Blasted vets incompetence

JennBags

JennBags

HHOSS Wonder Woman
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21 May 2002
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Feeling really very fed up right now. Sorry, bit of a rant & loooong story! Chocs and wine for anyone who gets to the end - will try to be brief!

3.5 months ago my horse fell over with me in the school, was OK that day, but the next day came in lame. Put him on box rest, and had physio out to him. After a couple of weeks it was clear that it was not going to be one of those lovely quick fixes, so had the vet out & then he went in there. Firstly, a full lameness workup and nerve blocks, and they said it was stifle/pelvic area (which my physio & I had already worked out).

So another week, and back in for bone and ultrasound scans. They then THINK that he may have a stress fracture on his hock - this came as a surprise as it really didn't seem to be his hock that was the main problem, although there was (after his trip to the vet, not before) a lot of heat.

Back home, box rest until the end of December when he seemed really quite a lot better. Still lame, but no heat in the hock. Started turning him out for an hour or two a day, and hand-walking - and he really improved, to the point where I thought I might even be able to be on him by the end of January. Very sore around the stifle area though.

Then one day hand-walking him, he got away from me, and had a bit of a hooley round the school - and went back to being hopping lame, so back to the vets last week for more xrays and scans.

They now identify the stifle as being the problem area - so he has to have an arthroscopy - so instead of collecting him last Saturday, I left him there thinking his operation would be Monday/Tuesday this week. They then schedule it for today (Thursday).

They put him under General Anaesthetic - and then they find out their arthroscope is badly scratched and they can't go in to diagnose his problem.

So he has undergone a risky GA for absolutely nothing - and I need to take him back the WEEK AFTER NEXT!!! to go through it all again. And he has been there for 5 days longer than he needed to be - I will be arguing the toss about paying the hospitalization for that period most definitely.

To make matters worse, my lovely old boy is also lame and on box rest. Grrrr!
 
Suggest you change your vet. Hopefully the time will soon come when they stop believing that they are beyond reproach and us horse owners are too stupid to relalie that the only thing they are concerned about is milking as much money from us as possible.
If you find a good (really good) physio (perhaps trained by Narelle Stubbs) and a first class farrier then it's best to leave the vet well alone when it comes to cases of lameness.
 
What a nightmare :(

I would definitely recommend mayes and scrine - I wouldnt have anyone else for mine, and they 110% saved my mares life when others would have given up !
 
Well it would have been good for them to have checked their equipment prior to the GA I agree.

But such is life, I guess.
 
I would not expect to pay for the extra hospitalisation and I would expect a discount for the arthroscopy to cover the hassle/extra risk, but other than that I don't think your vets have done much wrong. Sounds like your horse has a complicated diagnosis but they have been trying to get to the bottom of it and, although unfortunate, everyone can experience an equipment failure like the scratched arthroscope.
 
Just got him home, he seems very happy to be back :-)

They are not charging me for the arthroscopy - or the additional hospitalisation so that's good. I know they haven't done anything terribly wrong, I agree that these things happen - just wish they had checked first before putting him through the GA. I feel that 3.5 months after the accident, we should be a bit closer to a diagnosis, and having spent a week worrying about whether he is ever going to come sound again, I now have to wait another 2 weeks because the senior vet is going on holiday!

Had been thinking of taking him to Liphook next week instead, but on further consideration, I think continuity of the vets may be better for him - although Liphook do have an excellent reputation.

@classicalfan - it's a bit more complicated than physio & shoeing - it's a possible ruptured cruciate ligament, but until they go in, they can't give a full diagnosis.
 
yikes-dont get me started!

i'm 5 months in, £4000 down and still no diagosis. I have to agree with the poster who said about the physio and farrier. in my case both (also chiro) have been more helpful and done more good than my vets plus the specialist vets. as they cant find out what's wrong with mine i dont hear a thing from them anymore. 5 months off, lots of physio, farrier and chiro and mine is sound.
 
it sounds like you've come to a fair deal with them but i can see your frustrations.

my boy went into Liphook last yr for stifle investigations. He had to go in for a bone scan first, then wait till he wasn't radioactive until they could do more with him except they scheduled bone scan for Wed, so it was Sat by time he was ok to do stuff but that's the weekend so then had to pay for hospitalisation over wkend with him stood doing nothing. Then they couldn't fit him in for surgery on Mon so had to wait till Tue. They did waive the hosp fees for the Mon but it was still a lot of money to pay for him standing around and he was in for 8days altogether whereas if bone scan had been on Mon he could have been in theatre by Thur and home on Fri!

Anyway, I hope for your sake it's not his cruciate as that's what my boy has and we're now nearly a year after he went lame and he's just coming back into trot work but I'm not convinced he's sound and all I keep seeing on his insurance forms is poor/guarded prognosis :( He's only 9 and it looks like his career is over :(
 
amymay said:
Well yes, but if you'd had the vet straight away you would be......
Click to expand...
I spoke to the vet on the first day, and she agreed that we should wait a week or 2 and have physio in case it was going to be something that could be fixed easily. His first vet's visit was less than 2 weeks later, and he then was in for the first lameness workup within 3 weeks of his accident.

Star - I have been reading some of your posts with much pain; I'm really sorry to hear about your boy. Mine is also only 9, bought as an eventer as my old boy is now 28; was really looking forward to our first season together this year :-(
 
it was a month between my horse going lame and going in for work-up. He was a super fit hunter right at the end of the season - there was no way I was going to put him straight on box rest when I discovered he was lame. He had 2 weeks of field rest first, still lame so got vet no.1 (or no.2 if you count me) to have a look but neither of us could work out what was wrong so rang Liphook and had to wait another couple of wks till they could fit him in for a full work-up. Vet there took one look at him and said his stifle was swollen (doh - i hadn't even seen that, but then neither had the equine vet i'd called out to him). Anyway, dont feel bad about trying rest/physio first. I had the physio booked for mine too until I realised it wasn't something they were going to be able to sort and got the vet instead.

Have been doing trot work for nearly 2wks now - has been feeling quite wonky but spoke to vet and he said that's normal when he's had nearly 11mths not trotting with a rider on. He said to keep going gently and see what happens. Well today he felt much better so I am feeling slightly more optimistic for now. We will just have to wait and see what happens now. Already made up my mind he wont hunt again though which is such a shame as he was such an amazing hunter.

Good luck with everything. Keep us updated with what they find.
 
This probably won't make you feel much better, but it does take a while to diagnose these things:

T: time between first problem and diagnosis of bilateral stifle OCD, 2 months
R: time between loss of impulsion/gait problems and diagnosis of back problem, 2 years
R: time between onset of bridle lameness and diagnosis of tooth problem, 2 months

Sometimes it's just not that easy to figure out what is going on.
 
it depends where in the county you are as liphook won't come that far into west sussex and you would have to get a referral from your vet practice. do you mind pming me which vets it is? i think i can guess but would like to know if you don't mind.
 
Thanks for your positivity Star - gives me hope after all. Will try to keep you updated - I am very good at lurking but not so good at posting! Will be following your updates with great interest.

Booboos - sounds like you've really been going through it - was that 3 different horses?

Lady Rascasse - I spoke to Liphook who were fine to do it - but I decided that continuity would be better after all. I am sure that you know who the vets are! I don't want to name them publicly - it was just human error after all, and they have been very good about it. Just was very frustrated that he'd undergone this procedure unnecessarily and I still didn't know the prognosis!
 
I wish you the best of luck!

I have posted 'reluctance to go forward in trot' and seem to be having something similar. Mine got forgotten in the evening feed and totally freaked out in his stable. Since then he has been unable to go into trot properly on a circle. I called the vet on the day and then waited to see if just a tweak and would be ok. It isn't and even with the physio and chiro he has received and vet visit I am not any closer. He is sound on a straight line and I have been told I can hack him. He runs about in his field and looks sound and seems happy in himself.

I am waiting for a call from the vets as I am taking him into them this week. I use Scott Dunnes as I am close to them but I would also recommend Mayes and Scrine. I found Ben Mayes really helpful and good to deal with.

Best of luck... I'd love to hear what happens to yours is it does sound similar (ish) to mine and I'm looking at all possibilities!

Again - good luck with it all - i totally feel your pain. I was planning on aiming him at a few intros this season..!
 
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