Munchausen syndrome

I've come across it once - I sold a friesian youngster to a lady some years ago and he developed locking stifles, she had all the tests done, sent him to a vet school etc had numerous second opinions and no-one could find anything wrong with him. The only things she was doing wrong was stuffing him full of hard feed and rugging him up to the eyeballs which we had told her not to!! Anyway found out this was her third horse with supposed locking stifles - the other 2 were different breeds and different ages - what are the chances of 1 owner having 3 consecutive horses with the same problem that only she sees and the vets can't find even after keeping said horses for nearly a month at vet school!!!!!???? So yes it does happen with pet owners!!!!
 
Munchausen's is a pretty rare psychological and behavioural condition. As someone said Munchausen by pet proxy is probably the best way to describe this particular phenomenon.

However I do seriously doubt that all these people who have posted on here about knowing someone who had it actually have these conditions.

Perhaps there are people who are paranoid about the horses and some with good reason based on their previous horse or horses! There may be some that just instictively know they're horse isn't quite right and want to do everything they can to make sure the horse is fit and healthy - and if so why not? I'd rather see that than people who don't ever call the vet when it is clearly needed!

And yes there may be some people who subconsciously want their horses to be deemed as not completely right to explain certain behaviour or performance issues and so on

You might describe some of this as hypochondriac or hypochondriac by proxy.

HOWEVER Munchausen's is a very dangerous illness. It is not just worrying that there is something wrong or making up symptoms and calling the doctor or vet all the time. It is a real belief that there is something wrong but at the same time physically doing things to support their belief. Most of the time these people don't acknowledge or even seem to realise that they have done these things. As someone mentioned that could be giving drugs that the horse isn't meant to have, causing wounds and so on.

So please don't go around saying everyone has Munchausen's by proxy when they could just be anxious pet owners that love their horses. I find most of the comments on this thread ridiculous.
 
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