Do I pay my vet bill - for their mistake

I agree with Polldark, poor condition could have delayed his testicles descending and f high up the vet could easily have missed them.
If he was that poor then had she said he was still entire and testicles not descended you would have to have waited anyway as there might have been a higher risk for him.

Pay your bill, vets are only human and a misdiagnosis is not uncommon.
 
CBFan said:
erm... so if she had said 'no he's not been castrated' you'd have still had to pay out for the castration as you'd already got the horse.... so yes, you should still pay for the castration but I wouldn't be expecting to pay for the scan of the mare as it was down to their mistake that the mare was ever exposed to an entire...
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This is what i agree with.

Very frustrating for you though, and the mares owner.
 
We all expect our vets to turn up at a moments notice, 24/7/365 when we need them. In exchange prompt bill paying is polite and the right thing to do.
I bought a poor pony from some people and when he was jabbed asked the vet to check he had been done. She said yes. He then proceeded to shag anything that stood still so I had the vet out to check and did a rig test, all confirmed he was fine just a bit above himself. If she had found bits the second time I would still have to pay to have them off, as the timing was different, not the issue. I would not have expected to pay any vets fees for a foal though, or scans on the mares.
 
Had the vet confirmed that the horse was not gelded on the first examination you would have had the same bill. You had the choice to have him gelded or not and you chose to have him gelded. You are responsible for the bill.

If you have been charged for a scan on the mare, I would be refusing to pay that based on the fact that the vet gave incorrect information initially which led to him and the mare being out together and making the scan necessary
 
missellie said:
the point to me is very simple..I asked a qualified equine vet if the animal had been castrated and she examined him replied..YES

when we bought him we were told he was a gelding and we asked the vet to check him over..because he was crawling in that area, I dont think she checked properly or thoroughly...what I mean by I would of gelded him anyway is the fact that it didn't matter that much to us whether his balls were there or not we just wanted him but we were on the understanding he had been cut...

Even months after when I rang the practice to speak to her..and the quote he has found life...no that she should arranged to visit and check him over..surely that would of been that right thing to do.
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This is so utterly unreasonable that with your small posting record I am beginning to think you are a troll.

If you did not have the horse vetted before purchase, shut up and pay the bill for castrating a horse that would have had to be castrated in any case.
 
I would say you're liable for the cost of the gelding but not the scan - any costs arising directly from the mistake should be borne by them. However, if you've left the bill for four months I think you've left it far too late to start quibbling, to be honest!
 
If I was in your situation and had asked the same questions, then I would be asking the same question as you and I would expect the Vet to waiver to cost.

I think it is unacceptable for a Vet to 'mis diagnose' whether a horse had been castrated or not. They are the professionals, which you are paying for, so they should foot the bill, in this case.

I have very good Vets myself, but sometimes they push me to the limit ......
 
Eaglestone said:
If I was in your situation and had asked the same questions, then I would be asking the same question as you and I would expect the Vet to waiver to cost.

I think it is unacceptable for a Vet to 'mis diagnose' whether a horse had been castrated or not. They are the professionals, which you are paying for, so they should foot the bill, in this case.
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It would have made no difference to OP buying the horse if he was entire or not, she's already said that. The cost of the castration would have happened anyway, and if the balls have only just dropped (as surely any half experienced owner would have noticed before - it's not really something you can miss surely?!) then he couldn't have been cut any earlier anyway, without going in surgically which would cost £££. It is absolutely NOT the vet's fault that OP has to pay for a castration.

Would tend to agree with the majority that you should not have to pay for the scan, but if you haven't bothered to pay them or raise a dispute for 4 months I would highly hope they chase you for the entire bill.
 
rhino said:
It would have made no difference to OP buying the horse if he was entire or not, she's already said that. The cost of the castration would have happened anyway, and if the balls have only just dropped (as surely any half experienced owner would have noticed before - it's not really something you can miss surely?!) then he couldn't have been cut any earlier anyway, without going in surgically which would cost £££. It is absolutely NOT the vet's fault that OP has to pay for a castration.

Would tend to agree with the majority that you should not have to pay for the scan, but if you haven't bothered to pay them or raise a dispute for 4 months I would highly hope they chase you for the entire bill.
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The cost of chasing non payment raises the bills of everyone who uses the practice.
 
Yes you are liable for the cost if the gelding.
Yes vet got it wrong but you still had the procedure which you didn't have to have.
Maybe they could waver the cost if the scan as you turned him out with a mare thinking he was a gilding due to the vets mistake.
But apart from that....

Vets are only human.
 
Goldenstar said:
Do you mean money that never gets paid at all ?
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Vets can't keep working if they aren't being paid, so either they go out of business or the prices go up for everyone, you can't continue to write off debts when they are running in to the tens of thousands for a small practice. It's not uncommon for markups to increase purely due to non-payers, especially in smaller practices.

Some of the debt recovery places are not expensive to use and add their own charges on top which I think is perfectly fair. I don't think it is acceptable to only be querying something months down the line; if the OP had raised it at the beginning it is far more likely that the vets would have compromised IME :)
 
So the rest of us get to pay in the end , I know our vet uses a debt collection company ( not because they are always calling at the house !!!! ).
 
If I were interested in buying/taking on a 2yo gelding, the first thing I would do would be to check that he was castrated and not still entire. So I'm more puzzled as to why you did not notice that he was entire when you clipped him out.
 
Goldenstar said:
So the rest of us get to pay in the end , I know our vet uses a debt collection company ( not because they are always calling at the house !!!! ).
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Yes. I expect larger, more established vets are in a better position but it was unbelievable. If anything the practice I worked at was too lenient, it was not uncommon for procedures to be done 'at cost' if the owner genuinely was struggling and they would agree for payment in installments, or carry out simple procedures (bandage changes, antibiotic injections) 'on the way past' etc. People continued to take the piss though, and yes it meant that everyone else ended up paying more. Insurance claims were the other main issue.
 
As most of the other posters have said, you are absolutely responsible for the castration bill. For those of you who disagree - what you have to realise is that when the vet initially examined the horse the testicles clearly hadn't dropped yet. It's pretty unusual for a colt to not have dropped by 2 years, so it's almost understandable that the vet declared him to be a gelding. Perhaps, on hindsight, a disclaimer would have been in order regarding the small possibility of undescended testicles, but either way you are left in the same situation. You wouldn't have been able to castrate him any earlier, as the testicles need to have dropped in order to castrate. You could possibly ask for the scan fee to be waved as a gesture of goodwill, but the castration fee is all yours and frankly I think it's outrageous that you think you don't need to pay it!
 
The scan fee, no, not liable.

But definately the castration.

You've already said it didn't matter to you if he was entire, so your choice to then have him castrated is your own and therefore your bill, and yours only. If you hadn't had him castrated there wouldn't have been a bill to be liable for.
 
4 months? Really OP? :rolleyes:

Yes, the vet was wrong, but you would hae had to pay for gelding anyway? No, you shouldn't pay for scan fee, but really, just because she made a mistake that you would have had to pay for anyway, you don't want to pay? You have a pet, you're responsible for any costs incurred ultimately... I'm afraid I'm not very sympathetic and don't really understand :rolleyes:
 
No, that's fine OP, no need for you to pay the money you owe. I am sure the rest of us will only be too happy to pay the hike in costs that people like you cause.

All the mis-diagnosis resulted in was gelding at a later date. Do you never get things wrong... obviously not. Do you not think that crawling under a lice ridden youngster, probably with undescended testicles due to his poor condition, allows for a little error of judgement? It certainly seems to have taken you one heck of a long time to realise for yourself that he was entire, even when other people were questioning it.

Pay up and shut up. Why the heck should the rest of us carry you?
 
I thought a blood test on the colt would have been the best way to check for gelding? Certainly if the mare had been pregnant her owner would have had a claim on the vet but sorry no you cannot get the gelding done for free. Actually sounds like the poor little chap had a bit of a lucky reprieve - keeping hold of them and not having to go through an op whilst in that kind of condition probably helped him out.

Oh and OP - please ignore the other posters who are being abusive and rude - unfortunately this seems the normal way to behave on here when they believe they are right! You are obviously angry and upset - I believe you have had a bit of a lucky escape from an unwanted pregnancy - but no harm done!
 
Did you see his balls when the vet showed you the "scar"? No you didn't. You seem to be forgetting that the vet is human too.
Just be grateful you haven't got a pregnant mare on your hands and pay the bloody bill that you would have had to pay anyway.
 
mcnaughty said:
I thought a blood test on the colt would have been the best way to check for gelding? Certainly if the mare had been pregnant her owner would have had a claim on the vet but sorry no you cannot get the gelding done for free. Actually sounds like the poor little chap had a bit of a lucky reprieve - keeping hold of them and not having to go through an op whilst in that kind of condition probably helped him out.

Oh and OP - please ignore the other posters who are being abusive and rude - unfortunately this seems the normal way to behave on here when they believe they are right! You are obviously angry and upset - I believe you have had a bit of a lucky escape from an unwanted pregnancy - but no harm done!
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Normally I would agree with you. But if you read the whole thread the OP continues to argue that she shouldn't have to pay in spite of several very polite explanations as to why she should. Sometimes you need to be fairly blunt to get a message across, I had no idea of her unwanted pregnancy and not sure if it is relevant to the thread or the sort of thing that should be dragged up from elsewhere and used here.
 
Ladyinred said:
Normally I would agree with you. But if you read the whole thread the OP continues to argue that she shouldn't have to pay in spite of several very polite explanations as to why she should. Sometimes you need to be fairly blunt to get a message across, I had no idea of her unwanted pregnancy and not sure if it is relevant to the thread or the sort of thing that should be dragged up from elsewhere and used here.
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Ah! LadyinRed - so why are YOU going on the defensive about abusive postings I wonder?? Oh and the unwanted pregnancy was the mare! Not the OP! Crikey - keep up!
 
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