Missed mares that then foal

duggan

duggan

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Can anyone give me any advice? I had a nice mare that I had the vet out to check, she jabbed her and the mare duly came into season and we got her covered twice. Vet said she wanted to come out and check I think 3 weeks later, it was a couple more days as we'd been on holiday. She arrived, scanned and catagorically stated the mare had missed and that she wasn't impressed with the state of her insides and the prospect of her taking to a covering. So we went no further, I am inexperienced in the horse breeding world so was willing to bow to her superior knowledge. The bill was paid for 2 call outs and all the associated scan and injection costs, and the mare was found a new home as a riding horse and has done very well. Until a month ago when she dropped a well marked coloured colt, exactly the type I was trying to produce. The new owners won't sell the foal, although they may change their minds once he gets a bit more hormonal.

Do I have any comeback on the vets for this? I feel really disgruntled that she was 100% definate the mare had missed, not that she couldn't tell. Another mare was checked at the same time, she said that one was a possiblity but mine was not.
 
Ooh, I would be livid too, what a shame!
I think you can only put it down to experience but I don't see why you can't ask for a refund on those charges, at least of the last scan which the vet messed up. I know they are only human but they have cost you a lot of money and given you bad advice, the least they could do is refund the charge of that work, even if it's just a credit note on a future bill, it would be something and good PR for them; after all, you're bound to let slip how useless they were otherwise and we all know what the horse world is like for whispers.
 
I seem to recall there was a similar case reported in the HH a couple of years ago where legal action was taken to recover the foal. I would take legal advice if I were you - are you a gold member with BHS as you will qualify for free legal advice from them?
 
tracey01 said:
How can it be morally correct to take action to recover the foal !
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I do agree with you there, it's the new owner's good luck that it's happened and they have no obligation to sell or refund the owner as a sale is a sale is a sale with no comebacks for something like this but I think the original owner is more of the 'has she a case against the vet who missed the pregnancy' more than anything else.
 
They are indeed pleased, 2 for the price of 1 and all that. Nothing I can do, i'm just pee'd off about missing the whole trick and paying well over £100 for a verdict that was so obviously wrong!
 
Poor you, unfortunately I think you should put it down to experience. Maybe it would have been better if you had had the mare re-scanned at a later date just to make sure. Unfortunately vets are only human and mistakes can be made. My vet has scanned one of our mares not in foal but I will be getting her blood tested just to make sure he has the right out come, not that I don't trust him.
 
Whether or not it's morally correct, the question is who legally owns the foal. I'm certain there was a high profile case quite similar to this one which featured in the H&H. Was a stud fee paid for the mare to be covered?
 
There are quite a lot of cases where people have bought a riding horse that has foaled, and the mare has foaled. I'm sorry to say I don't think many of them have had to give the foal back... Its usually a case of "sold as seen" isn't it?xx
 
We had the same thing happen to us, our rider bought a TB mare to cover with our stallion and after two attempts with the vet saying it most definitely wasn't in foal, he sold it to clients as a companion mare for their broodmare. She then produced a stunning filly the next spring!! Severly *******ed our vets and they are now very good to us!! lol! our rider decided that it was just bad luck and obviously the foal wasn't meant to be his! The mares new owners were very pleased with the foal so they are keeping it!
 
We see it time and time again with horses that have left the stud here to be scanned by owners vet for various reasons, like mare at home getting stressed, we have had at least 3 foals that were out of mares Not in foal! like others have suggested re scan later on, one mare was blood tested three times came back negative and was only diagnosed in foal at 8 months.
 
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