Average Vet Costs *gross pic attached eat breakfast first*

[spex4me]

Yesterday I had the pleasure of shelling out some $$ on my 12 year old gelding who has mysteriously come down with a cough and snotty nose. I thought at first choke, then maybe pneumonia from choke, then I really started freaking thinking herpes.

So anyway vet rolls out checks his heart, lungs, throat and they all look and sound fine. Pulls blood for CBC (which tested normal). Gives me 5 days of NAXCEL , 10 days of bute, and administers one shot himself of something I forget the name of and the total is $340.00.

This got me thinking about whether my vet is competetive or over priced. The track vet laughed his butt off when I told him I paid $100.00 for a health cert to go to track. Mind you $60.00 is included in both charges as the standard barn visit. I also asked my vet what he would charge per plate for radiographs of legs. That price is $45.00.

For rabies, coggins, and west nile it roughly costs me $90.00 per horse. (We give the others ourselves as one shot cost us 18.00 or we would pay vet 30.00)
Gelding a 4 year old colt was $400.00.

So based on this is your vet about the same or am I getting the shaft in southeast VA?? I would ask around but everyone I know uses the same vet. Mind you he has done well by me, but apparently there's a few horror stories out there. But my main purpose in this is to compare averages. I can't seem to find any vet on the web that outwardly lists the prices of their services.

[soundfast]

Dont know what vet you use but the vet at www.littlehawkfarm.com who stands Harbor Man emailed me a list of his charges in 2005. He would probably do the same for you. He was not making farm calls and his charges seemed high to me. He wanted $1000 per month to board a stallion for breeding. You might try asking other vets. You can use a search engine to find all the veterinarians in your part of the state and then ask them what they charge. Unless things have changed he is part of the overbreeding to not so wonderful horses. You can get antibiotics for your horses without the vet at farm supply stores and some have vaccines also.

[spex4me]

Thanks soundfast!

Well have to add this...when it rains it pours....same horse mentioned above , yesterday I go out to barn and find this.



Only blood on his face, no where else. No sign of anything in stall. (Stall he has lived injury free in the past 6 years!!!) So now I have mystery eye slice to summon vet yet again.

Call,sutures,block,ointment and sedation = $197.00 (to which I am shocked I escaped under $200)

Sometimes I just love life!!

[Strategic Maneuver]

Oh, geez I hate eye injuries. My vet and I have had to take out two eyes over the years here at my farm and one was so bad I thought I was going to barf on my vet. Your vet's chg. for the eye visit is about in line what I would have to pay. My vet charges a $50 farm call fee just to show up but I am happy to pay it as he is the only good equine vet for a hundred miles and he will come at anytime day or night if I have an emergency.

[majxmom]

Track vets are always cheaper than ambulatory vets because the track vets make their money on medications. The ones around here never charge for an examination, and of course there's no ranch call, so the only thing you pay for is procedures and medications. They just drive up and down the bridle path all day and collect for treatments. But I don't think they get rich doing it.

My home vet charges $10.00 for a health certificate, but of course she has to come out and examine the horse, so it's $40 ranch call + $40 examination +$10 certification = $90. I usually take advantage of her presence and have other things looked at or vaccinated.

Magic had foal pneumonia, and had to be on Naxcel for four months IV. The vet came out to see him probably 10 times a day his first month. She stopped by almost every hour in between calls. I had to ask her to make a bill up soon because I thought I might have an embarrasing moment when she presented me with a final bill. I thought she would be charging me for all those ranch calls once per hour. She looked at me curiously and said, "You know, I'll only be charging you for the medications, not for coming out. I just want to follow him closely." Whew! Nevertheless, that Naxcel was about $300 a bottle, I think, and I used a lot of bottles. I think the whole bill after four months was a couple of thousand dollars, but he was so worth it. I've always been grateful for how dedicated she was in that time. He only lived because she was so on top of his condition. I'll never fuss about her bill ever.

[soundfast]

I am glad your horse is going to be OK. I hope you find what he hurt himself on. His eye probably itched and he was trying to stratch it on something and it did not start to bleed immediately. My stallion hurt himself this past winter and it took him a long time to heal completely but I do not have a vet who I would trust to do the right thing so he was stuck with me. He has a scar on one rear ankle and a lump on one front leg. He hurt both legs on one side and it looked really bad for awhile but he is fine now. Someday maybe there will be a James Herriot type vet near me or I will move near one until then I have to try to be my own veterinarian. When I had a gelding tear himself up on barb wire back when running next to the fence in the pouring rain and falling into it the vet came the next morning and instead of reducing the swelling in the skin and stitching it back together he cut the swollen skin off and it took months for the horse to heal and he had a huge scar on his leg. That guy is the best there is around here as far as I know which is not saying much. The vet also treated him standing up and tranquilized and sticking the needle in numerous times around the wound which got him upset and he reared and the vet gave him another dose of tranquilizer. I figured the vet might cut my stallions skin off if I called him so I just cleaned the wounds put antiobiotic ointment on them and covered the ones on his ankle which was really deep on one side where he has the scar. He is nothing like the gelding was and lets me take care of him.

[spex4me]

Strategic- If it had been worse and I had to put an eye out, I'd never made it standing up!!
(emoticon should be turning green shades)

Thanks maxj!
I too cannot complain about my vets service towards me personally. But I am a classic second guesser on everything. A story isn't a story until I think I have BOTH sides!!
I am glad your boy made a full recovery. That was extremely nice to have a vet do that!!

Soundfast I know exactly how you feel. I have been burned by people who were supposed to be the best, and I walked away asking myself if maybe it was just my bad luck or something, that I got the short end of the stick. And most wounds I do well with , but the flapping eyelid in the breeze did me in!

Sometimes I don't know why I question these things, as I have spent 3k on a ratty but loveable house cat and 4k on a old dalmatian that was dying of cancer, but we didn't find out until umpteen tests and $$$'s later.

I am willing to spend as much as it takes on my 4 legged pals, I just worry if I get taken for a ride on one maybe then I won't have anything left for another! I think my middle name is worry wart!!

[Lucy]

OUCH.

I once saw a mare get an identical injury, she managed to do it on the clip holding up her water bucket. Danged horses will get themselves hurt on anything.

[Karie]

ouch.... if he itches and rubs it a lot it could end up an ulcerated cornea

I have 2 sets of blinkers for eye injuries.. Cant remember which eye though.. it it gets bac get him blinkers. I think my horse had the left eye injured.. so I don't think my blinkers will help.

but get a set and slap them on to keep him from rubbing it..
QUICK.

[Diane]

My vet clinic is 1/2 mile up the road. They have large and small vets and everyone in the place is likeable. They are high on just about everything but I live in an area where the cost of an average house on 2 acres is $750k+, it's understandable they have to charge for every little thing.
I have my big annual vet bill in March. This last March I sent off blood samples from my Tb mare who is known to have RER to the U of Minn who are doing studies to identify the genetic pathway. They sent me a kit with syringes and vials. I asked the vet to draw it since he was here (on a $500 scheduled visit). He charged me $16 for that draw which took him 60 secs. I was flabbergasted.
Best of luck with your wound healing.

[spex4me]

Thanks . He is a giant lug head with a pain thresh hold beyond belief. I had actually bought a fly mask that turned out to be 2 sizes too big for any of mine and so far that has worked wonders for protection. keeps the flys away and provides a loose layer barrier. (Though I'm not uncrossing fingers just yet)

I also thought maybe it was the bucket clip because his water bucket was tilted sideways but for the life of me no hair nothing on it. But like someone said it could have been done so fast there wasn't enough time to become a good crime scene lol!

Wow $16 for 60 seconds....... so that is $960 an hour....NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL GREAT PAY!!!

Now if we can get rid of the hack and snot.... Anyone else had a horse that was absolutely normal besides a cough and snotty nose???? I am wondering if my filly didn't bring a little gift back from the track , even though that has been a month ago and she was by herself for 2 weeks...... As I said before even his blood work is that of a healthy nag

[soundfast]

An allergy to something is a possibility.

[spex4me]

see i thought that too. We have this super nice sweet lay your head on it pillow soft clover grass mix hay. He was the only horse to absolutely start drooling buckets from eating it. But everyone told me no big deal some do that it'll be fine. To me the drooling seemed to be an allergic response, and I asked my vet. He did not see any prob either. This horse has never had an ill moment in the 9 years I have had them. And the only things I can point a finger at as being different are my filly and the hay.

You think allergies are capable of just popping up in an other wise healthy adult horse? I don't know, I only had my dalmatian who had allergies but that was a life long thing with him. And I have allergies but I think I have been eating benadryl before I could say it! lol But god only knows as there seems to be some new crazy ailment on the horizon everyday.

[Strategic Maneuver]

Oh yeah, Spex, I would look at the hay. I've got hacks and snots til I'm stupid on the farm right now, but that's because I've gone from drought and 106 degrees to 87 degrees and 10 inches of rain. And if the crud isn't enough, I have chased dew poisoning this year til I just don't know what. I'm considering that maybe I should be raising hamsters instead of thoroughbreds.

[Tucumcari]

The eye will heal very well... I didn't read all of this... I really in it for the gross pictures...