Second vet opinion? Ongoing injury due to vet error, questions?!

[Endrete]

I am wondering if anyone else has needed/wanted to seek a second opinion with regard to vet treatment please and your experiences?

Horse was injured in field at the beginning of June. Not lame, deep cut to cannon but not down to bone and no other structures involved. As this was meant to be a show horse vet recommended bandaging for ten weeks, twice a week, using manuka honey dressings etc in order to try to reduce likelihood of scar and white hair. All going well until week 8, tissue had filled in, no proud flesh etc.

Different vet from same practice visits to rebandage, all excited about a 'new' gel dressing he wanted to use. He advised to leave it a week before redressing as well instead of the three days. Normal vet visits to rebandage a week later and we are horrified to find that the gel dressing has pulled the wound open, causing a ridge down one side and opened the skin below and around the wound, already had proud flesh growing. He was pretty upset with it, took pics etc. He phoned other vet who said he had used it on two/three other horses without a problem. Normal vet apologised and we went back to the manuka honey dressings and twice weekly visits.

As we basically had to start from scratch the poor boy was bandaged for nearly three months. Eventually we had remove them as he was going lame, he had bandage sores and his fetlock was huge were it was rubbing. The first removal was a disaster, had to get vet back within 24 hours to give antibiotics and steroids and put bandages back on. Another two weeks later and horse is very lame, intense nursing by me allowed bandages to be removed without dramatic swelling. Xrays have shown the constant bandaging have caused small change to bone on inside of cannon. His leg is a mess, white hair growing in, ridge left on one side which was caused by dressing and his fetlock is big. I am also convinced he isnt 100% sound, vet says he is and then says he just isnt 'tracking up' properly. He definately doesnt move properly on that side. My very experienced back lady agreed with me and suggested a second opinion.

This has all been paid for by insurance - the bill is now HUGE.

I am increasingly wondering how its fair that the insurance company are footing the bill for a vet error and think maybe I should phone them to discuss?

I have expressed my dissatisfaction to my normal vet who has apolgised but wasnt sure what else to say. I have an excellent working relationship with him and dont want to upset him but I am EXTREMELY upset about the state of my horse's leg and also the fact that he just doesnt seem to be moving right. And we are now five months on.

Would you seek a second opinion before or after speaking to the insurance company? And who would you use? I will travel the country to the right vet as this horse is my pride and joy and we had big plans. This injury has definately affected his value as he stands too.

Any similiar experiences would be most welcome.

 

[SusieT]

I would seek a second opinion
I would also send a letter to practice to explain your concenrs and give them a c hance to right them
I would take plenty of pics.
I would also be aware that there is an arguement that the wound broke down despite the dressing and the lameness may be from the original injury rather then the wound dressing issue.

 

[Endrete]

Thanks SusieT. I will definately put it into writing, thats a good start! I have plenty of pics to back up too.

I understand what you are saying with regard to the wound but the damage done was not a 'normal' way for a wound to break down and Ive seen a few! The pictures most definately prove this and the vet has agreed to this too. He was pretty angry himself! (I think the comments along the lines of letting other vets lose on his clients etc..) The gel dressing had definately moved as it was on the inside of his cannon instead of to the front where it had been placed. The ridge of skin followed this movement. With regard to the lameness, I have looked through his vet notes to remind myself and there was no mention in the first eight weeks of his being lame. The xray damage shows on his fetlock, again far below the original injury site. There was not a mark on this area at the time. All the other areas of white markings/hair regrowth are purely due to being bandaged for a very long period of time.

 

[Birker2020]

I was at the stage with a previous horse ten years ago of getting a second opinion on a horse that was diagnosed as having EHV when I was certain it had wobblers.

The young vet from the practice was so excited about the possibility of my horse having EHV that she went so far as to clap dramatically with a big grin on her face stating she would be the first one to discover this in the Midlands and she could write her thesis about it . This meant that she wasn't open to any other options and was very narrow minded in respect of the possibility he could have had another condition.(I nearly decked her that day by the way).

It wasn't just her either! The McTimoney chiro came out three times to try and sort my horse out and although each time I said I thought the horse was moving in a way that a horse with wobblers would move I was told that this wasn't the case! Talk about putting your faith in professionals!

Eventually after my vet had been messing around for weeks attempting to make her diagnosis work I was at the end of my tether and insisted on a referral which the horse ultimately received, and was PTS with CVM/Wobblers.

I wished that I had got a second opinon at the time, and I wouldn't hesistate to get one now for my current horse if I felt that the vet was wrong (or could be wrong). Obviously I am not a vet and put my complete trust in my current vet but they are only human and do make mistakes and I would always trust my gut instinct if I were being told something that I did not beleive to be true.

 

[PorkChop]

Good advice from SusieT

I just wanted to say, don't give up hope. I had a mare that had a horrific injury to her leg - major wounds - it was healing beautifully until the dressings came off, horrible proud flesh and not enough skin to cover the wound. I used equiade, without bandaging, and it healed so well. She does have some white hairs, but really an amazing recovery for very nasty wounds.

I hope your Vet's compensate you.