To Ask The Vet To Do This Free Of Charge

[TheCatsBlanket]

I posted this originally in Pets section, but I'm hoping for more people to answer on aibu, I'll try to keep it brief.
My cat has a broken jaw due to being clipped by a car last Wednesday. The vet operated on him and put a wire in his jaw to help the bone fuse/bond. When I collected him I was told the wire remains in place for 4-6 weeks after which, if the jaw's healed, they remove it.

At the post op check up on Monday the vet who checked him (not the same vet who did the operation as she is on hols this week) said "hmmm, I have not seen this before, but the wire has come out" I asked how, and he said he didn't know, he'd never known it to happen, but maybe the cat pulled it out. Not knowing what to say or ask, as I'm not a vet, I went home.

I won't go into more detail as there's too much to write but it didn't lie well with me, so the following day I rang the vets again and said "this isn't right, there's no way the cat could have pulled it out, it's a taught wire inside the mouth, and the cat could not have ripped it out because not only is he drugged to the hilt and sleeping all day and night, his jaw is battered and to pull the wire out, would mean it'd have to be ripped through the skin under his chin....I feel that the operation must have been done incorrectly and the wire too loose, so I am asking that you repeat the procedure, free, so his bones heal properly". The vet disagreed.

This coming Friday I have another appt with the head vet, and it might be that she agrees with me and I'll be happier, but are there any vets or veterinary nurses on here that can advise. . .I got the feeling that they think the cat should be fine after 5 (max) days with his jaw wired and now, because he's eating, they think his jaw will heal on it's own.

I paid £420 for this to be done and I don't think they should charge me again....or am I being unreasonable?

Incidentally the wire has not been found anywhere - since we brought the cat home, he's been kept in a small room , and I can't believe he would have swallowed it....cats don't eat wire.

I hope someone can offer some advice, please.

Not much advice, but I hope your cat is feeling better soon

I have a gut feeling they never put the wire in at all, don't you?

There’s no wire in his jaw now? Wtf?!

I'm a vet.
I'm guessing this is a mandibular symphysis fracture? The wire was around the lower jaws immediately behind the lower canine teeth?
It would be very odd indeed for the wire to go missing in this instance.
To be removed by the cat would take great force and likely result in visible self trauma.
If the wire had been too thin it may have fatigued and broken.
It is possible that the mandibles are aligned now and may heal satisfactorily without rewiring - depends on how bad the fracture was in the first place.
Try and speak to the head vet pronto and describe your concerns.
If it were me I'd want to see the cat ASAP to decide what to do for the best.
Maybe it can be left, maybe it needs rewiring.
If it were me I'd try to make a judgement on what has happened.
If there's been a failure of technique I would redo it FOC.
If it's 'bad luck' then it would be chargeable but I'd usually make some sort of concession eg just covering costs as a good will gesture.
Remember though that lots of vets nowadays work for big businesses and they are often not allowed to make these sort of pragmatic decisions but have to follow rules or else.

@StraightToVideo Thanks for answering. I'm not sure what type of fracture it is to be honest, other than being told it was 'one of the normal type of fractures. I believe the wire was to be placed behind his lower canine teeth, however both his upper and lower canines on the same side were knocked out in the accident (actually half the lower canine is still there maybe 2 or 3 mm in length) I didn't actually see the wire at all, but was not going to delve around in his mouth to look. I only saw a tiny nubbin of metal under his chin the day after the operation when he put his head back to stretch and I didn't see it again.
I have tried to leave him alone for the most part and not be too much in his space, while he recovers.

I'm hoping for a positive outcome tomorrow, but thank you again for your answer.

Bloody hell, our cat had the same & it cost about £1300!!
But to your point - having seen our cat's jaw wired I can't image how it would have come out of it's own accord. Ours sort of split in two at front lower jaw.

The update is as follows....Nice lady head vet actually looked in the cats mouth and said "the wire IS still there, look" so I put my glasses on and sure enough, could see a thin wire behind the cats lower canines, and under his tongue. She couldn't see the sticky out nubbin bit under his chin though, as it's really small and also is obscured by his fur - she could however, feel it.

The obviously stupid, and not very good locum vet that I met with on Monday, clearly needs to have some sort of refresher course because I have spent the last 3 days asking people on MN and elsewhere if they've ever been in similar situation, Googling "how does a wire come out of place" etc etc, and also being very concerned that poor Puss's jaw isn't going to heal, when all along the wire was in place.

I know it's not an easy thing to see (now that I have seen how inconspicuous it is) and I certainly wasn't going to try poking around in the cat's mouth, but the vet should have known what to look/feel for.

Anyway, I am relieved that there won't need to be another operation, and that I don't need to fight for a refund etc and now we're back to "the wire will remain in place 4-6 weeks"

What a faff though, I think they need to send locum vet to Specsavers.

Poor puss.
Glad the wire is still in place though, I hope he makes a good recovery.

lol, glad there was simple explanation

Ah
The simplest explanation tends to be the correct one.

I'm so glad the wire is still in place. My cat had a fractured jaw which was wired and I was wondering how on earth a cat could pull it out!

I've had very bad experiences with a locum vet before now (told me my cat has heart failure and was dying, £900 of scans later it turns out he's got a grade 1 murmur) and I changed practices to one with a lot of vets so I hopefully won't have to deal with a locum again.

I hope your cat is doing ok and his jaw heals.

Hope the cat heals well. I'm an RVN and to my mind it would be nigh on impossible for the wire to come out, its threaded through the fleshy part of the lower jaw and behind the canines to anchor it, then the two free ends are twisted around and around each other (like a twist tie) and clipped off under the jaw (the knobbly bit you saw and felt). This brings the jaw back into alignment until it heals.
I've never seen one come loose.
It makes more sense now that it is actually still there, sometimes it can be hard to see if they've used quite a thin gauge wire.
I'm pretty sure this technique relies on the presence of the lower canines though.
Hope all is well now!

My cat doesn’t have any canines, he lost them when he had an infection that led to the fractured jaw (I actually think the vet broke his jaw removing his teeth). The wired definitely came through his lower jaw as he used to rub the sharp twisty bit on my hand! No idea what it was anchored to though!