Would you bankrupt yourself for a horse's vet fees?

Shilasdair said:
the science suggests that horses can return to normal function after colic surgery (after the initial recovery period which isn't actually that long).

S :D
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I had a mare that did endurance, raced, hunted hard and bred four foals in the 12 years she lived after she had colic surgery. Never had another bout of colic in her life - and her op was in 1990.
 
What on earth is cruel about turning out a lame horse for a year to see if rest and natrure cure the lameness? I have done exactly that for my horse. The lameness has been investigated, even had an mri and the vet has not found the cause. I see it as giving the horse a chance.There are degrees of lameness and my horse has never been lame in walk, he is not crippled ,and seems to be, at the moment inproving.
 
My animals are well looked after, and mean a lot to me. They are more than mere possessions, however, I am equally capable of making a rational decision as to whether I can afford the treatment or not. If not, even after juggling things for some time down the track, well then I would make the decision I had to and have the animal put down.

I have a family, a husband, several other horses and so on. I made a decision not to have any more children because I could not support them emotionally or financially, so I have no qualms about making the same decions with respect to an animal.

Every animal I own though is looked after, happy and healthy. We have one old fellow I am wtactching but I think he has a few years in him yet.

I loathe clients that have us do the work and then cannot pay.I would not put some one else in this position.
 
I wouldn't be allowed to lose my house, have a family to consider, but if I could somehow get a line of credit to pay the parts the insurance wouldnt I would. I have/am paying for expensive heartbars for our loan pony who had bad laminitis but my friend and daughter also pitch in, expect eventually will pay for cushings meds too
 
FrecklesMum said:
Praised. There are a lot of owners who would stuff it full of bute and then sell it to a dealer. I know I ended up with a horse from a dealers who Rossdales vets said should have been PTS long ago but despite a decent competion history someone decided that instead of PTS a good long term servant, they would flog it to a rough dealers yard. As far as i am concerned they should be PTS!
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this is why we have vettings/bloods.
 
Gingerwitch said:
Sorry - but to me you are cold and callous - its not something you can plan for and tbh 3k in vets bills and thats the end of the line - you cant buy a holiday anywhere decent for 3k in this day and age..... 3k and that's all your prepared to push yourself too - suggest you give up the horses and keep goldfish - you can always scooptthem up in a net and wack em on concrete to put them out of their misery.
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i too think this is a little bit extreme. There are so many different approaches to ownership and fall outs when they clash. I understand the folk who wouldnt keep anything unable to work on their yard. I also understand those who would shift heaven and earth to preserve a life that others would consider worthless. im more middle of the road... my horse will get a reasonable retirement as long as he is not costing me fortunes in vet bills. Money is an issue for me and I draw the line at operating on a retired horse.
 
Alfie - sorry Miss - did not realise I could not have an opinion that was not the same as yours. Note to self - must shoot a horse as soon as the insurance money runs out.... oh to be one of yours (well not for long ay?) -
 
if the horse was young and have loads of potential and a good outcome then i would do everything i could to pay for the vet bills (if the insurance cost ran out).

But if the out come was not so could and it was an older horse that would spend the rest of its live on medicine and cost a fortue then no.

But circumstances change so you can never really be sure what you would or could do
 
Gingerwitch I think you have missed the point slightly. Many people commenting on here have children, husbands, families which often depend on them, and which I am fairly sure come first. An 8k vetbill can be what some people have to spend in an entire year, and with a family to decide to take out such a large loan or find a way to finance this is would be irresponsible. Insurance is there to cover the costs because we cannot, and vet bills up in the thousands are usually for serious surgery/treatments. Personally, if all my available finances were exhausted, I would have no option but to seek an alternative, even if this means PTS. A horse at the end of the day needs to be thought of as just an animal in certain circumstances, and I think OP has highlighted one of these circumstances. My horse is my boy, I love him dearly, and to me he is so, so much more than "just an animal". But, I also have to be realistic and think about my situation. Sometimes we have to put ourselves first, our loved ones second, and our animals last, unfortunately that is just the way it is.
 
I adore my horses and they are well insured so hopefully that area is covered but more importantly I have 2 children and they are and always will be my number 1 priority :)
 
no. i would set myself a limit to how much vets bills i would be prepared to pay.if too much i would have the horse put to sleep.ive got other things in my life to consider like keeping roof over my head.i dont do insurance as waste of money in my view-from past experiences.
 
I wouldn't bankrupt myself. I would pursue treatment as necessary and forgo a holiday, luxuries etc in order to give the horse best possble chance of recovery. I would retire a horse to a field if necessary, but I definitely not bankrupt myself. I have a famly to think about. What if you bankrupted yoursef and the horse required further treatment? I would not leave a horse in pain either
 
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No, I wouldn't bankrupt myself, I have children and a husband to consider.
I do know someone who PTS their dressage horse because he wouldn;'t stay sound a enough to compete to the level they wanted. He could of gone on as a hacking horse, but they wouldn't rehome him as they wanted their insurance money to buy anouther horse.
Everbody has a different view, but I didn't agree with this one!
 
it would depend on the type of treatment needed, as if it was to go over my insurance policy then i'd start to question it, if it was something that he could recover from and go back into work, just hacking and being able to do so without being in pain, then i would give everything up for taz, without a doubt, only thing i wouldnt give up would be my space at uni, everything else would go, he's always been there and has been the best horse i could ask for not to help him if he wouldnt be suffering after treatment isnt fair, however if there was a say 50% or over chance he would suffer after treatement depending on the amount of pain he would get pts if he wouldnt be in alot of pain and could have a year happy retirement thats what i would do
 
Shilasdair said:
I suppose it all depends how selfish you are in life, and how much time you spend thinking about 'me, me, me'.

S :D
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For some it is not a matter of me me me - we have families to think of and I would NEVER put their health, safety and roof over their heads before any animal.

You may think I am going a bit too far by stating health and safety but if it came down to staying where I live in a nice area with good schools or throwing that away to live in council accomodation in a rough area and bad schools then, yes, that would include health and safety!! Of course that is just the roof - what about their lives and their hobbies? My kids have just as much right to leasure time of their choice as I do. If you cannot afford to pay large vet fees, get insurance, if you cannot afford insurance - don't get a horse.
 
I also have a young family so there is no way I would risk losing the family home, as much as I love my horses my family must come first. I had to take that decision a year ago when my beloved horse broke her elbow in the field, she was on box rest, getting skinner by the day but the vet say she would pull through and make a companion but ridden days were over!!! I excepted that but when she got a infection in her bone and the costs were rising I made the decision to pts, was I wrong? I wasn't going to risk not being able to pay the bills and feed my young children. I think everybody has to make the decision based on their personal situation but I would never judge anybody for putting the horse down instead off paying large vet bills. They are after all still taking responability in the hardest posable way I feel
 
Shilasdair said:
I suppose it all depends how selfish you are in life, and how much time you spend thinking about 'me, me, me'.
........
But you know, all life is precious, and to me horses are not just vehicles for me to ride for my own selfish enjoyment.
S :D
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There is a strong argument in Psychology that all apparently altruistic behaviour is still motivated by thinking about "me, me, me".

The basis of the argument is that you would not do what you do unless it made you feel good, or at the very least unless you thought it would make you feel worse to do something else.

Those people who keep their horses alive and run up huge debts are doing it because it would make them feel bad not to do that for an animal they love. It is debatable whether they are actually doing it for the animal at all. And it certainly does not give them the justification to imply that those who choose a different path are more selfish than they are.

Or does it?
 
No I wouldn't. I have only myself to rely on and if I bankrupted myself and lost my home, thats my other horse needing a home plus the 3 dogs. I insure to give me the best options, would certainly go the extra mile but would not take out a huge loan - i.e the £8K which keeps being mentioned. As for my older mare - her vet insurance will only cover her for external injuries at 22. However, being realistic I would never put an old horse through something like colic surgery anyway.

You cannot preach and be so self righteous as to how people prioritise their lives. You do not understand their committements or background. We all hope to do the best for our horses but each case is different and I would not think poorly of soneone who did not want to committ themselves to a massive debt.
 
cinammontoast said:
An impaction colic case died today because the owner's just wouldn't (not couldn't) pay for surgery, which may well have saved the horse. An awful lot of money had been spent training this horse for a professional job, more than colic surgery would have cost. Surgery would've been cheaper than training a replacement.
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It isn't that simple.

One in five never go home from the hospital. Those owners go home with a bill of thousands of pounds, unless they are insured, and no horse. Of the 4 in 5 that do go home, a number which I cannot currently find but I know is not insignificant, suffer further complications and die. Of the ones that are still alive a year later many are compromised. SOME go back to the full job that they were doing.


edit - best info I can find is from 1991 - "Over the course of several months/years, up to half of colic cases which survive are likely to have mild or severe complications, and a proportion of these will have to be put down."
 
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Gingerwitch said:
Sorry - but to me you are cold and callous - its not something you can plan for and tbh 3k in vets bills and thats the end of the line - you cant buy a holiday anywhere decent for 3k in this day and age..... 3k and that's all your prepared to push yourself too - suggest you give up the horses and keep goldfish - you can always scooptthem up in a net and wack em on concrete to put them out of their misery.
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3 grand may be the cost of a holiday for some people - as a single parent on a below average salary & with an average mortgage - it is a sum beyond my reach - the only way i could possibly raise it would be to sell my 7 yr old car [ which has to last for ever] &then would be unable to actually travel to work - so hardly a sensible option
my horse is insured for a sensible sum of money for vet care - sadly, if she was to need additional extensive care after that - it would not be possible as that level of debt would impact on other people & that would be simply unfair
 
No I wouldn't, definitely not.

I don't believe that death is a bad thing to happen to an animal, as long as it is humane.
 
This is an interesting topic. I wonder what the answers would be if we swapped "horse's vet fees" for "your child's life saving medical fees"? I suspect that the excuses that there are other family members who would lose out if we chose to pay the vet fees thus making us bankrupt would become null and void were it to be our child who needed bankrupt-worthy medical interaction. This is just a muse btw ;)

For myself I would not bankrupt myself for a horse's vet fees but I can't see why or how it would be possible to do so. When it comes to vet fees it depends on which horse has the problem, what the problem is and what the prognosis is likely to be which would determine how far I went with treatment. I've never pulled out of treatment once I've decided to go for it but I have altered the treatment when it appears there's merit in trying another route.

I very much value the lives of my animals and I have a high regard for their health and wellbeing so under usual circumstances and providing the prognosis is at least 50% positive I will go ahead with the treatment route which makes most sense to me and pay the vet bills accordingly.
 
Spring Feather said:
This is an interesting topic. I wonder what the answers would be if we swapped "horse's vet fees" for "your child's life saving medical fees"? I suspect that the excuses that there are other family members who would lose out if we chose to pay the vet fees thus making us bankrupt would become null and void were it to be our child who needed bankrupt-worthy medical interaction. This is just a muse btw ;)
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I'm pretty sure that is why we have a free at point of care health service though :p Because once upon a time people did have to make these decisions about their children and it was deemed an unacceptable choice to have to make! :) (I know you know that)

Anywho, would I let myself get into serious financial difficulty for my horses? No, I wouldn't. I have insurance ( both mine are insured up to 5K so not too likely I hope) and I would pay what I could afford on top if I exceeded that but at the point I had run out of insurance and was looking at a further £1000 or more to get them field sound I would have to call it a day. I literally do not have the money so would have to borrow or steal it and I have my OH who rates just as highly as my horses in my life.I wouldn't be willing to compromise his quality of life (more than I already have, we have no holidays and had to downsize the house for the horses already) to chase shadows.

And Cptrayes, I have always subscribed to the idea that there is really no such thing as an altruistic act. Most 'good deeds' we do are done to make us feel better about ourselves I think.
 
I would never bankrupt myself but if my horse needed treatment above the insurance limit or for one of the many things that are now excluded from my policy (including colic after a few minor episodes that no claim went in for) I would do everything in my power to try and raise the money in some way so long as the prognosis was good (ie that he would at least be pasture sound), although obviously there is a limit to the amount of money I would be able to raise. If it was unlikely that my horse would recover even after expensive treatment then I would opt to PTS. I also would not mind paying for ongoing treatment so long as the horse's quality of life can be maintained with that treatment. (eg treatment for cushings). I think the age of the horse would also have to come into it. Were my current horse to require colic surgery at his current age (16) then so long as the vet felt there was a reasonable chance of success I would likely go ahead and raise the money in whatever way I could, however if we were talking in 10 years time then in all likelihood I would call it a day as at that age I feel his chances of recovery would be reduced and there would likely be other disease processes going on in his body that needed to be considered (he already has arthritis and vets are dithering about him maybe having the first signs of cushings) and thus it would probably be unfair to put him through surgery at that age. So I guess my answer is that yes I would be prepared to get into debt but I would never bankrupt myself and I would only go ahead with costly treatment if I felt it in the best interests of the horse to do so.
 
Horses go lame for the same reason we limp- because something hurts!! So turning a lame horse out, unless it was ok on bute and advised by the vet or it is mechanical lameness does seem mildly cruel. So I wouldn't do that.
 
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