What would you do - crossed opinions and expense!

[SuperCat007]

Hello! Bit of a long one but would appreciate input from anyone with advice or experience. Horse isn’t insured due to age and exclusions.

Vet 1 thought a tooth needed to come out at a routine dental exam. I wasn’t sure but went with the opinion.

Found a root fracture and proceeded to try to take tooth, hours, tonnes of drugs etc and only 1 chipped tooth came out. Recommended referring.

2 weeks and no referral and no bill. I chased and ended up getting a very short notice appointment at a referral centre.

Vet 2 (specialist)found no fracture, except the now fractured tooth from previous attempt, exposed bone in jaw (unknown if this is from extraction attempt), lots of cuts and ulceration and an issue with a different tooth (the one that broke) which may require extraction but will be tricky due to a curly root. Recommendation leave mouth well alone but keep well up to date with dentistry as I had been doing.

£900 bill from vet 2, plus 200 miles and 5 hours of driving. Then £600 bill from vet 1.

What would you do? Any advice? I’m devastated for my horse because by all accounts he’s got great teeth for someone his age and now has a relatively big issue which is all my fault for not following my gut.

 

[meesha]

Go back to vet 1 put in an email a detailed description of whats happened and just ask them to review your bill. Include 2nd vets bill and findings.

Horrible situation, hope horse ok !! Especially at this time of year with hay and cold water.

 

[SuperCat007]

Go back to vet 1 put in an email a detailed description of whats happened and just ask them to review your bill. Include 2nd vets bill and findings.

Horrible situation, hope horse ok !! Especially at this time of year with hay and cold water.

Thank you. I was thinking that. Just awaiting the full report with annotated scope images from vet 2.

Yeah I didn’t mention the £100 I’ve spent on buying new feed and hay because everything he had previously is now poison.

 

[Birker2020]

Thank you. I was thinking that. Just awaiting the full report with annotated scope images from vet 2.

Yeah I didn’t mention the £100 I’ve spent on buying new feed and hay because everything he had previously is now poison.

Your experience sounds appalling. Very sorry.

 

[ycbm]

I'm sorry for your appalling experience and wondering how rare it is. I watched a vet dentist extract a cracked front tooth in a 4 year old that he spent a long time explaining and demonstrating to me by poking a needle down it that it was dead. He had a devil of a job to get it out, chipped the jaw bone doing it and I swear the root that finally came out looked well alive to me. It made me extremely wary of ever extracting teeth that the horse is coping with.

I would definitely be asking vet 1 to refund the bill and contemplating asking them to pay the second bill if the second dentist will support your claim.

I hope your poor horse is doing OK.
.

 

[TGM]

I think some vets see tooth extractions as a way to make extra money from routine visits. (Before anyone jumps on me, I did say 'some', not all, or even the majority.) We had a vet come out to do routine dentals and he said he suspected one of the horses had a fractured tooth and wanted to take expensive x-rays with a view to extracting the tooth. Said horse was eating well and showing no signs of discomfort and the vet's grounds for suspecting a fracture were very flimsy. We declined the x-rays and instead decided to monitor the horse and play it by ear. The tooth never caused him any discernible problems and different vets doing subsequent dentals found no problem at all.

I would definitely try and get a reduction in the bill from Vet 1, given that Vet 2 (a specialist) found that Vet 1's diagnosis was incorrect and it sounds like that the treatment given by Vet 1 made the situation worse.

 

[Tiddlypom]

Sorry this has happened.

Did vet 1 x ray the horse‘s mouth before attempting the extraction? They should have done.

NB dental x rays are not expensive and they reveal a lot.

(ETA My own mare has this year had two fillings and two extractions under the care of a specialist vet dentist. The x rays confirmed that the two molar teeth to be filled were otherwise healthy and worth saving, and that her two incisors were both dead and infected, and needed to come out).

 

[Bobthecob15]

We've almost been caught out by a similar ‘scam’ so to speak. We had a Dental technician do a routine rasp and she said the pony had 2 massive holes that basically needed extraction and she referred to a specialist… neither he or I ever got the paperwork or referral information. None of what she said rang true to me as the pony had no symptoms whatsoever so I got my vet to have a look. He sedated the pony so he could have a really good look and had a look and saw a tiny tiny hole that you’d expect for a 17yr old horse but nothing to suggest it needed anything doing to it. I politely told the specialist we didn’t need to have anything done…word must have got back to the EDT as she got in touch to say we were making a mistake etc. I ignored her but in the meantime she’d told our yard owner that we had made a terrible mistake to ignore what she said (they were mates) who then proceeded to lecture me about it all and to trust the EDT etc… needless to say we left that yard. How professional of her to talk to other people about our horse without our consent let alone the massive misdiagnosis!! Pony has been fine ever since by the way!

I did actually look into reporting her to her professional body but we only had a short window to do it and by the time all the above was done it was too late. Can you report yours to their professional body?

Totally agree about vets and EDTs making money from pointless referrals, I’m so glad we didn’t put out pony though needless and costly surgery (we didn’t have his teeth covered by the insurance!) I think if they know the horse is insured some of them just ramp up the bills

 

[Flowerofthefen]

I nearly got caught out. Nearly a year ago my equine dentist said my horse has cracked a tooth. He wasn't worried about it at all. 6 months later my horses were due their jabs so I thought I may as well ask them to do their teeth as well. Vet pointed out cracked tooth. Then proceeded to tell ne all the horrible things that could go wrong. She talked me into booking him in with the vet practice to have a camera. It was £250 just to look. I then got speaking to another vet from another practice who said the dental expert i was booked in to see was only there once a month and the vets did their best to give him a full day's work so they got people to book in!! I immediately cancelled my appointment and called my dentist back. He had a good look and confirmed there was absolutely no change and nothing to worry about. He said the horse would more than likely pop his clogs with the tooth in the same condition!!