fed up with misdiagnosis and callous approach

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sodslaw

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hi. I recently had an unfortunate incident where an abscess on my horse was misdiagnosed as "just a passing insect bite". About week later we had to rush the horse to the vet's clinic to get it lanced as the horse started to refuse to eat and was in a great deal of pain. During this time I have called the vets several times telling them that it was getting worse and even sending pictures via email (at which point I was told that it probably got kicked:eek:!!), but they were too busy to come out.... On the way to the vet the horse's travel companion kicked the inside of the trailer slightly skimming its hock. At the surgery the vet decided to heavily sedate the companion for the journey back. (I could not go along as had to stay home with child and cannot drive the trailer:() On the way back the sedated horse badly injure his other leg as he was now drunk from the sedation. When I called the vets the next day re this horse they were again "too busy". My horse is now frightened of the trailer and tries to lie down when the trailer starts to move. Luckily the horse with the abscess made a full recovery. But I am furious with the vets. What do I do??? I have missed several competition as a result of this!
 
Sorry but I would change my vets. What vet says he's too busy to attend a callout? God this has made ME furious. And sedating a horse prior to travelling? WTF?
Sorry I'm not being very helpful, someone will be along soon who will give some pertinent advice, I'm sure
 
hi i am sorry to hear your story, i would change your vets, i work in a practice and would never turn clients away no matter how busy, i would also not expect this from my equine vets ethier, my vets are always on the end of the phone for advice and will always come when called, how is your horse niow and the horse that was injured whilst sedated? pm if you want
 
Thanks for the reply. Its good to know I'm not the only one feeling furious about this. I will definetly change vets. But in the mean time I am left with the mess they made!! The horse that won't travel now is a very talented, very sweet individual whom I've nursed back from a back injury -something else they initially missed -and he is my competition horse!!!:( Just don't know if I can report them to any governing body before they do this to someone else? I really don't want to talk to them anymore.
 
Racebuddy: horse who had the abscess is completely healed and totally unfased about all the panic, but don't want to put him back in trailer with panicy horse as I'm worried he would get injured. My other horse loaded fine today and then freaked when we moved, literally centimeters. I might try him this afternoon with a bit of Ace P, on his own in the field with the partitions out and see if he's ok. We were on our way to competition today, but had to WD. He's got a long eventing history and has always been a good traveller.
 
sorry to hear that hope he starts to travel better for you i would certainly get another vets though to help keep us updated on your progress. best of luck
 
Very poor service from your vets.
I would not expect to have to take horse in just to have an abscess lanced either:confused:
Your other horse may now be a problem re. travelling having been sedated,did he really need it if used to travelling?
I would consider a phone call to RCVS they were helpful and advised with a concern I once had.
I hope your horse gets better with travelling.
 
Why did they sedate the other horse? Who did they ask? They wont just have sedated it before travelling home without someone with the horse either asking for it, or agreeing to it? Horses get sedated to load (and concequently travel!) a lot without any problems appearing,so unfortunately it sounds like yours was just unlucky that it overbalanced?(or Jensen Button took it home ;) ) its a shame that yours has had a bad experience and its affecting it now, but you are talking about sedating it again yourself - maybe giving it a calmer (one of those "instant" ones??) would be a better idea then at least its not sleepy?
Mind you - if they really did refuse to go out to you, then thats unforgiveable IMO - and would be enough on its own to change, if an owner thinks the problem is bad enough that they want a vet, then a vet should go !!!

If you are that fed up with your vets, then yes - change. There are plenty out there, customers dont have to put up with service that they dont trust, you need to have 100% confidence in your vet.(and likewise, they do us too!!)

sorry if that sounds like a barrage of questions and accusation, you are in a horrible situation now, whatever the reason its happened - i dont mean it to!!! Hope your horse remembers good things about travelling soon - its horrible when you cant explain to them.
 
Racergirl@ The other horse got sedated because it scraped its hock on the side of the trailer on the way to the vets-only a skin graze -, but he is a bit of a wimp so would have been a bit upset by that. The track down to the surgery is windy, so all the vet could hear was that he was kicking. My husband was there and he is not a horsey person really, so was trusting the vet's opinion all the way. My horse does not do well with injected sedation, but is absolutely 100% with some Sedaline. If you inject him he sweats up badly, drools, falls over etc... all of which the vet has seen before because he injected him before to X-ray his back. In some respects my vets have been brilliant, but I do feel that I have been treated with almost contempt in the last 2 cases. I pay good money for their services and always pay on time! I gave my horse 2mls of Sedaline this pm. He seemed bright, but without the edge. We did lots of in and out of trailer, then closing in, rocking the trailer etc. When I was sure he was ok, we drove around the field slowly and he was brilliant! Will do the same again tomorrow (minus Sedaline) and if all goes well will introduce travel companion back in. I hate sedating my horses, but it is necessarey every so often as I live near a RAF base who occasionally get jets coming in!;)
 
I was refused a Saturday call out too - pony was unable to move, or eat and was violently shaking Despite wearing four rugs and hair falling out in clumps... But it's "an allergic reaction it was to be expected"... Bearing in mind I had to ask for bloods to ne taken two weeks earlier when I was wasting y money as she wi be dead in 24hours.... He was goig to PTS in 72 but was certain she wouldn't be standing... I'm about to go and ride her now - it was heart failure in the first place.
 
Popularfurball: that is awful!! Did you change vets after that? I really feel there should be somewhere where behaviour like this could be reported! I don't want to take anybody to court or see their business destroyed etc, I just want there to be a record, so that if it happens again to somebody else that there is a governing body that can pull them up on it! The reason we call a vet in the 1st place is because we are worried and care about our horses! believe me, at the prices vets charge just to get to the yard I wouldn't mind if I never need another vet here ever!
We were told to bring the horse to the surgery so that the vet could X-ray him... he never did. I really feel that if we didn't have to travel, my other horse wouldn't have all this trouble now:mad:
Glad your pony is ok now. Did you ever find out what was the matter?
 
I can hardly believe there are vets like this still in business, it certainly makes me realise just how good mine are! More than once I've called them out of hours or at a weekend because one of mine (who's colic prone & has a long history of problems) isn't quite right & they've always come out quickly, without a grumble, checked him thoroughly & stuck around until he seems ok. They don't even charge extra for out of hours calls! In an emergency we've also called them out to horses that aren't registered with them - either visiting liveries from outside the area or when we haven't been able to get hold of owners to get their vet's details - & again they've always come quickly.

The thought of having a seriously ill horse & a vet that refuses to come out makes me shudder - you really need to change vets straight away.
 
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i've had a bad experience with vets and it's only after the event that you stop and think about how you've been treated and realise it's not been the best of care.

the vets in my case were absolutely shocking, they wouldn't investigate my horses lameness and just kept messing me about, they also told our friends daughter that her horse was a picture of health, this horse collapsed in the field several times due to not having any food or water for a few days (the daughter was too lazy to get the buckets that had blown away), i had her horse in my stable to rest and recover, the day after that horse came in her pony collapsed, again you could see all the ribs and they were in such poor state my step daughter took photos and reported her to the BHS.
the vets said there was nothing wrong with the weight of the horse or pony and they looked fit and healthy (she was investigated for neglect by BHS and her parents had very stern warnings, a fine and guidance for the future).

i felt the vets didn't give a rats ass about our horses because we weren't rich and into competing in a big way, i'm not the only person who has said that about the practice.

however same practice but different vet and he spotted my horse having liver fluke and was VERY supportive throughout and was always on the phone checking how things were going.
i've changed vets and couldn't be happier with how the vets speak to me about my horses conditions/problems or the level of care they give to my horse, they don't always come out but they do know that if i ask them to then it's needed and not me being over cautious/sensitive.

change vets and see who is recommended and why, the vets that let me down are recommended on a regular basis but alot of people have left them for the other practice i'm with now because they've seen the difference in the way they deal with horses and the owners.
 
Nari -you are very lucky! I know you probably can't tell me on the forum, but wish I could find some vets like yours. It is so hard when you change, because they all seem to be working together in an area and you always worry that you might be jumping out of the frying pan into the fire!!
 
Yes, i had already changed from them last summer after I wa refused biopsies and they told the insurance company that "owner is non compliant with treatment". I had a gut feeling the treatment would not be beneficial. And I'm glad I stuck by that. In hindsight it quite probably would have caused her to go into shock, if not die. I called them out this time as they knew her previous problems and would be best placed to make a PTS call... It turned out after changing vets, having a totally baldnpony and the biopsies I wanted done, I was right all along. She has a very rare autoimmune disease. Injecting allergens would have been the worst thing I could have done.
 
OP I think you should change, but first (or second!) write a letter to the senior partner of the vets' practice and list all the things you were unhappy about. Not coming out because they were "too busy" doesn't sound like a well run practice at all. To keep putting you off while your horse was getting worse. Nightmare for you.
I would be furious that the sedated horse had an accident. I know there are different levels of sedation, but I am more than surprised that they just loaded him up again before he had properly come out of it. I think you have a lot to be cross about - and they are going to be asking for some money soon for their "treatment."
 
I don't know any equine vet that would consider sedating a horse, that they are not even treating in the first place, for travelling home...

Nor do I know a vet that would accept pictures of a client's horse from an email attachment and proceed to carry out a diagnosis solely from that.

That is unprofessional practice from just reading this ,however, there are two sides to every story and there seems to be some missing parts.

Sorry that this comes over so cynical.
 
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Hi that is appaling behaviour from your vet. I'm not sure where you are based I am in North Lincs and would be happy to send you the contact details of our vet he is brilliant. As for how your vets behaved I am with the others and would be sending an e-mail to the head of the practice detailing you experience or asking him to confirm there attitude to making an emergency appointment and also details as to why the vet felt the need to heavily sedate a horse to travel.
 
I do sometimes wonder if vets, given that they have to be academic high fliers, accomodate their brain power by losing out on humanity cells. Having said that though, my old vet was hated by many people because he spoke quite directly and didn't give you any flannel, but we got on brilliantly and he trusted my judgement. One morning I called the surgery as my horse was in a bit of trouble and he came straight to us from his home. My current vets are very good too. Horsey had a bloody rear end one evening last week and I couldn't see how far inside her the damage went, and consequently, couldn't say definitely what had caused it, so whistled up the vet and she was out within 45 minutes to pronounce my poor old girl had been soundly bitten by another horse and that it was 99% on the outside. Ouch. Ouch for me too when I had to pay the bill.

As for sedating for travel, my old girl just doesn't box, end of. Some years ago she had to go to Leahurst and was so heavily sedated her nose was on the ground. Mind you, once the engine started so did she and it was a very long and stressful hour. She was able to fight the sedation and trash the inside of the box the whole way :(
 
There are so many awful stories here of bad treatment. My yearling had an argument with electric fencing and wooden posts while I was on holiday a couple of years ago. The vet came out and 'dressed' the wounds. When I came back (no, the yard owners didn't see fit to let me know- another story) I called them out again and asked for her leg to be x rayed; I was concerned that ot was fractured. There was also a small wound which kept weeping on her upper leg (femur). I called out the three partners 6 times over a two week perios and their responses were all along the lines of "Don't be silly"/ "That is ridiculous". Eventually I called them again one Sunday morning and a young vet came who said she had damaged her knee and that the fluid was synovial fluid. I argued and once again was called silly BUT he referred her to Western Counties. When we arrived the first thing they did was x ray the leg and guess what??? Yup, it was fractured. So my beautiful girl had been walking around with a fractured leg for three weeks. I changed vet... I contacted the ombudsman but was told that unless I could prove deliberate negligence there would be no come back. I wish I had pursued it but at the time I was so upset I just wanted to focus on girlie recovering.
I have just started long reining her and she is really enjoying her early work so I'm glad I kept going! It is just very frustrating that some vets simply don't have a clue and will not listen to 'silly' owners who know their horses best.
 
hi all.
Thank you so much for all your posts and advice. Some of your stories sounds really horrific (tallulahgirl) and I do have to wonder why these vets became horsevets in the first place??? (I prefer my vets and farriers to be riders themselves!!) There are 2 problems: 1) is that often you do not realise how bad some practises can be until its too late, or unless you happen to speak to a number of disgruntled customers and 2) we are often so busy nursing our charges back to health/ trying to find some other vet who gives a damn that we just walk away from a practise and do not follow it up. I have for a long time felt that there should be somewhere where horse owners/riders could report both good and bad services they have received. A place/website like this would also allow the "accused" to state their side of the story. I know this opens up a whole can of worms, but lets face it you get the vet/dentist/farrier/riding instructor/physio/livery/saddler/transport company because you CARE about your horse. AND these services doesn't come cheap, but there is nowhere where we can have our say without swiftly being banned for doing so. Is there somewhere/website where I could name the service I have been unhappy with? Any ideas.
Thanks again for all your support and wishing you all the best of luck with finding the best care for your horses possible. xx
 
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