How do you pay your vet bills? Insurance, savings, credit card..

Michen

Michen

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A couple of posts on here got me thinking about how many people have horses with no insurance, overdraft facility, credit card, savings, friends/parents who would be willing to lend in an emergency..

Do you keep a budget in mind as to what you would be willing to spend on diagnostics or treatment for your horses? Aka if your horse came in from the field with a serious injury that needed hospitalisation and flushing, would you PTS if It was likely to go over a certain amount?

I've always insured and my vets were amazing even when the insurance was being difficult, at one point I had about 6k on my account and they never asked me to settle the bill and then have the insurance pay me (even though it was there for months and months).

Having said that, I wonder how many horses would actually suffer a bit less if we didn't have insurance. There is no way I would have kept T going for as long as I did doing diagnostics and treatment if I was footing the whole bill. In reality he would have been put down much, much earlier and it probably would have prevented quite a bit of unnecessary suffering.

Just something I was pondering today...
 
Anything I would want to operate on / spend money on is comprehensively insured.

Anything that I wouldn't put through any lengthy/expensive vet treatment comes out of my current account.
 
Insurance or savings.

There is a limit on what I'd put a horse through treatment wise, but it doesn't have anything to do with costs. So for instance if a horse needed colic surgery I wouldn't put it through it.
 
Day to day stuff I just pay out of my current account, by BACS. Tinner has clocked up about £3,000 in vet and farrier bills this year, they've been paid pretty much by return by a mixture of current account, cash and credit card, which has since been paid off. I took a conscious decision not to insure him and am happy with that choice.
 
in one word .... credit card....... mine has whatever she needs to ensure a good quality of life...I worry about the cost later......as she is 24 and has cushings I would not put her through extensive treatment or lengthy box rest and definitely not colic or other surgery.. its nothing to do with the cost its always quality of life....
 
How do I pay my vets bills? Reluctantly...

Not really, but it was the first word that came to mind:D My equine vets are brilliant, but I've only become a horse owner again since May so haven't managed to rack up a huge bill as yet - the time will come, I know! I would pay them in the same way I have paid massive bills off with my canine vets - in installments.

As splashgirl so accurately says, for me it is nothing to do with the cost, it is always the quality of life (thanks splashgirl for that summary :) )
 
Well my bill is already over 5k for this year.

most of it was paid by the insurance but about 1300 was covered by me! I've used my vet for 14 yrs so they have been very good with me! I've paid my bits monthly, some times over a couple of months, and they've patiently waited for the insurance to pay the rest!

before I've had other issues and the vets have allowed me to pay by instalments or I've gone into my overdraft!

my other horse also has cushings so I spend £150 a month on her meds on top of everything else! so its safe to say for the last year I've never had any spare money, saves do not exist and I have the first credit card of my life! :(
 
Insurance and overdraft for me - I pay things off quicker if it's overdraft rather than credit card!
I wouldn't put mine through lengthy box rest after the last time, so in reality lots of expensive treatment is probably ruled out automatically.
 
I always find this really interesting, because very few people have horse insurance in NZ. I never have and it always leads me to ask if a lot of the treatments are more expensive and complicated than they need to be because the horse is insured.

For example, my old endurance horse strained a tendon. I don't have stables, so lengthy box rest was out of the question. Scans were offered, but as I could see the bowed tendon, I didn't need a scan to tell me that. So, it was rest in her normal small paddock (she was a fatty so was always on restricted grazing) and six months later we were legging up for the new season. In the end the whole episode cost me about NZ$200 (about 100 pounds) and never gave her any trouble in the future. If I had to follow an insurance companies regime I suspect it would have been a much bigger deal.

If I could just insure for the really big stuff, like colic surgery, I probably would, but from what I read here it seems that you also lose some control over treatment, which I wouldn't want to do. To answer your question, I have a credit card and savings, so if there was something major I could afford it. However, I would also have to convince myself that putting the horse through a lengthy treatment would produce a good outcome. I think a lot of horse surgery is "experimental" at best. It seems a lot of what was the be all and end all of equine treatment ten years ago has been well and truly discredited, which makes me question it's validity in the first place.
 
Michen said:
Do you keep a budget in mind as to what you would be willing to spend on diagnostics or treatment for your horses? Aka if your horse came in from the field with a serious injury that needed hospitalisation and flushing, would you PTS if It was likely to go over a certain amount?

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mine are insured to greater and lesser extents. All have a price on their heads though its also to do with treatment/prognosis regardless of insurance cover and I won't be dictated to by insurance companies again. I wouldn't put any through extended box rest, colic surgery etc.
 
I tell the vet the horse is too be treated as if they aren't insured, and I refuse expensive diagnostics etc. They are always insured, and always with a company my vet deals with direct, but I always act as if they wont pay out. We have access to about 10k in interest free credit cards and would use them if we had to and I could justify it, but there will be no MRIs etc for mine. He will always be treated and pain free, but as much as it would kill me, I have to be pragmatic. There wont be any colic surgery or kissing spine operations. It doesnt seem fair to me to put a horse through that for my sake.

I might feel different if that actually happened, and thats why I do have insurance, but I would hope I could remain sensible about it
 
NZJenny said:
I always find this really interesting, because very few people have horse insurance in NZ. I never have and it always leads me to ask if a lot of the treatments are more expensive and complicated than they need to be because the horse is insured.
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Vets totally take the pee when they know you're insured! my mare was always too old to be covered so she never had a bill over £250

my gelding was fully insured, he had steroid injections in to his hock and surprise surprise 9 months later he wasn't 100% so he went back to has his hocks fused!

he's bill is £5k for one year, not to mention the xrays that he had last week and the blimmin expensive shoes he is having put on this weekend! and now the year is up I will be responsible for any future costs! :'(
 
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Michen said:
A couple of posts on here got me thinking about how many people have horses with no insurance, overdraft facility, credit card, savings, friends/parents who would be willing to lend in an emergency..

Do you keep a budget in mind as to what you would be willing to spend on diagnostics or treatment for your horses? Aka if your horse came in from the field with a serious injury that needed hospitalisation and flushing, would you PTS if It was likely to go over a certain amount?

I've always insured and my vets were amazing even when the insurance was being difficult, at one point I had about 6k on my account and they never asked me to settle the bill and then have the insurance pay me (even though it was there for months and months).

Having said that, I wonder how many horses would actually suffer a bit less if we didn't have insurance. There is no way I would have kept T going for as long as I did doing diagnostics and treatment if I was footing the whole bill. In reality he would have been put down much, much earlier and it probably would have prevented quite a bit of unnecessary suffering.

Just something I was pondering today...
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We pay £400'a month into a vet account, or the monthly policy.
 
Savings/current account.
I no longer insure after having a problem getting the sum insured for a horse I had to pts aged 11, even though the company had had far more than her value in premiums. That experience and that of my friend, who travelled her very ill youngster to horsepital for colic surgery which had a 1% chance of a successful outcome because otherwise the insurance comany would not pay out, made me despise insurance companies.
We took the decsion years ago not to put any horse through treatment which would require prolonged box-rest or which had a likelihood of recurrence. I value quality of life over quantity.
 
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Pearlsasinger said:
Savings/current account.
I no longer insure after having a problem getting the sum insured for a horse I had to pts aged 11, even though the company had had far more than her value in premiums. That experience and that of my friend, who travelled her very ill youngster to horsepital for colic surgery which had a 1% chance of a successful outcome because otherwise the insurance comany would not pay out, made me despise insurance companies.
We took the decsion years ago not to put any horse through treatment which would require prolonged box-rest or which had a likelihood of recurrence. I value quality of life over quantity.
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Agree 100%, loss of control is my main concern, never insured horse, dogs or cats, happy with that choice.
 
In the last year or so I have had some absolutely massive (for me anyway) vet bills. My insurance company, the same one I'd had for years, didn't pay out on a technicality, so I had to use savings and monthly payments to my vets (who have been brilliant about it) Less than 6 months later I had an even more massive bill and lost my horse to boot, my OH stepped in to pay most of it so now I owe him and the vet. I changed insurance companies but they appear to still be cogitating about whether they will pay, in the mean time I have had to keep paying off what I can to both the vet and the boyfriend. When one of my horses look a bit off colour I feel physically ill myself. At the start of this horsey journey I thought I had enough of a financial cushion, combined with insurance, for most emergencies, I realise now that cushion will never be enough
 
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I have insurance of about 5k and would be willing to spend about another 2k on top of that for something that the horse would have a good chance of recovering from.

That said there's a lot I wouldn't do with my current horse because his tolerance level for being messed about with isn't very high (He reared up whilst we were trying to sedate him last year to have his teeth done and clip him... 2nd attempt was more successful!)

This list includes things like colic surgery and broken legs and any major injury that would require extensive boxrest. I think he could cope with a couple of weeks with company next door and then going into a paddock with a friend for restricted turnout for a few months but months on end of total boxrest is a no go for him. I'd also have to seriously consider whether treating wounds needing daily attention for longer than a few weeks in awkward places that would take a long time to heal would be a viable thing to do as he would probably need daily IV sedation as sedalin and the like don't work on him (see previous reaction to being IV sedated)


That said I poured most of my 5k limit plus several thousand of my own money into getting a lameness workup and MRI done, remedial farriery and then barefoot rehab (for those who think barefoot is a cheap /easy option the rehab has cost more than the farriery and has required a lot more effort on my part too... it has also given me a much sounder horse at the end of it all)

I don't have any LOU insurance or anything that would pay out if the horse was PTS on welfare grounds as I don't want to be in the position where money comes into that final decision.
 
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My son's pony cost us over £2k last year, not insured. I felt sick at the time as knew it would have to go on credit card. By chance we had PPI money came through which covered it.

Benji is insured, but at 22 there's no way that I would put him through surgery for anything. You have to be realistic about the chances of recovery and spending out lots of money for something that may/may not work. I would not let a member of my equine herd suffer because I couldn't face my responsibilites as an owner.
 
amymay said:
Insurance or savings.

There is a limit on what I'd put a horse through treatment wise, but it doesn't have anything to do with costs. So for instance if a horse needed colic surgery I wouldn't put it through it.
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This....but with the tb it went on credit card. Leg wound, on vets advice we brought dressing etc cheaper on line so it saved the insurance for his treatment.
 
My old boy was insured. I claimed for gastroguard treatment. This left him with an exclusion on digestive issues for life despite years having passed and no recurrences (usually I could get any exclusions written off by a vet after a certain amount of years)

He then became very unwell in 2013 and cost me £5.5k - none of which the insurance would cover as it was inflammatory bowel disease and hind gut ulcers.
 
I have never had veterinary insurance for my horses (used to for dogs) so I pay from my Savings which are no longer very high after last years Vet bills! I would not consider a Credit card for anything. If necessary I would borrow from family or get a loan, but both those are unlikely.
 
I put a couple of hundred a month in an ISA, and as day to day costs are relatively low (kept at home) it leaves a decent amount to cover vets bills. As to where I draw the line, I suppose their welfare plus gut feeling is the guide. For example, a few months back my 200 quid ex racer ran through a fence while in the field, and severed a tendon and an artery. Amazingly he was minimally lame but it looked horrendous and the vet said she could get him field sound but that would be it. I said yes, ran up a bill of 2K on visits and dressings, but now have a fully recovered and unexpectedly sound horse who could start work again. It was the fact he was in minimal discomfort and managed a short spell of total box rest which made me give him the chance. Had he been in much pain, or had I given him a material value then I'd have just had him pts. So either my instincts are good, or I'm just a total sucker. Of course, if he does anything else that dumb, I'm not stumping up again.
 
Thank you for posting the OP!

My insurance renewal came through yesterday.
I have 2 horses, the old girl's insurance was cancelled 2 yrs ago as they wanted such high premiums to cover next to nothing. My take on it is - if it will benefit her, if she will make a full recovery and carry on living a happy healthy life she can have it, regardless of the debt on my credit card. As many other have said, I do not want the insurance company to have control of how my horses is treated. I will make the call what treatment she has and when enough is enough, I wouldn't put her through an operation, box rest, prolonged segregated turnout etc.

I have a 7yr old who is currently insured but to be honest, the premium is rising unnecessarily (Never claimed, she is insured for £500 as that is the lowest value they would accept, in actual fact I need to add an 0 to that!) I am considering not renewing it and doing the credit card thing.
I already have an emergency credit card so i'd carry on with that.
I only insured for vets fee's, I am a BHS Gold member, they are both freeze marked and I pay my yearly subs to Farmkey.

Think I have typed myself out of insuring the 7yr old again, lol x
 
My pony is insured and having put one through colic surgery I would again at least to see what we are dealing with, a decision would then be made as to continue or call it a day in theatre. How ever I also have a close friend who is a professor in equine internal medicine and hes always at the end of his phone if im worried and should fidget require any surgery or intensive care then I would have her sent to him for him to take care of her. I value his opinion and hes totally straight with me and he over saw my last ponys treatment and although he was insured he rang the insurance and told them enough was enough. It wouldnt have made any difference if the insurance had given permission or not - he said it was hopeless and it was time to stop.
 
The thing that put me off insurance was that if you have a vet out for a look-see then that part of the horse is then excluded even if there is nothing wrong with it For example: horse comes in with a scummy eye - now I don't take chances with eyes so call the vet - turns out that the horse has been rubbing in fly weather, a couple of days with eye-drops and everythings hunky-dory again. I considered it in the horse's best interest to have the eye seen to....what am I to do, wait till it's a real problem, I don't think so.

My vets have known me and my horses for a long time - I want us to make a decision on treatment - and if that treatment is time or changes in management then I want to be able to do just that rather than fight with an anonymous organisation because we haven't done diagnostic tests in the 'right order'. As said above it's about quality of life for that particular horse.
 
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