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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 540
 
Location: My own little world :) | So I have a friend that recently had a horse that was hit by a car and obtained a fatal injury to the leg. My friend chose to put the horse down after talking via text and phone with the vet. She sent pictures via text message to the vet and the vet then said that he thought the horse would not recover even with surgery. Then later on in the year the vet posted these pictures on Facebook with a fictitious story about how the injury was obtained and the way the owner chose to take care of it....somewhat insinuating that the owner did not take care of it in a timely manner. He also wrote in the comment section "Round one, car one, horse zero". The vet did not take the pictures nor did he ask if he could post them. Is that acceptable or no? Are there policies pertaining to such situations in the veterinary field? It just doesn't seem right to me. |
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 You get what you give
Posts: 13030
  
Location: Texas | I am sure you will see more of this as more vet clinics use Facebook. I am not sure what she could do, part of me thinks since it was her pictures he should have asked for permission. Not to mention if the story is wrong… but I am also not sure what to do since no names of horses or owners were given- right? |
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The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
| Zanadoo88 - 2014-02-06 9:09 PM
So I have a friend that recently had a horse that was hit by a car and obtained a fatal injury to the leg. My friend chose to put the horse down after talking via text and phone with the vet. She sent pictures via text message to the vet and the vet then said that he thought the horse would not recover even with surgery. Then later on in the year the vet posted these pictures on Facebook with a fictitious story about how the injury was obtained and the way the owner chose to take care of it....somewhat insinuating that the owner did not take care of it in a timely manner. He also wrote in the comment section "Round one, car one, horse zero". The vet did not take the pictures nor did he ask if he could post them. Is that acceptable or no? Are there policies pertaining to such situations in the veterinary field? It just doesn't seem right to me.
Complete breach of confidentiality |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 540
Location: My own little world :) | casualdust07 - 2014-02-06 9:23 PM
I am sure you will see more of this as more vet clinics use Facebook. I am not sure what she could do, part of me thinks since it was her pictures he should have asked for permission. Not to mention if the story is wrong… but I am also not sure what to do since no names of horses or owners were given- right?
No the names of the horse and owner were not included but we live in a very small community and several people in our circle of friends knew of the accident and the horse. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 678
Location: Canada | I would certainly think using the photos without the written consent of the owner would be forbidden. The records are those of the owners and I would assume photographs would be the same.
Depending on the pictures and whether or not the horse could be identified by those photos may change things. For example radiographs or thermal images with the identification markers removed wouldn't tell you who the horse is (usually) but a photograph of a horse standing showing it in full view could lead some (who know the horse) to identify it. Now your friend knows that the's vet that she sent the x-rays to, and depending on the pictures she may be the only one who would know that.
Regardless of the intention of the vet (to educate, to draw more viewers to their page, to highlight a situation - whatever it may be) the photographs and attached story bother your friend so I would suggest she call the vet and ask them to remove them, including the story, from Facebook. If the vet doesn't remove the photographs then I think your friend has a reason to escalate the issue but for now a simple call may be all is needed.
Good luck.
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You get what you give
Posts: 13030
Location: Texas | Okay so, as far as records go- there may or may not even be a record for this case- if everything was done via phone or text, there may not have been anything put in his chart. If the vet is really on top of things, he would have, but since there wasn't a vet visit- there's no official record to breach.
THAT being said- if he's falsifying the story- that I still think is a target of going after.
And the fact that he used pictures without permission.
AND the fact that he has damaged/ruined a client- physician relationship.
Not to mention- whether he's breaking any laws or not, (since I don't know because there may or may not be an official record on this since it was via phone/text), the veterinary world is very very small. If word gets out that the story was not as he described it, he could feel the ramifications from it from clients and colleagues. |
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  Ms. Manners
Posts: 1820
Location: Oklahoma | Doesn't sound illegal . . . just unethical. Common courtesy would dictate he ask first for permission for use of pics. It is more bothersome that the inaccurate story he is posting leads one to question the credibility and professionalism of the vet. I love that clinics are using FB and YouTube to document and educate, but the owner should give the okay. Since my law degree is from Google and Wikipedia, I can't give much help there :) |
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Veteran
Posts: 122
| I have no answer to this, but just wanted to say how unprofessional this world keeps getting. Why can't people conduct themselves like adults, especially in what I deem "professional" jobs. |
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You get what you give
Posts: 13030
Location: Texas | unethical is a good word!
We have ethics sessions once a semester to discuss cases like this in vet school. I can bring it up at the next meeting and see what they say.
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 540
Location: My own little world :) | casualdust07 - 2014-02-06 9:37 PM
unethical is a good word!
We have ethics sessions once a semester to discuss cases like this in vet school. I can bring it up at the next meeting and see what they say.
That would be awesome to hear the response of vet educators! The owner by no means wants to take legal action. I personally was just curious about how that all worked. I didn't think that was acceptable and was just curious if there was legalities pertaining to it. The owner confronted the vet and just told him that she didn't know what the legalities entailed and in turn the vet said he would no longer be working on her animals...why would she want to go to him anyways after that right??? But I just didn't know if he was trying to cover his butt by doing that. |
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 I Am Always Right
Posts: 4264
Location: stray dump capital of the world | Zanadoo88 - 2014-02-06 9:48 PM casualdust07 - 2014-02-06 9:37 PM unethical is a good word! We have ethics sessions once a semester to discuss cases like this in vet school. I can bring it up at the next meeting and see what they say. That would be awesome to hear the response of vet educators! The owner by no means wants to take legal action. I personally was just curious about how that all worked. I didn't think that was acceptable and was just curious if there was legalities pertaining to it. The owner confronted the vet and just told him that she didn't know what the legalities entailed and in turn the vet said he would no longer be working on her animals...why would she want to go to him anyways after that right??? But I just didn't know if he was trying to cover his butt by doing that.
I am appalled by this vet's attitude! First, to post pictures of a client's dead horse that died in such a tragic way on Facebook shows a total lack of compassion and professionalism. Then, when approached by the client, who is clearly disturbed by the images, his response is to say he wouldn't work on her animals any longer leaves me speechless. I would bad mouth that vet to anyone and everyone who would listen. He sounds like he was overloaded with chauvinistic hormones at birth. What a piece of work!
If the story on FB is slanderous towards the owner of the horse, I would think there are some legal lines that have been crossed. |
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| He didn't do anything illegal but he showed a total lack of class, not to mention compassion. If I lived in his area he would become the vet at the very bottom of my list. |
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 Member
Posts: 37
| How rude! I'd go onto that Facebook page and comment " I'm the owner of this horse, this very never actually saw the horse, and this is what really happened..." |
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 Expert
Posts: 1384
Location: Kansas | runs4fun - 2014-02-07 5:47 AM He didn't do anything illegal but he showed a total lack of class, not to mention compassion. If I lived in his area he would become the vet at the very bottom of my list.
Actually he did.
Posting a picture he did not take or have permission from the person who took it is a form of copyright infringement
There is a way your friend can report it to FB and they will take it down. She can do a search and find out how.
Very poor ethic's of his part
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 Expert
Posts: 2097
Location: Deep South | zerotlperformancehor - 2014-02-07 8:37 AM
How rude! I'd go onto that Facebook page and comment " I'm the owner of this horse, this very never actually saw the horse, and this is what really happened..."
I would do as mentioned above first, and just call your vet and ask that the FALSE story along with your pics be removed, if they did not comply then this is what I would do also. It would show his clients exactly how unprofessional he is. I know if I saw something like it on my vet's page, I would be hesitant to ever do business with him again. |
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 Tough Patooty
Posts: 2615
Location: Sperry, OK | I would simply feel obligated to go on the clinics FB page and set the record straight. Starting with not having permission to post the pictures, to correcting the story, letting everyone know he lied about it, then even tell them when confronted how he acted. Sounds reasonable to me...! |
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 Neat Freak
Posts: 11216
Location: Wonderful Wyoming | I don't think vets have a patient confidentiality deal. I can be in the clinic, any clinic I have gone to and ask questions about this animal or that. I can be right in the room while he is doing a surgery (water belly steer etc) and ask who's it is.
For what this vet did, I would contact them and tell them how tactless they are and very very unprofessional. That is someone's animal, beloved or not, it isn't right to poke fun on the internet. |
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 A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | I would confront and ask him what was the reason for posting the pictures and saying what he said.  |
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 Northern Chocolate Queen
Posts: 16576
Location: ND | Technically speaking he could not post the photo's without permission of the person who took them (copywright laws). And it's also wrong that he didn't tell the whole truth about the situation with the horse.
I send my vet photo's all the time if we're working on an injured horse at my place. I take photo's through the whole healing process for him & he know's he has the ok to use them for any purpose he can be it a reference for himself or to help educate other clients. I wouldn't expect him to contact me to use anything that I send him. |
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 Forever Young
Posts: 6768
Location: relocated to Texas | IDK, but I am thinking there is more to this story. I would assume that you are getting your information from your friend. If I had a horse that was hit by a car, I would be calling the vet to come out NOW and look at my horse, I wouldn't be handling it by phone and text messages. You said you live in a small community, so I would think in an emergency, the vet would not have far to come. I get the sense that the vet was disgusted by the way this situation was handled by the owner - like he felt the owner did not do right by the horse. I am not saying that he should have posted on FB, but it sounds like this is a vent on his part. What other motivation would he have for posting this? I don't know if it is legal or not, but if he didn't use any names in his post, I doubt that there is much that can be done about it. Maybe FB will take it down if your friend requests they do so. |
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