My vet is a monster

[kinnip]

I got a call this evening from my riding instructor and friend. She needed me to help with a horse that was down. He was thrashing and beating himself up with the fence posts. I grabbed every tool that looked like it might pose a threat to a fence post and hit the road. What I saw when I arrived blew my mind.
She had told me a couple of days ago that she was going to see a horse of hers that she had entrusted to the care of a local vet (coincidentally, my cat/dog vet). Apparently, this guy had called her saying he would have to put the horse down because it was so sickly. She decided she would go visit the horse and decided immediately to bring it home with her. I've never seen a horse in this condition. He was, quite literally, skin and bones. His hooves and teeth had not been attended in months. I'm reasonably certain he hadn't been wormed or had any vaccines, seeing as how he hadn't even had food. He finally went down this evening. It took a lot of courage on her part to finally call her horse vet. She knew he would want to put the horse down. (I was pretty sure the horse would have to be put down the minute I drove up.) This poor animal had sores all over where he had been down in a field and just left there. Of course, the sitter vet thought he was about to die, he'd been killing the poor animal. My friend ended up putting the horse down. There was no other reasonable choice. It was suffering and thrashing about. The eye on the down side was a total loss. The vet tried to get it on it's feet, but it was too disoriented. I'm appalled that anyone would do this to an animal. The fact that my vet did it, makes my teeth grind audibly. Needless to say, he lost a good customer today. I want very badly for him to lose more. I keep telling myself that folks like this get their comeuppence. I can't believe I trusted this person with my pets!!!! I'm having a hard time winding down.

 

[Emzyyy]

That is horrible! I have the same question, how could someone do that to a living breathing, gorgeous creature like that? Thats like abusing a child.

 

[kinnip]

Indeed, three years ago this horse was going to shows doing jumping and dressage. He had an accident that left one stifle impaired, so he was supposed to be enjoying a well earned retirement.

 

[Nikki28]

Ugh sick!

There was a vet who had a clinic down the rode from the clinic I worked at in Florida. His new tech (he went through them rather quickly) called the police on him after seeing how he abused the animals once they were in the back. He seemed like such a grandfatherly type man no one expected it. She had taken pics of one dog who had been barking and he had kicked it and banged its head against the floor so hard that it broke its canine tooth. He had tried to charge the owners saying that the dog had panicked in the run and hurt itself and that he had to fix the dog.
Thankfully she had pics of the whole thing. Once word got out his former techs began to speak up on how cruel he was to the animals. That tech now works for animal control.

Sick people are sick people it doesn't matter how they might dress or what their title is.

I feel awful for your friend the thought of that poor horse just makes me sick!

 

[chickenannie]

I don't understand... why would a vet starve and treat a horse badly. It doesn't make sense.

 

[Katy]

How long had the vet had him? Why didn't the owner visit her horse to check on him? Getting into that kind of condition doesn't happen over night. I'd have been checking on him if he was my horse.

 

[cqranch]

I sure hope she called the authorities. That's an animal cruelty charge and being a vet, possibly loss of his license.

 

[Momo]

We recently had a similar situation up here in BC - two vets starved 6 horses nearly to death and then basically killed one of them by hooking him up to an unlicenced car they'd gotten stuck in a deep ditch and trying to get him to pull it out of the mud ... this went on for 45 minutes until the horse was completely exhausted ... a few hours later when the gelding still couldn't get to his feet he was euthanized by the authorities and the other starving horses were discovered in the barn and seized. It's sickening and there's a petition circling: http://www.gopetition.com/online/23978.html

 

[Splash_Guard]

I don't understand this one. How long was the horse under the Veterinarian's care? Months? Worming and vaccinations are not a priority when treating a sick animal.

What shape was the horse in when he finally made it to the Vet's, and how long did the Vet keep the horse?

D.V.M.'s are not in the business of killing/abusing/starving animals. Some are beyond help when they get there.

 

[joebryant]

With my various pairs of corgis through many years, if I haven't learned anything else about vets, one thing I know for SURE is that most are wonderful men and women, but there are lots who are sadistic and will do anything to an animal to scam its owner out of money.