Average Monthly Vet Bills

[mary]

What do average monthly vet bills typically run for lower level claiming horses with minor ailments? Just curious.

[StealingKat]

Unfortunately that is a loaded question. Alot of vet bills depend entirely upon your trainer. Some vets are great, some like to pad their bills. I dont think anyone can answer that for you. I have seen horses with a bit of heat in the ankle end up with $1000.00 bills for X rays, Thermal imaging, etc. When all they really needed was an X ray to make sure everything was glued on still and then lay-up. Talk to owners that have horses with your trainer and see what their bills average. Low level claimers have already been beat up plenty and may require more vet work to keep them running. Then ethics comes in to play is it worth running a horse that needs drugs to run.

[zinn21]

If your horses are sound and healthy and racing once a month and you have an old school trainer probably less than $100 a month.

If you use a high percentage trainer you're lucky to get a bill for less than $500.

[Sock Monkey]

And, it depends what is classified as "vet". A lot of trainers will try to tell you most of their monthly program are "supplements" - even though they are billed directly by the vet and include things like Winstrol, Thyrol-L, etc. - so they will exclude that for any estimates they provide.

I think with a big name trainer, you would be very, very lucky to get a $500 vet bill. More like $1k/month. This spring, I had a $35/day guy average over $250/month for a horse with no issues that he was just legging up. On the day I told him the horse was leaving, he managed to rack up $100 in vet charges.

Vet bills are absurd in most barns. I've also had horse leave a barn and not been able to get the vet clinic to stop billing me. Which makes you really wonder if they're even treating the horse.

[ratherrapid]

Sock, for understanding could you perhaps specify where the $1000/mo. or even the $500/mo. vet bill goes in terms of specific billing. I'm scratching my head here.

[Sock Monkey]

:shock: Sock, for understanding could you perhaps specify where the $1000/mo. or even the $500/mo. vet bill goes in terms of specific billing. I'm scratching my head here.

It can add up quickly! Scoping after each work and race. Joint injections. Weekly jugs. Vitamin injections. Steroid injections. Othe supplements. Deworming and vaccinations. Sedatives. Plus work-and raceday medications. In the big barns, these things are done across the board, regardless of need and are billed at high rates. $30 for a $2 tube of dewormer, etc. This would exclusive of massage, chiro and feed supplements.

My $250/mo bill for a sound horse being legged up is still fresh in my mind - because I was JUST able to convince the stupid clinic to stop billing me every month for the horse that hadn't been there for 4 months. That was for weekly jugs, monthly Winstrol, Thryrol-L, Bodybuilder, and cortisone injections. Deworming and vaccinations cost extra and yes, the horse was revaccinated upon arrival (at grossly inflated rates) despite having a printed vet record accompany him.

The vets get free reign in a lot of barns. A lot of trainers don't even know what the vets are doing and they don't care. Life is easier for them with happy vets and happy vets are the ones who can bill carte blanche. As long as those bills are going to customers and not the trainer him/herself, it's all good.

[Hold Your Peace]

One item that adds a lot to a vet bill is Ventiplunium Syrup (which is Clenbuterol). Clenbuterol is legal, it just has to be withdrawn a certain number of days before a race. Some trainers use it regularly on all of their stock. Some don't use it at all (except maybe if a horse has an issue come up that should be treated with Clenbuterol). If you toss in regular use of Clenuterol then plenty of high percentage trainers can generate montly vet bills of $1200 to $1500 a month.

[Gallop58]

As pointed out, I think Clen/Ventipulmin is one of the big vet bill fattening culprits. With the rash of recent positives and the 'roid ban, I think we'll see more and more use of Clen and guys trying to use it closer to race day... It isn't cheap....

From Merck: "Clenbuterol is also a repartitioning agent; it directs nutrients away from adipose tissue and toward muscle. The result is increased carcass weight, increased ratio of muscle to fat, and increased feed efficiency."

[racefan55]

Don't any of the owners have a say so about what meds and supplements are used on there horses? I don't think I would be to happy about haveing meds used on a horse that doesn't need them. I know some owners don't have a clue what a horse needs, but what about those that do?

[soundfast]

An owner should be able to say to a trainer "No vet is to be called for this horse except in case of emergency and the horse is to recieve no drugs or supplements". They can get only the food the owner wants them to have and if the owner does not want shoes then no shoes either. The owner pays the bills and they have a right to say no to vet bills. The trainer is supposed to work for the owner not the vet or the farrier.

[madelyn]

soundfast, I've tried that. I've also called the vets and told them prior approval is needed before I will pay any charge for my horse. Seems, though, anyhow, I am the last to know if my horse gets seen by a vet.

[soundfast]

Maybe you should put everything in writing and have your copy,lawyers copy,trainers copy and vets copy. If the trainer calls in the vet he pays the bill.

[Mood Swings]

Yikes, scary stuff I am looking into retaining a filly for racing if she doesn't meet her reserve and quite frankly - "I'm a little freaked!" I have been told the training will cost approx. $2300 - $2600/month with additional costs of $500 - $1000 for vetwork ... plus another $500 or so for shoeing!! ackkk

[Sock Monkey]

Don't any of the owners have a say so about what meds and supplements are used on there horses? I don't think I would be to happy about haveing meds used on a horse that doesn't need them. I know some owners don't have a clue what a horse needs, but what about those that do?

No. Not in most barns. In a barn where they are hungry for horses, the owner has more leeway. But in most situations, a smaller owner is not going to have much success telling a trainer what medications to use. From the trainer's perspective, they need to do everything they can to win and most aren't terribly interested in filling stalls with horses that won't be on their program 100% - even if their program is whatever the vet feels like selling them.

The thing is, as an owner, you're kind of stuck paying the vet bills and trainers and vets know that.