This came up recently. A vet used the wrong semen and didn’t recognize the error. When the subsequent foal was DNA’d the correct father was identified. Foal was registered, but was not the desired breeding.
Has this happened to anyone here? What did the vet/mare owner do about it?
I had a breeding farm accidentally breed my mare live cover to the correct stallion one day and the incorrect stallion the next. They gave me the option to abort but I did not. Foal ended up being born with no eyes and put down at ten hours old so it was a moot point.
Yep, but not the vets fault. Two mares on site to be bred AI to 2 different stallions. The collector labeled the semen wrong.
One mare did not conceive. The other did, but the owner was thrilled as it was from the stallion with the higher fee. She really wanted to breed both mares to that stallion. She got a nice baby that sold well and done well in the show ring.
She returned the mare that did not conceive to be bred again to the correct stallion, at no charge, but no go. Mare had fertility problems, I guess.
I allowed the mare owner to carry over the last of the 3 shipments from that contract to the problem mare the next year to the stallion she really wanted, with no additional charge for his higher stallion fee. Happy ending.
It CAN happen, even at the best of breeding farms. That said, if the mistake is the farm’s fault, the MO should not be charged for the breeding, IMO. Had she not wanted to use the last of the shipments due under the other stallion’s contract, I would have refunded her breeding fee and vet charges.
There was a thread a few years ago, where the resulting foal could not have been the product of the stallion. It may also not been the mare’s ( surrogate ).
There was no resolution, but the vet ? or facility appeared to be shady.
It was a nice foal, but worth little w/o the parentage. Saga went on for a year and then nothing else was posted.
Chall - I remember that
It was a mare owner / clinic in Quebec that was involved and it was a gigantic mess!
Here you go - here are the 2 threads I was thinking about and I believe Chall referred to …
[QUOTE=TrueColours;8244391]
Chall - I remember that
It was a mare owner / clinic in Quebec that was involved and it was a gigantic mess![/QUOTE]
Then the vet and the facility must have been in cahoots. Can’t imagine that happening unless they were in biz together and someone owned the stallion and there were shenanigans re breeding fees.
That’s really creepy. Never saw that thread.
In most breeding farms, the vet is an independent, not a partner in any way, I think, no?
In this case frozen semen. Vet, mare owner and provider of frozen semen all independent of one another. Semen properly labeled. Two mares of very different color and type bred at the same time, each with the wrong semen. Correct semen was recorded on the vet records. One mare took, the other didn’t. The missed breeding would have been a full sibling to a national champion.
Not exactly the same thing, but I had a very, very reputable stallion facility send me an empty equitainer! And it was on a problem cycle. They were great and got semen on a plane later that morning and semen arrived that evening.
Yes, mistakes happen. Just a huge bummer when it happens.
Yes it has happened to me. Vet just got mixed up. She said sorry, didn’t really seem all that concerned and charged me the same. Speaking to other breeders in the area afterwards I found out I wasn’t the only one. Another breeder has his jumper bred mare inseminated with semen from a dressage stallion. These were both frozen semen breedings.
Not the wrong stallion, but last year a vet put 1.5 doses of De Niro into a mare when I’d only budgeted on using one dose. Pretty expensive mistake. No apology, just a bit of a laugh that he had been so silly. I couldn’t really afford to lose that much money. To really top it off the mare didn’t get pregnant!! Ouch!!
[QUOTE=Hippie;8244787]
Not the wrong stallion, but last year a vet put 1.5 doses of De Niro into a mare when I’d only budgeted on using one dose. Pretty expensive mistake. No apology, just a bit of a laugh that he had been so silly. I couldn’t really afford to lose that much money. To really top it off the mare didn’t get pregnant!! Ouch!![/QUOTE]
I am really upset to hear how not concerned the vets were! If I made a mistake like that in my practice I would be doing things for reparation. Yes, mistakes happen, but it is my responsibility to do my best to repair my mistake. Especially for a repro mistake as the bulk of the vets cost is their professional time, not hard costs. Yikes.
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I am really upset to hear how not concerned the vets were! If I made a mistake like that in my practice I would be doing things for reparation. Yes, mistakes happen, but it is my responsibility to do my best to repair my mistake. Especially for a repro mistake as the bulk of the vets cost is their professional time, not hard costs. Yikes.
Reading this makes me very dismayed as well. Having walked in many shoes in this profession, I find myself just shaking my head more and more. I have not made this mistake and regarding my own horses, I own/have the stallion so there is no chance of a mistake even when I go to the stallion station. However, while in the scheme of things “it’s not the end of the world” it is costly to someone. Reparations of some order should have been extended.
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[QUOTE=Blume Farm;8244815]
I am really upset to hear how not concerned the vets were! If I made a mistake like that in my practice I would be doing things for reparation. Yes, mistakes happen, but it is my responsibility to do my best to repair my mistake. Especially for a repro mistake as the bulk of the vets cost is their professional time, not hard costs. Yikes.[/QUOTE]
I wish all vets were as conscientious as you. I had a terrible experience at a vet hospital in central KY (not one of the big 2) that lied to me on multiple occasions about services performed. When I finally caught them and confronted them - only response was “oops”.
Blume, I thought it was pretty weird too. Pretty big difference between Londonderry and Quaterback! lol. Not only that, I had semen from the sire of one of my mares in that tank…can you imagine ? :eek:
Years ago I sent a mare to be inseminated via frozen early in the season. One of my requests was to try and be conservative with the semen as it was pricey and again early in the season, so no rush, etc…
She had one of those cycles where she had a giant follicle and apparently the vet thought she would ovulate any moment… He kept inseminating with a dose per day while she still did not ovulate and wound up using not only all that semen, three doses, but went on to use my back up stallion semen without ever consulting me. Still hadn’t ovulated within the optimal time window and was shocked when they called to ask if I had any more semen available…
No apologies, and my fault a bit for not staying on top of it, but this is a hospital where breeding is part of their specialties and that particular vet had been practicing a long time - not a newbie. I never used them again.
Wow Donella, that is terrible. They should eat the fees if they use the wrong semen, imo.
[QUOTE=Donella;8245661]
Blume, I thought it was pretty weird too. Pretty big difference between Londonderry and Quaterback! lol. Not only that, I had semen from the sire of one of my mares in that tank…can you imagine ? :eek:[/QUOTE]
I think they certainly should not have charged you vet fees. IMHO I think they should have also sat down with you to discuss what you felt were appropriate reparations and how you expected the situation could best be resolved.
I must admit, if I have an issue with a good client that is rational (which is how you sound) I am much more apt to go to the ends of earth to make things better. If the client is a nut job and not reasonable I will do what I feel ethically and legally I should but no extremes.
For example, in a totally different vein I had a dog two weeks ago have some weird allergic reaction to anesthesia during a dental cleaning. The dog had essentially acute onset asthma requiring steroids and antibiotics post procedure. In reality I should have charged the client as it was of no fault of mine, nor something that could have been predicted. If the client was a PITA I would have charged. But she is a great client, very nice, a teacher so limited funds so I didn’t charge the antibiotics and steroids (which are pretty darn cheap anyway). We had the client come in each day for about 4 days afterwards for us to evaluate progress and one set of radiographs for no charge. For me, not only does it retain a good client in good standing but it allowed me to manage a case I have never seen before and learn something. So a win, win in my book.
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