Some advice please re vets

[Tilda]

Hi, sorry this may end up long.

My friend (J) bought a beautiful 4 y o ISH mare last year who to cut a long story short she had huge issues with. She started rearing at everything and just generally behaving very dangerously. As you do in the first place with these issues J went down the usual routes back, teeth and tack. Starting with the saddle she ended up having 4 different saddles over the 9 months my friend had her due to her growing up and out. With her teeth she had 2 wolf teeth that were removed by the vet and also had all her other teeth rasped. She also had her back worked on regularly but the problems with her rearing persisted.

Last december J actually swapped her beautiful horse for a new youngster with our back lady (D) as she had completely lost her confidence and the new horse was a nice quiet cob. D went through a lot with this mare but fast forward to last week and the mare was jumping Discovery in a pressure halter! This led D to wonder if her teeth might be the issue as she is still having issues with a bit in. D's vet came out and it appears this poor horses teeth are so sharp D actually cut her finger when she put her hand in to feel them and she has abcesses on her tongue and cheeks where they have been cutting in.

Now my friend is absolutely gutted as she feels guilty that the poor horses mouth has got in this state and the fact is that if her mouth had been sorted she would probably still have her gorgeous horse.

So what she is wondering is if she has any chance of getting any comeback from the original vet who took the wolf teeth out and also invoiced her that all teeth had been rasped? D's vet has said they would confirm that they don't think the teeth had ever been done as they couldn't have got that sharp in less than a year.

Any opinions/ advice gratefully received thanks

 

[Clippy]

When it comes to battling with a vet, you're often on a good hiding for nothing and it would be very difficult to prove the teeth haven't become sharp since your friends vet rasped them. The way some horses mouths are made and the way they chew can also cause sharp edges so it could be argued that the vet did a good job in the first place

 

[SusieT]

Yes if D's vets are happy to put in writing that the teeth are not in a condition that a reasonably skilled vert would have left them in having rasped a year ago, and you are sure that the vet actually rasped the teeth and didn't just remove the wolf teeth, I would imagine you would have a case for sending to rcvs for query over negliggence. I would seek legal advice if she plans to go fown this road and can't imagine there would be much financial gain.