Body Freezers

Re: Body Freezers

Caro Laithwaite VN — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 11:58:33 GMT

Aingy they have had details of a supplier for months now.

Re: Body Freezers

Angiy Michael — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 02:46:26 GMT

We have 4 chest freezers..find them a bit of a nightmare really lifting in and out.. especially with my crappy back , we leave very heavy dogs out..they also get pretty gunky and messy and aren't practical to clean plus the lid hinges break easily. The best systems I have used have been the walk in freezers..two PDSA's I worked at had them..much easier , no dangerous lifting, easier to clean and to organize but expensive to set up intially..plus you need ones with a emergency release on the inside for obvious reasons

Re: Body Freezers

Royalsuper_fairy — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 16:38:56 GMT

We've gota convential chest freezer that gets full quite quickly, the crem guys empty it for us. Until the day we forgot to ring them to tell them we have a st Bernad in there so there was only one (Opps!) so he left it in there including all the bodies afterwards so by the following week he had two BIG dogs to collect we had to take the first out the freezer as was frozen, and place the second one in there to freeze it and then take the second dog out on the Tuesday night so every thing would get collected! We learnt our lesson there!

Re: Body Freezers

wobbliebob — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 15:34:59 GMT

We have just one big chest freezer. luckily the people who collect the waste are very good at helping us lift stuff in and out.

Re: Body Freezers

Bethany Leonard - Williams RVN — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 17:39:04 GMT

We have large chest freezer and more often than not it is us nurses that have to heave great big pets into it but if the boss is around we get him to do it as the other male vet is smaller than most of the nurses! it is emptied by our crem guy and if there is a particularly large animal that wont fit in they will pop round and collect it on the same day

Re: Body Freezers

Mandy James — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 16:49:55 GMT

We have a large freezer that is pretty much filled on a daily basis. Our body man collects daily. The weekends can be a nightmare becuase we have no collections. The freezer was full by Saturday afternoon the last weekend I worked, with a Great Dane being the last one in. One of the male vets had to re-arrange things to get it to fit in. When that happens, we have to leave them in the same room as the freezer & it does get very cold in there, but, during the Summer we have on occasion taken all frozen bodies out, to fill with new ones & hope they don't defrost before the Monday collection.

Re: Body Freezers

Maria Mahon — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 14:51:36 GMT

We've got..what I'd say maybe a medium size? freezer in a large shed in the garden for deceased bodies and clinical waste. Lifting isn't too much of an issue as there is usually enough people around to assist if needed. Any large bodies e.g. Great Danes, St. Bernards etc. we leave on the floor by the freezer and ring the waste collection company to inform.

Although saying that, one morning we all came in to discover a PTS'd St. Bernard in the lab, as the vet & nurse who had been on the previous eve, thought it'd save lugging the body to the shed and then back again to help get into the cremation company car (we use Dignity)!

Re: Body Freezers

Faye Sewell — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 23:56:39 GMT

[quote user="A Little TLC"]

We have 3 or 4 chest freezer for smaller animals, and a walk in freezer for the biggies. Tends to be all hands on deck and a wheelbarrow or two!!

[/quote]

Blimy thats alot !!??

Re: Body Freezers

hissycat — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 10:39:59 GMT

we have a freezer but anything enormous gets left out because it wouldn't be fair to expect the body man to lift it out.. luckily we have collections twice a week so not too much of a problem. In my last practice everything went in, the body man would lift out even the biggest dog with one arm.. amazing! We'd have more luck trying to levitate the bodies than to get a male vet to lift in our practice! :)

Re: Body Freezers

A Little TLC — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 13:56:18 GMT

We have 3 or 4 chest freezer for smaller animals, and a walk in freezer for the biggies. Tends to be all hands on deck and a wheelbarrow or two!!

Re: Body Freezers

Rachel Jayne — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 13:18:25 GMT

We have a freezer. We keep bodies, body bits & infectious waste in it.
It's in a shed attached to the outside of the building.

The boss or our male locum vet usually helps lump big bodies in - the burly crematorium man lifts them out.
Just before Christmas we had to PTS a 67kg Newfie, which wouldn't fit in it, so we had to call teh crematorium to do a special collection, cost us £30 which was passed on to the client in the charge for cremation.

Re: Body Freezers

Caro Laithwaite VN — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 22:36:20 GMT

If anyone is interested a company my other half deals with is a refrigeration company and they have built a lot of walk in fridges for companies and vets.

Re: Body Freezers

Faye Sewell — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 22:10:03 GMT

[quote user="nicky shoult"]Dont they smell in the summer being left in the garage cos surely that gets hot??[/quote]

No as its a outside building with no insulation so dosent get hot inside!, although we have only been open 18months so have only had one summer and that wasnt hot!!!!!

Re: Body Freezers

nicky shoult — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 22:01:10 GMT

we have one and the clinical waste man always empties it- unfortunately we have no men to help us at our practice!!

The only trouble we do find is when a patient goes in whilst the owner hasn't decided re cremation and then you have to get it out again to change bags etc- but if that does happen we always make sure that 2 people heave them out or we wait til the body man collects them and then change the bags.

Dont they smell in the summer being left in the garage cos surely that gets hot??

Re: Body Freezers

Christine Chapman — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 21:49:08 GMT

We take the bodies directly to the crematorium ourselves which is only 20 minutes drive away. Sometimes the owners prefer to do this themselves. If we are too busy we just ring the crem people and they come and collect them for a minimal fee.

Re: Body Freezers

Jenny Cook RVN — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 21:07:42 GMT

We have a walk in fridge, so it can get a bit smelly until it gets collected on monday evenings after we close. Thing is, our vetscan rotas are also kept on a shelf in there if out lab fridge is full, so when we need more we have to shift bodies and climb through them to get to the shelf, lol.

When i did work experience a few years ago they had a big deep freezer and big dogs had to be removed, the other animal put in and the big dog put back on top, this was a nightmare not to mention hurting your back.

Re: Body Freezers

Sparky — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 21:05:16 GMT

We have a body freezer but it's not massive-its in a shed type thing attached to the practice where our washing machine and our drier is.

We have to ring the creatorim if there is a dog over 35kgish and if we have a lot of pts our freezer can get pretty full

Re: Body Freezers

Faye Sewell — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:49:50 GMT

[quote user="Charlotte says smile"] but if we have anything over 35kg then we have to phone the crematorium to let them know that its there so they can bring assisstance or arrange for one of us to be there.[/quote]

Ares have started to charge £50 if they have to send an extra member of staff for lifting over 30kg!.

Thanks for the replys so far x

Re: Body Freezers

Vicky RVN — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 18:29:08 GMT

We have a large cold store which you can walk into so no probs with lifting bodies in. The other day we had a great dane so i phoned the crem company to let them know so they could send two drivers to collect the body. They said they only have one driver! He said he'd let them know so one of us could help him (he normally comes about 5am), but he didn't come when we were around (the night nurse was in bed at that time!) so he must have managed on his own. God knows how cos it was hard enough to get the poor dog from her kennel to the chiller which is outside with three of us!

Re: Body Freezers

Charlotte says smile — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 17:41:13 GMT

We do struggle sometimes to actually get the really large animals into the freezer, but there is usually someone to help. when the man comes to collect the bodies he empties the freezer but if we have anything over 35kg then we have to phone the crematorium to let them know that its there so they can bring assisstance or arrange for one of us to be there.

Re: Body Freezers

Fiona Leathers — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 16:57:08 GMT

The body man empties ours but he's currently off work with a bad back !!??!!!!!

Re: Body Freezers

F1chick — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 16:48:43 GMT

We have one and the clinical waste man empties it

Re: Body Freezers

Saskia Quinn — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 16:41:12 GMT

We do have one Faye, we are lucky that when it needs emptying etc, the boss normally does it or asks one of the vets to do it.