Lamanitis misdiagnosis

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mjpkelly89

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Vet misdiagnosed my ex racer with lamanitis. Three visits later including a second opinion from another vet, my farrier and many fellow horse owners they have hit me with he bill. I'm not entirely happy to pay it all, as I have incurred the cost of him being on box rest for a week due to him having no front shoes and the cost of getting him reshod.

Thoughts?.....
 
He was obviously lame as you called the vet so they start with the foot, shoes needed to come off to investigate, box rest is normally advised when a horse is lame.
Laminitis is highly likely at this time of year and if he was sensitive in his feet it seems a fair diagnosis to make, better for the horse to remove him from risk of more damage while further tests are done, any further thoughts depend on what the correct diagnosis is but the bill for the farrier is fair, so are the vet bills as they have been treating your horse even if they got it wrong initially no harm has been done.
 
I went through a similar scenario with one of mine. The mare was staggering and not looking at all well. Vet called out and diagnosed Laminitis, then pumped full of drugs. I've never had a case of Laminitis here, btw, and I have a dozen ponies. Laminitis is an easy one as there can be few glaring symptoms apart from the obvious lameness.

Over the next few days, by watching the behaviour of the herd, it was easy to see there had been a major shake up in the pecking order and the mare (who was now fine) had probably had a kicking.

The same hypodermic happy vet responded to a call out earlier this week and was wanting to pump my perfectly healthy mare full of antibiotics again "just in case". I'm a bit bitter about vets who over prescribe at the moment because they have really been fleecing a young girl local to me who is the sort who believes everything she is told and is happy to hand over the money if she thinks it is the right thing to do for her pony.

Sometimes it is just a question of "wait and see" and letting Nature do what she is very good at. But it is easy to panic when we care and less easy to hold back and wait.
 
Vet was up to give him his flu jab and noticed was a bit lame. I've had him since October and he has terrible flat feet which are quite sensitive, he also had a small abscess which I was treating. The solution was to put pads on with his shoes. I'm not concerned about the bill from the farrier as shoes for him are an essential it's more that the same vet came up 3 days after initial diagnosis, he'd had no danalin in the morning and there was no heat in his feet or pulsing etc. Then phoned the practice, after having the farrier come up to give his opinion, to ask for someone else to come up for a second vets opinion.
 
I would just be delighted my horse didn't have laminitis.....

it was a reasonable diagnosis if wrong, after all he didn't have the info about the field tussles.

Garages can sometimes try stuff on cars that doesn't work before they find the thing that does, you still have to pay their bill.

Of course whether you choose to avoid that vet in future due to a lack of confidence in them is up to you, but for me that's as far as it goes. There's no guarantee of infallibility.
 
Right so after 3 days of box rest he was better. No grass in this time frame. Vet came to give jab and he was lame. Was he lame from an abcess at the time? Has flat sensitive feet just because? There's always a cause.

Farriers. Well I do know of a mare last year that was "feeling the ground" with her flat sensitive feet. She's dead now. Farrier said no not laminitis, just needs shoes.

I am in the camp of other posters that do not appreciate being nickled and dimed by vets. Maybe it was a misdiagnoses. Sound like a lot going on with him.

Terri
 
Who decided it was a misdiagnosis?

It could have been lgl which can clear up fairly fast and have no lasting damage.
My horse showed no more laminitic signs after a couple of days after an acute attack and was allowed back into his old routine after a week.

Have you had the xrays and tests etc?
 
mjpkelly89 said:
as I have incurred the cost of him being on box rest for a week due to him having no front shoes and the cost of getting him reshod.

Thoughts?.....
Click to expand...

Better to play safe and have a week on box rest at what could the first signs of LGL than turn out and realise it was when it's too late.

There is a lot of laminitis around at the moment so it would be something to at least rule out for any soreness or foot issues.
 
"terrible flat feet" is one of the first signs that a horse may have metabolic imbalances going on.

If the first vet thought it was laminitis then good for him as the taking off the grass obviously improved the symptoms by the time the 2nd vet came.

If I were you I would be investigating the "terrible flat feet" as a symptom of something more that is going on in your horses' metabolism, far from an excuse for fancy farriery.
 
From what you say, I would still suspect that your horse DID have laminitis. Why are his feet so flat? He would not have been born that way. Diet and/or metabolic disturbances, as well as inappropriate shoeing are the cause of flat feet.
 
Was the second vet that came up who said he did not have lamanitis. 3 days on box rest and was fine. Was lame before due to small abses that has now cleared up. No grass, small handful of chaff just so he could have the danalin. He's a brilliant horse, only problem he has is his flat front feet but as I've said the second vet suggested pads and so farrier fitted them he is now sound and happy.

I completely agree that no harm done by being on box rest for a couple days.
 
I thought my (always barefoot) pony just naturally had flat shallow feet and felt the stones cos it was spring......I was wrong......

Post a mild one off lami episode and proper frequent conservative trimming, said pony now has significant concavity in her hooves and deals with stones much better as she is landing heel first and not toe.

Whether it was lami / access or a combination in this case it ought to be possible to achieve a similar improvement to the hoof confirmation, tho it might need farrier or trimmer to change the way they trim, and also to come every 5 weeks rather than longer intervals so they can trim little and often, but that's cheaper than the vet.
 
Flat sensitive feet which have to be box rested when without shoes sounds pretty laminitic to me. Iiwy I'd stop worrying about the vet bill and start worrying about why your horse has such sick hooves.
 
We had an old horse who was misdiagnosed as having laminitis. His condition deteriorated - he then got laminitis over the next fortnight, but generally his system shut down and he was PTS. The Ins co refused to pay the bill because the original vet had written lami (horse categorically did not have lami at that point he'd fallen over) owner had to foot the £2k bill herself.
I think it's good to be paranoid about lami but really vets should be diagnosing a bit more carefully in these cases.
 
Just as a side note, when my mare was shod, it was in pour ins. It really helped with sole depth and structure. However, not until I really squared things away with diet did the changes for the better happen. I don't think it matters if you choose shoes or bare for feet, there really has to be an understanding of why things are happening. Flat sensitive feet are a symptom. Has taken my big thick head a long time to for that to sink in.

Terri
 
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