REDUCING VETERINARY BILLS

Want to reduce your veterinary bills?  You can by paying attention to the environment your horse is kept in.  All too often we are call by a frantic owner that their horse has been injured.  Often providing safer surroundings for the horse could have prevented these injuries.

One of the common problems is the door latch to the stall.  The injury to the horse seen in Fig. A was caused by the latch for the stall door seen in Fig. B.  If these types of injuries are to be prevented several things could be done.  The simplest in most cases would be to replace the latch seen in Fig. B with some other type of door lock.  Many are available just check around with builders or talk with your veterinarian about safer types of door latches or stall guards (gates).

If the latch cannot be replaced for whatever reason, be sure that it is pulled all the way back and not left protruding.  When leading a horse into a stall walk in ahead of the horse at a 90 degree angle to the door opening.  Don’t lead a horse to the stall, unlatch them and let them bolt into the stall!  Besides possibly being injured yourself by the horse as they go past, the animal might brush against the side of the stall injuring themselves.

As seen in the last picture (Fig. C) the injuries can be repaired and are not usually life threatening.  The money spent on veterinary services might have been used to purchase new tack or entry fees for an up coming show or trail ride.