Please be my voice of reason!

Tiddlypom said:
It is perfectly in order for the other owners to say that, on reflection, they do not feel confident to monitor such a sick horse when it belongs to someone else and that they are stepping down from the responsibility.

It is a HUGE responsiblity. Say the horse dies at the yard. Will the horse's owner come chasing the other owners for letting it die? Probably.

The important thing is that the horse's owner is told ASAP that she is now the one fully in charge of her own sick horse.
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I'm back now. This is what the other liveries have done now. They felt sort of bounced into volunteering/agreeing because entitled people have a way of making other people feel their totally unreasonable requests are normal! . Owner has been informed by phone, followed up with message so it's all in writing. My offer to transport was also withdrawn a couple of hours ago as that had been made at 10am so I felt was reasonable to consider it 'expired' by 5 pm on a Sunday evening - and I sent them lots of numbers of horse transp ort people. Now I'm turning off my phone and going to the pub! And hope to god horse is ok in the mporning. Not just for his sake but because all hell will break loose if he isn't. He looked pretty chipper when I left yard about 20 minutes ago. Much better than this morning.
 
Michen said:
This kind of thing makes me so furious and sick especially at the moment. FFS.

Some people don't deserve horses and those of us that do still end up with the bad luck.
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I have to admit I did think of you in a 'compare and contrast' kind of way. And TPO with that awful cellulitis (which may be where this horse is headed). And now Chip. 😡

Well any of us really. Yeah horses get sick or injured at inconveneient times, and it's stressful, time-consuming, expensive and often heart-breaking. If you are not up for that, buy a motorbike!
 
If the owner can't be there it will cost her. She will just need to pay for expensive emergency horse transportation to a vet hospital and keep calling her vet and then let her enjoy the enormous bill. Feel for the poor horse though... I was a yard owner and had liveries like this, I would just charge them for care, let them get huge vet bills etc...
 
Dialemma said:
I'm back now. This is what the other liveries have done now. They felt sort of bounced into volunteering/agreeing because entitled people have a way of making other people feel their totally unreasonable requests are normal! . Owner has been informed by phone, followed up with message so it's all in writing. My offer to transport was also withdrawn a couple of hours ago as that had been made at 10am so I felt was reasonable to consider it 'expired' by 5 pm on a Sunday evening - and I sent them lots of numbers of horse transp ort people. Now I'm turning off my phone and going to the pub! And hope to god horse is ok in the mporning. Not just for his sake but because all hell will break loose if he isn't. He looked pretty chipper when I left yard about 20 minutes ago. Much better than this morning.
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Well done you (and everyone else). Do update us tomorrow.

Have a lovely evening x
 
I'm afraid not only would I not get directly involved I would be reporting her for neglect if she is deliberately ignoring the horse. I realise this won't wash if people are "helping her out" but everyone steps back then she can be reported as an emergency if the horse gets worse. The YO being away is unfortunate but he obviously isn't impressed by the sound of things.

I saw this happen once on a friends yard. It made me cry. Poor horse on 3 legs with a massive fever and cellulitis and groaning and owner no where to be seen. My friend reported the problem to RSPCA on day 3 and for once they came quickly and the horse was PTS. The vet had been called by people on the yard but not done much because the owner was not around to consent! It was a rural yard and the vet was a mix practice vet so I think he was more used to cows than horses. The YO was also in trouble for not dealing with the problem. No one every knew who had called it in but friend moved soon after as there was a bad atmosphere after that.

I still get upset when I think of that mare.
 
I did actually have a horse die on me with an owner that was being difficult and refused to get it to hospital until she'd seen it first - after work. Emergency vet had been out at 9am. Died at about 3

I posted on here about it and people said I shouldn't because owner would be upset. Admin took my post down but I can categorically say the owner was nowhere near as upset as I was!
 
So YO checked horse last night and he seemed ok. Checked again at 4am as was worried, and the happy juices had obviously worn off as he was back to shivering/wobbly with swelling now tracking up leg and into sheath. YO called vet, stayed with horse till vet arrived and then took him to horsepital. (2 hours each way). Owner nowhere to be seen this morning and did not travel with the horse. YO is fuming. He has stayed up all night many times before with sick horses, but only when owner is also there and only because he cares, not because it's his job while owner abdicates all responsibility. Sadly it is looking like horse might not make it, so discussion over the future of this livery is premature at the moment.
 
Well done YO - although it doesn't sound like this is going to be a good outcome which is sad.

Not surprised your YO is fuming. Even the ones I've had who weren't great at the livery side of things cared enough to check in on any owner who had a colic problem at night or would be straight on the phone if they thought there was an issue with a horse (most of them being better with horses than humans). None of them would have expected the owner to be AWOL though.
 
Amymay said:
I’m weirdly invested 😞

How’s the horse?
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Hospital is communicating directly with owner who I am not friends with. Or even FB friends with. So all I know from YO is he is alive and still in hospital. I am not sure we will be kept updated. The owner seems to feel that we let the horse down by refusing to step in when she was 'unable to be there'. Except she was not unable to be there. Since then it has emerged that her important work meeting was not till 9am the following morning. She was travelling down the night before, but she did not have to do that. It was easily commutable from home. (90 minutes away). So we are all very clear now that it was HER responsbility and YO has told her that. So it's all caused a lot of stress and ill feeling on the yard which is sad. As it's a lovely yard most of the time.

Re rerporting though - it's not a welfare issue from RSPCA, WHW etc POV. Horse was injured and has seen vet numerous times. Horse saw vet that day and the following day. Horse is now beig cared for in hospital. And if they do say she should have watched the horse, she will just say she had arranged for horse to be watched and was let down.

From an ethical POV though, it sucks, and I hope she decides horse ownership is not for her. Because it truly isn't.
 
Dialemma said:
So YO checked horse last night and he seemed ok. Checked again at 4am as was worried, and the happy juices had obviously worn off as he was back to shivering/wobbly with swelling now tracking up leg and into sheath. YO called vet, stayed with horse till vet arrived and then took him to horsepital. (2 hours each way). Owner nowhere to be seen this morning and did not travel with the horse. YO is fuming. He has stayed up all night many times before with sick horses, but only when owner is also there and only because he cares, not because it's his job while owner abdicates all responsibility. Sadly it is looking like horse might not make it, so discussion over the future of this livery is premature at the moment.
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Dialemma said:
Except she was not unable to be there. Since then it has emerged that her important work meeting was not till 9am the following morning. She was travelling down the night before, but she did not have to do that. It was easily commutable from home. (90 minutes away).
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I hope he bills her top whack for every mile of journey and every minute of time. She wouldn't want to be anywhere near me today, that's for sure!
.
 
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Sorry you have had this upsetting experience. At least the horse is in the best place now.
Sounds as if the owner wants full livery with bells on, ('you deal with everything, I turn up to ride now & then') for the price of DIY. Hopefully this will make her realise she doesn't have the space in her life for horses.
 
Diagnosis has been confirmed as cellulitis, following on from the cut in the field. And he remains in hospital being aggressively treated for that. Not seen owner since it happened as obviously horse is not on the yard. They thought they were losing the battle on Wednesday and euthanasia seemed likely. But he has rallied. For now. He remains critically unwell. We get updates from YO from time to time who rings owner to see how horse is doing.
 
Dialemma said:
Diagnosis has been confirmed as cellulitis, following on from the cut in the field. And he remains in hospital being aggressively treated for that. Not seen owner since it happened as obviously horse is not on the yard. They thought they were losing the battle on Wednesday and euthanasia seemed likely. But he has rallied. For now. He remains critically unwell. We get updates from YO from time to time who rings owner to see how horse is doing.
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Thank you.
 
Dialemma said:
Diagnosis has been confirmed as cellulitis, following on from the cut in the field. And he remains in hospital being aggressively treated for that. Not seen owner since it happened as obviously horse is not on the yard. They thought they were losing the battle on Wednesday and euthanasia seemed likely. But he has rallied. For now. He remains critically unwell. We get updates from YO from time to time who rings owner to see how horse is doing.
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Having been through that, and lost the battle, as mentioned above, I can't wrap my head around abandoning a horse/not providing proper care from a proper source in that condition.

I'm glad the horse is in the right place now and I hope his fortunes change so that he ends up with a better owner going forward 🤞
 
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Just caught up with this thread, absolutely shocking behaviour from the owner. Has there been any update on the horse?
 
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Horse remains in hospital. Cellulitis still being treated but he is stable. He could come home but YO has been very clear that he will come home to OWNER'S care. He is not walking him out, which is a necessary part of the care. Not sure when he might return or what will happen if owner does not rehab properly, but we shall see. Prognosis is still very guarded. 'Far from out of the woods'. No-one has seen owner obviously. But YO updates every so often as we are all invested.
 
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