Pre Purchase Examination - Vet Negligence

[Equine92]

Hi everyone,

Looking for advice. Will make this brief.

Viewed a horse, had a 5 stage vetting, full x-rays totalling not far from £1000.

Told the vet my aims with the horse and the level of competition required.

He passed her and didn't mention anything about x-rays. Bought the horse and was all going fine. Sudden change of behaviour, so got a vet to look at x-rays as told to do so by a trainer. He advised me the horse would be high risk of KS and the said horse has 3 close vertebrae.

Having known this - I wouldn't have bought the horse.

What are peoples views?

 

[milliepops]

what is the length of time between purchase and change in behaviour?

 

[ycbm]

I'm sorry, I don't think you have a hope of winning this one.

Close vertebrae is one thing, kissing spines are another. Close vertebrae should be resolved by correct schooling.

Unless you have actual bone changes from the vertebrae touching each other, you just have a pretty common set of back x rays, I think.

 

[ycbm]

what is the length of time between purchase and change in behaviour?

Good question !

 

[be positive]

This is probably a matter of opinion, what one vet sees as fine another will interpret as a potential issue, if the horse was insured and the insurers saw the xrays then they must have felt they were ok at the time, a change in the way they work can be enough to allow them to close further as ycbm has said working correctly can open them so I am not sure there is a negligence case and I would be extremely surprised if your vet would stand up in court and back up his opinion if it went that far.

 

[hopscotch bandit]

My horse has 'over crowded' dorsal spinal processes (T18- L2) but they don't affect her attitude to work or didn't before she was diagnosed. That said she is only hacking/fun rides now. I was told that overcrowding is not the same as KS per se. I was also told by a physio that you could xray 10 horses and you could find arthritic changes with say 8 of them, but only one or two might show signs of pain or poor perforance - i.e. they are not necessarily all going to have a problem.

I am not sure how you would stand OP to be honest. Like others have said I suppose it depends on the amount of time that has lapsed between the vetting and the situation you find yourself in now. I am sorry for your problems though.

 

[ihatework]

As MP said, what is the time period here?
Is the horse insured? Did the insurance company accept the X-rays?

Have you blocked the spine to ascertain if this is the cause of behaviour change?

 

[SpringArising]

I'm sorry, I don't think you have a hope of winning this one.

Close vertebrae is one thing, kissing spines are another. Close vertebrae should be resolved by correct schooling.

Unless you have actual bone changes from the vertebrae touching each other, you just have a pretty common set of back x rays, I think.

Agree with this. Three close vertebrae isn't KS, it's three close vertebrae.

I had X-rays on my own horse done last week to rule KS out after a change in behaviour - vet did mention there are two or three that are close, but definitely not KS.

Like YCBM said, this can be improved with the right work and time. Assume the saddle has been checked?

Physio (not a chiro who will tell you his pelvis is a ft out), and daily exercise working long and low over poles is a good move. Re-assess in two months.

 

[Hack4fun]

You need an expert opinion on the X-rays taken when your horse was vetted and the report from the vetting. There is no other way around this in my opinion.

 

[Cortez]

"Close vertebrae" are not a problem, until they are. Many horses have close vertebrae and never have any problems; many horses don't and do. Presumably the horse was not displaying any symptoms at the time of the vetting, and the vet was not negligent since there was nothing to comment upon. There are many possible reasons why your horse has changed it's behaviour: how long have you had it?

 

[Flyermc]

i might have read this wrong, but i think the issue the OP has mentioned is that, the vet never mentioned the 'close vertebrae' showing on the xray. If this had been mentioned, then im guessing the OP would have discussed this with there vet, before buying the horse.

i think you'd need to get a report on the xrays, which showed this anomaly with the horse and find out why it was never mentioned to you.

 

[ycbm]

The problem is, though, that 'close vertebrae' probably aren't an anomaly. I think it will be so common that the vet at the inspection thought nothing of it.


Being pedantic, vertebrae are always close, separated only by a disc like in our own spines. What the vet should have said was close dorsal processes. The fact that they didn't makes me think that the first vet knew a normal back better than the one saying that it has 'close vertebrae'.

 

[Shay]

As others have mentioned there are a lot of anomalies in this brief account. Close vertebrae doesn't make sense - the issue might be close spinal processes. This is actually very common to the extent that recent research suggests that many more horses would be diagnosed with KS on x ray than ever show clinical signs.

You haven't give age or competition level expected. That has a significant impact. Good schooling will open out the spinal processes so the age and anticipated level is highly significant. If this is an established high level competition horse then there is an issue. If it is younger or the level anticipated lower then it isn't.

What other suggestions have you pursued other than having another vet look at the xrays? It might also be worth asking the second vet straight out if they would be prepared to give evidence to a formal malpractice hearing for the first. There can be a lot of pressure on vets (and other professionals) to say what an owner wants to hear. It is quite another thing to ask them to give evidence before a professional panel of their peers. Absolutely no disrespect to the second vet - but my bet is they would not give evidence in a professional negligence case. You might need to look to the questions you ask of your support team.