Misdiagnosis (vet) - please help

[Lulutheboss]

Good morning. Lovely mumsnetters, I need your advice please. This is a bit of a long one. Sorry!
Last year, my labrador had a tooth root abscess. All fine, sorted and tooth removed.
During February this year, I noticed a small lump on her face, on the opposite side so took her to the vet, thinking it might be another abscess. I hoped not because I had changed insurance (previous one wanted to hike the monthly payments to nearly £100/month for a four year old lab). New insurance company obviously excluded anything to do with oral work.
Anyway, the vet said she didn’t think it was an abscess and so embarked of various treatments, none of which worked. My dog has had antibiotics, tissue analysis, surgery, an ultra sound and finally was referred to a specialist for a CAT scan.
Well, yesterday we went to the specialist and as soon as we walked in the dog, the vet said tooth root abscess but did the scan to be sure.
My problem is now that the scan cost £1500 plus the extraction will probably be another £800 (based on the last one) and we’re not bloody covered by the insurance!
I’m so annoyed and upset at my own vet for putting my dog through all this and for the misdiagnosis, especially with regards to her medical history.
I know we would have had to pay for the extraction but not the extra £1500 for a CAT scan at a specialist vet. My poor dog will now have to undergo yet another surgery.
Is there anything I can do or here now or am I being unreasonable in thinking that I have some comeback here?

It would be worth raising it with your vet in case you can get a reduction of their fee but I don’t know how far you will get. Unless your vet has actually been negligent you won’t have much recourse. A misdiagnoses is not itself necessarily negligent; as long as your vet acted reasonably they won’t be liable, even if they were wrong.

Thank you. I doubt i’ll get very far. However, they were so adamant it wasn’t an abscess. They didn’t do an x Ray but opened up her face to look.
I’m just really angry that we will have to pay for unnecessary costs, which we can’t really afford because of their mistake.
If my husband misdiagnosed a problem in his job and the customer had to pay for extra investigations and then it was found to be something simple that he had missed, he would have to take the hit.
I will speak to the vet today.