average farrier & vet costs? MD/VA people!

[ThisIsIt]

I'm looking to lease a horse and wondering approximately how much you pay for health expenses per month? Obviously is varies slightly from area to area and horse to horse, but is there any kind of average? I am just curious as more or less what to expect for your average, sound horse. i.e monthly de-worming, shoeing, shots, boosters, whatever else. :]

Thank you.

[AKB]

I spend $200 per 5 weeks for shoes for my horse, $40 per 5 weeks for the farrier to trim my daughter's horse.

We try to play "do it yourself" with the routine vet work. Our neighbors get together and order vaccines on line so we can split the shipping costs. I think I spend about $60 per year for vaccines per horse. We have a vet do our coggins and teeth once a year. I think that cost about $125 per horse last year. Wormer costs about $40 per year.

The hard part is budgeting for emergencies. My one daughter's horse occasionally cuts himself. Several times, he has gotten massively infected over the period of a few hours. One time, he swelled so rapidly that I thought he had broken his leg; until I realized that he had a 104 fever. That incident cost us over $1000. If I had not been able to give him the injectable antibiotics myself, he would have had to go to the hospital. I think we would have had a $3,000-$4,000 bill.

Always keep a large reserve fund. Expect that eventually you will have a colic or other severe and expensive health issue. Often, that severe problem happens right after you buy the new horse.

[ThisIsIt]

I spend $200 per 5 weeks for shoes for my horse, $40 per 5 weeks for the farrier to trim my daughter's horse.

We try to play "do it yourself" with the routine vet work. Our neighbors get together and order vaccines on line so we can split the shipping costs. I think I spend about $60 per year for vaccines per horse. We have a vet do our coggins and teeth once a year. I think that cost about $125 per horse last year. Wormer costs about $40 per year.

The hard part is budgeting for emergencies. My one daughter's horse occasionally cuts himself. Several times, he has gotten massively infected over the period of a few hours. One time, he swelled so rapidly that I thought he had broken his leg; until I realized that he had a 104 fever. That incident cost us over $1000. If I had not been able to give him the injectable antibiotics myself, he would have had to go to the hospital. I think we would have had a $3,000-$4,000 bill.

Always keep a large reserve fund. Expect that eventually you will have a colic or other severe and expensive health issue. Often, that severe problem happens right after you buy the new horse.

Thank you.

Do you reccomend some type of horse insurance?

[analise]

I can say my boy costs $60 for a trim, but he's a drafty so ymmv.

[eventgroupie2]

Our horses usually get trimmed/shod every 6 weeks - one gets front shoes/pads. The fronts with pads/back trim are $85.00, the trims alone are $35.00. One of our horses had a laminitis attack - his front shoes with pads and gel pour in/back trims are $110 every four weeks until his feet improve. Spring shots done by our vet usually run us close to $1,000 for the four horses. Teeth floating is $120.00 +/horse.
Be prepared for emergencies - our Arab developed SCC of the penis - 3 surgeries with complications and hospital stay and ongoing treatments are close to $13,000.00 and counting, and that is with the vet and farrier cutting us breaks where they can. Horses are wonderful, but certainly not cheap to take care of :no:

[AKB]

We have never had good luck with insurance. I had my daughter's horse fully insured from age 2-age 4 with the same company. When he was 3, I noticed that one of his nostrils seemed slightly different from the other. When the vet came for his annual coggins, she said she didn't see anything but we should watch it. A year later, he had an obvious bump. We had a surgeon come out, aspirate the bump, and inject it with formalin twice. The total bill came to about $350. When I submitted the bill to the insurance, they would not cover it, saying it was a pre-existing condition. I reminded them that we had the insurance with them long before we saw anything. Their reasoning was each year is a new policy. The bump was present during the preceding year's policy, and we had not declared that it was present when we renewed the policy. I explained that we did not know it was there, although I agreed that it was probably the cause of the slight irregularity that we noticed the previous year. They refused the claim.

I had been spending $650 per year on insuring this horse, and the insurance was actually worthless. Now, I no longer insure any of our horses. I save the $650 per year in a special account, and plan to use it when we have the next big vet expense.