Archie is in horsepital :(

Archiesmummy

Archiesmummy

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Posted originally in veterinary, discovered Archie Saturday morning with a swollen eye. Called the vet out immediately and it was a small ulcer. I was given lotions and potions and vet came back out today to assess. To my eye all looked okay. With the dye applied it was apparrent the ulcer had trebled in size.

Archie was taken up to Liphook within and hour or so and is undergoing intensive treatment to try to get on top of things. With my insurance capped at £3k I am hoping results will be quick but the vet said he could ultimately lose his eye. Am in shock.

Looked on my insurance and his stay in hospital, livery, is not covered. I thought this was included. A lesson to everyone, ensure you have livery costs covered. Archie is expected to be in up to two weeks.

Just don't know quite what to do with the mounting costs, I thought I was being a good owner, insuring him, but clearly did not belt and brace myself appropriately.
 
Sorry to hear about Archie. Not sure what I can say but I hope he makes a good recover and that he is in the best place for it.

I have been through the ulcer thing with my previous horse. And he was touch and go if he was going to pull through or not. He did get to stay at home but he was on boxrest for 4 months and he even had a contact lense fitted. I also had to put drops in every 2 hrs for weeks on end. We had all kinds of issues but he did pull through in the end but was left blind behind and he had recurrent eye issues the next year. He was in the end pts but through another issue nothing to do with his eye. it was a very stressful time if I can help in anyway then feel free to pm me. There are pics posted up in the vet pic bits if you want to see what we went through.

Hope Archie is on the mend soon with the treatment they give.
 
Poor Archie :(

For now, concentrate on getting him better rather than the livery fees. Alot of insurers only cover 50% of livery fees or none at all.

Best wishes x
 
oh sorry to hear that and hope he makes a good recovery and the outcome is good too. Interesting re the insurance as i suppose like most people you cover to a certain capped limit but clearly need to read the small print. ie the Livery not being included! Seems daft.

Hope he is ok and gets better. Will keep fingers crossed.
 
Poor Archie. Hope they can sort it out quickly - sounds horrible. I don't know much about eye ulcers - how are they caused? My old horse was in Liphook many years back for 10 days for colic surgery, and they were brilliant. I seem to recall it was the surgery fees that were the most costly bit and the livery was almost cheap by comparison, so hopefully that's still the case. Good luck with it all, and hugs to you both. xx
 
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Hi,Firstly hope he gets well soon.My boy has been in Liphook for just over 2 weeks.My Insurance will cover me for £250.00,which effectively was for 10 nights,my boy has just tonight had a tooth removed there by Standing Sedation and is likely to be there for up to another week so can fully sympathise. When I had a talk with them they told me they do the cost per night and deliberately put nursing costs etc as a different cost as they know a lot of Insurance will not cover much if any of the stabling but will cover nursing costs etc. May see you up there!Fingers crossed for you-I know what a worry it all is.
 
Good vibes for Archie. My mare lacerated her eye a couple of years ago and that ulcerated following the first repair operation and needed a second. My bill came to around £5.5k, but that was for 2 operations and 3 weeks stay at Newmarket, so hopefully yours should be significantly less. She had to wear a lens for a few weeks following the second operation and she had a drug pump fitted that dispensed regular drops to the eye automatically (very clever).
 
Archiesmummy said:
Looked on my insurance and his stay in hospital, livery, is not covered. I thought this was included. A lesson to everyone, ensure you have livery costs covered. Archie is expected to be in up to two weeks.
Click to expand...

My insurance says this I think yet when my mare was in Dick Vets a couple of months ago they've paid everything. I think it depends how the vets put it through on the bill and how much goes on as livery and how much goes on as 'nursing'

Sending good vibes to both of you
 
Oh no, poor Archie!!

I can't speak to insurance - unfortunately I know all sorts of people whose "incidental" fees have mounted up, even though they are only a fraction of the total. But, as above, try not to panic yet.

I've had a couple with ulcers over the years and had good results, by and large. One horse had a couple of them - he turned out to have an underlying herpes infection - and we made him a fly mask with a section of a diaper stitched over the affected eye. It worked beautifully for keeping the eye dark and protected.

I did know one horse that lost his eye and, believe it or not, he was perfectly content and useful. I'm sure Archie won't come to that but don't despair at the mere thought of it.

Good luck!
 
Archiesmummy - been through this with my Sunny. He had to have his eye removed after a 6-month battle to save it, including 3 separate hospital stays. PM me for any info at all that I can give you. Not the end of anything to have the eye removed, Sunny carried on winning rosettes at dressage and hacking safely around. This was 8 years ago and he's still fine. The only concern is no longer having a "spare" eye. Your vets will break down the livery costs into "nursing" and "hotel"...your insurers should cover the nursing part of the livery. Meant to say that 8 years ago I totted up the whole costs of Sunny's eye battle and it came to about £4k but that was including borrowing a lorry and having to pay for it, fuel for the lorry, thankyous to the borrowed hubby that drove the lorry for me, numerous emergency vet callouts when he was home between hospital stays, everything. Think the total insurance cost was about £3k so if the worst comes to the worst you should be ok xxxxxx
 
Liphook are my vets and they do split the livery and the nursing fees into 2 separate costs. The livery is not much more than regular full livery so don't worry too much. They did this because they knew a lot of insurers were not covering the stay but would cover the medical treatment.

He is in the best place. Fingers crossed for a good outcome :)
 
Thank you so much everybody for your kind words and vibes. It is really helping me stay positive. I do tend to panic but you are keeping me focused. I know he is in the right place and whilst I was there yesterday I was very impressed with the immediate attention he received.

He was such a good boy yesterday. He loaded first time onto a cattle lorry for the first time in 6 1/2 years, since I have had him. He came out fine and took everything in his stride, I am such a proud mummy.
 
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