I have had a rather bizzare experience over the last 2 weeks which I am having great difficulty getting my head around and wondered if anyone has had a similar problem.
My old horse developed an eye ulcer which was not responding to antibiotics and my local horse vet recommended i went to a specialist just outside Versailles for a minor operation which i agreed to and it was duly arranged.
4 days before travelling my horse slipped on the muddy field and hurt his hip, not badly but enough to cause him to be lame. I had him checked out by both our vet and out master farrier who both agreed it was his hip. The vet game him anti inflammatories.
By the date of travel to Versailles he was much better and off we went on the 5 hour drive with him in a trailer.
We duly arrived and the specialist performed a fairly simple eye scrape to remove the ulcer and we were delighted.
We then went to return the horse to the horse box to return home and the journey had clearly aggravated the injury and he was lame again.
We asked the vet if we could either leave him overnight (they have facilitation as its a small hospital) or if he could have a pain killer to help him during the journey.
At this point things started to go badly wrong!
He demanded that if we were to have him administer painkillers he would have to examine the horse again. We agreed as we wanted the best for the horse.
He then proceeded to undergo a 2 hour examination including several (about 15) xrays, ultrasounds and other procedures. He appeared determined to find an abscess which we know he did not have.
At the end of it he pronounced that he had detected arthritis in his feet (quelle suprise - he is a 22 year old eventer) but conceded that even this could not account for the lameness and that the shoulder was probably the cause.
We were finally told to take him home and that he was not prepared to administer any pain killers as is may mask the real cause in any subsequent investigations!
5 hours later we finally arrived home, put him to bed and declared the next day a duvet day for him.
Now things turned really strange. We received the bill on the Tuesday before Easter and were pretty horrified to find the cost of the foot examination far exceeded the eye operation with the bill totalling 780 euros.
We emailed him to express our displeasure at what had transpired and asked for an explanation as to what he was trying to achieve with the battery of tests (which found nothing).
The reply was swift but not what we expected. He did not reply to our concerns (although he did speak to our vet) but we received a threatening call from his solicitors stating if we did not pay the bill by the end of the day there would seek to freeze our bank account the following day, and as it had remained unpaid for 9 days they were adding 90 euros charge to the bill. If we did not pay by the end of the day they would take the matter to court adding a further 2000 euros to the bill.
It is not 3pm, i am frantically seeking advice. I have no issue and never had with paying the original bill but cant believe what is transpiring over a bill outstanding for 8 working days and really think the 90 euro surcharge is ridiculous. The whole situation is just total overkill in my opinion, i'm guessing caused by a guilty conscience
Has anyone else experienced something like this?