what is the maximum you would spend on vet bills for one horse?

arwenplusone

arwenplusone

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Previous vet-bill post got me thinking.

I'm sure this will be a sensitive topic but how far would you go, money-wise to keep your horse alive?

I know there are far too many factors to simplify this into one answer (eg age of horse, wealth of owner , whether it is a business, sentiment etc) and this is what we have insurance for. But would you spare no expense, even if it meant you were seriously in debt? Or would you draw the line somewhere?
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The line has already been drawn for one of my horses, he has had £15 K spent on him in 5 years, thankfully mostly covered by insurance. He is now at a point where he can't stay sound enough to compete, so I put aside £50 a month towards adhoc bills, any emergency big bills or the need for a GA would probably mean the end.

That doesn't mean to say I don't love him, far from it as anyone who knows me will confirm. I just think it is ludicrous to put yourself in financial risk for a horse.
 
Are we talking your own money, or including insurance pay-outs? Murphy cost about £12,000 in vets fees during the six years we owned him. Insurance paid most, but not all. And that doesnt include all of the extra things that were needed during boxrest - extra hay, bedding, toys, petrol to get to & from the yard more than we normally would have, livery costs when hospitalised (insurance didnt pay this). He was put to sleep 4 months after the cushings/laminitis claim ran out, so we paid for all of that, plus his euthanasia and cremation, etc. We'd do the same again, but would ALWAYS insure for vet fees - we just couldnt have afforded it otherwise.
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Depends what the outlook is. If no chance of them coming sound or being able to be used then I would seriously think about whether it is a) financially sensible and b) is it best for the horse.

We don't insure ours for vets fees or against loss as it is too expensive. Luckily ares are normally ok and we don't have to use a vet very often.
 
Either or really, I know insurance helps but it doesn't always cover everything - not really looking for a monetary answer, just interested in how far people will go really?

Ben_and_Jerrys - difficult decision but I would do the same. I love my horses but I would not get into financial difficulty over them. I don't feel it means I love them any less, but perhaps others think I am a little hardhearted about it!
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Since Dec 05 to date I have spent nearly 35K, which includes vets fee's, extensive physio, osteo, remedial farriery and rehab fee's. The insurance paid out 12K, I remortaged my house for 15K and the rest I have funded including selling my trailer to pay the rehab yard fees.

I didn't set out to spend this kind of money, it just happened along the way.
 
Very interesting post. I suppose it depends on diagnosis/prognosis. However, 7 years ago when my boy took his fetlock off in wire, I would willingly have remortgaged whatever the cost to have saved him, had the technology been there.
 
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Since Dec 05 to date I have spent nearly 35K, which includes vets fee's, extensive physio, osteo, remedial farriery and rehab fee's. The insurance paid out 12K, I remortaged my house for 15K and the rest I have funded including selling my trailer to pay the rehab yard fees.

I didn't set out to spend this kind of money, it just happened along the way.

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You see, I would not do this.
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My pony is getting on, if it was over £1000 and not a high survival rate I hink I would spare him the stress of hospilasation or operations. If something happened to the younger one I would feel differently.
 
I wasn't being rude I just wondered if he was a showjumper or dressage horse or somthing or if he was just a normal horse.

Is he going to make a full recovery?
 
I think it would depend a lot on the horses age, potential, prognosis etc. If the prognosis was good and the horse was young and had potential, I'd be more inclined to spend money treating it than one that was older and semi-retired, say. I don't think I'd be able to say for sure what I'd do until it happened though, although I'd do my best to find the money it would really depend on the cirumstances. Hard question, I think.
 
Vet's bills tend not to come as 1 big lump, but a bill, followed by another, then another. Before you know it you have spent a f'ing fortune...
 
I've spent about 10k in two years on one horse. Insurance has paid out about 3k of it
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I'd have to think very hard if he required further surgery etc. but am happy (well, not happy, but you know what I mean) to keep paying out for the small things like a filled leg requiring antibiotcs etc etc etc
 
Sometimes its very hard to just draw a line when horses are away for investigations with vets saying - now we try this and we could look for this etc... Also with insurance saying we might cover this this and this but not this this and this and its up to you if you go ahead because we're not making any promises. I do agree with you, I've just seen it happen more than once where one thing has lead to another and the bills have mounted into many thousands. With hindsight many people wouldn't let it get that far.
 
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I'm with you on this one. I think I am the reason that this post started....

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You are indeed - but I hope you don't think I mean it as a criticism, I just personally would find it hard to justify spending £25k+ on a horse.

I can see how bills mount up but at the end of the day I would not put myself in that financial position. Just my opinion though.
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And I hope your horse recovers well - he is very lucky to have you as an owner!
 
My view is that it depends on the age and value of the horse and then of course the welfare of the horse too. I'm not insuring my lot from this year, just putting £1,000 each year into a seperate account. TBTH if a vet bill was going to be over £2,000 then I would seriously think about PTS.
 
I find it hard to justify too!!! The problem is that it creeps up on you, I had no idea until I sat down and worked it all out.

Thank you for wishing her a good recovery, I really hope so too, aftter all I have spent an awful lot of money on her!!!
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I think its hard to say until the time comes my pony is fully insured but I don't have anything to sell or remortgage so would not be able access to more than about £10,000. I think it depends if it is all at once or over a few years.
 
I should add it also depends on what it's for too. If it meant that the horse could never do any work anymore and it would cost £2k then I'd probably PTS. But if the horse was say 8, got colic and it was going to cost £3k then it might be worth the risk.

TBH I don't think you know what decision is going to be made until you're in that situation when emotions are running high for a beloved friend!!!!
 
I agree it would depend alot on likely outcome. If they are never going to be able to be used again then IMO prbably kinder to PTS.
 
My horse reached the 5k insurance limit so we had to give up and turn him away. In his case I'm not sure throwing more money at the problem would have helped anyway, well that's how I try to justify it to myself. Brief summary - 9yr old PN event horse, had him for 6 months and then one day he just couldn't canter even in the field. He went disunited and kicked out, and then looked lame behind when he came back to trot. The vet couldn't find anything wrong with him and every time the phsyio sorted him out he was just as bad when she came the next time. He went to liphook and a bone scan and xrays showed slight boney changes in his neck vertebrae and his hind pedal bones were rotated. After months of remedial shoeing, physio and a 2 month stay at a top rehab yard he was still completely broken so we had no option but to turn him away. I'm convinced the vets missed something but I'm just preying it's something that will fix itself with 12 months in the field
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His rehab bills were over £1000 and the insurance wouldn't pay (despite us checking this with the vet beforehand
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) and the insurance is up to £5000 so there's nothing else we can do. He can't be pts on humane grounds because he's perfectly happy eating grass in the field but clearly I can't event a horse that is unable to canter
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He can't be pts on humane grounds because he's perfectly happy eating grass in the field but clearly I can't event a horse that is unable to canter
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This is why I would personally always have loss of use cover - perhaps I've been unlucky but my last three horses have become unrideable at 12, 13 and 7 all of which were LOU cases but non would have been covered for PTS on humane grounds because they were field sound. Not that any of them were suitable to hang around as a pet for the next twenty years.
 
I couldnt justify spending £10K on a horse that only cost me £1k to buy regardless of the outcome.
At present I have 3 horses one of which is a 20 year old mare who ive had 12 years I bought for £1500. A wonderful horse who owes me nothing, shes just a happy hacker only done a few local shows in her time but she's not insured anymore as shes mainly a companion, god forbid but if she had an accident or needed surgery i would only go ahead if i thought for a minute her quality of life would be equal to what she has now and I think I would have to draw the line at £2-3k. However faced with that situation who knows.
 
I couldn't spend that much either. It wouldn't be fair to my OH to be honest. I won't accept any complaints or objections about anything more moderate for her, but re-mortgaging the house I couldn't do. Its hard to imagine bills coming to that really (I'm not disputing anyones experience). I'd be happy though to just get my mare comfortable enough to retire rather than spending a fortune trying to get her sound if it was that bad.

I love her to bits, so I hope not to face any dilemas like this.
 
I would do what I could to help George, but when we reached our insurance max I would have to sit down and ask myself some serious questions, it wouldn't be fair on my OH if I didn't. I certainly couldn't or wouldn't remortgage the house, this doesn't mean I don't love George with all my heart, I just think if it came to it I would rather see if he would come sound after some field rest, see if he settled to being retired with me or have him PTS - in the end they don't know what's coming. Maybe I'm just being naive?
 
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