Please everyone......

lauraandjack

lauraandjack

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If you don't already, please please insure your horse for vet's fees.

I have just had to put to sleep a beautiful 7 year old mare with a lacerated tendon sheath, whose owners were not insured and could not afford for her to be referred for treatment.

With referral and surgical flushing her prognosis for returning to soundness was excellent. As it stood with the treatment we could offer her chances were slim to none. It's the hardest decision I've made in my professional career.

(My own horse is insured for vet fees, and I'm a vet myself!)
 
Thats very sad and I remember once, a very long time ago, someone saying "if you can't afford the vet, you can't afford the horse"

However back then, insurance wasn't prevelant as it is now. I do worry that insurance negates any market forces or checks on vet's prices especially as the first question seems to be "is it insured". I am sure that pre insurance, vets explorations and treatments weren't nearly as out of the reach of normal people's pockets as it is now.
 
Ah so sorry Laura, how awful. Every girl dreams of being a vet, but no one considers how the bad aspects like these affect you.

N x
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QR
It's very sad story.
I don't insure my horses though and I'm not intending to change it - I can afford reasonable level of treatment for them and don't like the idea of paying for insurance.
 
There are 2 sides to the insurance coin.

Good facilities and expertise cost £££££. Hence the fees have to reflect the amount that has been invested in the facilities. At university they had an ultrasound scanner that cost nearly as much as a house!

Most vets if they know cost is an issue will bend over backwards to make it as cheap as possible, and probably absorb some of the costs themselves.

I'm just heartbroken that this mare was basically euthanased because of money. We couldn't treat her effectively and the owner could not afford referral to a specialist centre, so the only choice was to save her any further suffering.

The irony is that I saw a horse yesterday with far more extensive wounds, that I am 90% certain will come right. Life is very cruel.

ETA: if you're dead against insurance for whatever reason, save the money instead? May turn out more cost-effective in the long run for lucky people who never need to use it. But trust me it is heartbreaking to have to take the decision to put a healthy, young horse down on almost purely economic grounds.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Thats very sad and I remember once, a very long time ago, someone saying "if you can't afford the vet, you can't afford the horse"

However back then, insurance wasn't prevelant as it is now. I do worry that insurance negates any market forces or checks on vet's prices especially as the first question seems to be "is it insured". I am sure that pre insurance, vets explorations and treatments weren't nearly as out of the reach of normal people's pockets as it is now.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is a rather cynical view. I think you will find it is more the that case that the development of new techniques and equipment means that more options are availble to the current horse owner that are inevitably more expensive. 'Back in the day', this horse in would have been shot without question - flushing the sheath would have been impossible due to a lack of facilities, modern drugs, knowledge etc.

Vets ask whether an owner has insurance immediately because they know without it some difficult decisions will have to be made such as in this case. When insurance is lacking, the gold standard diagnostic/treatment plan that every vet wants to offer their patient is not always possible. They do not ask so they can bump up the bills.
 
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I am sure that pre insurance, vets explorations and treatments weren't nearly as out of the reach of normal people's pockets as it is now.

[/ QUOTE ]

before insurance became more common a lot of the treatments and explorations didnt exist or ones like xrays were way beyond the normal consumers price range because of their rarity of practices with such expensive and modern equitment... vets didnt have the same diagnstic tools they had to rely a lot more on their basic knowledge and hope that they had the right diagnoses'....

20 years ago our vet didnt own an xray machine!now he has a portable one...because more people have the money to pay for it partly because people got wealthier but mostly because insurance has become more common...

inflation affected everything not just vet fees...but at least in veterinary medicine there has been hugh improvements in the last 20 years...

before insurance became common(where im from in ireland at least)a horse that had colic would never have been operated on...i was talking to our vet recently and he told me a story about a yard he'd being going to for years...20 mayb 30 years ago they had a horse with colic and had another in the last 2 years as well ...
1st horse would have been walked for a few hours,the vet was been fetched(it was worth the money) a treatment of parafin oil and some antispasmotic drugs would have been given and i think some sort of painkiller and that didnt work so out came the farmers shotgun...and a twisted gut was diagnosed by the vet post mortum..

now with insurance a horse with the same symptoms from the same owners was referred to either troytown or ucd vet hospital for emergency surgery....and he survived it..
same owners,same type of horse..the only difference was their son had decided to invest in insurance
 
[ QUOTE ]
There are 2 sides to the insurance coin.

Good facilities and expertise cost £££££. Hence the fees have to reflect the amount that has been invested in the facilities. At university they had an ultrasound scanner that cost nearly as much as a house!

Most vets if they know cost is an issue will bend over backwards to make it as cheap as possible, and probably absorb some of the costs themselves.

I'm just heartbroken that this mare was basically euthanased because of money. We couldn't treat her effectively and the owner could not afford referral to a specialist centre, so the only choice was to save her any further suffering.

The irony is that I saw a horse yesterday with far more extensive wounds, that I am 90% certain will come right. Life is very cruel.

ETA: if you're dead against insurance for whatever reason, save the money instead? May turn out more cost-effective in the long run for lucky people who never need to use it. But trust me it is heartbreaking to have to take the decision to put a healthy, young horse down on almost purely economic grounds.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not dead set against insurance per se, I am just comfortable enough to be able to afford treatment for my horses if push came to shove, that's why I don't see the point in paying premiums
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If I was on a tight budget, insurance might be a better option.
I'm fortunate enough that one of my horses has been with me for over 10 years now and never has cost me more in treatment that the excess on ins would be
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until couple of years ago when she had to have an ovary removed, I was dithering over the surgery, not because of cost, but if there was another way to 'manage' her condition I would have made the decision to spare her the bother and risk of GA.
Other horses of mine have been more costly, but I still prefer to pay for the vet when it's needed than to burden myself with another monthly direct debit, I'm just mean by nature and don't like the thought of a 'middle man' having some profit from my horse's sickness
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And BTW - my vet has never ever asked if any of my horses are insured, I think I might be slightly offended if they did
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Interesting discussion this...
I agree insurance is good to have, I have only had to make one claim in the last 10 years but it came to £5k so I'm probably better off than I would have been if I had just put some money aside every year.
I didn't bother renewing the insurance this year and of course the horse has gone lame. Vet came out, said to bring her in for a full workup, nerve blocks, x rays etc. When I told him that the horse was not insured anymore, his attitude changed completely and he told me the horse would come right with a bit of bute!
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Seems to me that vets are taking advantage of insurance
now in order to do as many tests as they can which in some cases maxes out the claim and there is no money left for treatment....
shocked.gif

Also finding it hard to get insurance for my ex racer as i don't know what his injury was and they are being really funny about it - despite the fact that I've had him for over 2 years now and never had any problems.
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Referral centre quoted 2.5 to 3.5k for an uncomplicated case. I know I couldn't afford this kind of money outright, hence my horse is insured (and I am a vet, so therefore a millionaire, right!
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)

There are an awful lot of misconceptions about the veterinary industry. Sure, a lot of senior partners are making a tidy sum, but your average skivvy like me earns a lot less than a doctor or dentist. And a veterinary practice is a hell of an expensive place to run, and the more fancy facilities you have, the more it costs! X ray machines/ MRI scanners/ surgical facilities etc do not fall out of the sky, they have to be bought/leased and maintained.

The point of my original post was more about what a waste of a life and a lovely horse this was - if she had been insured I would have been able to send her to a specialist centre and she had a very good chance of returning to her previous level of work.
 
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