$300ish here for same regional area for scope. That being said, I just treat these days and adjust protocol as necessary. I have 2 trusted vets (and a human pharmacologist, lol) okay enthusiastically using esomeprazole so I save like a billion dollars that way.
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Scope is more like $350, but definitely makes sense to do an invasive surgery before checking for/treating ulcers.
Good luck.
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When she first had ulcers, I specifically asked before starting treatment how much it would be to have her scoped, and the vet reached out to the provider who does it, and they told me, specifically, 900$. I live in an area with extremely high COL.
She was already treated for ulcers with 30d UlcerGard and I know how she acts when she has ulcers. This right now, in my experience with this specific horse, is not how she acts with ulcers. When she had ulcers she would swing at me or threaten to bite when girthing and did NOT want me anywhere near her belly, was incredibly nervous and spooky, etc. She’s not acting like that now.
I am doing the best I can for this horse with what I can afford. I don’t appreciate the tone.
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Could you PM me who you used and where they are? Thank you. Totally understand if you’d rather keep your privacy though.
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Give the shoes a couple of weeks to take full effect and for any bruising to subside before you make any other moves. You may well be pleasantly surprised!
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Sent you a pm!
Just to Explain this… The reaction to your trainer, and the other pros involved, is because they facilitated the situation you’re in.
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So no xrays?
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Something doesn’t add up though… Based on what you’ve said about your insurance, the cost of a scope should still be covered if you’ve only had the horse three months. Also, there are different kinds of ulcers—pyloric, as some have mentioned, can be EXTREMELY painful and taking a horse off an ulcer treatment of some kind can cause flare-ups. Additionally, hindgut ulcers (which cannot be seen on a scope) will not respond to typical ulcer treatment protocol.
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Well, in slight defense of the trainer, she did advise OP to not buy a horse from these people. OP did it anyway.
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Maybe, but I’ve also been put in a position where saying “no” was pointless because the individual already had their mind made up and I could tell. So even though the horse is hideous and put together by committee, I said “wow! He’s cute!” while inside my eyes were bleeding from his ewe neck and horrendous front end conformation.
^this horse had a nice personality, at least…
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Well, that might be a piece of your problem - those photos show some chronic incorrect trimming. I don’t see short toes at all, but it could be photo angles. Maybe it’s more obvious in person.
I see chronically underrun heels and long, forward toe. But your farrier is right there is not much to nail to there, because her feet have run so far forward and her soles are likely very thin as a result. Hopefully she feels a million bucks better with some shoe support, and your farrier can work to keep bringing back the toe and correcting how underrun the heel has gotten.
Some horses, having underrun heels and NPA doesn’t seem to bother them. Others are absolutely crippled by it. I own one of those myself - he has KS and came to me with great quality hooves but an awful quality trim job. He is one of those horses you need to stay on top of his feet. They are far from perfect even now, because correcting years of poor trimming and its resulting pathologies is almost a full time job. My guy is on a short cycle and even then there are times I’m not in love with the direction his hooves are going.
As you dip your toes into the equestrian world you will learn “professional” has nothing to do with “expertise”, and many of us have been failed by professionals we trust. You expect professionals to be able to do their job and provide you and your horse quality service - but learn that this, like so many things in life, is an ASSumption and you may well have to take things into your own hands and learn, like the rest of us have, how to do some things independently because you cannot trust equine professionals to be your horse’s best ambassador.
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Yep! Once someone has their mind made up, there’s no use beating the dead horse. You instead switch to “damage control” mode where you’re trying to be nice yet constructive.
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OP, what’s the plan on getting this horse into solo turnout? You’re perpetuating a problem leaving her out with her buddies to bond tighter and tighter.
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You’re right.
Presently dealing with a friend who is similarly not listening to my cautions about a horse.
Its so frustrating.
Exactly @endlessclimb
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You’ve had this horse 3 months. You may know how she acts with really bad really painful ulcers but there’s no way for you to know how she acts when they’ve been partially treated but are still there. A lot of us live in a very high cost of living area - I’m outside Washington DC and that price for a scope is insane. Call around to other clinics yourself and get multiple quotes.
Please continue the path of treating her feet and kissing spines she’s very lucky to have you! You have been a kind and caring owner dealing with a shit situation. If ulcers are still lingering now just wait until she has surgery and is on stall rest. They will most likely flare and you may have a totally unmanageable horse. Based on your timeline that you provided she was doing well when on ulcerguard and not that long after being taken of it (I also didn’t see a taper which is standard practice quitting it cold turkey can make ulcers flare badly) she started balking more and doing worse. We’re going off the info you’ve provided which says ulcers may still be an issue.
If you truly can’t scope you could try putting her back on the ulcergard and see if it makes a difference again.
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I suppose it is possible that the OP is combining the scope plus treatment cost
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It’s hard to see anything from the angles of the feet pics but I find aluminums an interesting choice here for a horse who paws a lot and wears her foot down. I own one of those, and granted the ground here is really hard and abrasive, but he absolutely has to go in steel if I don’t want his shoes to be totally worn out well before the next trim. The farrier also didn’t seem to try to rasp her foot very level or clean up the chipped parts so the aluminum shoe isn’t seated very well. Hot shoeing with steel would help. At least he put a good sized shoe on there.
It would have been ideal to get some X-rays at the same time but at least her feet now have some protection.
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I got dumped 4 times this winter. Once in December, 3 times in March. I’m very in my feelings about it. Trying to decide if it’s just winter blues (March was far and away the worst, weather-wise), or if that’s too many times to get dumped and not seriously reconsider the match. I’m so flaky about moving my horse along, because ofc when things are going well, I never want to, and when things are going poorly, I feel like I can’t sell until the horse is going better.
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What specifically happened with insurance made me so [censored] angry because you’re right, it DOESN’T make sense. The insurance coverage had started three weeks prior when I called them about doing a scope and said that I was noticing signs of ulcers. Instead of giving me any help the underwriter instead added ulcers to pre-existing conditions because “ulcers don’t develop overnight and given how long it takes for them to develop, they probably started before the coverage period began” , which, as anyone who actually knows horses knows, is total b*******. Still mad about that. So now that ulcers have been retroactively added to pre-existing conditions, anything in the future related to them is not covered.
