contraversial vet rant

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popsicle

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My yard friends and I are all in agreement that since out friendly long-term vet left our local practice, that almost all of the remaining vets are far too interested in making a meal out of any treatment necessary. Our old and trusted vet used to say things like. "Well you could have tests done, but even if they found the cause, the outcome would be the same" But the vets nowadays just seem to be more interested in if you are insured or not and if you are, It feels like they are trying to scare you into sending your horsey away for all the tests under the sun. Now I totally realise in todays "blame culture" they are worried about being sued if they don't cover all eventualities, but today they seem more like sales people than carers. Also there is only one vet at our local practice that seems to have any idea about horses, the rest just seem to be small animal vets who all give DIFFERENT opinions. AAAgghhh!! Rant over. No doubt this will cause offence to some vets, so Sorry if you are not this type of vet!!
 
Frustrating for you. My vet practice is excellent. I had them out last week and he basically confirmed what I suspected. He said well we could scan him but you'd just see lots of pretty spiky pictures (he has arthritis) and it wont change anything. What a star!!
 
I guess you are very lucky. It is just so frustrating, that next time I need them and they ask if I am insured, I will lie and tell them no. Then they may suggest a sensible option.
 
I moved from one vet because their first question was always 'is the horse insured?'. If it was they would really take the p1ss and charge for loads of extras. My friend spent £3000 and still no diagnosis, including paying 'their' physio to just stand and watch for a 2 hour consultation. I know facilities are expensive and i dont mind paying for a good job but i do object to vets that insist on tests and extras that arent needed. My new vet is fair, which i appreciate.
 
I agree, I have found vets these days do tend to go for more tests and scans etc, but younger vets have trained to use all sorts of fancy/expensive equipment, older vets did blood counts for viruses or infections or if it was lame felt for heat and that was about it!
One of my goats was under the weather once, nothing specific but just lethargic, the old guy that came out from the vet college got her onto her feet and then chased her round the yard for five mins (it was pretty funny) She was fine afterwards, it motivated her digestion and gave her something else to worry about rather than laying down and dying. Not something a load of tests would have achieved!
 
I have a vet like the one you used to have, he is fantastic, precribes or tests if really needed, but not if there is not much point. He always gives cheap but effective methods of treating. Not once has he asked if we have insurance.
 
can you change your vet?

we changed from our regular farm/ small animal vet to an absolute top specialist horse vet - you'd think it would cost a fortune.
In reality, their call out is less, they are far more responsive and friendly, and often do themselves out of a fee by being reasonable and saying something might not be value for money.
I think, possibly, we are such small fry to them, they realise that we are not going to have pockets as deep as some of their clients!
 
We have a terrific local equine vet practice and they are brilliant. Sensitive, caring, experienced. Can't fault them. Don't be too hard on vets for asking if a horse is insured. After all, it's their livelihood and if a big bill was run up and the owner had no means to pay, people would say that was wrong too. What I try to do is learn as much as possible about my horse's problem and the treatment options so I can have a reasonably informed conversation with my vets. I have always found that once they can see I am interested and trying to understand the benefits or not of a particular treatment, they will bend over backwards to go through it all with me.
 
That is an interesting view as quite often on here you find people saying their vet felt their horse was not lame enough to nerve block, or it wasn't worth doing a scan at this point. Often the same people post later about chronic or severe injury that was not picked up early enough.

Having lost a horse that was not scanned or xrayed properly early enough (he may not have recovered anyway but never got the chance) I like vets who err on the side of caution and investigate quickly. That is why I have the best insurance I can find/afford on my horses.

I think it is a matter of "taste" and I like a fully equiped up to date proactive vet!
 
Looking at it from the other side if you are insured you only get one hit at claiming so to speak for that problem. Surely it is better to do everything you can under insurance to sort that problem than just do the bare minimum, claim then find out a year later you have the same problem which you are now not insured for?
 
Good point - It is amazing how quickly the time runs out from first calling a vet to the one year exclusion time. My vet is always very aware of this and aims to do as much as possible within the time. I expect this is why premiums are so high but I have had £5,500 in fees, plus his insured value when PTS (would rather have had the horse), the other horse over the last 6 years has had approx £9,000 worth of treatment for 3 or 4 different problems
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. I think it is good value!!!
 
I've been here recently...had one vet who made a diagnosis that turned out to be wrong, but had barely investigated...then got a second vet who totally went to town on finding out what was wrong and found every tiny small niggly thing, I ended up going from one problem to five!!

I have actually lost my faith a bit in the latter vet....there is always a suggestion of what to do next to solve my mares lameness....the insurers are being difficult (to say the least) and I'm left horrendously out of pocket as a result. Cant help but thinking I should have said no a few times to the vet, but at the same time, as someone else has said, when you only have a year to find otu whats wrong its easier to go for it than risk running out of time.

Dont get me wrong, my current vet is great, but always wants to solve the problem - see a post I have just done in NL - when sometimes you have to admit defeat and either PTS or retire/make comfortable.
 
Yep that is very true about always wanting to solve the problem. Our vet advised my daughter he could medicate her horses SI joint and spine in 3 places as well as medicate his hocks - which would of course need repeating. This was for a horse with known collateral damage in both front feet and hind suspensory problem in one leg.
Interestingly when she said she had decided to retire him for as long as he was comfortable the vet said "good choice". I think they get on a "treadmill" of "must treat" and don't like saying they have come to the end of the line. The horse concerned was only 10 so I kind of understand where he was comming from....
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I'm pretty lucky really. My mare has a long-term and VERY expensive problem so my vet knows I haven't got the cash to splash about - I've already poured it by the bucketful into his practice for the last 11 years!!! Last month the silly old thing had one of her episodic "period pains" and was in so much pain she actually lay down in the field which I haven't seen her do in at least 5 years. This was despite having regular medication for arthritis, the drug we have is actually used for women with severe mentstrual pain. I called my vet out and of course, the dratted animal got up and felt better 5 minutes before he arrived! He examined her and said there was no evidence that she was in any pain but I asked him for a shot of buscopan just in case the pain came back again later. But he certainly didn't press me to have it. Previously, when he first diagnosed her arthritis, I asked him about the joint injections, but he told me in no uncertain terms not to waste my money on them. He knows I would do ANYTHING for my horsey, but he was right. £100 a shot and they only last a few weeks. So we keep her comfortable with antiinflammatories and supplements.
 
I have a brilliant vet - but I do agree with your sentiments about some vet's or practices.

But I also think that we as owners play our part in this. We can do our own research in to our horses problems, which will enable us to engage in more informed discussions with our vets about options and treatments etc.

Experience plays a large part in decions we make too.
 
I appreciate what you are saying and am trying to train myself to become the sort of vet who only does what is necessary!
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(That said, if I don't get off HHO and do some revision, I may not become any sort of vet!
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)

But, in defence of others- we are pretty much taught to ask if the horse is insured, because it enables us to think about which possible treatments are going to be viable, money-wise. Also, as someone has said above, many insurace policies will only cover a condition for a year, so it's best to do as much as you can as quickly as possible, rather than leaving it until it's too late to find out that it's a trickier case than you first thought.

So please don't write a vet off just because they ask you about insurance! It is important to some clients, who's options would be very limited without insurance, and we are taught never to assume that a client can/cannot or will/will not pay for treatment, so it's best to assess the situation at the beginning.
 
[ QUOTE ]
I appreciate what you are saying and am trying to train myself to become the sort of vet who only does what is necessary!
smile.gif
(That said, if I don't get off HHO and do some revision, I may not become any sort of vet!
crazy.gif
)

But, in defence of others- we are pretty much taught to ask if the horse is insured, because it enables us to think about which possible treatments are going to be viable, money-wise. Also, as someone has said above, many insurace policies will only cover a condition for a year, so it's best to do as much as you can as quickly as possible, rather than leaving it until it's too late to find out that it's a trickier case than you first thought.

So please don't write a vet off just because they ask you about insurance! It is important to some clients, who's options would be very limited without insurance, and we are taught never to assume that a client can/cannot or will/will not pay for treatment, so it's best to assess the situation at the beginning.

[/ QUOTE ]

It is good to have the other angle on this point
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I am very lucky, as the two partners at my Vets I trust with my horse's lives and they have also been very frank and straight talking to me, even to the extent that they have said things I do not want to hear
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. But saying that, I realise they are telling me the worst case scenario and with this in mind I have been able to make good decisions without having my hopes built up too much
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When Motor went down with Cushings Induced Laminitis over 3 years ago, I asked one of the partners for their personal opinion, as to what he would do and he said PTS
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.... I then made my own judgement, after hearing everything he had to say and I still have Motor here with me today, it was a long up hill struggle but we got there
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. But I valued his opinion
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They always asked if they are insured though and as you say, I understand this is so they can give you all the options available.

Hope all goes well with your studying
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I totally agree with you. Since our excellent mixed practice vet retired and sold the practice to some one who only treats small animals, we have really struggled to find a good equine vet.
One practice overcharged enormously when they changed their billing system from paper-based to computerised, they were even sending same-named customers' bills to the wrong addresses
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That practice were also instrumental in losing us a foal, although one of the partners did his best and even aplogised for going on holiday and leaving the numpty to come out to us.
Another well-known equine practice treated a 6-yr old which had to be pts and only recently the farrier who was also involved in the case mentioned, completely unsolicited, that he thought the practice was at fault (something we've always believed).
The vet we are currently reluctantly using is a good vet and uses accupuncture and chiropractic very effectively but he is the only equine vet in the small practice and was unable to come out one Saturday morning when we had a dire emergency.
In fact a vet from the 1st practice actually came out, was unable to do anything but ring the knacker for us (we don't blame her at all).
So now we are wondering if for expediency, because this is a much larger practice and there will always be emergency cover - although you might get the 'gerbil expert' on Bank Holiday Monday!- we should go back to them
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So Popsicle, you have all my sympathy.
 
I lost a horse many years ago because I didn't have him insured (colic 12 days after purchase so not covered). The vet didn't tell me/give me the option of an expensive treatment that 'could' have saved him (stegantox) the bill was 2k anyway and I'd already told him that he was to be treated as if he was insured - I had the money/access to the money at the time.

After 4 days I gave up and horse was pts, I'd spent all 4 of those days living in the stable with him and it took me a long time to get over losing him. It was only the next day after pts that I was chatting to another vet that I knew well, and he was suprised that the drug hadn't been tried. Can you imagine how I felt knowing that he'd had a chance right at the start, but vet took not insured at face value?

I never used that practice again, but took it no further, the stuffing was knocked right out of me. RIP Princep.
 
I have today been to my vets to rant about one of the vets as I began to wonder if they were on a commission. This is work they want to do on a new born foal so not an insurance pay out!

I think i will be changing vets for routine stuff in future.
 
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