Vets bills how much...

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minigal

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This is probably an umpleasant post but I will continue. Having had my latest renewal from NFU I am considering rethinking about whether to insure one of my horses or not. He is retired and has had treatment for 2 conditions (PSD and spavin) otherwise he is pretty hardy :toucheswoodfrantically: If I didn't insure him I'd like to get an idea of how much a few things cost in order to prepare an emergency credit card.

So colic - not the surgery I won't put him through that but for painkillers/buscopan/nursing etc

PTS in an emergency out of hours situation + a rough idea of removal of corpse cost.

Bad wound requiring suturing/dressing/antbiotics but not surgery. I can do complex dressing as I'm a trauma nurse.

Any other leg problems would require a long and hard think as insured or not his legs are compromised enough.

I am absolutely aware that it differs betweens areas/horses/practises but just rough figures would be helpful.

Unfortunately I know how much xrays/USS/joint injections cost.

Any other situations/advice/thoughts are gratefully recieved!
 
Lameness work up around £130-£150 per call out.
Euthanasia & call out around £200.
Removal and disposal of body starts at £250 for pony.
To be returned and cremated (sp) around £450+.

Wish I knew none of those costs. :(
 
Four minor colic visits (2 on a sunday), Peritoneal tap, blood tests, euthanasia and disposal for 14.2.......£1200.

Thank god for Ebay!!!...sold my life to pay that bill!!!
 
I don't insure my horse any more as pretty much everything was excluded from my policy except his tail so it just didn't seem worth it! I now put the £40 per month I save into a vet bill account, which I have bled dry this summer, but I'm so glad I did it as its all for things that would have been excluded from the policy which I binned!

A gash to the neck which required 8 stiches, bute and antibiotics on a bank holiday (why?!!!) was £150.

Not my horse but a nasty wire cut to a hock which required horse into vets for cleaning, sedatives, stiching etc, and then 2 lots of antibiotics and a couple of revisits for dressing (which you could do yourself so probably knock off £100) was about £400.
 
My girl appeared to stand on herself last month! Out of hours call out Three staples and two follow ups and bandages etc came to about £ 350!
 
MMm so if I could sort out savings/credit card for the amount of £1500 would that be reasonable? Horrible topic but needs must.
 
Also speak to your vet's and see if they would be willing to take instalments in an emergency. We pay all our big bills that way and it takes so much pressure off. We also use 2 practices, one for basic and routine stuff because they operate a no call out charge on certain days, the other, the better of the 2, for anything really serious, because they have more experienced equine vets for serious matters. We have used both sets for years, one was my vet's and one was Martin's before we got together but it works well to spread the costs if needed. We have 14 and only 1 is insured, all get vet visits as necessary and we do not take risks with them, we have paid thousands out in vet's bills but I still reckon not as much as we would have paid for insurance over the years.
 
My advice to you would be to stick with the insurance. As a horse gets older all sorts of issues start to creep in. Older horses are prone to tooth problems - the cost of removing a tooth under local anaesthetic is expensive plus any infection likely to develop as a result - then they can develop Cushings closely followed by laminitis as they can be linked. I dont know if your policy has exclusions due to age but I would seriously think carefully before deciding to wing it. I had 3 horses - all uninsured. Two of them have had Cushings and one has just had 2 years worth of treatment due to arthritis and collateral ligament damage. I think I have probably come out even as the premiums for 3 horses would have been exhorbitant but I would have been happy to insure if there had been only one horse to think about.
 
My horse is insured for £80.00 a month that does include my insurance as well, he had colic the other month and got charged £175.00 for out of hours visit x
 
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