Why you should always have a horse vetted!

[eahotson]

When I bought the spooky one I didn't bother.Never gave me a minutes worry as regards general health.Sold him to this lovely family (all grown up) who also didn't bother with vetting.HOWEVER their daughter (one of) is a vet and she had a good look at him. He has a cataract in one eye.You can't see it just looking.It would explain so much.I feel so bad.They love him to bits and don't want to send him back, just want me to know so that I could understand his behaviour better.Have offered them his saddle (made for him) for freeas some sort of compensation.They didn't ask for anything.

 

[Lippyx]

WOW!! Just goes to show, and I think that is REALLY decent of you offering his saddle as compensation!

Its good to hear as well that his new owners love him for the way he is too!!

 

[Stoxx]

As well as having them vetted, if you have a 5 stage you should always get the bloods run and not just kept.
A friend of mine had a horse vetted with the intention of buying it, it was young, out competing etc etc and up for sale for serious money.
She asked the vets to run the bloods even though they don't normally, turns out the horse had a serious liver problem, it's enzyme count meant the horse should have been on it's back with all four legs in the air.
So she had wasted over £1200 on a vetting (xrays the lot) but saved herself tens of thousands of pounds all for a £50 ish test.

 

[Kenzo]

Its always good to know that there is a logical reason for a horses behaviour, is there any chance it can be operated on or is he horse in his/her senior years?

 

[eahotson]

He is not a senior,he is about 11 but I guess their daughter will advise them about that.There is the cost too and if he can cope I don't supose they will.They say there is a horse near them, completely blind in one eye who is eventing.Husband and wife hack out together so if there is anything scarey, spooky goes inside as his left eye is good and the other one goes outside to act as the right eye!

 

[Kenzo]

Yes they do cope alot better than people think, I had one with that was blind in one eye, it didnt seem to bother her and she mananged quite happily with ridden work and had no problems selling her neither come to think of it.

 

[L&M]

Going back to the topic, I had my last 2 horses 5 stage vetted, with bloods. The first mare was put down within 6 mnths with wobblers (did question the way she moved when vetted but the vet put it down to lack of muscle) and the second has just been written off due to an old sacro illiac injury, that my current vet cannot believe was not picked up at original vetting only 9 mnths ago.
To top it all, we couldn't claim on the mare as although the vet recommended pts, as she was a danger to me and herself, was not deemed as 'pain' related.
Therefore I have given up both vetting and insuring (and nearly horses too)!!!
Rant over and hope you all have better luck than me.....

 

[Lippyx]

That also shows that no matter how much money you throw at a vet to make sure the horse your buying is 100% sound and safe, there will always be that ONE case that defies it all!
I never knew you could run bloods when they were taken, I thought they were only kept incase something turned up later on... which is silly as you would have already bought the horse by then!
I think when I get a horse vetted, no matter how much it is up for, I will always get a stage 5 with bloods to be run NOW before I even think of buying it!

 

[Jericho]

Mine passed 2 stage vetted but is currently under going tests to confirm navicular nine months later. But I guess I knew he was ok otherwise at the time of purchase - i.e. no major heart or eye defects etc. If anything the vet said he has terrible hind leg action which may predispose him to arthiritis and hock problems when in fact it is his front feet with navicular. However I guess he 'could' have been buted to stop any signs showing and if I had had a 5 stage vetting with bloods passed this 'might' have shown something or I could have had xrays which could have shown changes. I did express this with the vet diagnosing nav now but he said Nav although a degenerating condition would have only showed lameness when the horse felt the affects i.e. pain and his xrays dont actually show the classical signs of Navicular anyway so it wouldnt have been picked up. In fact if there had been a concern it would have been written on the certificate and the feet excluded from insurance!!

Sometimes there is just not a win win situation. A five stage vetting with srays and bloods would have cost more than the horse himself so I opted for 2 stage and actually dont think it was worth it anyway.

But dont mind me, feeling a bit bitter and fed up with lame horses anyway at the moment!

 

[RhiannonE]

I bought my TB and had him vetted, but not bloods - anyway he passed but then a few months down the line, just as we were ready to go out and compete, he started going intermittantly lame. Called out vet, got xray etc and turns out he has chronic arthritis in his fetlock! He wasn't covered for loss of use, i didn't have blood to see if he had been buted up for the vetting and the vet deemed that as long as he wasn't ridden he would have a good life so i didn't even get money for "death" cover etc - anyway he's now happily retired at 11 and I have a new boy (Whisper) who was 5 *vetted, blood taken the works and so far so good (touch wood).

The arthritis did explain why sometimes on hacks he would suddenly whip round and gallop home though! Unfortunately no matter how many times his teeth and back and saddle were checked I personally wasn't going to pick up on the real problem!

 

[Digger123]

I think 5 stage vettings are a bit like having your car mot'd. If There is a problem it will be picked up on the day.Which is great.However after buying a very affable irish horse and 3 months after vetting finding he had kissing spine problems I haven't bothered getting a horse vetted since.