is my vet being unreasonable?

equi said:
Showing you the actual issue visually will help you, which is what i hope vet2 is implying.
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This. Surely he just wants to show you on the x-rays etc.? He might be old school and not know how to email them to you ;) I would probably just point out how far a journey it is and simply ask why it needs to be done face to face?
 
ycbm said:
I'd ask him for his report in writing and if he won't provide it, don't pay because you haven't got the results. You're the customer.

I personally would not have accepted the delay you've had so far. Too busy to review a lame horse's case for a month? He shouldn't have taken the work on then.

I strongly suspect he's trying to protect a fellow vet.

Regarding not looking for compensation, please remember that if the initial investigation had identified the problem, the insurance would have paid out for the treatment you might now be told is necessary.
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Ditto!
 
Just a quick update to close the story. Saw the surgeon today. Having kept me waiting for 10 days and having refused to talk to me by phone, the outcome was that he couldn't see anything on the original scans and x-rays either! And the bill will be £75 for telling me that.
 
JenniferR said:
Just a quick update to close the story. Saw the surgeon today. Having kept me waiting for 10 days and having refused to talk to me by phone, the outcome was that he couldn't see anything on the original scans and x-rays either! And the bill will be £75 for telling me that.
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Gawd, all that worry for you expecting the worst! Good news though, hope new Vet has a plan to get to the bottom of it.
 
Yes, it is good news that nothing major has been found. New vet's plan is to do the same as the old vet again at cost of £1,000. The leg is no longer insured so I'm not sure what I will do. I would willingly pay that if I thought it would tell me what was wrong but I think it probably won't and that's a lot of money to take a punt with.
 
JenniferR said:
Just a quick update to close the story. Saw the surgeon today. Having kept me waiting for 10 days and having refused to talk to me by phone, the outcome was that he couldn't see anything on the original scans and x-rays either! And the bill will be £75 for telling me that.
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Good grief. What appalling service. Did you not look him in the eye and ask him why he got you to drive for over an hour and a half to tell you something he could have had his secretary put in one line in an email?
 
ycbm said:
Good grief. What appalling service. Did you not look him in the eye and ask him why he got you to drive for over an hour and a half to tell you something he could have had his secretary put in one line in an email?
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^^^^ This. Sounds like a very arrogant man. You could complain to RCVS?
 
This is my first draft of the letter that I would be sending him. If I'm doing something like this I let it stew for a day and then do any rewrite I feel is necessary. I would write it firstly to stop him doing it to anyone else and very secondly in the very slim hope that he might not bank the cheque.

Dear Professor xxx,

I have received your bill for £75 for reviewing previous x rays and scans and enclose a cheque.

I am writing to ask you why you put me to the expense of driving to meet you and the waste of four hours of my time to tell me something that would have taken one minute on the phone or one line in an email.

I have been worried beyond belief that the issue was so serious that you would only discuss it face to face, and the delay caused by your busy schedule has been agonising. For you, the issue was a simple one. For me it was a matter of life and death for an animal I love.

There is nothing, of course, that can be changed about this now, but for the sake of future owners I would welcome your assurance that another client in the same situation will be dealt with differently.

Yours faithfully,

Xxx
 
I am not sure if that is a relief for you or not, after a prolonged lameness, to not find a cause.

The £75 for examining the scans seems a very reasonable fee, there will have been admin costs/time as well as his own.

The idea that he could not tell you other than in person beggars belief! I would agree with the letter of YCBM.
 
I expect he couldn't send a 1 line email or get his secretary to phone because then he couldn't charge £75 for reviewing the x-rays/scans. And even though I explained to his secretary three times that this was a worry and I would rather know sooner than later, that his schedule took precedence over my concerns. Thank you for the letter idea YCBM. That expresses it all very nicely. Whether I would summon up the courage to send it is a different matter!
 
Do you know what, Jennifer? I'm beginning to wonder if he did this to punish you for his assumption that you were thinking that you might be able to sue the previous vet. It seems so utterly bizarre. I can't believe he would waste his own time that way, never mind yours. I'm wondering if the relatively low bill is because he met you in person and realised you were genuine after all. People of his calibre don't usually have a problem billing for work they haven't been seen doing.
 
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Personally I throw away the letter and put my energy into finding out what wrong with the poor lame horse .
 
Of course she can but this horse has been lame a year !
And OP is angry the vet asked her to wait ten days he could have benn on holiday anything she turned down the chance of a telephone consultation because she was going to have to wait by the phone .
The bill is very reasonable he can't see anything on the X-rays .
I think some nerve blocking is called for as OP does not mentain that's been done .
 
Goldenstar said:
Personally I throw away the letter and put my energy into finding out what wrong with the poor lame horse .
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Personally I'd be giving a different orthopaedic vet my money on the investigations. One that was less up their own derrier, and had some communication skills
 
Just to finish the story off then, I've decided the time the consultant spent explaining how he is going to go about finding the problem and showing me various bits of horse's leg section was really useful, particularly why scans and x-rays do not necessarily give the whole picture of the joint, and why we need a nerve block to truly confirm the location of the problem in a complex/off-on case with no other evidence of cause. Face-to-face he didn't seem arrogant (despite the 10-day wait fiasco!) but did seem thorough and expert. So she is booked in now for a full lameness work up with nerve blocks at cost of £1k, as time and rest haven't done the trick. We may be none the wiser at the end (and 1k down the pan) but there is no other option if we're to find the cause. Nerve blocks weren't done before because vet was so sure the problem was in the fetlock and then when it wasn't the vet went on to scan/x-ray all the other parts of the leg but found nothing. She came sound again then lame again then sound again then lame, hence delay in pursuing this. Reviewing the scans/x-rays was to see if an expert second opinion could see any tiny clue to figure out where to look rather than sticking lots of needles in my horse.
 
I don't understand why your vet is charging you £1000. The horse needs some nerve blocks that should cost no more than a couple of hundred. (And I agree with Goldenstar that they should have dine them a long time ago). Only if that fails to identify the site should you need to spend any more, but I still wouldn't expect an SI block or other things to bring the bill to a thousand pounds or anywhere near it.
 
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I think the 1k will be a ball park estimate for the work .
Work ups take a lot of time and the costs rack up fast .
 
The workup should come in at a lot less than £1000 if the problem area is pin pointed early on (ie low down) so I hope that is not a fixed fee? With my uninsured horses, I fix a maximum price that I will pay for an investigation or procedure without additional authorisation from me, and my vet practice is always happy to do this. I still only get charged for work actually done.
 
I assume he has quoted you a 1000 because thats what it may be up to - I think that is very reasonable to explain when the cost may be rather than surprise anyone - I'd expect a work up to be 500-700 for x-rays, scans, nerve blocks so 1000 to me doesn't seem that unreasonable as an estimate for a consultant to do the work up. I'm also not sure why anyone is getting hot under the collar about this - it's not a bill sent after the work its an estimate so its up to the client if they want to proceed.

I can see as well why he wanted to speak to you with the showing of the leg etc so I'm glad you can see why he wanted to see you in person.
 
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