Greedy Vets

I recently sold my arabian gelding to a woman in CA. Of course she wanted a vet check done, so I took him to Roque Equine, the clinic she requested (which I never ever use), so that there was no conflict of interest by using my long time vet, who is also a friend of mine.

I've heard mixed things about Rogue Equine, inluding: They're wonderful!, and They are horrid!.... I'd never used them so I decided to ignore gossip and see for myself what they were like.

My vet had given this same gelding a vet exam when I had bought him a few years back. He noted that he was slightly club footed (as was my mare). They were both arabians and as my vet and trainer agreed its not uncommon in the breed and rarely effects performance unless its a pronounced defect. In my two horses it was so barely noticable you had to get out all the instruments to measure the feet, and the slant was off by a mere one degree.

In any case, he had never been lame, and was worked consistently in hunter under saddle. When I took him for the vet check, the vet immediately announced that he had a club foot, and needed x-rays because he was lame. I looked at him like he'd hit me with a hammer. Lame? I watched as he happily trotted around the round pen. That horse was the farthest thing from lame. I demanded he explain himself, and he showed me how one front leg had more suspension than the other. This was true, one sprung more more easily, but he sure as heck wasn't lame! His club foot has a slightly steeper angle that transfered to the pastern, but it was barely noticable and he neither looked, nor felt lame at all.

In any case, he called the woman buying him who asked for the x-rays. The vet showed me some darker spots in his joints and declared him arthritic, and then told me that he would soon be completely lame and unusable within a couple of years. Not convinced, I took copies of the x-rays to my own vet who laughed and said that he recognized a greedy man when he saw one. He said that all horses will begin to show those dark spots in the joints as they get older, but by no means was it arthritis, and he felt the horse was completely fine. He told me the vet was using a slight hoof deformity as an excuse to ring me for all I had.

In any case, the lady buying the horse freaked out, wanted to go down on his price by $1000. I told her no, because I was already selling him at a sacrifice because I was moving soon and he really had to go. I got her extra opinions from more vets and finally the sale went through, though I did end up coming down a little more on the price. The point is, watch out for vets who try to do this to you. There are so many people in all walks of life who will try to cheat you. If the vet's opinion seems strange to you, or if you'll end up spending alot of money on whatever they say is wrong. GET ANOTHER OPINION! And if you use a good vet you come to trust and respect, do whatever you can to keep him/her.

Part of that problem- at least in NJ- the vet doing the prepurch exam is liable once he clears the horse- they are not going to pass any horse for soundness one hundred percent. If the horse goes lame within a few months the new owner goes after the prepurc vet and they just don't need the headaches -its not worth it to them to do the exam and wonder if they will get a letter in the mail - they would rather be rid of it by doing every test under the sun - its not about money from you - its about protecting thier own at your expense. WHy should they get sued over your horse ?

Five stage and higher and often even three stage vetting can carry litigation for a vet that can ruin there lives and there careers......unfortunately for horse people it costs alot of money and often horses fail but in the defense of vets...its their livelyhoods on the line and for us at worst you may have another paddock ornament or may have to put to sleep. I have most of my horses vetted heavily when selling at the buyers expense as I see that if they are prepared to pay around $4/$5000 they are prepared to pay the vet and yes sometimes they fail because the test is extreme but people still buy after the fact. Some buyers have told me that they are still happy because they know for sure how far that horse can go....at the end of the day you need way up what it is you expect to acheive with your horse and are you able to work with or around their faults......I'm not picking on you firelight, I guess I am just saying as one horsewoman to another....sometimes you just gotta roll with the punches

That's interesting...I had no idea.

I'd think if it was a liability issue, Firelight's vet would have said something to that effect instead of accusing the other vet of being greedy... I was going to say that perhaps he was just an inexperienced vet as opposed to greedy (although I'm always accusing dr's of being greedy!)

I have recently had a similar problem with a vet. I don't know if it was greed or caution, but I have heard similar reports from other horse owners. Problem is that the other vet in our area is the exact opposite - not thorough at all. There is no happy medium here.

Anyway, the thorough vet came out to do an ultrasound to see if our mare was in foal. She was in there for probably about five minutes, and saw within 30 seconds that she was in foal. After about five minutes of looking around, the mare got figity, and the vet pulled out. When we were paying the bill and everything, the vet said that she was not sure if there were not twins because she hadn't been able to look around well enough, and she should come out again with stocks to put the mare in to keep her still, and do it again.

I have been putting it off because I don't know if she is just being greedy, or cautious. I am paranoid though about jepordizing our mare, so I need to decide soon. It just seems like if she saw the foal in the first 30 seconds, she would have seen a twin in the next five minutes?

Not nessesaraly, the twin (if there is a twin) could be hiding behind the one she found. It happens a lot with human pregnancies. Id say do it just because your curious - not because the vet wants it done. Just be on the safe side :)

~Beth