Why did she do it? Vet - bit of a rant !

Gingerwitch

Gingerwitch

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Young vet arrived yesterday to take out staples from my young lads ears, in tow was a student from one of the uni's..... now after being totally ripped off by my last vets practice i moved to a smaller one and explained to them a) I am not a cash cow and b) my horses are not insured c) i have not issue in paying for necessary treatment but will not be milked !

My usual vet is on holiday - whom i have uptmost respect for..... newbie vet arrives and does a realativly good job of removing staples ok maybe she has never seen anyone twitch a horse with there hand but hey ho..... then we move on to my old lad to give him his annual booster..... so two of them picking every fault they can with him and then talking to me like i am 6 telling me the horse has arthritic changes to the fetlock and i ought to get them x rayed so they can judge the changes in him.... i said he is 20..... and as we do not have clear x rays to compare against what use would they be? now bear in mind i had my old girl pts less than a month ago after spending thousands with the practice, my little lad has been seen over 10 times since i brought him, has had x rays, nerve blocks and several vistis for stiches and we are possibly reffering him for an MRI scan - i have been made to feel like i am neglecting the big lad - even though he is sound and i just sobbed last night as i felt like she had rubbished my only good horse !
 
They're young and enthusiastic! It'll come to them in time.

You know your horses so would have noticed any changes to their behaviour. Maybe ask your usual vet for their opinion when they are at the yard anyway?

It sounds like you've had a stressful time x
 
Qualifications cannot compensate for experience which it sounds like these 2 where lacking !

When I first got my Ex racer last year I had the vet as horse was lame and had an overeach cut.

Anyway after trotting up and down several times followed by several flexion tests and lunging the locum vet told me he basically had everything worng with him and woudl never be right and I should have questioned why he wasn't in raceing when I brought him ( I know why he wasn't and nothing to worry about )

Anyway went to work the next day and talked about to my colleague who uses the same practice as me for her beloved cat and she laughed out loud when I told her who I had out !! She is notorious for this kind of thing apparenlty. So now when I need the vet I ask them to make sure they don'y send her - they completly understand and did confide in me that they only use her as a last resort !!
 
I had a similar problem with a new vet, except not only did she insult her, she took it upon herself to beat her up. I complained and the practice no longer send her out to me. I would do the same as when I phoned the practice they were actually very grateful to know, as they said if nobody tells them they can never do anything about it. They may point out the errors of your newbie's ways to her, and can stop it happening again to anyone else. And don't worry about what they say, you know you look after your horses, often the younger ones like to try and prove their knowledge to everyone by pointing out every tiny fault, maybe it's a "I've only just qualified and not all that confident so I'm going to try and hide it by being super over zealous" mentality :P
 
Interesting... I am a vet student, but also an owner and rider... I tend to find new vet trying to 'teach' vet student can be a bit of a disaster when it comes to client interactions. Now, I am a vet student. I am also a bit older than other vet students (not light years, but a few years... ) I had a similar experience today. I had to take MY horse to the vet for x-rays. My regular vet was, and always is, lovely and treats me like a client. He allowed me to go and hold horse whilst x-rays were bieng taken. Now, the intern (just qualified, younger than me) saw I had my vet school jumper on, asked me what year I was in (1!!!!!) and took the opportunity to literally examine me! She was asking me all about the views she was taking them, which ones they were, why they were being done, what she was looking for. I answered most of her questions correctly. I had a mind blank on one of them and said I didn't know (which IMHO is better than trying to bulls**t an answer!!). She literally came down on me like a ton of bricks to my ''sorry, I don't know that''. Saying I should know that. Fine. But then, as my horse was being led out, she said - ''did you actually know ANY of your radiology views? Or were they just lucky guesses?'' smirked and walked away.

Now, If I was on placement there then fine, quiz away. But I was a client. And should be treated as such.

Basically I have decided. Newly qualified vets think they are god's gift. I can only pray that I am more humble in 4 years time!!
 
ive also had a run in with a newly qualified vet who came out (supervised) to scan my infoal mare. When i had rung to book the appointment i specifically requested the best stud vet they had as this was my first foal out of my mare & i was paranoid. When they turned up, I was a little stunned, but thought everyone has to start somewhere & he was being supervised so let them continue. They then proceeded to tell me that there was maybe a 'blob'/maybe not but it if there was it was in the process of being aborted, so prob wasnt in foal. Que me heartbroken. Rang the stud who were very confused by this & couldnt understand the confusion over her being in foal. So I rang the vets sharing my concerns & my frustrations on not being listened to (not getting the type of vet requested). In order to keep customer relations good they provided me with a free visit & rescan with the vet i requested & i got a definative answer (she was in foal).
Try giving them a ring, they are likely to want to keep your custom. They may have words with the new vet & it will also help the new vet to develop better customer service skills.
 
Unfortunately there's no substitute for experience, both in terms of common sense treatment & dealing with clients.

If she upset you that badly then ring the practice & have a chat with them, maybe they can have a quiet word with her about dealing with clients.

Studentvet I'd definitely be having words with your practice, that's totally unacceptable!
 
Tell me about it!
If I were you I would tell the practice that you don't want to see these two again and why. Our old vet (retired now sob, sob!) always asked us how new vets had gone on when they visited us, ensured any 'adjustments' in attitude happened before the next visit and wrote to thank us for helping to train them, on his retirement.
 
Nari said:
Studentvet I'd definitely be having words with your practice, that's totally unacceptable!
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I know! One of the nurses even appologised on the way out! I don't mind them asking a few questions (anythink to make me a better vet) but this was really a girl on a powerkick! Will be interesting to see if she is still there when I'm on clinicals in a few years time.... something tells me no....
 
New vets are like junior doctors, who always introduce themselves to other members of the team as Dr. so and so, I always introduce myself back as Ms xxxxxx, and tell them that is what they call me until they tell me their first name :D I have alsl been known to congratulate them having parents who were so prescient :D
I just think it is the newly qualified symdrome!
 
Ah newly qualified vets, what fun. It takes some years of practice for them to realise that owners sometimes know the way of their animals better than they do!! Always think it is better to let the practice manager know when you have a problem with a particular vet, it makes them better vets in the future, try not to rant though:D
 
I just wished she had used a bit of sense and looked at my records before she started in her condesending critique of my horse.... she probably has no idea of how upset she has made me and i have actually cancelled two horse camps i was subsituting my old lad with for the young lad whom seams to be permanantly lame !

And to think i was paying to have my horse rubbished and she was only there to give him a booster ! aghhhhhhh
 
It's definitely new vet syndrome, one a few years ago came out to give older mare her injections. I warned her she hated needles but she was still shocked at horse's reaction. Then as she was leaving she got her pen out and clicking it madly poked it on horse's neck, turned to me and said "look she's not reacting now, if you do some work with her I'm sure she'll be fine next time". I replied that she wasn't scared of pens just needles and wasn't stupid so new that was a pen.
 
Gingerwitch said:
I just wished she had used a bit of sense and looked at my records before she started in her condesending critique of my horse.... she probably has no idea of how upset she has made me and i have actually cancelled two horse camps i was subsituting my old lad with for the young lad whom seams to be permanantly lame !

And to think i was paying to have my horse rubbished and she was only there to give him a booster ! aghhhhhhh
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Don't cancel! Go, have a great time and think to yourself 'That just shows how much you know!'
For some reason newly qualified vets seem to forget all they have learned during their training about the owners - I'm sure that as they accompanied established vets during their training, they heard things along the lines of 'Mrs So-and-so has kept horses for longer than I've been at this practice. She can tell you lot about her horses.'
I think the worst experience I've ever had with a vet was a young vet showing off to a student!
 
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