Inappropriate lactation in mare! Could she be pregnant?

[Mysterymare]

[QUOTE=arapaloosa_lady;8129127]
Holy overreaction!

I know of at least 4 vet schools that have an ambulatory service… why would you think that’s a difficult undertaking? Doing farm calls doesn’t take much more than a good vet & a stocked truck. And it’s good for students to see general ambulatory practice.

You’re welcome to do whatever you’d like with your horse. It’s your horse. It doesn’t take a specialist to know the basic work-up for the horse you described, but if you like your chosen specialist, go to your vet :lol:. No need to flip out at me for suggesting a reasonable alternative that doesn’t require you to figure out trailer logistics & is budget-friendly.[/QUOTE]

It didn’t seem like you were trying to help at all. You made a flippant comment that assumed that I am too dumb to call out a GP to my farm. I know how to do that and my previous post explained why that was not my choice, but you decided to skip over the other details and make a condescending comment about how I don’t need to see a specialist (which in case you didn’t catch it for the 3rd time is not the reason for taking her to the VTH)
And it’s not a budget friendly option for me. It will be approximately 30% more expensive. The specialists there are the only ones doing palpation/ cases in their respective specialties. There are internists and boarded equine med specialists but everyone in our hospital is a specialist so I am getting a specialist for cheaper than a GP. It is also important for me to have explained what is going on and the people who work in the teaching hospital like to teach and are great at it so that works out great.
Sorry you didn’t like my reaction but if you actually wanted to make a suggestion there is a way of doing that which is not condescending and judgy.
And no it doesn’t just take a couple students for ambulatory practice. You always need one doctor there and you need transportation resources, and my school being in a very rural area, everything is spread out. We do have farm trips (these are to dairies and production farms) but it would not be economical or the best use of time to have a service like that at our school. Students can choose to do a rotation with a mobile vet if they want during 4th year, otherwise most people going into equine/ large/ mixed have all done that before vet school (shadowing/ working) so they know how that whole thing works.

[faybe]

OP, most VTHs DO have some sort of ambulatory service. When I was in school our therio dept would make farm calls as well, separate from GP field services. Student discounts also applied to field services. I understand that this isn’t the case at your school (and your decision to address the situation as you are is totally justified!) but just wanted to throw it out there that it IS the norm at many schools.

[kdreger]

OP what veterinary school are you going to that doesn’t offer off site services?

I can understand why you would like to take advantage of your student discount, so nice that they offer it.

[Mysterymare]

[QUOTE=faybe;8129740]
OP, most VTHs DO have some sort of ambulatory service. When I was in school our therio dept would make farm calls as well, separate from GP field services. Student discounts also applied to field services. I understand that this isn’t the case at your school (and your decision to address the situation as you are is totally justified!) but just wanted to throw it out there that it IS the norm at many schools.[/QUOTE]

Interesting! I won’t advertise what school I go to on public forum but if you guys DM me I’m glad to share if you’re curious. Maybe therio does do farm calls. I’ll ask and double check. I’ve never had to yhink about therio before because I would never intentionally breed this mare. I do know that we don’t do general appointments on site. I’m almost positive it is the same story for K State which was my in state school (I am in an out of state school) because my friend tried to call about a colicky horse and they didn’t do on site stuff (unless she lied and didn’t actually call them lol). It is interesting because that school is extremely rural and the area is spread out as well. Yeah it is SUPER nice of them to give us such a heavy discount! Many time exams are free to vet students too! I know some vet schools give a much smaller discount. I’m so grateful that my school is so generous to its vet students. They also give us out of staters in state tuition after a year if you become a resident (I only know of 4 or 5 that allow that. Most trap you as OOS tuition all 4 years) which will be saving me about $80,000 in the end. It’s interesting learning about the different schools!

[cheerio280]

[QUOTE=Mysterymare;8130033]
Yeah it is SUPER nice of them to give us such a heavy discount! Many time exams are free to vet students too! I know some vet schools give a much smaller discount[/QUOTE] My school gives a very nice discount at the small animal hospital, but unfortunately the large animal discount is much smaller

[QUOTE=Mysterymare;8130033]It’s interesting learning about the different schools![/QUOTE] I think we need a COTH vet student support group! If nothing else, we can all commiserate together :lol:

[faybe]

[QUOTE=Mysterymare;8130033]
Interesting! I won’t advertise what school I go to on public forum but if you guys DM me I’m glad to share if you’re curious. Maybe therio does do farm calls. I’ll ask and double check. I’ve never had to yhink about therio before because I would never intentionally breed this mare. I do know that we don’t do general appointments on site. I’m almost positive it is the same story for K State which was my in state school (I am in an out of state school) because my friend tried to call about a colicky horse and they didn’t do on site stuff (unless she lied and didn’t actually call them lol). It is interesting because that school is extremely rural and the area is spread out as well.[/QUOTE]

http://www.vet.k-state.edu/vhc/services/equine/field/

K-State does have field service it appears.

I wish my school had offered in-state tuition after the first year (it is private, but still offers a discount to in-state applicants because it receives state funding)… every dollar counts!

[Mysterymare]

[QUOTE=faybe;8130297]
http://www.vet.k-state.edu/vhc/services/equine/field/

K-State does have field service it appears.

I wish my school had offered in-state tuition after the first year (it is private, but still offers a discount to in-state applicants because it receives state funding)… every dollar counts![/QUOTE]

Oh man my friend is a liar then… I’m not surprised lol. Well maybe I’ll ask someone in the VTH if we have one. Maybe I’m mistaken. Either way this is not an emergency so I doubt they would come out for this unless I acted like a psycho and freaked about my horse XD

Every dollar really does count! That sucks that they don’t give you full in state though

[S1969]

Just another thought; whether or not you have a field service is less of the issue than whether you would get a discount on a farm call…and how much you might save by trailering in. I know a lot of owners that routinely trailer to the clinic just to save themselves the farm call. It might not sound like a lot when it’s just once, but if you add up what you spend in a year, for example, it’s a lot cheaper for some people to just trailer in.

I had the vet out 4 days in a row when I had a sick horse, and part of that was a weekend. Ka-ching. Farm call is not covered by insurance either.

[Mysterymare]

[QUOTE=S1969;8130659]
Just another thought; whether or not you have a field service is less of the issue than whether you would get a discount on a farm call…and how much you might save by trailering in. I know a lot of owners that routinely trailer to the clinic just to save themselves the farm call. It might not sound like a lot when it’s just once, but if you add up what you spend in a year, for example, it’s a lot cheaper for some people to just trailer in.

I had the vet out 4 days in a row when I had a sick horse, and part of that was a weekend. Ka-ching. Farm call is not covered by insurance either.[/QUOTE]

Yeah definitely!!

[SaddlebredHunter]

Any updates??

[Mysterymare]

[QUOTE=SaddlebredHunter;8151083]
Any updates??[/QUOTE]

Not pregnant! Whew! No granulosa cell tumors. She has many uterine cysts which indicates that she was likely pregnant a few times before I got her. I am waiting on some blood tests to come back to figure out if she has a metabolic disorder so I was waiting to post until then. But here is the info I have so far. I bought her a grazing muzzle and will be using that as soon as it comes in, so I hope it helps her lose a significant amount of weight.

[SaddlebredHunter]

Amen!
I am so happy she doesn’t have any tumors! Let us know what you find out from the blood tests! I have been thinking about you guys and am sending jingles your way!

[Mysterymare]

[QUOTE=SaddlebredHunter;8157018]
Amen!
I am so happy she doesn’t have any tumors! Let us know what you find out from the blood tests! I have been thinking about you guys and am sending jingles your way![/QUOTE]

You are too sweet! Thank you! I just got her test results back. Her ACTH levels are normal!!! This means she does NOT have Cushing’s!! She has “slightly elevated” insulin and glucose, making it likely that she has equine metabolic syndrome. To my understanding, like pre-diabetes in humans, with weight loss these EMS horses can return to normal without insulin resistance (I need to do more reading on it though). So I am very happy!