That pretty much describes the second horse in my post upthread.
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Makes perfect sense, appreciate that!
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It’s heartbreaking. The worst part is even though I did really like the horse, I questioned if he was slightly
neurologic from the start. And I questioned his feet. But the trainer I was with at the time told my I was paranoid. And the vet I used at the PPE dismissed all of my concerns at the time too.
Not even a year later he was having issues with the farrier. CSU completely missed anything neuro. I took him to Littleton Large and he also passed a neurologic test there… Except he fell on the lunge line right before we left. So then they opted to take a closer look at the neck.
Devastating. He was an awesome horse but not genetically right for this world I guess. 
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I think you’re right to be conservative about your savings, your horse is lucky to have such a conscientious owner. Graduating college can be an unpredictable time, and even with a job offer on the table you can never really be sure until you have your first paycheck in hand. Time off and Previcox is a good plan if you decide to wait until after you start your job.
BUT, if you did decide to start earlier, I will just throw out that with halfway decent credit there are a lot of credit cards you can get that offer 0% interest for 12-18 months when you sign up. This is NOT an option I’d recommend unless you can be disciplined about how much you put on the card and then pay it off before interest kicks in, but it is an option to cover large expenses while keeping some cash on hand. You could limit your balance to what you have in cash if you wanted to be safe. I got one when I bought my horse just to give myself a grace period for covering all the new horse expenses; I could have paid cash but wanted to keep a healthy emergency fund in the bank instead.
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This is a great idea. Care Credit is one to look at.
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This is basically what happened with Feronia. I could tell her right knee was bothering her, but hoof blocks etc pointed towards the hoof, somewhat. I could not get a vet, including several fairly big name sports medicine vets in our area, to even look at her knee until after I retired her. The vet who finally did X-ray ed it and told me there is so much arthritis that Feronia should be very lame - but she’s not. She’s not riding sound, but gets around with a perceptible but very slight limp, after injections.
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Agreed. But… I’d also warn OP that Boston is very, very expensive. She will probably need 4 months’ rent up front, expect $1K or more for a roommate situation (so need $4 K to move in.) Expect horse board over $1K per month as well, with not a lot of turnout. if horse is shod on all 4 at least $200 for shoeing, etc.
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Luckily I’m moving home so I’m familiar with the whole situation. Plus I’m moving in with family, so no rent and home cooked meals at night!
I think I can talk my farm vet into doing X-rays of his whole leg and possibly neck, and she’s pretty cost efficient - the only thing is she doesn’t have a portable machine so it’s a long haul. At the very least that’ll tell us if anything dramatic is going on - he’s only had imaging of his feet recently.
In the meantime, she’s getting us equioxx to start him on. He’s still a pretty happy camper in general so I’m hopeful this will buy us some time.
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Oh wow, you are sooooo lucky! Welcome back!
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That’s a great plan! And you’ll have a good degree to support this damn expensive habit we’re all addicted to.
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Equioxx takes several days to get up to full serum concentration. (My neck horse also went totally bonkers on it, not related to his neck condition, “excitability” is a rare but not unheard of side effect). If you still have trouble with the farrier, you might want to talk to your vet about some mild sedation to help with his comfort during the appointment.
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Thank you!
He’s really excellent for the farrier normally so I’m hoping to see an improvement there, although even now he’s not bad at all - just uncomfortable. What kind of sedation would you recommend? I have most already available.
My horse with an SI injury history gets Dorm + Torb + Ace. I give it IM at the start of the appointment and sometime after the fronts are trimmed and those shoes are being shaped, he is getting sleepy and then is snoozing for the hind trim and shoeing. If you just need to get through the front feet, then you can get by without the Ace part, and either give IV or give IM a bit in advance of the appointment (or start with hinds and then do the fronts once sleepy). The Ace component makes it all last longer, otherwise you get maybe 30 mins? This is a typical mix that my vet does for farrier issues.
Ace is pretty cheap though and might be enough on its own for more minor cases of stress behavior.
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You can also add Tylenol in for some extra pain relief for farrier appointments. I used to have my senior on daily Equioxx and for farrier days, on top of the Equioxx, I’d give her Tylenol the night before and the morning of the appointment. Definitely helped her comfort level. She no longer gets the daily Equioxx but I still give her pain meds for the farrier along with some ace to decrease pain related anxiety. We have very smooth farrier appointments with this routine.
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