How to Say Enough is Enough, I'm Moving On to Vet

[4horses]

I’ve unfortunately had some terrible experiences with my local vet clinic and I very nearly swore off using them. There’s one vet I do trust for certain things but I am not certain I would go to them in an emergency rather than haul somewhere else. They have multiple vets at the practice and like you I had multiple mistakes.

They took dental x rays incorrectly so they had to be retaken by the dentist.

They did the dental on my old mare incorrectly and that also had to be redone a second time a month later by a different practice.

The emergency vet nearly put my mare down for colic and said there was nothing she could do. I called the nearest vet hospital, spoke to their vet on the phone, and they did not feel like we were at a point that we needed to euthanize. Transported my mare who was in excruciating pain (Because the emergency vet didn’t give anything for pain relief other than banamine). My mare survived and didn’t need surgery. The bill from the emergency vet was $800 (for doing absolutely nothing useful in my opinion).

If anything major happens going forward, I’m hauling straight to the equine hospital. There’s more you can do for pain relief then just banamine and it doesn’t take a genius to run some fluids.

In an emergency, you are at the mercy of whoever happens to be on call. Perhaps you will get a good vet, and perhaps you won’t. I would not completely cut ties with your current vet practice. As far as they need to know, they are still your vet.

I have tried calling multiple vets during an emergency and most won’t even call you back. I did reach one vet who was snippy with me and said, well you didn’t pull coggins with my practice so I don’t need to see you for emergencies. (My horses weren’t due for coggins for 9 months when she was last up, so why would I pull new coggins?).

Most vets in my area will not take anyone in an emergency if you are not an established patient. Which really is bad for the owners because in an emergency you can’t always get a hold of anyone.

The safest bet is to be established with 2 practices and even then it’s not a guarantee they will be available if you need them. An equine hospital is expensive but at least they are available when you need them and you don’t need to call and wait and wait for a possible call back that may or may not come.

[cattywampus]

I’m a vet in a multi-doctor practice–small animal, but still. It’s very common for clients to request a particular vet or vets, and it’s not unheard of for people to say No Dr Whosit. We just mark preference in the electronic chart. No hard feelings. No worries.

If there’s an emergency and the doctor they don’t want is on urgent care, the front makes that known so the person can go elsewhere.

On another note, if our new grad/baby vet is having problems, we need to know, so we can support her and make sure she’s getting the help and guidance she needs. If people don’t give feedback, we can’t fix it.

[beowulf]

@candyappy

If you have a long standing client/ patient relationship with this vet I would bring up your issues with the senior vet ( owner of practice) on what has happened with vet #3 but we need to realize that every vet starts out like #3. We just have been lucky enough to get the experienced, finished product.

I remember when my mare( had just foaled 1 week prior) impaled herself on a post during a severe storm. It was a grisley wound and my vet of choice was on another call and I got the dreaded " just out of school new hire vet".

I was dreading the worst but he did a great job even though he had never seen anything like her wound before and he called me that night and frequently to check on her. I followed his treatment and she healed up perfectly.

He has his own practice now.

Very well said.

[BayMoose]

We all have to start somewhere. It’s not all that uncommon to have a “owner requests not to have appointments booked with Dr. X” in a chart (and likewise “Dr. X will not see client Y”) and I think this is totally fine and no one bats an eye. That said, I would tell the practice why. We learn maybe 30% of what we need when we graduate? And this might be a clue for the practice that their new grad needs more mentorship.

[Small_Change]

Honestly, have the conversation with the practice owner before making any changes. The key is to be factual, unemotional and to also offer positive feedback if you can. The practice owner needs to know what is happening to be able to either help the novice vet improve, or to make other changes within their practice to ensure they have competent people to care for their clients.

Being unable to euthanize a horse shocks me, if it was a technical skill issue. I can see having trouble if they were unable to get close to the horse because of behaviour, but if it was a “can’t find a vein” type issue, that’s a whole 'nother ball of wax.

[Angela_Freda]

@Rapunzel

It is a decision of if my feelings of discomfort as a client (and a good one) are “worth” mentioning.

I definitely think they are.
Vet #1 may have no idea Vet #3 is having issues.
This is Vet #1 practice, they need to know.
And maybe Vet #1 has gotten vague complaints and yours, from a long-term client helps them do better.
.

[TWH_Girl]

@cattywampus

On another note, if our new grad/baby vet is having problems, we need to know, so we can support her and make sure she’s getting the help and guidance she needs. If people don’t give feedback, we can’t fix it.

It’s fine to share feedback. But if I had an incompetent doctor, I’m not going to continue to use them. It is not on us as horse owners to monitor this vet’s ineptitude and help her improve- that is squarely 100% on the practice that employs her. Then infractions she made are not small one. You cannot guarantee she will not not be the on call vet in yet another emergency she may or may not be capable of handling. I am shocked that people drop farriers for crappy trims but give this much leeway to a vet who has shown she’s not capable or trained appropriately. That is not our responsibility at horse owners. If there are other options, use them.

[Obsidian_Fire]

Many years ago a local vet I use had a couple partners. I had a serious issue to bring in, and this vet told me “things were fine”. Several days later my BO (who was a nurse) told me things were decidedly NOT okay. A friend convinced me to haul to her vet, swearing he would do a thorough job, which he did (and I have been a client ever since). One day local vet was at my barn and he knew I’d had an issue with my horse, since I had talked to him over the phone in the beginning. His assistant asked me what the result had been. I told her, quietly. Later that night I got a phone call from vet asking where the xrays were, as he’d been curious to see and of course they weren’t there. Cue the hard uncomfortable conversation. I told him what had happened. He said to me, “I wish you would have told me, I would have fixed this.”
Lesson learned. OP, I would perhaps have a quiet, non-emotional conversation with the primary vet about what experiences you’ve had with this other vet.

[frugalannie]

I am fortunate to be in an area with several large animal practices. Over the course of 40 years, I’ve had experience with several. I’m not going to go into details about much because other people’s experiences vary.

One practice isn’t permitted to set foot on our property anymore. Kindest way to say it was that it was a situation of reach exceeding grasp.

Another practice has wonderful experienced vets whom I respect greatly. But a young vet came out for an emergency: the bad kind, where your horse has the thousand yard stare and doesn’t want to move. The correct diagnosis was not an easy one, and I don’t blame for missing it. What I had a problem with was the vet not recognizing the horse’s degree of pain (I had to insist on pain meds) and not recognizing what they didn’t know. (Ultimately the horse had a fractured humerus and had to be euthanized.) A few days later I had conversations with the more experienced vets in the practice explaining why I couldn’t risk having that vet out on emergencies anymore, especially if I happened to be away. It was difficult, but I think we’ve maintained a cordial relationship because I was very clear (and somehow calm) about my reasons.

I can understand errors, and I always respect a vet who may not have an answer but who knows what they don’t know.

[RedHorses]

@cattywampus wasn’t suggesting the onus was on horse owners to mentor new vets. If you reread their post you’ll see they’re speaking from the vet clinic’s position on the issue (ie. it’s the senior vet’s job, but the animal owner should let the clinic know about issues).

[trubandloki]

If I was you I would first decide if there is another vet practice that you want to use, that you like all the vets and whatever services they offer.

Both my small animal and equine vet offices have several vets. Both practices have one vet I really prefer, some vets I am fine with, and one vet I do not like.

All scheduled things I ask for the vet I want the most. If that vet is scheduling too far out for whatever I want to schedule, I then schedule with one of the vets I am fine with.

From time to time I have ended up with the vet I do not like for an emergency.
The good side is, I can schedule follow up care with a vet I want to use.

I look at expressing true issues this way - people in charge can not fix something if they do not know it is happening.

[trubandloki]

I want to add, if thinking about another vet, make your own opinion on them.

The vet I hate the most at the small animal vet is someone that I know several people who rave about them. I clearly have had a very difference experience with that vet than those other people, because I think that vet is incompetent, but their name comes up frequently on the facebook posts where people are looking for a good vet.

[SharonA1]

@trubandloki

I look at expressing true issues this way - people in charge can not fix something if they do not know it is happening.

People — we ride 1200# nonverbal prey animals over jumps at high speeds or for hours down unfamiliar trails with nothing but a bit in their mouths and a saddle, but we quail at having a civil, adult, fact-based, growth-oriented conversation with another adult?

As others have said, unless we speak up about a concern, we are complicit in allowing things to continue down the same path. As in, “Vet practice, thank you for your care for Dobbin. I wanted to have an open conversation regarding x. I confess that I am concerned because of a, b, c. What thoughts would you have on this?”

[candyappy]

@TWH_Girl

It’s fine to share feedback. But if I had an incompetent doctor, I’m not going to continue to use them. It is not on us as horse owners to monitor this vet’s ineptitude and help her improve- that is squarely 100% on the practice that employs her.

If the vet isn’t allowed to work on any horses how in the world are they ever going to improve??? Vet school can only teach so much. You have got to have the hands on experience and learn by trial, error and success how to do the work.

Labor with my 3rd child was induced. The nurse who came to do my IV was learning and despite me having a good vein she just couldn’t seem to get it and just kept trying-- until finally she did. I never said a word and hopefully she was better on the next person.

Horse vets are becoming a rare commodity and if we want to have a vet to call we do need to nurture and give them the opportunities ( within reason) as they learn and build confidence.

If the practice knows where she is struggling they can get her some experience. When they have some of the troublesome procedures scheduled she can go with them.

[FromTheGalaxy]

I use our local university hospital for all vet care for my horses. Luckily I like all 3 vets that are on the ambulatory team, but I do specifically request certain vets for different appointments (one is very good with my needle shy mare, another specializes in dentistry so I have her work on my mare with funky teeth). I have never had issue with requesting a specific vet for scheduled appointments. However, since it is a teaching hospital, I will almost always get students out during my appointments and occasionally get interns for emergencies. I try to be accommodating as I was a pre-vet student at one point, and I understand that everyone has to learn some how. Some of my horses are good for students to practice on and others are not, and thankfully the main vets know this and are always willing to step in if I express any concern. I think feedback is extremely important for learning, so if you are having issues with a vet in a multi vet practice, I absolutely think having a polite conversation with the owner/main vet is appropriate and helpful.