Do Vets Help Or Hinder The Horse Owner?

newforest

Well-Known Member
Mar 15, 2008
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Ok question in the title.

Not looking at anyone.s situation or my own specifically.

But, I do know of horse with a broken leg currently being treated. Nothing wrong with this, each owner makes the decision. But from talking to other owners about serious problems, the vet seems ok to do operations, tests etc on horses that would not have anyy hope of a quality of life.

An 18 year old laminintic died during colic surgery. The vet said they could do the operation.

Has modern medicine now gone too far into letting owners feel they can be saved .
I remember being on a yard and major health issues we're dealt with and I don't mean by the vet. I was totally horrified, but they didn't believe a horse should be in any pain or discomfort.
 
I am very lucky with my vet, he is the old fashioned down to earth type. And has no hesitation in telling me exactly how it is and what should be done rather than what could be done. i.e he will never suggest long and costly treatments that are of no long term benefit for the horse's well being and only line the pockets of the vet horspital.

If he told me that a colicing horse was worth operating on as its recovery chances were good I would believe him. On the other hand if he told me that the horse would only suffer for longer with little chance of a good outcome then I would go with that.

Can you tell I value my vet and his knowledge greatly?:biggrin:
 
My vets are very down to earth and very blunt with diagnosis. They don`t faff about and will tell you in no uncertain terms if they feel any case is pointless. But, they will help you and do all they can, if you take the decision to try and keep an animal going though.

This isn`t just equine based, this goes for all animals too. I`ve had a number of small animals to them (rescue work) and i have found their help invaluable .. but them i`m lucky they have a number of vets with in the practice, with very wide ranging experience between them.
 
You need to develop a relationship with your vet so they understand your point of view and how far you would go and for what chances. In the middle of an emergency is not the time to be addressing these issues.

I also make sure that they know that whilst the horses are uninsured there are funds for realistic treatments.
 
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i think that, ultimately, the responsibility lies with the owner - they know their horse and should be asking the vet the right questions. i also think that vets can be stuck between a rock and a hard place at times - their knowledge and experience on one side, and a distraught owner with clouded judgement on the other :(

as for an 18 year old laminitic going through colic surgery - of course i dont know the full story here but going at face value, I believe it was the owners responsibility to decide what's 'right' for the horse, not what's technically 'possible'. nobody is forced to have their elderly horses operated on.

Julia
x
 
I would be surprised if any vet suggested it was a good idea to operate on an 18 year old laminitic with colic.

My friend had an 18 year old horse with colic but no laminitis issues. The equine vets are loathe to to operate on horses of that age, but did so at her request. He managed a week after the operation, but then died.

I don't use these vets anymore - not because of the friend, but because they now seem unable to diagnose anything without 'bring him in for a scan/xray etc and for the never ending turnover of 'new young vets' they have.

The equine vets I now have are a partnership with no-one else working for them, loads of experience, and a far more practical commonsense attitude which doesn't include getting you to part with as much money as possible, as quickly as possible.
 
So are vets being trained differently than the old school.

A lot of progress has been made even in the last twenty years, in all aspects of ownership.
 
agree, the difference will be advances in eg. technology being made and more things being 'possible'. eg. when I was young, a broken limb was automatically deemed a death warrant - these days they often manage to fix it up somehow! colic surgery was a rare occurance that nobody could afford - now we have insurance and whatnot, making it easier to finance these things.
 
Half of me thinks that sometimes its just kinder to PTS before any prelonged box rest or any suffering begins.

But then i think of my ponies and i would admittidly do whatever i could to get them to survive (Within reason)

Our vets are fab, but our fave ones are young ladies who are quite 'soft'. They will try most things to save our horses because they seem to understand them being part of our families. Obviously wouldnt recomend anything stupid but they are quite fluffy bunny i suppose. When a horse was put down at our yard a few months ago our vet was in tears, she was really upset by it (Had known the owner/hoss for a while)

But as the others said its the owners responsibilty not the vets, we should be able to know when enough is enough.
 
I think a lot of vets coming out of vet school these days are trained to rely on modern technology and are so terrified of being sued that they cannot do right for doing wrong. This is why eml's comment is so true.

We had a pony needed surgery, he was not worth the investment of sending him to the big posh horsepital, one practice refused point blank to have a go. The other practice, once they understood we were not going to sue them if kitchen table/field surgery went wrong ha d shot and it all turned out well.
 
I think some do take it too far. There was a horrible case I experienced at an old livery yard that made me stop using a vet.

This horse had been rescued by a very novicey couple. It had severe laminitis and needed putting to sleep. Even the owner said that on contacting the laminitis trust, their advice had been to pts. In nearly a year of me being there, the horse only felt well enough to wonder out of it's stable about 4 separate days. It was horrid to see and I had to walk past her stable door to get to and from my car, it made the whole place depressing for me. She had absess after absess her pedal bones were visibly pointing in the wrong direction and she developed sores from lying down too much.

Basically, a vet (equine vet but got a bad reputation in the area, I used to use him but if anything needed investigating I got a referral) was "treating" it, along with a bog standard farrier- between them they were almost using the horse as an experiment- lets see what happens if we do this. When I was there, just before I left, they removed the front wall of the hoof! I had heard about this kind of treatment but only in experimental places with lami specialists. Not your general farrier and crap vet in a stable :banghead: anyway, I left the yard and this was one of the reasons. That horse should have been pts a long time ago, there was never a chance that horse would lead a comfortable life. Admittedly, she was such a sweet thing she was fairly quiet just munching her hay most of the time. It no longer had laminitis. It barely had hooves, and was unlikely to have any laminae left to repair! I heard it was pts well over a year later. Disgusting behaviour, and I blame the vet tbh.
 
If the horse died under sedation, he would have been totally unaware he was about to pass.. So in the case of the 18 yr old, the owner and the vets were aware of the risks they were undertaking carrying out the surgery.. at least they tried, but in this case, it wasn't meant to be, and the horse didn't suffer at the end..
 
When I was there, just before I left, they removed the front wall of the hoof! I had heard about this kind of treatment but only in experimental places with lami specialists. Not your general farrier and crap vet in a stable

Nope this is standard severe lami practice. Nothing special or unusual.
 
My vet is just lovely. Shes one of a group practice, but unless emergency when I will have any, I always request her.
She listens to me, she helps me and she guides me. She will be brutally honest with me too. she has also been know to catch a pony, make the tea and be a dam good friend.
I can truthfully say on the occasions when shit hit the fan , she was incredible.
 
Nope this is standard severe lami practice. Nothing special or unusual.

How long has this been the case? I'm talking a long time ago- and with a horse that had NO hope of coming right, and I'm sorry but there is no chance I would let a bog standard farrier with little/no experience hack away at my horses hoof. I'd want it to be with a specialist.
 
You would need insurance and somewhere willing to take the pony.

I have also known vet and farrier try to save a pony until the pedal bone came out of the sole. This was though because the owners didn't want to make that choice. It was left to the vet on humane grounds.
 
A bog standard farrier will have done all this basic stuff at college.
 
Yep it is a common procedure done by our vets in lami cases - hoof wall resection to lessen pressure in foot.

I phoned the vet for bute the other week and hurried off in the other direction - thankfully looks like we are getting over it and I shouldn't need vet out! Not a produce I'm overly comfortable with, routine none the less - and I have not looked at any evidence pro or against the procedure just find it odd to weaken and already weakened structure
 
Hmmm I find it tricky to think objectively about this one as it's something I'm wrestling with myself with Tango. It's just so hard to know where to draw the line - particularly when you love the animla with all your heart. If something is very obviously in a lot of pain then it's easier as it's more clear cut. But some situations are just grey rather than black and white :cry:
 
I had a long chat with a vet today, haven't had him out before as he mainly operates. He has a reputation as not being good with clients but he and I hit it off immediately, I wouldn't however think he would be great with many first time owners.

Find a vet you like, can communicate with and you trust. The ones we like best in our practice tend to be unpopular with a lot of people.
 
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