Neuro Horse, Maybe?

[vxf111]

I did have one bad experience at New Bolton, despite generally having great experiences (and it unquestionably being the place where the top vets in the area practice with the best tools). I brought my OTTB there for a full orthopedic workup. Hours after dropping him off, Barbaro had his calamity and also arrived in the same wing. My horse essentially ceased existing, as far as they were concerned. All his scheduled diagnostics got postponed, without me being told, and nobody could answer any questions about when they’d get around to seeing him and the other non-famous horses. What is worse, I couldn’t go visit him or be present for his workup because they were shielding Barbaro from the paparazzi. I was like “no offense, I hope he’s ok, but I don’t really care enough to try to sneak in to pet someone else’s ‘famous’ horse because I’m more preoccupied with MINE.”

When they finally did the workup, they were too busy to discuss it with me. They just printed out the results, a discharge form, and the bill and handed me my (lame) horse to take home and figure out on my own. No plan. No suggestion for what to do next. Just “please give us your credit card and good luck with your broke down animal. You’ll have to excuse us but we have to go fangirl over Barbaro and we can’t be bothered with your dumb horse.”

I was pretty upset.

But you can have a bad experience anywhere. I have also taken scores of horses there for different reasons. Emergency colics-- amazing work done by them. Opthomology… literally could not be happier. There is NO one better than Dr. Scherrer. I’ve been there for allergy testing, other orthopedic workups, PPEs, minor and major surgery-- you name it, I’ve taken my horse or my boarders’ horses there for it. They should name a wing after me with all the money I have spent there. So I’ve had one bad experience in the mix of many, many positive ones. Some of which literally saved the horse’s life or useful career.

So I would not write off a clinic for one bad experience. Malpractice, yes (and I’ve experienced veterinary malpractice firsthand on my horse), but not for a bad experience. Rather, I’ve learn how to better advocate for myself/my horse as a result of those experiences. You have every right to be in there asking questions and making decisions for your horse. Don’t want the students doing XYZ, that’s your right to express that desire. Not interested in pursing ABC until after trying DEF, that’s your right too but you need to be assertive and say so. It helps to have your field vet be involved as well. Mine went to Penn so she knows everyone there and it creates a much more seamless experience because NB, she, and I are all in the loop and on the same page. It’s your animal and your money. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and speak up.

If you cross a clinic off your list for one bad experience you’ll soon have nowhere left to go. No one gets it right all the time. There’s something to be said for the world class facilities at a place like New Bolton or Tufts or Cornell or UGA etc. etc. even though they are staffed by humans who are imperfect and sometimes fail to meet expectations.

[soloudinhere]

I should clarify, that my statement is almost entirely informed by 20+ years of experience with Tufts…which has a batting average of about 1 in 4 visits being successful. Have used Cornell before with great success, used New Bolton before without issue. Have used Rood and Riddle wherever possible in the last 5 or so years (since they also have a clinic in FL, where I am part of the year) and been very happy.

Tufts, however, I have written a lot of checks to and not had the same warm fuzzy feelings about. I have only used them for an emergency colic in the last three years, simply because they were closest.

[MadTrotter]

I find with Cornell, if you’re honest about financial limitations up front, they will work with you and not even bring up the hyper expensive latest and (possibly?) greatest.

I’ve had a boarder dump an expensive, complicated lameness problem on me where I had to make the choice of taking the horse in or making the choice to put him down before winter, with the caveat she didn’t have more than a couple hundred bucks to deal with it. Cornell was AWESOME and instead of a bunch of expensive imaging and injecting up the legs, they really took their time doing a lot of hand’s on evaluating, and used the opportunity to teach a group of students about flex tests, neuro tests, etc. Throw in some blood work and cheaper meds and I got something workable for less than a grand.

[Scribbler]

@middleton.the.grey

I have been trying to do what is best by my horse without alienating the barn owner, my trainer and the vet totally. I know now that the vet was not working in my best interests. I don’t have the independence to put him in a trailer I don’t own and take him to Tufts. I kept getting told that the issue could be resolved and that taking him to Tufts was unnecessary. I am trying to do best by everyone but my horse comes first and if I have to step on some toes at this point I will. I do have to be smart with the money I spend and it will be expensive to get him there. I am going to keep on top of things and believe me I am sorry you find this frustrating, I am putting down what I am getting as feedback from vet, so you are feeling a bit of what I am receiving on my end. Everything all over the place.

If you own the horse and you are an adult then you call a good commercial transport company and pay them to take him anywhere you want. You don’t need barn owner trainet or vet to sign off on this.

[Equisis]

I had an unfortunate experience at Tufts, as well, although it was 15 years ago at this point. Just to play devil’s advocate, though- salmonella needs to be cultured, and is generally done several times over a course of days (and cultures take time to grow, leading to a lengthy process). Isolation sucks but the protocols are in place because they are the best way to prevent communicable diseases from spreading between patients. I have had a horse stuck in isolation for something that turned out not to be communicable, but I also had a friend whose young horse was in a clinic for a routine surgical procedure who wound up dead after contracting a disease (in the hospital) that should have been prevented, had the other horse been properly isolated. Trust me- the former is the preferable experience.

[Tini_Sea_Soldier1]

Yeah… I’ve had the unfortunate luck of a few in hospitals and I get that it takes a few days… but after 5 days with no word back from Georgia where results were driving from… and being told that it would probably be 2-3 days more minimum… not ok. First of all, it was depressing… second… I’ve had horses be released in 72 hours… so why their results were taking almost double that time was concerning. Felt like it had more to do with once they knew horse was insured, it wasn’t any rush to do anything and the fact that ISO cost twice as much as day-to-day cost for regular stay seemed mighty convenient considering the rest of the circus show.

[CHT]

I hope you get an answer for your horse.

Difficult to diagnose can be heart breaking. It is ok to set a limit on what you are willing to do/spend. It took me YEARS to diagnose that my gelding had a broken neck. Likely broke as a 4 year old, but as he aged, the calcification increased on the inside of the spine and started to irritate his spinal cord.

His symptoms were more mild than your horse, but similar in that he would sometimes just lose his mind, and he also looked sore behind at times. he was also very picky about saddle fit.

It was an emotional roller coaster, and I was fortunate to own my own property so the cost of keeping him until I figured it out was minimal, but the vet costs to try to diagnose and treat over the years added up. Had it been a clients horse, I likely would have helped them decide to put their horse down much sooner than I did.

[punchy]

Vet medicine needs to go the way of human med, with CNPs and PAs seeing patients on their own. It’s ridiculous that there are 2 options for vet professionals—a vet tech (2 yr associate degree making @ $12/hr) and 4 yr post grad DVMs. There needs to be positions created for people with a year or two of post grad training to take some of the heat off the docs, and it will provide opportunities for people who want to enter the field but don’t want to spend their life at minimum wage and can’t/don’t want to endure the financial, academic and psychological strain of getting a DVM. This problem has been worsening for years. Shame on the vet med industry for not addressing these problems; I suspect the forces raking in the $$$$ for vet school are resistant to change.