Horse passed vetting but has arthritis

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Joelkan

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Hi all. I bought my horse last May and he passed a 5* vetting. He has just been diagnosed with arthritis in both hocks. When I looked back at the video when I went to see him originally, you can see that he is kicking up the school with his hind legs which in hindsight I think the Vet should have picked this up. Do you think I should get some legal advice regarding this? Don’t know if I can post a video or not?
 
It’s nearly a year ago have you any idea how many horses will got arthritis during the last nine months .
Did you have a five stage vetting ?
 
If you're going to get arthritis then you want it in the hocks as it has one of the best prognoses.

Little jab of steroid once maybe twice a year and jobs a good un! I've got a 23 years old showjumper and this is all he has and he's still capable of 1m plus
 
In a word no. It's been 8/9 months, easily enough time for bone spavin to develop. If the horse was sound and passed at vetting then the vet was right to pass. Part of owning a horse is taking responsibility for their health care and unfortunately things do go wrong. I hope your horse improves soon
 
First question - how much did you pay for him? Second question - how old is he? Supplementary question - you joined apparantly in 2013 and this is your 2nd post so though you've had passing interest in horsey stuff - nothing much on HHO catches your eye but we'd all like to know what your knowledge is - how long have you ridden, owned before etc., etc.,

I reckon that we should all take responsibility for our own decisions and mostly agree with the posters who say - take the problems on your nose. However; it makes a big difference if you paid £100k rather than £500 and if he was advertised as the next Valegro or a gypsy cob, also if you have 50 years experience or relative novice.
 
The vetting is just as the vet sees things on the day I'm afraid. But also this could well have developed since you bought the horse.
Hope you can get him sorted.
 
Oh my god, why does something always have to be someone else's fault...if I were a vet I think I would be tempted to fail every horse I was asked to vet just to stop some miffed buyer trying to sue me almost a year later. It's a horse. They all break one way or the other in the end.
 
Thanks for the comments. I have just shown a video to a very good instructor that I took of him when I originally went to see him the day before he was vetted and the instructor told me that he looked lame on his right hind and front fore. He is 8 years old and I have done a lot of groundwork with him and some ridden work as he was very green when I got him. If course I will take responsibility for him but was wondering if the vet should have noticed that he wasn’t sound. It was a 5 stage vetting and I paid £5000 for him.
 
Oldfogie I have owned a horse for nearly 20 years and ridden for 30 years I just do go on horse and hound very often as I’m a busy person.
 
Joelkan said:
Thanks for the comments. I have just shown a video to a very good instructor that I took of him when I originally went to see him the day before he was vetted and the instructor told me that he looked lame on his right hind and front fore. He is 8 years old and I have done a lot of groundwork with him and some ridden work as he was very green when I got him. If course I will take responsibility for him but was wondering if the vet should have noticed that he wasn’t sound. It was a 5 stage vetting and I paid £5000 for him.
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you've mentioned that he looked lame, the day before the vetting, did he look lame when he was vetted and when did this issue become noticeable? (was he lame as soon as you got him home?)
 
Nope no come back. Someone I know bought a horse, 5 stage vetted. Turned out very quickly to have numerous problems anyone of which meant pts. She went back to vet and all he would say was horse was sound the day he was vetted. After 9months I would say you are just unlucky.
 
I have 3 horses did not get any of them vetted but I did ride all of them for a hour before buying, they all stood on all 4 when I got off job done.
 
What your instructor thinks they can see could be down to any number of things including the angle of the video & how the horse is being ridden. You presumably did not see or notice these things at the time (or you would have mentioned them to the vet?) and you're now looking at this video in retrospect with the knowledge that the horse is now lame which will make you over analyse / see things that may or may not have been there. It is very difficult if not impossible to diagnose lameness from a video alone without assessing the horse in person. The vet DID assess the horse in person the day after you filmed and deemed the horse fit for the purpose you intended to buy it for. All that means is they didn't see lameness or other issues on that particular day but if no x-rays were done then you can only speculate as to whether anything was / wasn't going on with the hocks at that time.
 
Joelkan said:
Oldfogie I have owned a horse for nearly 20 years and ridden for 30 years I just do go on horse and hound very often as I’m a busy person.
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Right so, o.k. thanks for the info, I see that you paid £5k so I think that nearly all of the relevent details go against possible litigation (and I wouldn't anyway) but if you had money to burn and wanted to prove a point - anything is possible (I'm afraid) these days. It doesn't matter how tenuous a cause might be there's usually An Angle to exploit and some folks will. Your Vet will have Professional Indemnity Insurance and being sued is just par for the course and any resultant court case would rely on arguements of law and the judge - anyone's guess - it doesn't have to follow your or my idea of justice.
When Horseyfolk used to sue non-horsey's they were on to a winner in the past because every Judge is either a 'untin', shootin' and fishin' sort of person or a wannabe and would do their damnest to bend the case in one's favour - now, it's not so certain and in your particular one it would be looked at as two Horseys having a go at each other and the Judge might look at the Vet more favourably because they are both professionals.
I can remember a case in which a horse was put down because it was said, that a farmer had scared it with a noisey tractor - the Judge found for the Horsey inspite of the horse being faced away from the boogeyman - when it's my experience that horses will back out into danger when severely spooked.
Also, a surveyor ( so similar to your case) joined a panel to provide cheap house sale appraisals and one of his had hidden major structural faults - the Judge found against him (£37k at the time, big money) despite his survey being only for "value" rather than 5* and him being paid only £6 for his trouble.

I once talked to an extremely powerful American guy (in both senses) about being mugged, to which he said even if the mugger had a gun he'd be weighing up his options whether he could "have a go" but if someone waved a writ in his face - he'd put his hands in the air and ask how much! Our modern world.
 
It was a year ago! For crying out loud, of course you don't have a case of anything against the vet, legal or just blame! As for your instructor saying it looked lame on the video....well....hindsight a wonderful thing. And may I ask, with your experience, did he look lame to you that day? Kicking up school surface is nothing. There is no blame, he has arthritis after a year, no vet carries a crystal ball.
 
Bad luck.

Regardless of what anyone thinks looking back at the video, the horse was sound when vetted, and has presumably stayed sound for several months or you would have noticed it earlier.

Mine developed hock arthritis in almost exactly the same timescale, despite a workload of very little more than walk and trot hacks and light schooling. It happens. I hope your horse responds well to treatment.
 
Sorry, as others have said, you have no comeback after this length of time.

18 months ago I bought a 10yo mare for similar money who sailed through a 5 stage vetting by a top referral practice. Things started looking a bit iffy early on and a year later she was diagnosed with bilateral hock arthritis and various other unrelated ailments inc Cushings and suspect PSSM.

As I agreed with my own vets, a vetting is only how an animal presents on the day, so I think I was unlucky. My mare had been in working livery on a big equestrian college who IMHO ignored/didn't notice warning signs that she was brewing trouble. The owner and breeder were genuinely unaware too.

C'est la vie. I didn't pursue the issue with the practice who did the vetting.
 
Joelkan said:
Thanks for the comments. I have just shown a video to a very good instructor that I took of him when I originally went to see him the day before he was vetted and the instructor told me that he looked lame on his right hind and front fore. He is 8 years old and I have done a lot of groundwork with him and some ridden work as he was very green when I got him. If course I will take responsibility for him but was wondering if the vet should have noticed that he wasn’t sound. It was a 5 stage vetting and I paid £5000 for him.
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Has this instructor been teaching you for the last 8 months? If so why have they not told you he was lame before now?
 
No, I’m in Portugal having lessons at the moment and showed the video to an instructor here. My instructor back home didn’t notice the lameness at the time. My horse has always seemed reluctant to step out in walk but I thought it was maybe me blocking him with my seat but I now know it isn’t and he started to jump into trot especially on one rein a couple months ago. He was obviously lame last week after I rode him after doing lateral groundwork with him and that is why I ended up taking him to the vet.
I just hope that he is able to be comfortable and sound again as he isn’t old at all. His dad was an advanced dressage horse and I hoped to do dressage with him and academic art of riding.
 
Tiddlypom I hope your mare is pain free and sound so you can enjoy riding her. As you said the vetting is only how an animal presents on the day and I didn’t see him being vetted in the day so I now have to try and get my boy comfortable and hopefully sound again.
 
Joelkan said:
No, I’m in Portugal having lessons at the moment and showed the video to an instructor here. My instructor back home didn’t notice the lameness at the time. My horse has always seemed reluctant to step out in walk but I thought it was maybe me blocking him with my seat but I now know it isn’t and he started to jump into trot especially on one rein a couple months ago. He was obviously lame last week after I rode him after doing lateral groundwork with him and that is why I ended up taking him to the vet.
I just hope that he is able to be comfortable and sound again as he isn’t old at all. His dad was an advanced dressage horse and I hoped to do dressage with him and academic art of riding.
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It may be that it isn't arthritis - jumping into trot is a symptom of PSSM as well and does occur in some breeds around this age. Unfortunately research is still ongoing in PSSM and not mainstream in veterinary practices so can be misdiagnosed. I would look into other causes.
 
Tiddlypom said:
Sorry, as others have said, you have no comeback after this length of time.

18 months ago I bought a 10yo mare for similar money who sailed through a 5 stage vetting by a top referral practice. Things started looking a bit iffy early on and a year later she was diagnosed with bilateral hock arthritis and various other unrelated ailments inc Cushings and suspect PSSM.

As I agreed with my own vets, a vetting is only how an animal presents on the day, so I think I was unlucky. My mare had been in working livery on a big equestrian college who IMHO ignored/didn't notice warning signs that she was brewing trouble. The owner and breeder were genuinely unaware too.

C'est la vie. I didn't pursue the issue with the practice who did the vetting.
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I have just notice that tiddlypom also mentions PSSM.
 
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