Freshly Qualified Vets - Do you trust them? *Rant Warning*

Its not about qualifications tbh, anyone can jab a horse, but if the person is a student, then I should be informed, and asked for my permission for a horse to be examined. I am quite happy to talk to a student about my horse, but obviously the vet did not want me to talk, I assume that was because the student might have discovered that not all clients are happy with the veterinary treatment they have been getting.
I am not happy for a student to learn how to jab a horse and nothing else, that is a waste of time for all concerned.
It is not acceptable for me to have my horse jabbed or examined without some sort of explanation.,,,,,,,, and this vet has a history with me, including twitching my horse when horse has two people holding him and has had enough drugs to knock out an elephant. This was the vet who suggested I got a syringe full of Hibiscrb solution and injected in to an abcess, needless to say that idea was not feasible.
No explanations of any of the treatments dished out (a bill for £1000) if she is in doubt as to why I am unhappy she only has to ask!
It is unfortunate they keep sending her out to me, and it is only due to a shared visit that she came. I have to say that I have little confidence in the vets abilities these days, they seem to spend a lot of time saying
"Danilon for four days and if not better we will have him up for an X=ray.
In ye olden days before vet hospitals, I had a horse operated on by a local vet, this was done in a huge stable with straw on the floor, I did all the post op treatment and so on, times have changed, and not always for the better.
 
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The Spooky Pony particularly likes one female vet, his regular vet, who is very unflappable and cheerful around him. Well, perhaps likes is a strong word: he stands quietly looking mildly dismayed while she rasps his teeth...

The tall thin male vet, he was very worried about. He often seems worried about big men! He was supposed to be getting his jabs, and the vet was out of normal horse needles (there was a long line of jabs-receiving horses, and somehow the Spooky Pony had been left off the list), and was thinking he had to use a bigger one (for cattle or something; possibly elephants!) instead. But that vet was super with him: when he saw how terrified the pony was at the mere sight of him, he fetched a smaller cat needle, and distracted the pony so adeptly with a polite greeting that the needle was in and out before the pony even noticed.

Both of these are among the younger vets.
 
I don't trust ANY vet - how can you trust them when they don't trust themselves?? They need to do this test and that test, none of them have any diagnosis instinct, or if they have they don't use it without another test.
I have them if I need a blood test done, passport, sedation, surgery or xray, things I can't legally do myself. TBH I wouldn't even have one again to PTS, the last time his hands were shaking so much.
Our vets are happy to let us have vacs, bute etc to do our own, and knows if we call in an emergency it will be an emergency. They're not bad lads, but admit we have more equine experience than they do.
Now 50 years ago things were different............
 
intouch said:
I don't trust ANY vet - how can you trust them when they don't trust themselves?? They need to do this test and that test, none of them have any diagnosis instinct, or if they have they don't use it without another test.
I have them if I need a blood test done, passport, sedation, surgery or xray, things I can't legally do myself. TBH I wouldn't even have one again to PTS, the last time his hands were shaking so much.
Our vets are happy to let us have vacs, bute etc to do our own, and knows if we call in an emergency it will be an emergency. They're not bad lads, but admit we have more equine experience than they do.
Now 50 years ago things were different............
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what makes you think vets have less experience than owners? :S

what would you do next time in the unfortunate event of a horse having to be PTS?

ps. Remember vets are human too ;)
 
1, Our "equine" vets have never owned a horse between them, and are 30 years younger than I am, and I've owned horses all my life.
2, We have a very experienced and kind knackerman who only charged £5 on top of disposal, to come to the yard.
3, vets - human££££ (sorry, meant????)
;-)
 
my vet practice is brilliant, only dedicated equine vets, and all are fantastic. I can not fault any of them. At a previous practice I was at in Glos I had a nightmare with them, I had a female vet come out to my very boistrous gelding - wearing flip flops, he had a cut to his tendon and needed stitching, she was too nervous to go in with him to sedate, and i was not going to let her in with my horse in a skirt and flip flops. He would have killed her. Another female vet came out to see my old boy who had broken a tooth, clearly been kicked in the face. He was so subdued and clearly in a lot of pain. she grabbed teh broken tooth and wobbled it. He went ballistic cos it obviously hurt. She stood looking at him and said she wasn;t sure what to do. So I told her, pain relief, anti inflammatory and antibiotics and you need him in to operate and remove that tooth. She gave him the drugs and arranged for him to go in the following day. to be operated on. I phoned up to find out who was going to operate- when I was told she was i put my foot down and demanded the senior vet operate. He did. When I got the bill I removed the section that said diagnosis - i had done that and no way was I going to pay when she had not a clue. Poor horse, When he went in he had to have 2 teeth removed as he had had them smashed. under the gum line. That particular practice seemed to always have hopeless students. They all seemed to make a diagnosis but it was rarely right. All that happened was that the experienced clients would refuse to have the students and it was the inexperienced horse owners who got them. So i suspect they carried on with their useless diagnosis
 
joeanne said:
In all honesty a newly qualified vet tends to be extremely careful, looks things up, asks when unsure, and being newly qualified, is generally up to date with all the latest treatments and advancements.
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What she said!

If the vet can't diagnose the problem, I would ask for a second opinion anyway, this can happen to any vet with a challenging problem.
 
intouch said:
I don't trust ANY vet - how can you trust them when they don't trust themselves?? They need to do this test and that test, none of them have any diagnosis instinct, or if they have they don't use it without another test.
I have them if I need a blood test done, passport, sedation, surgery or xray, things I can't legally do myself. TBH I wouldn't even have one again to PTS, the last time his hands were shaking so much.
Our vets are happy to let us have vacs, bute etc to do our own, and knows if we call in an emergency it will be an emergency. They're not bad lads, but admit we have more equine experience than they do.
Now 50 years ago things were different............
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What is a "diagnosis instinct" and how do I go about developing one because I would also like x-ray vision, MRI fingers and scintigraphy toes, to avoid all my expensive vet bills! ;)
 
As the mother of a newly qualified vet my opinion might be considered biased. :p However I have to say I would have no problem with a nqv if I felt they were confident and knew their job, just as I wouldnt be happy with any vet, no matter how long qualified if I didn't trust their opinion. Murphy is currently on his second lot of 6 weeks rest with tendon damage. He was originally visited earlier this year by a very experienced equine vet (though new to the practice) and without going in to detail he said to rest Murph for 4 weeks then put back in to work, without further scans. This I did, luckily had only done walking work when my daughter returned home. She was not happy with leg and called another vet from practice out, scan showed tendonitis and after rest Murph is now improving but this could have been sorted back in April!
I have also had a nqv deal with my dogs and although his knowledge was fine he had no idea how to handle dogs. Even Buffy who had the most amazing temperament was uneasy with him handling her, and he was bitten on mroe than one occasion (not by my dogs) in the short time he was at the practice.
New graduates do need a supportive practice, who will offer back up if required. I also have been surprised how many of my daughters friends really aren't happy around horses, but they all intend to work in small animal so that is fine, but I suspect sometimes such vets might end up in a mixed practice and seeing horses which is not ideal.
 
Murphys Minder - well done to your daughter:) It is a tough old course I believe.
To be fair I think it is not that vets might be newly qualified so much, as the fact that they are unused to handling horses. I know everyone has to start somewhere but it is hopeless when they will not examine a horse because they are scared. I do not believe they should put themselves at risk at all - ever - in any circumstance. They could be killed or their career ended. But there is a huge difference between standing well back and staring at a cut and not recognising a lame horse and needing to sedate an animal to examine it safely.
Maybe all equine practice vets who are not used to horses need to go and work on a racing yard for a few weeks or help out at a stud. This might give them the confidence.
My present favourite vet is a lovely, tiny, slim lady who looks younger than she must be (according to her CV) who handles my youngster with absolute calm authority. She is kind and calm but takes no s**t from him.:D
The newly qualified young vet from the same practice was also great when he had to come and stitch the youngster after a bit a of altercation with his brother. He was nervous about doing a good job, but very competent and is a polo player so very good with handling the horses. The wound healed beautifully.
 
canteron said:
I have a very good senior horse vet .... but in the practice they like to have a couple of freshly qualified vets, who stay for a couple of years and when they ask for a pay rise don't get it so inevitably move on.

Having been with these vets now for 16 years and unless I specifically ask for senior vet I get a vet who inevitably says box rest, blood test and expensive drugs whatever the problem! I inevitably feel that I am paying for their lack of experience (I am looking primarily for quality of life for the animal and to put it through as little stress as possible) and often feel that I end up paying for call out, time, etc, when the senior vet would just give me pragmatic advice over the phone and problem would be solved. Over the years I have been an extremely polite, good, loyal and I suspect profitable customer.

I freely know that everyone has to gain experience, but get a little bit fed up of not really trusting the vet.

Does anyone else have the issue and do they just insist on talking to senior vet (and get away with it?).

PS Just so you don't think I am moaning, have had lameness diagnosed on the wrong leg, vet in tears as they couldn't solve something, vet in flip flops trying to inject known vet phobic horse, vet suggesting extended box rest and major drugs when in fact it was water retention and just needed a good walk out, etc, etc, etc.
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Hi, I dont trust NQ vets or doctors or anyone NQ! I only have 2 of the vets offered by the vets practice - the one has looked after my animals for over 20 years and owns the practice and the other one is the second senior vet, who has such a wonderful kind manner around the horses and treats them with dignity and like her own, even when we have had to say goodbye to a couple.
 
canteron said:
I freely know that everyone has to gain experience, but get a little bit fed up of not really trusting the vet.

Does anyone else have the issue and do they just insist on talking to senior vet (and get away with it?).
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'My' vet is the senior partner and he comes to me 95% of the time (he wants to spare his young vets any nasty experiences!:D) IF he's not available and IF I know what the problem is, then I get them to send out the best-behaved Junior (the one who will do what I tell him!) IF I have problems with Junior Vet, I instruct Senior Vet to give him/her some more training before letting him loose near ME! Junior Vets DO need training - and I'm more than happy to give them some - but no way are they going to get it at the expense of my horses!
 
JanetGeorge said:
Junior Vets DO need training - and I'm more than happy to give them some - but no way are they going to get it at the expense of my horses!
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If everyone has this attitude - then how are junior vets going to get to be "experienced" vets? Are we this fussy when it come to out dogs and cats? And surely 99% of the time the reason the vet is called out is very standard, i.e. yearly vacs, small cuts, slight respiratory problems, etc....

I am more than happy for a junior qualified vet to come out and do a regular vacination and yearly workout. If they are unsure abut something,then I will expect them to get a second opinion, and if necessary get the senior vet out -but I will not pay for two visits. As far as I am concerned that is up to the practice to cover that in their standard training.
 
EllenJay said:
If everyone has this attitude - then how are junior vets going to get to be "experienced" vets? Are we this fussy when it come to out dogs and cats? And surely 99% of the time the reason the vet is called out is very standard, i.e. yearly vacs, small cuts, slight respiratory problems, etc....
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I can't speak for anyone else but yes, absolutely, I am just as pernickity with my dogs and cats. Why would anyone not be? I don't need, or want, some fool dealing with my animals full stop. No, perhaps I am in the minority but when I need a vet I really need a vet. Most regular things I can deal with myself. I have most of the more common medications/drugs on hand and I generally only call the vet out for emergencies where the horse needs specialist attention. And vaccinations of course but I have so many horses that I usually take half the vials and do half the horses myself and my vet does the other half of them.

If they are unsure abut something,then I will expect them to get a second opinion, and if necessary get the senior vet out -but I will not pay for two visits.
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Sounds good in practice but often this is not reality with a lot of vets. Many people call the vet out and they pay for it regardless if the vet is good or useless.
 
Booboos said:
What is a "diagnosis instinct" and how do I go about developing one because I would also like x-ray vision, MRI fingers and scintigraphy toes, to avoid all my expensive vet bills! ;)
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I worked for a vet many years ago, she was one of the first women to qualify, and certainly the first female horse vet, although she did small animals, horses and farm animals as well. I remember the occasional Xray or blood test, but she generally knew as soon as an animal walked through the door, what was wrong with it. I remember once she had been unwell for a few days, and actually said to me that she had lost her instinct for diagnosis - luckily it came back pretty quickly!
Our old horse vet used to walk behind a lame horse imitating it's gait - and was pretty dam accurate in diagnosing lameness. I had complete confidence in him, and in one of his sons who followed in his footsteps - the other son bought himself a fantastic vet hospital and priced himself out of the market (for me!), but the first one retained his "instinct" and was my vet for years.
They don't make 'em like that now.
 
intouch said:
I worked for a vet many years ago, she was one of the first women to qualify, and certainly the first female horse vet, although she did small animals, horses and farm animals as well. I remember the occasional Xray or blood test, but she generally knew as soon as an animal walked through the door, what was wrong with it. I remember once she had been unwell for a few days, and actually said to me that she had lost her instinct for diagnosis - luckily it came back pretty quickly!
Our old horse vet used to walk behind a lame horse imitating it's gait - and was pretty dam accurate in diagnosing lameness. I had complete confidence in him, and in one of his sons who followed in his footsteps - the other son bought himself a fantastic vet hospital and priced himself out of the market (for me!), but the first one retained his "instinct" and was my vet for years.
They don't make 'em like that now.
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Why did he have to walk behind a horse to see its lameness? Surely with such an amazing "diagnosis instinct" he should have been able to tell which leg was lame and why from the car park!
 
As a general reply, I am bit shocked at how quickly people can dismiss young vets as incompetent, uncarring fools. These are the same vets who have busted a gut to get into vet school in the first place, studied like crazy to qualify, are stuck with huge uni loans, get crappy salaries, have to be on-call nights and weekends, have to be able to deal with a huge variety of animals and, if this thread is anything to go by, even put up with their less than pleasant owners!
 
EllenJay said:
If everyone has this attitude - then how are junior vets going to get to be "experienced" vets? Are we this fussy when it come to out dogs and cats? And surely 99% of the time the reason the vet is called out is very standard, i.e. yearly vacs, small cuts, slight respiratory problems, etc....
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Everyone SHOULD have this attitude!! I certainly don't mind Junior vets doing vaccinations etc IF their horse handling skills are reasonable - I don't want my horses getting neck abcesses - or becoming hard to inject - because of a ham-fisted idiot who didn't do enough horse handling experience during vet school! And I have several vet students each year spending 1-2 weeks full-time here learning those skills - so I'm doing my bit to train the vets of tomorrow!

The current one had NO horse handling experience until last week - and had never led a horse in his life, let alone sat on one!! He's spending 8 hours a day doing all the things we think nothing of - turning out, bringing in, etc - and we're teaching him to ride too! He's learning!

But I have had the odd Junior vet giving stupid advice which - if I followed it blindly - could have dreadful consequences! Too many people DO follow vet advice blindly - even if they're unhappy about it. Ask questions, get answers! If the answers don't ring true, ask MORE questions!
 
JanetGeorge said:
Everyone SHOULD have this attitude!! I certainly don't mind Junior vets doing vaccinations etc IF their horse handling skills are reasonable - I don't want my horses getting neck abcesses - or becoming hard to inject - because of a ham-fisted idiot who didn't do enough horse handling experience during vet school! And I have several vet students each year spending 1-2 weeks full-time here learning those skills - so I'm doing my bit to train the vets of tomorrow!

The current one had NO horse handling experience until last week - and had never led a horse in his life, let alone sat on one!! He's spending 8 hours a day doing all the things we think nothing of - turning out, bringing in, etc - and we're teaching him to ride too! He's learning!

But I have had the odd Junior vet giving stupid advice which - if I followed it blindly - could have dreadful consequences! Too many people DO follow vet advice blindly - even if they're unhappy about it. Ask questions, get answers! If the answers don't ring true, ask MORE questions!
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Absolutely!
We had a lovely young lady here for a week this summer, 2nd year vet student, didn't have a clue around horses and very nervous, but by the end of the week she was fairly competent (under supervision) catching up, putting on a headcollar, bit of groundwork and even examining a horse, a lot of education around feet and barefoot, she even tackled riding - bitless - for the first time. Thankfully she is planning to work with small animals, I think she would need a bit more schooling...
 
There is a reason why equine veterinary is the least desireable area of vet med nowadays - the owners are (with few exceptions) hideous creatures. As a new graduate I never had a single complaint (according to my boss) and thankfully I did not experience any of the horrible attitudes of owners displayed on this thread. however, i have had enough of listening to it on here and from colleagues so Im leaving the pleasure horse community behind and working in the racing world. Professionals are so much easier to work with.

Most of these students lacking experience with horses will never practice with horses - certainly noneof them will do equine only as new grads so I dont see why you should get all worked up over it.
 
Booboos said:
As a general reply, I am bit shocked at how quickly people can dismiss young vets as incompetent, uncarring fools. These are the same vets who have busted a gut to get into vet school in the first place, studied like crazy to qualify, are stuck with huge uni loans, get crappy salaries, have to be on-call nights and weekends, have to be able to deal with a huge variety of animals and, if this thread is anything to go by, even put up with their less than pleasant owners!
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Thank you Booboos, nice to know not everyone hates us new grads! Those who only ever use senior vets, do you think you're vet just magically appeared with 20 years of experience? Imagine if when those vets had started no one would use them, you would now not have the excellent experienced vet you so value.

I can understand horse owners being unwilling to use individual new grads after a bad experience, but I think it is unfair to tarr us all with the same brush. Certainly I hope that the owners I met and whose horses I dealt with as a student would be happy to have me back now I'm qualified.

Unfortunately a large proportion of us will enter vet school with no horse experience, but we can't expect uni's to only let the horsey people in. We are required to do placements with all species in our first 2 years for exactly this reason - to get experience. I arrived at my stud placement and was promptly employed as a stable girl because I knew how to handle horses, but for my friends it really was their first opportunity to work with horses.

I am now the only one of 5 close friends who plans to go into equine practice. Why? Because my friends enjoy equine work but think horse owners are demanding, ungrateful and generally out to make their life a misery. I have not found this myself, but perhaps being a horse owner I have been more accepted by owners I have met or am just immune to it! However this thread I think is a prime example of why so many young vets choose not to go into equine work.
 
Murphy88 said:
perhaps being a horse owner I have been more accepted by owners I have met or am just immune to it! However this thread I think is a prime example of why so many young vets choose not to go into equine work.
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I think this is the essence of the discussion. A horse owning vet will be much more respected by knowledgable owners. I can't imagine why anyone would want to be an equine vet if they were not experienced with horses.
I'm not putting anyone down, but why should an owner be happy with someone who is obviously not comfortable in a situation, even if they have 6 years of book learning - OK, and a couple of weeks placement?
I bet there aren't many small animal vets who have never owned a dog or cat.
 
This is an interesting thread!

I am at vet school, and from my perspective for my own animals, I am very happy for a competent NQ vet or supervised student (when I am asked), to deal with vaccinations and routine matters. For anything more complex I do actually want the most experienced GOOD vet in the practice. All vets should be doing CPD and to be honest I wouldn't use a practice where all of the vets were not keeping themselves up to date with the latest advances in vet med regardless of age or experience.

Everyone has to learn but I personally feel that the majority of that learning is not at vet school. Its in actual real life practice but there should be basic minimum levels of competence and not everyone coming out of vet school has that. There is only about 20% of my class that I believe I would trust with my animals when they graduate - both in terms of skills and compassion/interest.

Any procedure you are taught at school is done in a tutorial group and not everyone gets a chance to do it. Students that are not horse orientated may shrink from the practical stuff with the horses, stand at the back of the class and never really do much hands on - if they go into a mixed practice it is a disaster. They shouldn't be learning on their own with clients and no supervision. Handling a difficult horse confidently takes years of experience, and that will never be taught at school. If you have an interest in horses then yes I think there are vets who will take the time to get to know horses and learn - but a lot won't and many have no common sense (sandals!!! :eek: )

I went to vet school wanting to be a horse vet, having owned horses for 30 years - now I want to do small animal work. To get experience during the summer I work unpaid in a small animal clinic. It is invaluable as I am very carefully taught how to do things one on one. This is very different from being taught in a group of 20 at school. During term time I still do at least one shift a week. I am in 2nd year and already have more practical hands on experience than many of the 5th year students. So there is a BIG difference between NQ vets and much of it I feel is down to attitude and passion for the work. Saturday nights I am working at the clinic not partying - over 5 years all of those Saturday nights make a big difference in terms of experience!
 
Well done to all the young vets and students who are really good, and dedicated to the profession, to be honest it is such hard work I can't understand why they are not all like that.
I know one who has done really well, and the first job was at a top vet practice: there are good practices and bad for a NQ vet, just as in any other profession.
From the client perspective, when I bought my first horse, I knew nothing, though I had a lot of experience with other animals, but I could recognise ill health and ask for help, when I had more experience, I knew when things needed in depth experience, and I would ask for the most appropriate vet, I still do this, there is no use me calling out an unknown quantity if I am not confident that she will give me a good diagnosis, and advise me of her findings.
Yes the newby's will be up to date on all the latest procedures, but tbh I can't afford the most expensive treatment and tests to cover all bases, so I need someone who can diagnose the horse in front of them, and if there is some doubt, tell me, but they seem to say nothing, [so that one can 't pull them up later I suppose].
To be honest I seem to get the best advice over the phone, as at least there has to be two way communication
 
I don't have a problem with NQ doing routine things or even being taught on my horse so long as supervising vet is good.

I always ask for one particular vet as I trust him. He recently bought a student with him and was teaching him how to handle a tooth rasp and how to get it to engage on the teeth. I had no problem with this as the student had stood and held my horse with confidence and a lot of compassion. In fact he was actually cuddling and cooing over him:):cool:

I've had more problems with cocky senior vets than I have NQ one nearly crippled a horse by telling me to work through the stifle problem, when it turned out he had a subchondral bone cyst and needed 8wks box rest :mad:
Another had been told horse was nervous of men, walked into stable, no introduction just smashed needle into his rump. Needless to say pony freaked, needle lost in straw bedding :mad: pony then even more nervous of men!!
However given the choice I would still chose experience just not either of those two vets!!

I think there are two problems with nq one is we hear so much about how things can be missed or go wrong even with an experienced vet never mind NQ

The other thing is cost, we pay a decent amount of money for a vet so why on earth would we chose to pay the same for a nq one as we would an experienced one. Then have the possibility to have to pay again for senior vet to check if NQ doesn't diagnose correctly. In most other areas you pay for experience??

Whilst we may love our other pets just as much, we have so much more invested in our horses. Plus mistakes are far more likely to be career ending or life threatening with horses
 
Hollycatt said:
Everyone has to learn but I personally feel that the majority of that learning is not at vet school. Its in actual real life practice but there should be basic minimum levels of competence and not everyone coming out of vet school has that. There is only about 20% of my class that I believe I would trust with my animals when they graduate - both in terms of skills and compassion/interest.
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See, out of my year I would be quite happy for those who want to do equine work to see my horses, and likewise those who want to do small animal work to see my dogs and cats. Generally, I know very few people in my year who have not put the effort in to be as good as possible in their chosen species or in all species if they want to do mixed. I freely admit that I am weak in farm animal stuff, because of the 30 weeks of veterinary placement I did in my clinical years, I have done a tiny proportion on farm work because when in mixed placements I gravitate towards the equine stuff, hence I have decided I will not go into a mixed job that requires me to do farm. In our clinical rotations we are in groups of 4/5 which means everyone gets the chance to practice practical skills. Once everyone in a group has had opportunity to do something, the more equine minded students will tend to then volunteer to do things - for example, we all learn to pass stomach tubes, but then once we'd all had a go I did a lot of them because the others had no interest in getting mouthfuls of stomach contents to practice a skill they weren't going to use!

Intouch - my housemate has never owned a pet bigger than a rabbit (parents who have absolutely no interest in animals), but I think will make a superb vet, in both small animals and equine. Likewise, some of the best equine people out of my year (many of whom have internships and equine jobs already) don't own horses - we go to uni at 18, so basically those who own/have owned horses are those whose parents are horse or animal orientated. I don't think it is fair to judge someone based on what is essentially their parents choice to not own horses. I have an amazing horse vet at the practice I use, does a lot of racehorse work and clients fly him by helicopter to treat their horses - he grew up on a farm, has sat on a horse once and didn't like it, and only decided to become a horse vet having worked in both farm and small animal practice and not enjoying it.

I think it is reasonable to expect any vet, young or old, to be confident and happy to handle whatever animal they choose to work with, but certainly where Liverpool is concerned, I would think those who plan to enter equine practice are more than capable.
 
Murphy88 said:
I think it is reasonable to expect any vet, young or old, to be confident and happy to handle whatever animal they choose to work with, but certainly where Liverpool is concerned, I would think those who plan to enter equine practice are more than capable.
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Yes, I agree 100% :) The difficulty is with the economy I don't think people have much choice now. Any job you are offered and can bull***** through an interview you have to take, and then often you don't put in 100% and are miserable and hence are bad at it. This is for all jobs - not just vets.

Some skills I do think need a LOT more than 1 attempt to be confident doing it alone without supervision. As a paying client I want someone confident they have the skills. In an ideal world in every profession we would be supervised for these sorts of things until confident, but it is not an ideal world. Due to the emotional attachment we have to our animals it is very different than say a trainee lawyer making a mistake - it is sorted out, an appology given and that's the end of it. When a pet suffers it festers for a long time.

Everyone makes mistakes in their job. I think the difference is whether it is one that SHOULD have been avoided and how it is handled afterwards

Just want to say - a trainee solicitor is cheap compared to a qualified lawyer - if you could choose to have the inexperienced vet at a lower price - woud people be happy to give more young vets a chance?
 
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glenruby said:
Most of these students lacking experience with horses will never practice with horses - certainly noneof them will do equine only as new grads so I dont see why you should get all worked up over it.
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The problem is that MOST of us use vets from a mixed practice - although I think that will change over the next few years. In 'my' practice there is one vet I trust implicitly, and two others (one newly qualified) who I'd trust a fair way! BUT - at night - in an emergency - I could get one of the others!! AAAGGHHH!

The last time I had a MAJOR foaling emergency, Junior Vet arrived after I'd already got the foal out (more than an hour after I called) and looked at the huge live foal and said: "I'm glad YOU got that out!" So was I!! When the mare went on the floor an hour later I rang the Emergency line and told them I wanted Senior vet - he got out of bed and was with me within half an hour and saved the mare's life (she would have died while Junior vet was dithering!)
 
BigRed said:
Change to a different practice ?
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Ditto this. My vet practice always takes on newbies and yes sometimes they wade in ordering all sorts of tests or can be very pessimistic about what maybe wrong, but on the whole I have nothing but praise for them. You have to remember that there are great benefits from the newly qualified vets; like fresh eyes and ideas, enthusiasm.

Change practices - vets in flip flops really ???? How unprofessional can you get ? I would laugh them off the premises sorry to say! :D
 
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