Whats the dumbest thing you've called the vet for?

[Birker2020]

I had to call the vet because Bailey was stood at the stable door staring at the wall behind her and box walking and generally unsettled. Like she was going to try and jump over the stable door. I took her into the indoor school where she rolled, but she often did in the school and having been through hundreds of mild colics with her over the years I was unconvinced that was what it was and thought she'd possibly had some sort of head injury as she was acting so strange.

It took 3 of us and a tap from a schooling whip to get her back in the stable, she put the brakes on! In the stable she kept standing at the door pushing against it whilst staring behind her.

On call vet was duly called, came from 50 mins away! Arrived and sedated her.

Said her back end looked colicky but her eyes, ears, and vital signs told of huge stress but no colic. Her heart rate was through the roof. Even sedated loose in the stable with us she'd stand by the door and would bravely grab a mouthful of hay from the hay bar before shooting back to the door to stand with us clearly terrified looking behind her. We were perplexed. Hay barn behind but no rats, cats, foxes or dogs in there and anyway she was used to noises behind there.

Vet felt she wouldn't attempt to jump out and said by the next day she'd have forgotten all about it. I was very sceptical, thought " there's no way she will forget"

Didn't sleep a wink that night expecting to find her in the morning with her front end hanging over the door trying to escape from whatever she'd been terrified of only to find her asleep on her shavings bed with her back to the 'bogey monster wall'!!

Blo*dy horses!! £250 quid down! Never did find out what had scared her so much. Still wonder if she'd had a stroke or something but then this was a horse that snorted and spooked going up the track daily to and from the same paddock she'd been in for five years!

 

[doodle]

I once called the vets for a full work up because my horse behaved itself.

I did that. Went for a lesson where he was good and calm. Stopped in at the vets on the way home for blood tests as I was sure he was ill!

 

[SEL]

In fact I’ve pretty much written off the last 2 weeks of riding because his feet have grown really quickly this cycle and he’s just not happy with his shoes.

My young cob is currently grumpy and I'm waiting until next week's pedicure before panicking. He got like this last year when farrier was ill and we were down the queue with his catch up appointments. Microcob just abandoned her shoes and if his hoof growth is like hers then it's gone a bit bonkers

 

[poiuytrewq]

This turned out to be very serious but the my original panic made everyone think I was mental.
Out hacking, really windy. Horse should have been pinging along with his head in the air being bit of a twerp, instead (daughter was on him at the time) she said “look at this” dropped her reins and he walked with his lips on the floor slowly home.
At which point we boxed him up, took him straight to horspital on call vet had to come out of hours to be told “ he walked home a low head” where they checked him over, found nothing really and sent us home.

The following day he nearly died so in hindsight it wasn’t silly but was at the time.

 

[hollyandivy123]

so i had one when there was a warble fly about, when younger use to run around and as he got older got a wonderful new approach of getting the fly to hoover/attach to the side of his rib cage and then flip on the side

first time we saw it we thought he was having a fit as we ran across the field has he laid flat out, saw us and got up and there it was squished flat on his rib cage........... this would happen regularly and spook so many people

 

[fankino04]

so i had one when there was a warble fly about, when younger use to run around and as he got older got a wonderful new approach of getting the fly to hoover/attach to the side of his rib cage and then flip on the side

first time we saw it we thought he was having a fit as we ran across the field has he laid flat out, saw us and got up and there it was squished flat on his rib cage........... this would happen regularly and spook so many people

I think this is what she was trying to do yesterday, either crush it against another horse, squash it into the ground by rolling or just try to out run it.

 

[FitzyFitz]

I once called the vets for a full work up because my horse behaved itself.

I've done that! Went to lunge one of the horses as a last bit of exercise/leg stretch before a competition that weekend. He was super calm and well behaved so I immediately pulled him from the competition and called the vet. Viral infection! Took him weeks to get over.

 

[FitzyFitz]

As above, called vet once because a horse was well behaved to lunge. Nasty viral infection

Called vet for the same horse once because he was making a horrible groaning noise every now and then, none of us had ever heard anything like it. Vet asked us to put the horse on the phone so he could listen. It was hiccups! Vet had a good laugh at us, apparently it's pretty uncommon in horses so most people have just never heard it.

 

[toppedoff]

I once called the vets for a full work up because my horse behaved itself.

Someone I follow on twitter has a reactive horse and one day he wasn't reactive so they got the vets out, turns out he had arthritis and they caught it very early

 

[Pippity]

I once called the vets for a full work up because my horse behaved itself.

My vet understands, "She's being affectionate; I think she's broken." The only time she gets cuddly is when she's hurting somewhere.

I nearly called the vet on Saturday. We were hacking and she was being very backwards, which isn't at all like her. Got home, put her in her stable and the moment the saddle was off, she uncrossed her legs and had a niagara falls of a wee!

 

[Mrs. Jingle]

Similar to Birker, called vet after large brave as a lion horse shooting away from hay net to opposite corner of stable shaking and shivering clearly extremely distressed. Eventually narrowed it down to fencing in paddock behind his stable shorting out onto iron girder in the corner where I hang his haynet. Vet quite amused.

Same as @nagblagger , if one of my donkeys looks sick or sorry I will have vet there as an emergency. If they look and act sick then the little troopers sure as hell are sick, very sick usually.

I don't count the one(donkey ) who will gallop flat out around 13 acres bucking and farting, hollering and roaring because he has a bot fly within 6 feet of him. Been doing it now for over 20 years, we tend to just ignore until he eventually stops and then fuss and pamper him telling him what a brave old chap he is. Give me strength.

 

[shanti]

I called the vet last spring in a panic because my Arabs coat was falling out in big patches. Vet came and laughed. Apparently, he has what the vets call ''ugly shedding''

 

[GinaGeo]

My tough as old boots Connemara was turning to look at his tummy. Kicking his tummy. Rolling.

I assumed Colic, and rang the vet.

The longer I watched him, the more I noticed it wasn’t directed at his tummy, it was directed at his sheath. Glove on. Hand up sheath. Out came a load of maggots

By the time the vet arrived I had a hosepipe up his sheath, a very relieved looking horse. And the colic was resolved

 

[Reacher]

Earlier this year Retired Mare was collapsed in the yard outside her stable and wouldn’t get up.

Rang vet and sat with her for 45 minutes before vet arrived.
I was convinced it was either a heart attack or she had fallen and broken her back and said my goodbyes as the vet got out of his car.

Turned out she was sleep deprived.

 

[Snowfilly]

I didn’t get as far as calling the vet, but I pulled the car up to see my mum’s gelding standing on three legs with a foreleg held up in front of him with the knee joint twisted out at a sickening angle and the lower leg dangling and swaying.

I opened the gate at warp speed, sprinted across with tears in my eyes and feeling sick - the leg was still dangling and swaying - and just as I reached him and started to get my phone out to call the hunt, he carefully reached forward and went back to scratching the back of his knee with his teeth.

Apparently he’d seen me mid scratch and just left the leg poised while he watched. I was shaking for ages, the git.

 

[Birker2020]

Similar to Birker, called vet after large brave as a lion horse shooting away from hay net to opposite corner of stable shaking and shivering clearly extremely distressed. Eventually narrowed it down to fencing in paddock behind his stable shorting out onto iron girder in the corner where I hang his haynet. Vet quite amused.

I wrote on here about Bailey and that was one of the things I ruled out as there was a light behind her stable.

 

[Elf On A Shelf]

As above, called vet once because a horse was well behaved to lunge. Nasty viral infection

Called vet for the same horse once because he was making a horrible groaning noise every now and then, none of us had ever heard anything like it. Vet asked us to put the horse on the phone so he could listen. It was hiccups! Vet had a good laugh at us, apparently it's pretty uncommon in horses so most people have just never heard it.

My darty used to get hiccups all the time. It was so funny bless him! He did it for a good decade or so but has got out of it now in his old age.

 

[musk]

I don't have a horse one but hope you don't mind me adding a cat one...
Cat came in one day with a massively swollen face and seemed very off and quiet and not herself, I thought a horse had kicked her in the head or something. I called vet as a warning and rushed her into the car and drove the 15 minutes to the surgery. Cat hated the car more than anything (I remember when I collected her as I kitten and thought I had made a huge mistake and taken on a monster as she was so furious at being in the car)
Anyway, the whole journey to the bet she shouted as me furiously for putting her in the car- she was mad. Reached the car park and it was during covid so the vet nurse would come and collect your pet from your car. Called to say I had arrived and noticed cat had been so mad in the car she had shouted her swelling right down there was literally nothing left to see! I assume now it was a sting or something and whatever mad hormone she was producing being cross made the swelling disappear!

 

[Ceifer]

Same as a few posters -

I was paid to ride a particularly annoying Section D. Sensitive, sharp, spooky and neurotic.

He suddenly became an angel to ride. Pleasurable, easy to mount. Too good to be true.

owner got the vet out. Turns out his lethargy was due to increased liver enzymes.

Once recovered he went back to being a git.

 

[babymare]

People on yard thought I was silly calling vet out when my lass throw head back when putting reins over head. Knowing my mare something wasn’t right. She was going blind. If something doesn’t feel right no reason is silly to call vet out

 

[Widgeon]

My dog stayed with my mum and I had a text while at work asking to get a vet appointment as her eyes were bursting out of their sockets and going to fall out. wtf? I speak to work, speak to vet and get an appointment that afternoon, take a half day holiday, jump in car to pick up dog an hour away. Her eyes look massive like cartoon eyes. She had conjunctivitis.

Oh goodness.....poor dog, I know, but your mum's description really made me laugh.

 

[Widgeon]

My TB was hopping lame so I box rested him for 24 hrs and then called the vet. Literally as she arrived an abscess burst through his hoof. She said this happens on average once in every vets career. I was so relieved it was just an abscess

This happened to our vet a couple of weeks ago - she arrived early to us having set aside plenty of time that afternoon to see a very lame horse. As she arrived pus poured out of its heel. She said she'd never had such an easy and conclusive diagnosis!

 

[Widgeon]

Glove on. Hand up sheath. Out came a load of maggots

WTAF?? Is this a thing?? Why were there maggots??!

 

[GinaGeo]

WTAF?? Is this a thing?? Why were there maggots??!

Not something I’d ever seen before and haven’t seen it since and I do keep a regular eye.

Vet said they see it occasionally. It was the warm summer and a fly must have thought it a good spot to lay eggs

 

[Fransurrey]

Many years ago and pre-google, my first pony nearly had a vet visit because I thought he had tumours in his eyes. Turned out to be the corpora nigra. I described them on the phone to a friend who thankfully put me right before I made a tit of myself!!

 

[Sealine]

WTAF?? Is this a thing?? Why were there maggots??!

The 'bean queen' told me a few weeks ago she'd seen a lot of flystrike this year and advised me to stick the hosepipe up there (I mean right up there!) once a week to flush anything out Surprisingly, he doesn't mind me doing it.

 

[Alwaysmoretoknow]

Not a vet but an Agister (New Forest thing).

So picture 2 scruffy 13yo girls (rubber boots, no hats etc.) on their equally scruffy NF ponies out on an all day ride and having a bit of a batter across a green when they see a little grey mare with a young foal lying on her side and sort of struggling to get up. She manages to get to her feet and hops a few feet before falling over again.

We jump off ponies and abandoned them to see what's wrong. Feel around and find hind foot near pony's ear. Friend dispatched to nearest place (BRS hotel for those who know) to call Agister as assume little mare is RTA and horribly injured. Friend returns having got Agister on their way. Both of us terribly upset thinking poor little mare will have to be destroyed and what will happen to her little foal? While waiting for the (awful) inevitable little mare gets up again and hops a few more feet and falls over on her other side. Problem immediately apparent so friend lays across pony's neck while we sort the situation.

Well Agister arrives promptly to find 2 tear stained and very shifty teenagers shuffling their feet looking very embarrassed.
And the conversation went like this....
'She looked in awful pain!'
'And couldn't stand at all!'
'We were so worried about her foal!'
Agister 'So where is she?'
Us 'Um well - she only had her back foot caught in her mane so we pulled it free.'
Sort of luckily she was a little stiff when the Agister went to look at her so we didn't look like total idiots but we did feel like absolute fools for panicking quite so much.

 

[Birker2020]

Not something I’d ever seen before and haven’t seen it since and I do keep a regular eye.

Vet said they see it occasionally. It was the warm summer and a fly must have thought it a good spot to lay eggs

I've had them under hoof pads before. Can you imagine the same for us, unable to move a moving something from your shoe??