Our vet refused to come out.....

The Bouncing Bog Trotter

The Bouncing Bog Trotter

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We had one of those crisis moments on the yard a couple of days ago. One of the big boys decided to bring himself in but misjudged the 5-bar gate he had to jump on his way in and managed to hurt his legs quite badly. He wasn't weight bearing on one of his hind legs so we thought the worst!
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Cue panic call to vets on mobile. We explained the situation and said that the horse wasn't weight bearing. The vet's office then asked if we were the owner of the horse. We explained that it was a client horse and they refused to attend saying that they would only come if the owner called them herself.

Fortunately we were able to get hold of the owner on her mobile but she is someone whose job means her mobile is normally off during working hours. She called the vets and they attended - fully expecting to have to PTS the horse due to a leg fracture. Fortunately the leg is only very badly bruised and said horse is now on box rest for a while.

We have livery contracts in place which give us permission to call the vet out in emergencies but the vet practice we spoke to wouldn't accept this as authority. We have had a similar issue with the same vets in the past when we wanted to book jabs etc and know that the owner has to make the booking but we thought in an emergency the situation may be different.

I just wanted to make others aware of this in case this happens to you. I don't know if it is standard practice for all vets but I dread to think what would have happened on our case had we not been able to contact the owner and leg had been fractured.
 
You'd better get each owner to write to their vet (or phone and make sure it's on the notes) giving permission for your YO to call the vet out in an emergency.
 
Our vets have contracts which our livery owners sign to say they give consent to act in the best interests of the horse when the owner is uncontactable.
 
I suspect this problem originated with people refusing to pay the bills. I can't blame your vet. Jemima-too has the solution.
 
My owners sign a clause in the contract giving me permission to call the vet in their absence/without their permission, and my vet is more than happy to deal with me and bill the owner - in fact I think he would far rather deal with me than the owner in many cases
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I would be extremely unhappy if a horse in my care suffered unnecessarily because a vet wouldn't attend unless the owner requested it
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It may not only be due to non payments. Its actually illegal to administer a drug to an animal without the knowledge of the owner. In all fairness most vets would just do it anyway if it was a real emergency Im sure but in theory, if someone worms your horse and you are not told until after the event, the wormee has commited an offence.
 
I think all owners on our yard need to contact their vets and find out what authority/forms need to be signed. I'll ask the vets to mention it in their next client newsletter, just so that others don't have the same panic as us!!!
 
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It may not only be due to non payments. Its actually illegal to administer a drug to an animal without the knowledge of the owner. In all fairness most vets would just do it anyway if it was a real emergency Im sure but in theory, if someone worms your horse and you are not told until after the event, the wormee has commited an offence.

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wormee!! made me laugh me head off!
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I'm also in East Sussex and I bet we're using the same vet!! Having recently been in hospital whilst my horse required treatment I can sympathise from an owner's perspective. In my case, the YO called them (my horse is on full livery for the significant future as I've had back surgery) and they refused to attend until I'd phoned them direct, even though I've been a loyal client of theirs for 15 years and have always paid my bills on time!

I've now asked them to put a note on my account giving the YO full rights to make appointments (and more importantly, decisions..) on my behalf. It's something I'd not considered before and it made me wonder what would've happened if it had been an emergency and I had not been contactable.
 
TBH when my mare went on loan to my friend I made sure everybody at the yard had my vets number and similarly asked my vet if he was prepared to travel over the hour to the new yard. He was more than happy to do so and I left the yards details with his office with full permission for him - or any of his other staff - to attend / give results etc.

I can understand why they wouldn't attend if its not the owner - people (and I don't mean you in anyway) can be very fickle / stupid and complained about a big bill etc or refuse to pay cause they didnt' authorise it etc.

I hope the horse is all better and maybe it will teach it stay where its meant to be
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M - I understand where you are coming from - but this was an emergency. We thought the horse had fractured his leg, the vets thought the same from our description of the injury over the phone, and they still refused to attend. I'm not talking about a small cut which warranted one of those ' should we call the vet' discussions.

I'm also not criticising the vet if this is their policy, they run a business and have made this decision based on the knowledge of their business and their clients - I just feel that they should make owners aware that they will not accept a call out from a third party in ANY circumstances. And I hope that this post makes other owners aware of the fact that other vets may also operate the same policy.
 
In this situation where possibly a serious injury then the vet should attend even if no owner contactable. Using basic common sense the animal should be made as comfortable as possible and would vets would generally ask a friend or yard owner to give permission for drugs or even euthanasia if that was required. Ideally would speak to an owner first but in road traffic accidents or obvious unfixable fractures then the welfare of the horse has to be taken into account. If it was my animal I would want it painfree as soon as possible and if that meant euthanasia then I would accept the vets decision.
 
Surely the vet could have billed you, as the person who called them out and left you to get the money from the owner. I'm afraid I would be upset that a vet was prepared to leave a horse potentially in agony because of their own red-tape.
 
Our vet will happily come if our YO calls, Our contract does say they can call the vet at our cost though. Not that the vets know of this and would still come.
 
I can completely understand your frustration and how terrifying it must have been. I'm sure I'd be freaking out if it were me. As you say I hope its definitely raised awareness for others to double check their vets policy re a non owner dealing with a horse in an emergency.

Seems it doesn't matter how organised we think we are there is something lurking which can raise its head and your left thinking 'who knew'.
 
Ok, from a different angle.

My pony (now deceased) rubbed his bottom due to fly irritation. He had a perfectly round friction type burn that my (old) YO decided was ringworm
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The vet was already on the yard and they asked the vet to look at my horse, he did and refused to treat.

When I spoke to him, he apologised profusely and said it went aginst his professional ethics to look at my pony without my knowldege. He said the only reason he had was to confirm to the village idiot (oh, I mean YO), that it wasn't ringworm.

I wasn't charged for the consult and had I been, it'd have gone straight to the YO
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I actually thought vets were OBLIGED to treat animals in emergency situations, at least to administer life saving or humane treatment regardless of payment/ consent details. I know that when I used to work in a small animal practice, we would treat any cat RTA s etc even if the owner had not been identified/contacted and I am sure that I was told that they had to do this? Surely if the horses leg had been broken- and the vet didn't know it wasn't- this falls under humane treatment/euthanasia and applies in the same way?
 
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M - I understand where you are coming from - but this was an emergency. We thought the horse had fractured his leg, the vets thought the same from our description of the injury over the phone, and they still refused to attend. I'm not talking about a small cut which warranted one of those ' should we call the vet' discussions.


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If my vets pulled a stunt like that they would find a very strong complaint being made to RCVS!! But they wouldn't! They treat visiting horses here all the time and I've never had a problem - although thankfully never had a suspected broken leg with a client's horse. However, if I DID, they would attend - and if horse needed to be PTS, would enquire if I was able to contact the owner or whether I had authority to make the decision.

I have a horse here at present whose owner is abroad and could be difficult to contact. I got her to give me a note authorising me to make any and all decisions for the horse's welfare in consultation with my vets.
 
My vet would come to any horse / animal I called him out for - without asking who it belonged to, if its on my yard then it is under my care. On occasion the horse / animal hasn't even been registered with the vet, and I've never been asked for proof of ownership. Whether this has anything to do with us being 'good customers' or having a good credit rating at the vets, I don't know. This sort of thing could be a nightmare of LY owners I presume.

Glad the OP's horse didn't have anything worse than bad bruising. Hope he recovers soon.
 
So by the same guidleine, any horse whose rider is injured in a RTA to the point of being unable to communicate, would be unable to be treated by this vet. As would any horse injured at competition being jumped by another rider. As would any racehorse injured during a race where the owners were not present watching - many racehorse owners live abroad.

I feel the policy could have been applied with some discretion in this case. They don't sound a very practical team of vets, and I would change.
 
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I actually thought vets were OBLIGED to treat animals in emergency situations, at least to administer life saving or humane treatment regardless of payment/ consent details. I know that when I used to work in a small animal practice, we would treat any cat RTA s etc even if the owner had not been identified/contacted and I am sure that I was told that they had to do this? Surely if the horses leg had been broken- and the vet didn't know it wasn't- this falls under humane treatment/euthanasia and applies in the same way?

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I also thought that vets would come out immediately in an emergency, regardless.
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Our vets came out no problem when I called them as someone with an arab colt cut his foot badly when coming off the horsebox. They were only stopping at the yard for the show as they lived a long way away and were obviously not even registered at our vets.
 
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I also thought that vets would come out immediately in an emergency, regardless.
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I was amazed when a horse local to us escaped from her field one Sunday night and was in an RTA, breaking a hind leg. None of the local vets who were contacted (and we are in area where 3 local practices are considered to be 'equine experts' with 2 of them having hospital facilities) would come out. The mare was said to be screaming and so those present sent for a local marksman who came and put her out of her agony. I do not know all the details as I wasn't present but do know that the site of the RTA was only a few hundred yards from her owner's house, so I can't see that this was because he couldn't be contacted.
 
Whilst I see how it was frustrating, from the point of view of a livery who has had big bills becuase of a clause like that, and for things that weren't emergencies as such - well one kinda was and was caused by the yard!!

Like £200 for treating horse when a 5mm nail went into the horses frog - despite it going into to a deep bit for very dead frog and its a barefoot horse with raggedy frogs (like not as cut away as is don't with a shod horse)

That pissed me off no end given that said nail originated from the building site for the YO new house that you had to walk past to get to the field!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Had that clause not been in effect I would have removed said item myself cleaned foot with bleach and let neddie get on with his life non the wiser - as he didn't even notice it!
 
It would never happen on my yard.

We have excellent relations with the three big practices that are used. Regular clinics are held, and if a vet is required one comes out - regardless of who calls them.
 
Not quite the same, but when our pony was out on loan (with full contract etc) she was kicked and had a suspected fracture. Vet wouldn't x ray without my permission and asked loaners to get me to call her. I then spent a frantic Saturday trying to contact this damn vet who was off duty. To cut it short it was Monday before pony was x rayed (and robert jones applied) and as she had fractured her leg could have been a disaster. She was insured and loaners were happy to pay excess so wasn't for fear of not being paid I don't think.
 
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