Issues with vet

[MaidofKent78]

I had an appointment at 3pm yesterday for vets to investigate probable suspensory ligament injury. I requested an ultrasound at the time of booking.

Vet finally arrived at 1610 meaning there wasn't time to do the scan as well as the examination, trotting up, lunging etc. before i had to leave to collect my child from nursery. I now need to book another appointment for the scan.

Had the vet been on time there was plenty of time. The receptionist called at 1445 to say the vet was running late and would be there at 1530. Still time to complete the scan. I called at 1555 and was assured he was 2 mins away.

Am I within my rights to refuse to pay for a 2nd examination and callout fee?

Emergencies happen and vets (farriers and equine dentists) invariably run late.

Unfortunately it is not their fault you had to leave before the examination could be completed. I would be very cautious about refusing to pay if you ever want to use this vet again...

I know full well that emergencies happen, farriers etc. run late. But I'm not happy about a 30 mins delay turning into a 70 mind delay and having to chase to find out where he was. When I booked the appointment I was told that 4pm would be too late to fit in the scan.

I guess I'm just annoyed to be £100 out of pocket to be told that my horse is sound but still sore, but we don't know what the exact injury is. Which I bloody knew before the appointment.

As this vet is particularly good with lameness and has a fair amount of endurance experience (which is a rarity) I'm going to have to suck it up I guess. Frustrating though.

Vets are invariably late. In future arrange appointments so you won’t have to leave, eg, on appointment day, have someone else pick up DCs.

The vet should have rearranged since you had said you could not do the full appointment at 16 but I doubt you’ll get a discount. One of the pitfalls of having the horses at home, I get stuck trying to juggle ten things and a late vet.

I think I’ve had 2 vet visits on time in years of horse ownership. As others have said emergencies happen/stuck in traffic/ people asking “oh whilst you’re here”. Have learnt a long t8me ago not to book things when I have time constraints

The way I look at it with vets is this - if it were my horse requiring an emergency visit through colic or having done something irreparable whilst turned out or something that needed treatment NOW and I mean NOW, I want the vet to drop everything and run. And I want them to stay until the horse is treated. The flip side of this is that my scan for an ongoing lameness or some routine treatment may well be delayed in some way. This is OK because thank goodness I'm not the poor sod whose horse has a twisted gut or a broken leg.