she just wouldn't give colic treatment that he clearly required until after I had a dentist look at him to rule out teeth as the problem.
My dentist lives far away and travels the entire state. Everybody makes their appointments months in advance and she schedules all the horses in a given area and en route together, then splits the call fee among us.
We were heading into a snow/ice storm. Her dentist is about 15 miles away and was available next day, which meant I could get Aligers' colic treatment sooner by calling her dentist. His life literally was at stake.
Because of her behavior up to that point, I also had concerns that if I did use my regular dentist, she would then claim that Jana isn't "good enough" and would still refuse to treat him for colic.
So everything is covert, by manipulation.
I doubt they split the fee *but* her dentist offered me a choice between a paste tranquilizer that he could administer *or* having the vet out to sedate him. In fact, he tried to pressure me into the latter; he felt quite certain that Algiers would be "too hot" for him to work on. I have injectable tranq that I can administer -- that is a *lot* cheaper, but that wasn't good enough for him
So she makes money off of him either way: a little with the very overpriced $35 prescription paste that she supplies, a lot if there is an additional call plus sedation. But neither is a classic "kick back." Just do it her way with your sick horse held hostage. I suspect that is exactly what Don found himself facing last year, and explains why he switched vets midstream. He couldn't afford her way and she wasn't repaying any of the favors he'd done for her.