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 Don't Wanna Make This Awkward
Posts: 3106
  
Location: Texas | I am wanting to take my horse who had an injury to his knee, not sure what did it, but he had something stab right through his joint in the front left knee, not all the way through but it put a hole in the joint. It looks to be healing very well and the joint hole closed before we brought him home from the vet the first time. The only thing is that it was thanksgiving when it happened and I thought we were gonna lose him so we ended up at the closest vet to my house who I normally only use for shots/coggins. I want to take him to my main vet for lameness isuues just because I trust him more and think he will check on things the other vet may not think of. Is it a bad idea though, should I just take him back to the vet who treated the horse initially? I've never had to deal with anything like this and my dad thinks I'm crazy for wanting to switch vets, but I honestly regret not getting him to a better vet in the first place. Any advice? | |
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 Take a Picture
Posts: 12841
  
| I would take him to the vet you usually use. | |
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 A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | You need to go with the Vet that you trust and feel better about useing.  | |
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  Warmblood with Wings
Posts: 27846
Location: Florida.. | your horse so use who you want.. get records and take them with you.. | |
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 I Am Always Right
Posts: 4264
Location: stray dump capital of the world | I'm the 2nd opinion queen. I drove my husband nuts doing it with our boys, and I'm the same with my horses. I see nothing wrong with making sure there are no loopholes or if everything is on track. Your horse, your money, go where you are comfortable. | |
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 Member
Posts: 41
| I'm all for getting a second opinion (or in some cases third). I had a horse that I refused to give up on. He came up hurt and the vet that I was using at the time borrowed it down to an injury in his hoof. We gave him numerous injections (navicular bursa, coffin joint, etc), often multiple times, to no avail. The horse just wasn't getting any better. My shoer at the time was working with the vet and put him in shoes the vet recommended. The horse just kept going downhill. After about 3-4 months, I said screw it and pulled his shoes and just turned him out. After about 8 months, I came across someone that did rehab on horses. She had my horse's feet balanced and he improved tremendously. Well she didn't quite turn out to be the person that she promised and threw me to the back burner and kept brushing me off when I would call her to get his feet redone. So I started using another shoer that I had used before (before the incident with the vet. When we got together, my husband and I started taking everything to the same person and the one guy was a good friend of his. Lesson learned.) This shoer kept trying different types of shoes, but would never take the pressure off of his heels and teach his heels to regrow. So finally frustrated, I just turned him out. I met up with a girl to get some Back on Track products and she was having similar issues and set me up with her shoer (my current shoer). He worked endlessly to get my horse to walk off sound and worked with multiple vets on the issue. It turns out that he had a soft tissue injury to or around his collateral ligament.
Long story short, I love my first vet. My entire family has used him for years and thinks that he walks on water. We have all learned our lesson from this and from a couple of other "horse incidents" over the last few years that have occurred. We still use them for coggins, shots, etc, because they are close. However, in my opinion always go with your gut. My gut told me for ages to go and get a second opinion and I never did because I didn't want to upset anyone. I saw forget it. Do what YOU feel is best for you and your horse(s). It's never an easy leap to take, but it is often very rewarding and worthwhile. I am happy to say that after 4 years, I will be adding this horse back to my hauling string happy, healthy, and sound running barefoot.
Good luck! Will be praying for you guys!!!
P.S. Sorry for the novel. 
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Getting an injury check up from a different vet?