Sent a pm.
You DO understand. There is a weird balance that needs figuring out. Good job on your puppy!
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Glad that you were able to talk to the vet and get more information and some plans. I completely understand your frustration, though. My regular vet practice (that we use for shots, dental, basic issues) is great, but I have worked with two well regarded lameness vets in this area in the last few months and the lack of communication has just been so frustrating. Multiple texts, emails, calls required just to get basic follow-up questions answered.
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Good job! Jingles for a speedy recovery for your horse
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I wonder if the problem was not the vet, but in the office staff relaying the correct message? Sometimes those manning the phones donāt know what is an emergency or what needs immediate attention ( by phone or in person).
Just requesting a lameness exam is sort of vague . No matter what I donāt think any vet should dictate who you can use. If they wonāt attend to your needs find someone who can.
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What do you mean, ānot allowedā? Not allowed by your barn, your current vet, or your insurer?
Where I live, self board with lower dollar uninsured horses, we tend to have our preferred vets. But thereās no problem getting in another vet if someone at the barn is counting heads to split the farm call fee. Also in emergencies vets who are busy will tell us to call the big emergency clinic.
If I needed to go up the chain to a specialist I absolutely could and I hear that recommended here all the time. We donāt have a vet school anywhere nearby though so itās not really an option.
Your vet is a service provider. If you donāt like the service, first decide on what you want. Have a chat with the service provider. If you canāt get what you want, go to another service provider. If your vet is flaking out on you for whatever reason, whether you are low priority or vet is starting to have personal problems, change vets.
That said, itās two days before Christmas. Itās hard to get medical care over the holidays even for humans.
You also need to advocate for a horse and be prepared to push (and pay) for the tests and treatment he needs. Why would you stay with a vet who already proved they arenāt really on the ball with your horse, ie the first ulcers?
Anyhow, you presumably know what to do with sydoensory injury this time around. Ice wrap stall rest. Injrctubke NSAIDs donāt harm the stomach.
Ok I see you got that resolved.
āLameness examā requested Dec 22 is not in the same category as an emergency injury. Lameness exam is a diagnostic. Sounds like you got that worked out
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This is going to sound awful but I canāt figure out how to say it nicely.
When I read your first post my gut reaction was āitās you.ā Subsequent posts both reinforced that impression and prompted sympathy for the extreme possessiveness your local vets apparently have towards their clients.
In your first post you had a reinjured suspensory ligament for which you wanted a lameness exam done. This leads me to believe the following: 1) you were guessing about the injury (which is entirely reasonable given a previous injury in that leg) 2) you had dealt with a suspensory injury before (which suggested that you ought to know the basics of restrict movement, cold therapy, pain management for that injury - so what advice did you want from the vet ASAP?)
The ulcer diagnosis delay May to November suggested that you werenāt doing your part. Ulcers are tricky and symptoms can also be symptoms of other things. Part of our job as horse owners is understanding diagnosis, treatment, expected results, expected timeframe, and communication with the vet. Let me give you a specific example because I used it for something else recently:
In February of 2019 my horse was showing signs of lameness. I rested him and did some tests to try and pinpoint the location (LH) for a week or so before calling the vet for an appointment (which was 2-3 days later). The vet came, did the lameness exam, pegged the stifle as the source of pain, and diagnosed a strain of the muscles on the inside of the joint. She told me to keep him quiet, apply DMSO for a week and he would be fine. That was her job done.
I asked questions. How long before I should see improvement - 7 to 10 days. Can he stay outside or should he be on stall rest - if heās quiet outside thatās fine (he has other health conditions that are best managed by having him live outside - so if stall rest had been warranted there would have been a discussion of how to manage those). If thereās no improvement whatās the next step - ultrasound the stifle. That was MY job done.
My horse didnāt like the DMSO. I stopped using it after two days because he was clearly uncomfortable, and a day or two later his skin peeled. The DMSO had scalded his skin. When I confessed this to the vet later she said that was the right call.
My horse was still lame without any improvement ten days later, so I called and made the appointment for the ultrasound. Which showed a torn meniscus. New diagnosis, new treatment plan - which was we will start with 60 days rest and handwalking on good footing, and redo the ultrasound to see if thereās any progress on healing. Vetās job.
My job. If heās quiet is outside okay? How much handwalking? What if thereās no healing, whatās next? What do I need to know to be comfortable going forward - in this case the 60 days was going to blow through the spring window of get my horseās cardio fitness up before it gets too hot so we discussed options for managing his heaves and timeline.
60 days later there was a little bit of healing. Enough to not rush to surgery. Too little to say more than another 60 days rest/handwalk to be followed by another ultrasound.
What Iām getting at is that itās MY job to know expected time for expected changes to occur (by asking the vet). Itās MY job to follow up with the vet and schedule another appointment if the changes donāt happen. Itās MY job to communicate what I see - and sometimes when I donāt know I will call, describe the symptoms and ask if this is something that needs to be seen today.
When I got my second horse I was calling the vet out often because my first horse had rarely needed more than his annual vaccines and teeth checked. Second horse was a walking accident looking for a place to happen. He wasnāt quite that bad, but a couple of years later the vet was doing a general check over of my horse at vaccination time and found an injury. āWhatās this?ā the vet asked me and then laughed when I casually brushed it off as a minor, already looked after thing because two years earlier Iād have called the vet.
Not every vet is great at explaining or making sure they tell you all the details, but Iāve found that most of them are happy to answer the questions about expected time frames, changes, next steps if X happens (or doesnāt). I donāt have to know the outcome, but I do have to know the plan, and the vets have quickly learned that I know my horse, I can spot the subtle abnormalities and explain what Iām seeing, I will do the basic first care for an appropriate period before calling, and I am going to keep things on track and moving forward until the issue is resolved. They appreciate this as it makes their job easier when the horse owner is an informed partner.
Think about your ulcer journey this year. Where could you have asked for more information? Where could you have moved to the next step sooner? Figure out why you didnāt have the specialist do the extra work (or have your vet order the extra tests). Think about why you felt helpless about what to do when your horse looked like he reinjured himself - you did the right things so you obviously have knowledge of basic first aid.
We learn from our experiences - something highly applicable to horse care. We learn about the conditions and injuries our horses have. We can develop confidence in caring for those conditions and types of injuries. We donāt have to stand back and say to the vet ājust fix itā we can be right there learning and planning and preparing for the next step whatever direction it might be.
We can learn that bloody noses are both common and of little concern when passing a tube up a horseās nose. 
The upshot is that while your local vet culture seems a bit off, you could take a look at your own part and see how you can do things differently. Jingles for your horseās injury! I hope things improve for you both! 
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Interesting. You have provided some insight into how other people experience things and how they handle them.
To answer this specifically, no I donāt think thatās too much to ask at all! From later posts it sounds like maybe you didnāt convey the urgency, if you just asked for a lameness exam.
I am spoiled thoughā¦my vet has given me treatment advice based on nothing but texted photos many times, and has never charged me for that. Hell, sometimes I have to remind him to charge me for meds etc! He comes out if he feels he needs to or if I specifically ask. If itās an emergency I call. Heās a one-man practice and stays very very busy as it is, so I think itās mutually beneficial for him to handle things this way. I understand why vets wouldnāt though, due to the liability of ātreatingā a horse without seeing it in person. I donāt know if he does this with all his clients or not.
Yes Libby 2563! And yes, again, asking for a lameness exam doesnāt convey the message āI am really concerned, please call me.ā Uggg, live and learn.
Iām not trying to say this is something we ought to know right off the bat, because we canāt possibly know everything before buying a horse. It is something I have learned over my years as a horse owner. Iāve spent six months and a good bit of money chasing an issue that in the end discovered we should have been able to fix in the first two weeks. Iāve also caught things before they became major problems, and spent twenty years dealing with something I could have prevented in less than five minutes.
We have to learn to be advocates for our horses and partners in their health care even if we are paying someone in a full care arrangement to do the physical care portion. As North American and many western societies train young women to accept authority, to not question, to not challenge this can be a difficult thing for women to learn when it comes to their horses - especially if the veterinary culture is like what you described and the vet is male.
Best wishes for your horseās healing!
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