Vets - how much do you trust them?

Vets are human just like the rest of us, and vary in their approach!

Beware, if you see the partner he or she may be 'on the make' a bit more than the junior assistant vet who doesn't have a financial stake in the business...

Although their greater experience may out-weigh this concern...

As with everything in life - if you are paying, you have the right to ask lots of questions and challenge anything you are concerned about! It's your money and your pet - if you are not happy, vote with your feet :)
 
I don't trust all vets . . . I've known some who were simply out to milk their customers of money . . . but I do trust mine.

The dogs' vet doesn't have the best bedside manner but worked wonders with Fred's very badly broken leg without charging us the earth.

Kali's vet is awesome - he's one of the best equine vets in the country and while some of the vets on his staff do like to spend their clients' money, if you tell them you don't have money to burn they do take that into consideration and give you a range of options rather than just the most expensive. If Malcolm or one of his staff say I should be doing "X" for Kal then I trust that they believe it's the best thing for him. End of. My only issue with them is that they are based in Winchester, which is almost an hour from us - but I've never known them to let down any of my friends who use them.

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Goldenstar said:
I don't ' bother' to Insure because when my horse is injured or sick any decision I take is between me and the horse no insurance company influencing me.
It has nothing to do with mindset and nothing to do with money.
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Goldenstar all I can say is that you must have much, much more money than anyone else who posts on this board

or you are prepared to bankrupt yourself to pay vets fees

or you would put a horse that can easily be saved to sleep if you haven't got the money to have it treated.

I hope it's the first, because the second is unfair to creditors and the third unfair to the horse, but for the rest of us in the normal world it is about money.


I am not insured and I find the magic words to prevent huge bills are "this is a farm cat" and "this horse is not insured". It's like a fairy appearing with a magic wand :D
 
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I certainly trust mine, I had the opportunity to get to know them better a good few years ago going out on work experience with them (and lots of other vets) and you get to see how they all operate. Mine is a practice of three and I am very happy to have any of them come out in an emergency. I do have a preference and got to pick him to deal with Frank's lameness and it is nice he is up for discussion about it.

The 'is he insured' did come up, well in the x-ray room because it might have made a difference as to whether we did a 3rd x-ray of his feet. Equally I think the fact that an animal is insured does put a different time scale on it. Obviously anyone wants their animal better asap but if it has the possibility of being complicated you (and the vets) then know that you do only have 12 months to diagnose and complete treatment (or as much treatment as possible.)
 
I had a vet out from an equine hospital, diagnosed my boy with Navicular, immediately asked if the horse was insured, when i replied no said I should PTS !
When I mentioned barefoot he just looked at me as if I was from another planet.
But what really annoyed me was the way he talked to me once I said the horse was not insured as if I couldn,t afford it. It was not for him to presume what I could or would be willing to pay!
 
i trust my horse vets more.... the vets im at at the moment theres only 2 vets there id want to deal with ttho


with my dog vets - i trust 1 vet in the practise (theres 5)..... i request the one or i will wait another week for an appoinment if its non emergancy

for vaccs...i dont mind which vet does them.



ets - both animals are insured and ive had the "are you insured" question before.... and my horse wasnt pts. If i had said no he would have been destroyed. With that current horse, i wish i had said no.
 
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Insurance is relevant for so many reasons:

1) If insured for loss of horse, owner should get permission from insurance co before PTS for something that isn't an instant welfare PTS. If this isn't done, insurance co can refuse to pay out- which client might argue is the vet's fault.

2) Given I live in the back of beyond with the nearest referral hospital being a couple of hours away, colics are almost always referred very quickly if insured and fit to travel so that if they deteriorate suddenly they can be treated surgically. Simple welfare consideration given location - referring practice gets only the initial call out fee, not the ongoing visit fees, but horse has more chance of survival.

3) Timescales. You have 1 year to do all you want to with insurance, from initial presentation - this tends to mean you have to "rush" to do expensive diagnostics so that all treatment fits into the timescale remaining.

As for self insuring, can't see a problem with that if you (a) have access to 10k for fees for a colic op or (b) decide not to put a horse through it. Colic surgery costs more than most insurance limits anyway, so there will be a top up to find, and the long term survival rates aren't fantastic.

Trust depends on the vet and has to be earned - I know of plenty of vets who've recommended PTS when an animal isn't at its insurance limit and try and limit their costs as far as they can because they know the owners' funds are limited.
 
I trust my vet.

I think I'm quite lucky as there are two really great veterinary practises near to our yard and both are excellent. In fact, because one as hospital facilities, they tend to work together to refer work when necessary.

Generally, I am with the practise that doesn't have the hospital facilities, but I trust my regular vet implicitly and wouldn't know what to do if he moved to another part of the country! He is upfront, direct and I believe, 100% honest. I also like a couple of the other vets at this surgery, although by preference, I always ask for 'my' vet over the others!

When I lived in manchester though, I had a vet who did little to inspire confidence. His first question when he arrived was 'are you insured?' and like others have said, if the answer was no, he practically gave up there and then....and if you said yes...you could see the pound signs flashing before his eyes!

At the end of the day - a vet is quite an important person in most horse-owners lives. I know I can ring mine any time of the day and he will answer most questions over the phone...no charge! He is great and I wouldnt be without him!
 
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darkhorse123 said:
A good horsey friend of mine warned me today to always remember vets are "half vets, half salespeople"

Ive only ever - up to now - dealt with vets with my dogs and must say I agree with her.

so do you?

Do you think vets always have the animals interests at heart or do you think some can and do reccomend unneccessary meds or procedures for either profit or even experimental purposes ?
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My equine Vet - trust him implicitly.

My large animals Vet - again, I trust him implicitly.

(Neither try to sell lotions and potions, in fact they tell me to buy supplies - sharps, syringes, depocillin etc at the farm store as it is half the price they have to charge)

My ex small animal Vets - :mad: Patronising. Arrogant. Money grabbing hypocrites. Professionally they were competent, they just needed a crash course in public relations .... I no longer use them, and they know exactly why, I am one amongst many who say this about them.

Of course I accept that they have a surgery and premises to run, staff to pay, have to earn a crust, keep their F350's on the road etc and so have to pass on those costs, but I do not pay to be insulted or told that I shouldn't keep animals because I happened to refuse to pay $800 for cosmetic surgery for a barn cat.
 
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cptrayes said:
Goldenstar all I can say is that you must have much, much more money than anyone else who posts on this board

or you are prepared to bankrupt yourself to pay vets fees

or you would put a horse that can easily be saved to sleep if you haven't got the money to have it treated.

I hope it's the first, because the second is unfair to creditors and the third unfair to the horse, but for the rest of us in the normal world it is about money.



I am not insured and I find the magic words to prevent huge bills are "this is a
farm cat" and "this horse is not insured". It's like a fairy appearing with a magic wand :D
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I can afford to pay all my horses bills .
I have several horses and have looked into insurance three times each time we took three years bills and took off excesses and routine stuff and twice it was cheaper to carry the risk ourselves and once it evened out.
If I could not afford the odd 5k disaster I would have fewer horses and insure but I can so I dont.
 
When my cat came over all funny I took her to my local vet and explained that I'd taken her in as a rescue, she wasn't insured and I wasn't sure of her age but probably mid-teens. He said, yes, he could do this test and that test but you don't want that sort of invasive procedure for her do you? So we agreed to treat the symptoms and 2 years later she is fine. He is the practice owner too. I do think that there are two factors which interfere with modern veterinary practice. Once is scientific progress, ie. there are treatments available now that were unheard of 10 years ago, and the other is insurance. Vets obviously want to be able to try new treatments etc for themselves because that is how you learn and insurance has made it financially possible for people to say go ahead and try. So many people will try absolutely anything to save their beloved pet and sometimes their hearts rule their heads. I'm guilty of that myself. My horse costs me £500 a month for epilepsy and arthritis treatments and we've just added another £30 a month for Cushings. Entirely my choice. She's 28, retired and a complete money pit and I could be mortgage free by now without her. But she still has quite a pleasant life and just isn't ready to go yet. So I find the money. Now if it was colic surgery, no, not least because I wouldn't put her through the journey let alone anything else.
 
I trust my vet 100%, I've known her since she was about 10. She has a one-person practice (normal over here), and anything requiring specialist equipment, I would go to the excellent horsepital about half an hours drive away. My vet is very much into natural remedies, whilst not being against chemical treatment if that's what is required. She always takes the time to explain things and is so patient! My horse is insured, delicate warmblood that she is, but I have never been asked that by this vet. Guess I'm just lucky :)
 
darkhorse123 said:
A good horsey friend of mine warned me today to always remember vets are "half vets, half salespeople"

Ive only ever - up to now - dealt with vets with my dogs and must say I agree with her.

so do you?

Do you think vets always have the animals interests at heart or do you think some can and do reccomend unneccessary meds or procedures for either profit or even experimental purposes ?
Click to expand...

I think they have to have the animals best interest at heart. But not humans! So that kind of answers the question. They will do what is best for the horse even if what they suggest is the lesser cost and not the most expensive option. They have to do this as they are governed by a code of conduct.

However if they feel that anything can be gained from more investigative work (at great cost) and also know that the subject is insured then I believe they will fight tooth and nail to extract as much as they can from the insurance company.

But guys, ultimately what you have to remember is that whilst you can smugly smile and say "well I'm not bothered about cost as I'm insured" what you have to remember is that it will alter your premium upon renewal, and in some situations quite DRASTICALLY!:)
 
In ye olden days I had a horse opened up at home, we prepped a large yard [about six stables sized, , strawed it and did the biz, my and OH as assistants, I did all the aftercare horse survived the op, was on its feet the next day, so I don't know how they can estimate £5K.
In my case the horse as pts, but that was because it was incurable not due to lack of aftercare or surgical skill.
 
Because the survival rate without bags of fluids would be very low. The infection rate in such a scenario would be very high.
 
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