Vets bills... what happens if...

[charterline]

This is only theoretical, but something I was thinking about the other day...

Lets say your horse has an unidentified lameness issue (or any other type of problem really), and you have asked the vet to come and scan/xray/look at areas x,y and z on the horse, as you would like all of them investigating.

Vet them comes and looks at horse and says we only need to scan/xray at area x; y and z are fine. If you treated area x, and horse did not improve. Vet comes back for another visit then investigates areas y and z, and they are found to have a problem... would you be expecting to pay all the vets bill...

Ie if you wanted xrays done, you have to pay the set-up fee, and then x-rays taken. So if vet came out two/three times you would have to pay the set up costs repeatly, when it could have all been done under one set up cost.

Any thoughts?

 

[L&M]

Yes - they have done the work so should be paid!

Unfortunately some lamness issues are not easy to resolve, and often take a process of elimination until the cause can be identified.

 

[Aru]

You have to pay for each time you get the vet out. Rechecks are often cheaper than an inital call but vets time and resources are not free.
Animal are complex creatures and cannot talk and explain now they feel where it hurts,there will always be times where an initial treatment/diagnostics will not show the full picture and further treatments and diagnostics will be needed. Thats just a fact of life..its unfortunate but its true.

If a problem had been in area X,the first one looked at and where the vet has suspicions about, then you would have saved money by the vet not doing extra films to investigate a hugh area.
In many cases the rule of common things are common is true and due to experience and having seen cases with certain signs etc a vet will have them able to pinpoint certain areas/illness and base initial treatments on that. But not every disease or lameness follows that rule,if they did there would be no need for modern medicine,advanced diagnostics and vets in general!

If you wanted all areas done of x.y and z then simply asking for all to be done and paying full whack initially is the way to go. Few vets will refuse to take extra films to reassure and owner as long as they are realistic and accept that this will increase costs and those areas may not show up anything.

It isn't the vets fault if the horses illness is more complex than was initially thought and each call out takes up time and resources,so yes they do bill accordingly.

 

[Queenbee]

This is only theoretical, but something I was thinking about the other day...

Lets say your horse has an unidentified lameness issue (or any other type of problem really), and you have asked the vet to come and scan/xray/look at areas x,y and z on the horse, as you would like all of them investigating.

Vet them comes and looks at horse and says we only need to scan/xray at area x; y and z are fine. If you treated area x, and horse did not improve. Vet comes back for another visit then investigates areas y and z, and they are found to have a problem... would you be expecting to pay all the vets bill...

Ie if you wanted xrays done, you have to pay the set-up fee, and then x-rays taken. So if vet came out two/three times you would have to pay the set up costs repeatly, when it could have all been done under one set up cost.

Any thoughts?

Ok, so what you are saying is vet comes out to investigate 3 areas in one session, 3 x rays will still cost, vet suggests the probability of issues source is that it is in area x, so suggests investigating this first and foremost, thus potentially saving you the cost of two additional x rays if the problem is found to be coming from this area... Sadly it isn't and requires further investigation.

Your query is. Would you want to pay 3 x set up/call out fees if it turned out that the issue was in area z and x and y had been investigated first... I get the question.

My question is, if the problem had been found with the first x ray in area x and x rays of area z and y were therefore not needed, would you be happy with saving the money on them, would you appreciate that,

Also, if vet came out and did investigate all three areas in one go, and you later found out that the likelihood of the problem being in area x was very high, as this is common with horses, would you be miffed that your vet had done 3 x rays when one would probably have sufficed? Would you complain that it was yet another vet doing unnecessary tests to cream cash from you?

Investigating area x was meant to hopefully save money, there was always a chance the issue wasn't going to be found there... It was a gamble, but done on the basis that odds were, one x ray would diagnose the issue and save you, the customer cash...


Hypothetical or not, I would pay the bill, and be grateful that the vet was conscientious enough to try and save the customer some cash even if it didn't work out that way in the end.

 

[Foxhunter49]

Interesting question!

Many moons ago I had a hind lame yearling. I was sure it was high up in his stifle. Vet said hoof.
In all fairness he did find a small abscess so that was drained and treated.
Still lame. Vet dug around looking for more infection in the foot. Nothing.
Decided to X-ray. I took yearling to the surgery. vet wasn't there but the radiologist had been told to X-ray hoof and fetlock I said not, do the stifle first.
I saw the head honcho and told him that if the hoof and fetlock were X-rayed and nothing was wrong then I would not pay for those pictures. He agreed and saw the yearling trot up and said it was stifle. It was he had a bone cyst, only paid for the one picture.


Not the same thing but, if I was sure that a problem lay in a certain area I would drive the same bargain.

 

[putasocinit]

Absolutely foxhunter, however if you are having blocks then these will need to be done over consecutive days.

 

[Rebels]

On the other hand, I went in with a stiff horse with a locking stifle, vet agreed stifle locked, stayed hock on a gut instinct whereas I wanted pics of the obv problem. Lo and behold, horse diagnosed with spavin, stifle was clean, vet was right.(!) Another horse was diagnosed with a pedal bone fracture on his 15th image on the pedal bone taken over 3 years when he moved slightly and they got an odd angle, still had to pay all the other xrays.