Vet To Blame?

hudsonw

hudsonw

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Hi, I'm not sure if i have a claim against my vet?...My horse came in lame on the 25th June. After cold hosing his leg I turned him out. On the 26th he was worse so i brought him in and called a vet. My vet is a large practice with over 6 equine vets. The 1st vet (Mrs X) came and said it was an abcess, poulticed his foot but said i could turn out. The next day my horse was worse so i called the vet again (Mr Y). As it was a Sat night Mr Y said bring him in, give an extra Bute and he'd come out in the morning. Sunday morning Mr Y came and said it was a bruised sole or at worse a fractured Pedal Bone. Box rest for 3 days if no better my horse would need an x-ray. 3 days came and went with no improvement so i call the vet for an appointment and they refused to come out saying "I was told i would need an x-ray" I have no transport so an x-ray was booked for the Monday (4 days later). Monday the vet phoned to say the x-ray machine was broke but i asked if they could send someone anyway to check his progress. Another vet arrived (Mrs T) and said it was an abcess but have an x-ray as it might be his coffin joint. An X-ray was booked for the Wednesday. The Tuesday my farrier was due and he took one look at my horse and said it was Laminitis. He trimmed his feet told me to keep him boxed, bute, an ACP, Bed out his whole stable and soak his hay. I contacted my vet (Mrs T) and she wasn't convinced it was Laminitis and to have the x-ray as planned. Mrs T arrived on the Wednesday, took an x-ray and later that day called me to say it was really bad Laminitis. So 14 days after the 1st vet came out we were finally told it was Laminitis. The vet has now put foam pads on my horses feet for a week increased his bute to 4 a day, he's on 2 mls of Sedalin and reduced soaked hay. Mrs T is coming out again to take another x-ray and if my horse has improved or not got any worse he can have Imprint shoes on.
So...does anyone think that 14 days is too long for 3 vets to pick up laminitis?
My vet bill is now huge, do you think i shoud refuse to pay for the 1st 3 visits, up to the point that laminitis was confirmed?
If my horse doesn't pull through do you think i have a claim for neglegence?
Also, sorry to add this bit on but i've been told to soak my hay for 12hrs by some people and 24 hrs by others...which one?
Thanks and sorry for the long rant...
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I know someone who had a few issues with less than competant vets.... What she did was hold off paying the bill as long as possible, which in her case was after the problem had been sorted. Then sent a letter to the head of the practise with every detail included and a copy of the bill and asked for them to kinda (sorry can't think of wording) rethink the bill and get back to her. It worked and she didn't pay fror quite a bit of it.
 
How shocking. I don't know where you stand legally, but I'd keep the farrier, and sack the vets. Hope you are able to reverse the damage and he makes a full recovery.
 
That really is quite awful... what exactly were they doing on their 6/7 year course??!!
Good luck to you and your horse, there is no harm in writing a letter to head of practise and just saying how let down you feel etc... and hopefully they will give the vets a stern talking to and chop the bill right down!!
 
Hi, I found myself in a very similar situation when my pony had laminitis. The vet (from a practice specialising in equines) took X-rays and said he would confer with my farrier and heart-bar shoes would be fitted on my pony's front hooves. It was nearly two weeks before he got round to conferring (despite me chasing him up), whereupon my farrier refused to work from the X-rays, saying (quite rightly) that a lot could have changed in 2 weeks. I changed vets pronto, paid the new vets for a second set of X-rays and my farrier put the heart-bars on down at the veterinary clinic 2 hours later. I then received the bill from the first vets for the first and totally useless set of X-rays and it was astronomical. (almost double what I was told was the "going rate" and what my second vets had charged.) I looked on the RCVS website and wrote a letter to the first practice, saying they had 1) overcharged and 2) compromised the welfare of the animal by neglect. I received a letter of apology and a 50% reduction on the bill. I think your best bet would probably be to say you feel the welfare of your animal was compromised. Wishing you and your horse all the best. By the way, we soak our hay for 12 hours. It is quite fine meadow hay and I think if we soaked it any longer, it would be mush. We rinse it off well and let it drain a bit before feeding.
 

I,ve yet to be convinced of the benefit of soaking hay to remove soluble sugars.I have found that feeding straw with hay has the desired effect.
 
Yes I do think you should ask for this bill to be reconsidered. We had a similar experience with a locally very well-known equine practice and ended by losing the 6yr old mare. I wish now that we had also refused to pay the bill and cited their compromising of the horse's welfare, which certainly happened. Our farrier has just recently said that he feels that the practice (who we no longer deal with) lost us the mare. At the time she had been ill for about 3 months and we had paid bills periodically.
 
I have to say I am going to go against the grain here. Although obviously what has happened in less than ideal I don't think you have much come back. The vets treat as they see at the time. If you are using a large practise they are obviously not unuse to dealing with Equines.

I think you should speak to your vets and see what they say but it situations like this I don't think there is much you can do.
 
I think vets are too quick with these xrays. I have had a similar problem. Horse has gone lame, vet come out nerve blocked foot which showed no diffrence to the lameness vet said it's not in the foot, taken an xray, found an old injury in the foot, blamed it on that, injected the joint and the horse still hasn't come right. I'm now waiting on a second opinion to hopefully confirm my original belife that it was higher up which the vet originally said before he got his toys out!
Now even if it is higher up my insurance wont cover that leg because they know theres a problem so im going to end up with more exclusions and if this old injury becomes a problem in the future im screwed! 0.o
However, on the flip side it is all guess work because the horse can't say what the problem is and vets also need to cover themselves and reduce the risk of being sewed.
That being said I still feel more and more people are becoming unhappy with their vets because it appears are love for our animals is used against us. We want to do the best for our horses therefore we feel we should have x-rays, operations or whateverdone which we are advised to do by the vets but isn't always neccessary.

The best interest for many vets today is whats in our wallets and not the horse!
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You need to speak to who is in charge of the practice. I had an experance and got my bill revoked. My old mare had had a op and it turned out she had a strangulated hernia 8ft of intestine was removed. about 12 months later she came down with colic again, the vet was called out at 8.30 in the morning he came and gave her the medication and left. Half an hour later she was twice as bad so we called him again he came out about again about 11.00 am and refused to do an internal unless she was out of the stable she had loads of internals and was as good as gold for them. The mare could notwalk out of her stable. My mum asked him about would it be kinder to PTS he said leave her a few more hours and gave her another injection. He left staright away. We had to call vet again by an hour later she was in a right state we asked for another vet to come out we were told he was the only one. He never arrived back at the yard, my mare was bashing her head on the stable walls by this point and was all cut. YM called the vets stating she wanted a vet to the horse it needs to be pts. The vet called my mum on yard to say he had arranged martlands to come and pts and take her. The vet never came back to horse and we had no choic eon how she was pts it was5.30 in afternoon when she was finally pts by which point all who seen her was of the same opinion she was nearly gone anyway, her breathing had slowed right down and her eyes were rolling to the back of her head. Its very frustrating when vets go wrong, and heartbreaking this happened 10 yrs ago and just writing this has brought tears to my eyes. I hope you can sought this out and hope your horse will be ok. I do agree with others vets do want to cover themselves.
 
in reply to bally_boo. I had a mare with a similar problem and they demanded she went up to the practice. The mare never liked traveling any ways which made her worse. She didn't really make it to the practice and had to be pts because of a ruptured intestine. All the hassle when she should have been put to sleep there and then poor pony
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I think the way you have been treated is unfair however from the vets side of things a snap diagnosis on the spot can be quite difficult to make. But having said that i think they should have been able to provide the same vet for each consultation for consistency and been more sympathetic to your situation.

As far as hay soaking goes i wouldnt leave for much longer than 2 hours especially if it is warm as the hay will just become rancid. i always soak hay but it is to remove any dust rather than for sugars but that would be my opinion.

I hope things improve

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similar thing has happened to a lady on my yard one vet said he didn't know what was wrong with the lame horse (!) in the meantime a farrier took a look and said it was laminitus but unusually on the back feet so the owner called another vet ( different practice from first vet) this vet confirmed laminitus.

in my opinion if there's something wrong with your horses feet speak to a farrier first after all feet are their specialised subject.

my farrier was more helpful than my vet concerning my horse treading on a nail.
 
Hi there, I can only speak for myself but in answer to your question I drank alot, smoked alot, met some rather naughty girls and played alot of sport. It was only for 5 years so perhaps another year or two at vet school is whats needed!
 
I love a vet with a sense of humour! However, if Gulliver's veterinary practice imposes similar charges to our practice, 3 callouts and 3 lots of advice would cost approximately £168 (including 15% VAT). If all 3 were wide of the mark, I wouldn't be laughing at being expected to pay that much out.
 
I don't think you have any comeback against the vets at all. Their advice was pretty standard for lameness, you were advised to give rest and Bute and if no improvement to have an xray. You say you didn't have any transport so booked the xray for a few days later during which time the xray machine broke, which is not the vets fault. Personally I think if you were that worried you would have found transport and got the xray done after the three days box rest. I probably sound harsh but having worked at an equine vets, it seems they get the blame for absolutely everything!
 
I had a pony go lame last year at a big show. She was looked at almost straight away by the show farrier and one of the vets. The shoe was removed and nothing was obvious.The foot was poulticed over night. The next day the senior vet looked at her before we travelled home and suggested that we have our farrier look at her before we called our vet. Two days later my farrier came and checked her. he suspected an abcess but their was no sign of one. The vet arrived later that day and suggested a bruised sole. I was told to box rest her and if no better in a week to have her x-rayed. we decided to have the x-rays done the following day. We were all totally shocked to discover that she had laminitis and that her pedal bones had rotated. My farrier did not believe me when I phoned him.

I have a good vet and farrier. In the space of 5 days my pony had been seen by 2 farries and 3 vets and no one worked out what was wrong. So no I don't think that your vets were necessarily wrong. My pony made a good recovery and is back competing but with very carefull management.
 
Vetman- you sound JUST like my vet- are you?!
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OP- I'm afraid I would have to agree with Happy Horse. My vets are fantastic, however they do draw the line at being expected to be psychic!
Normally I'd have been a bit peeved at having so many diff vets come out rather than continuity of treatment, but I don't know whether you asked for the same one? Obviously over the weekend is different.
I'm also a bit confused that you had to take your horse in to them for xrays and didn't have transport, but then they came to you and did them anyway?
If you're unhappy with them though, do write to the practise manager- whats the worst that could happen?
 
Portable xray machines are not as good as the ones in the practice. It is also not generally possible to develop the xrays on the road to make sure you have the shots you need. A portable will not usually be offered as first choice, which I would imagine was why the OP was advised to take the horse in for xray.
 
Ah- thanks, my vets have a very funky VERY expensive portable digital X-ray machine now that connects to a laptop, giving instant excellent pics, I am very spoilt and forget that not everyone is as lucky!
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Hi Jane yes may have gotten carried away with my self perceived talent as a comedian there. In all seriousness 99% of laminitics present with at least 2 feet lame..usually both front and acute unilateral laminitis is extremely rare...more often this will be pus in the toe or septic laminae (the latter is common in chronic laminitics presenting with a unilateral flare up). I have one on the go now which has recently recovered well from normal acute laminitis of the front feet but is now crippled on one foot only. Have radiographed it at the stables with the mobile diagnostic unit (trailer with processor in) but am still not sure if its a flare of the laminitis or we have just not found the site of sepsis yet so it is not always clear and can be diagnostically challenging.
Think Ill apply to do a PhD at uni now its more fun there !
 
Actually for lateral feet xrays the portable machine is every bit as good and quality diagnostic radiographs should be acheived with standard settings although you cant allow for a processing mishap later. For this reason we sometimes take out the mobile diagnostic unit (trailer with processor and dark room) and develop on site but this does add to cost.
 
If your vets are fantastic then I hope I am!!! Actually Im in the South West. If only I could go back to university......
 
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Actually for lateral feet xrays the portable machine is every bit as good and quality diagnostic radiographs should be acheived with standard settings although you cant allow for a processing mishap later. For this reason we sometimes take out the mobile diagnostic unit (trailer with processor and dark room) and develop on site but this does add to cost.

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I stand corrected. I left the hospital in 2001 and forget that technology has moved on (and left me behind!)
 
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Just wait till you see the new direct digital machines with instant digital image displayed! (Cant afford one yet!)

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My dentist has one of those, I'm sure that's why it costs me the GDP of a small country every time I go!
 
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