genuine danger to people or a road traffic incident.
24-hour vets we could check, by area
Ring your own vet first, as above. If you need somewhere to go, these London practices say on their own websites that they are open 24 hours. We read each page on 1 October 2026, and each name links to it so you can check it yourself.
| Area | Practice | Address | Telephone | What its own page says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Central | Elizabeth Street Veterinary Clinic Elizabeth Street Veterinary Clinic is an independent surgery providing diagnostic, surgical, and life monitoring services for small animals. |
55 Elizabeth Street, Belgravia, SW1W 9PP | 020 7730 9102 | Open 24 hours. |
| Central | Medivet 24 Hour Kensington Medivet 24 Hour Kensington is a veterinary practice offering services including vaccinations, surgery, imaging, and healthcare plans for cats, dogs, rabbits, and small mammals. |
1-5 Gloucester Road, Kensington, SW7 4PP | 020 7584 2019 | Open 24 hours, 365 days a year. Out-of-hours consultation fee of £130; no charge for assessment by phone. |
| Central | Village Vet Hampstead (Belsize Village) Village Vet Hampstead is a veterinary practice offering primary care, advanced surgeries, exotic pet care, consultations, and emergency services for pets. |
Belsize Village, Hampstead, NW3 4AX | 020 7794 4948 | Its opening-hours table lists every day, including bank holidays, as Open 24 Hours. |
| North | Medivet 24 Hour Hendon Medivet 24 Hour Hendon is a veterinary practice offering emergency care, surgery, imaging, and various pet health services for animals. |
89-91 Watford Way, Hendon, NW4 4RS | 020 8202 6344 | Open 24 hours, 365 days a year. |
| North | Pawvet Clinic Pawvet Clinic is an independent veterinary practice offering emergency care, vaccinations, dental treatments, surgeries, imaging, and laboratory services for pets. |
65 Colney Hatch Lane, Muswell Hill, N10 1LR | 020 8194 3335 | Its page is headed 24/7 Emergency Vet Muswell Hill. |
| East | Wanstead Veterinary Hospital (Goddard Vet Group) Wanstead Veterinary Hospital provides general practice services and specialist emergency care for pets including consultations, vaccinations, surgeries, and diagnostic tests. |
84 New Wanstead, Wanstead, E11 2SY | 020 8989 7744 | Open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Its fee list shows an emergency fee of £302.56 every day from 10pm to 8am. |
| South | Medivet 24 Hour Beckenham Medivet Beckenham is a veterinary hospital offering emergency care, surgery, referrals, and treatment for cats, dogs, rabbits, exotics, birds, and small mammals. |
8 Foxgrove Road, Beckenham, BR3 5AT | 020 8650 2003 | Open 24 hours, 365 days a year. |
| South | Medivet 24 Hour Camberwell Medivet 24 Hour Camberwell is a veterinary hospital offering emergency care, surgery, imaging, and various pet health services in London. |
7 Kenbury Street, Camberwell, SE5 9BS | 020 3816 1010 | Open 24 hours, 365 days a year. |
| South | Streatham Hill Veterinary Surgery Streatham Hill Veterinary Surgery is an independent veterinary surgery offering veterinary services, emergency vetcare, health checks, hospitalisation, surgery, and medicine. |
101 Sternhold Avenue, Streatham Hill, SW2 4PF | 020 8674 3525 | Calls itself a 24-hour veterinary surgery, seven days a week. |
| West | MyVet 24-7 This veterinary clinic offers consultations, vaccinations, diagnostics, surgery, therapies, hydrotherapy, and home visits for pets. |
25-28 Pield Heath Road, Hillingdon, UB8 3NG | 01895 271444 | Offers emergency appointments 24/7. |
| West | Wolfe Vets Fulham Wolfe Vets provides veterinary services including consultations, vaccinations, surgery, diagnostics, and emergency care at clinics in Chiswick and Fulham. |
297 Wandsworth Bridge Road, Fulham, SW6 2NY | 020 3011 1205 | Its 24-hour hospital is the Fulham site. Its Chiswick clinic sends emergencies to Fulham. |
How these were chosen. One test only: the practice’s own page states 24-hour opening and gives a London address. This is not a ranking or a recommendation. We cannot judge the quality or the cost of anyone’s care, and we take nothing from any practice named here. Some practices’ websites block automated readers, so we could not check them and they are not listed. Not being listed says nothing about a practice. Opening arrangements change, so ring before you travel and ask the likely cost. The RCVS register remains the authority.
Money, honestly
Out-of-hours veterinary care is expensive, and pretending otherwise would not help anyone.
- Ask the likely initial cost on the phone. You are entitled to, and practices are required to publish it.
- If you are insured, ring the insurer’s claim line too — some will pay the practice directly rather than making you claim back.
- If you genuinely cannot pay, say so when you ring rather than not ringing. Some charities provide subsidised treatment for owners on qualifying benefits, and practices know which ones operate locally. An animal in pain at 3am is a welfare matter, and not ringing is the worst of the available options.
- Refusing to let an animal suffer is a legal duty too, under the Animal Welfare Act — so this is not only about kindness.
The one-line version
Ring your own vet’s normal number. Every UK practice is required by the RCVS Code to have a 24-hour emergency arrangement and to publish it, so that number is the fastest route to help — faster and more reliable than any search. Ring before you travel, ask what it will cost, and take your insurance details.
Sources
- RCVS Code of Professional Conduct — 24-hour emergency first aid and pain relief, source of the obligation and of the requirement to publish cover details and likely initial costs
- RCVS — Find a Vet, the register of practices and veterinary surgeons
- RCVS — guidance on 24/7 emergency cover
- RCVS, 28 May 2021 — Practice Standards Scheme updates, Veterinary Hospital staffing and overnight-care consent
We are not veterinary professionals, we give no clinical advice, we do not rate any practice (the ones named above are there only because their own pages state 24-hour opening) and we take no payment from anyone. Checked: 22 September 2026. The named practices were read on 1 October 2026.