Cost of Full Blood test

[Chinchilla]

Would anyone be able to give me a ballpark figure of what it would cost to have a full blood panel and ACTH for cushings done including IM sedation on a pony? In the south east.
Bit of a random question sorry, hope it makes sense; I'm trying to budget sensibly until the end of the year. Thank you.

 

[Gloi]

There's so much variation it is better just to ring a vet or two and ask for quotes.

 

[Tiddlypom]

Agree with the above, plus I don’t think that you get accurate ACTH results if you’ve had to sedate the horse to take the bloods - that’s worth checking out.

 

[Nasicus]

CareAboutCushings have a scheme where you can get the ACTH testing done for free (as in, the lab fees for the test, not the blood draw and vet visit).
https://www.careaboutcushings.co.uk/what-to-do

So that would at least knock a few pennies off whatever the price ends up being. Used to be that you requested a voucher from them, but it seems you request the voucher through the vets now? Not 100% sure how that works, as it was still the old system last I used it, but they can probably explain.

 

[twofatladies88]

Bloods should not be taken for testing ACTH after sedation as it can give elevated results- taken from the laminitis site as per Andy Durham - sorry not techy enough to post exact quote!

 

[Chinchilla]

Anecdotally standing sedation about doubles plasma ACTH but from studies so does stress, and I'd rather get blood from a sedated pony than not get blood at all.

 

[Rob1585]

I’d take a gamble at approx 300 - £100 full bloods, £50 cushings, £75 drugs, £75 time to do it (will be lots of waiting for the IM drugs to work)

 

[eventinghenry]

I imagine we’d end up charging about £150-200 plus a visit fee, depending on exact blood panel and amount of drugs, but would add a bit more on with being south east! Theoretically you shouldn’t take ACTH bloods off a sedated pony, but you can if you absolutely have to, they’ll just need to take it into account when interpreting results.

 

[BronsonNutter]

Would definitely recommend working on the techniques shown in the ‘BEVA don’t break your vet: easy injections’ video on YouTube in the meantime also - grab a friend or someone he doesn’t know to act as the ‘vet’. A pen works ok as a syringe. Over time it may be that you don’t need the sedation (although I don’t know how bad the pony is - but have had lots of success using similar methods to those in the video - personally I don’t use a clicker, just the pressure off/moving away or in some cases food as a reward)