On the subject of farm calls, I rode last weekend with a friend who is a veterinary ophthalmologist in private practice. She no longer does farm calls for horses, you have to haul in to her clinic. It came down to taking care of her 25 year old practice and herself.
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Iāve most certainly hauled out for appointments with specialists or for special testing.
For average appointments - shots, teeth floating, a cut or puffy leg - Iām definitely used to having a vet that will do a farm call. I would always choose to maintain a relationship with a vet that does this, and would prioritize it.
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Well, I made the switch from the non-farm call vet to a big multi-vet practice. The solo vet sounded hurt that I had decided to switch, but we both have our own priorities. I do feel like I have disappointed her by deciding not to haul the horses to her practice. But for me the trip is an hour each way plus preparation and loading time. The new practice is 8 miles away, with not a single traffic light in between us, just 2 stop signs. Being in the closest farm call zone, the farm call charge for me from the new practice was $29ā¦ But the peace of mind, knowing now that I have someone to call after hours with a real emergency is priceless.
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Sorry I havenāt read the entire thread, but equine specialists I use via my vet charge a significant travel fee that I am guessing actually makes financial sense for them.
Surely any vet can do this? One price for clinic work, and a travel feel that covers gas, time, and the reduced income from dedicating time to one vs several clients?
It would encourage most clients to visit, except in emergencies, and also encourage non emergency appointments to be grouped by clients (like dental day, shot clinics, and other split farm call events)
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This is what the vets in my region do! Honestly I donāt mind paying extra for having them travel to me, especially when I factor everything for when I trailer. I also get very nervous as there are some emergencies where the horse is too nervous/uncomfortable/too much pain etc to be able to load onto the trailer and/or sit in the trailer while hauling.
Edit to add: I do totally understand why they would not want to make a farm call, not saying thatās unreasonable or anything.
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Donāt overlook the fact that a vet spending a third of her day traveling reduces the number of clientsā horses that she is able to see by a third, even if she makes the same amount of money that day by charging fair farm call fees.
So I am contributing to the lack of available timely veterinary care for others by using a farm call when I could trailer the horses to her clinic.
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This is definitely the difficult part of it. I completely understand why vets would want you to haul into the clinic. If I had to do it to get veterinary care, then I obviously would.
I think that the difficulty would be that I would need to hire a hauler since I donāt have a trailer, and even if I did have a trailer Iād likely have to take a day off of work for even the most routine veterinary appointments. If any kind of sedation is used, then itās even longer. I also have some ancient horses and honestly, I doubt theyāll see the inside of a trailer again. At their age, packing them up and hauling them to the vet seems risky.
Hauling in general makes me nervous - itās been years since Iāve gone to a show or even just an away clinic. I avoid it at all costs. That said, my horses load fine other than one - that one is elderly, was elderly when I got him, and not much is known about his past. I have options in an emergency for hauling, and I guess at some point I should invest in a truck and trailer - but thatās an awfully big investment for something I donāt think Iād use that much, and when I did Iād probably be nervous since I wouldnāt be doing it a lot.
I understand why vets would want you to haul in, but it can be well worth it to pay for that chunk of time to drive out to your barn. Itās far cheaper for me to pay the vet to drive out to me than it would be for me to buy a truck and trailer.
I just moved to Kingman, AZ from Cincinnati, OH. About 2 hours from Las Vegas and 3ish hours from Phoenix. There are a ton of horses here but itās very backyardy at the worst and ranchy at the best. Good horsemen are here nestled around but not very central to one location.
Last night my horse ripped a large chunk of his hind foot off. Itās bleeding and I can see his laminae. There are 2 vets in town that service large animals. One vet isnāt accepting new clients and the other doesnāt make farm calls and their ātreatment areaā is a parking lot next to the busiest road in town. No fences, no stalls, no corrals, no area to safely lunge a horse for a lameness exam, no other horses around to keep a horse hauled in alone sane and calm enough to do an exam on. How can you effectively assess a horse in that type of environment?
This is entirely new to me. My vet(s) always made farm calls and I only hauled into a clinic to see specialists. I cannot believe that these are my options. Either I haul into town and risk my anxious horse in a busy area (when scared he has a hell of a flight response) or I take a day off work (which I donāt have yet because I just started) to haul my horse several hours away for some freaking SMZs.
My farrier has a similar mentality. He doesnāt even want to drive the 15 miles out to put eyes on my horse until heās been looked at by the vet. I told him Iāll pay an emergency call, I do basically ANYTHING for him to come out and look at this hoof. No response.
Sorry - I know Iām just venting now. I just never knew this was a way to conduct business. Iām happy to pay for a farm call if the situation warrants it. Iām happy to pay for an emergency call. But, to pile on what everyone else said here, there just are no equine vets in the area.
I have no solutions - just wanted to say this is a thing. Even though I do everything right Iām still in an impossible spot. 
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Not your fault, for sure, but thereās a reason for that. If there were a sufficient number of clients which could pretty much guarantee a reasonable level of income without killing oneself to provide service, there would probably be a DVM in the areas who did farm calls.
This comes up similarly with the ranchers and farmers telling state legislators to build a vet school because thereās a shortage of food animal DVMs. But there isnāt that somuch as thereās a shortage of clients able and willing to provide the level of income a vet would need to take on such a practice without killing themselves (sometimes literally).
Iām not saying I know the solution to the problem.
maybe a local association of livestock owners could attract a DVM to an area by offering a base yearly payment that would cover some basic practice expenses like office space, maybe utilities provided they stayed for x amount of time.
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@Halfpasser11, just a thought - If you had a long term good relationship with the vet where you used to live, could they call the vet that is not taking new clients to see if they take you as a transfer in?
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Jingles for your horse.
But this is exactly the sort of situation that makes the āno farm callā concept such a problem in my mind. I will happily pay for that farm call every time. In my view, farm calls should be an expected part of the large animal vetās practice, at the same time they should be appropriately compensated. So I have little sympathy for vets for whom the farm call concept is too much work (I have huge sympathy for vets for whom the emotional fallout of veterinary practice is too much) No idea what the solutions are, this isnāt exactly confined to the horse world, have you tried to find a new GP doctor recently? Ha! Or a plumber, or an electrician, orā¦
I always cringe going past one vet practice, like yours their āexamā area for a horse is right next to a nasty intersection, they at least have a fenced area and the fencing is good but the trailer parking is outside of the fencing. And there is nothing to securely tie a horse to so bringing a companion horse is problematic.
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I am so sorry. I was in the same tough situation when I lived in upstate NY. Like Ghazzu said, there just wasnāt a strong enough contingent of vet-going horse-peeps to keep a vet afloat there, so there were no equine vets at all. The only vet that came out was a small-animal practice vet and there is a thread on this forum about that fiasco somewhereā¦ How is your horse today?
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Ugh. So sorry. Jingles for your horse. Could the in-town vet possibly examine your horse on the trailer? Obviously not ideal, but if you could remove/swing the center partition maybe thereās enough space?
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@Halfpasser11 My quote function wonāt work but I am sending lots of jingles for your horse!!!
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The vet thatās not taking clients is just too old for all the work. It may work in the short term but Iāll still need a long term solution as Iām sure heāll be retiring soon. I did contact my old vet just to get some guidance which was very helpful, even 2,000 miles away!
What kills me that if a relatively strong general equine / lameness vet came to this area and did farm calls they would have more than enough work. I actually think this is a great area to live. Affordable land, 3.5 seasons, low cost of living, equine events only a few hours away - why wouldnāt more vets/farriers want to move to this area? Everyone I talk to says, āItās been like this for 25 yearsā but I canāt get a clear reason as to why.
And thanks for asking @beowulf, heās obviously really lame but if I can keep it from getting infected for the next week or so it should be manageable. Thank goodness for my past vet and farrier that were gracious enough to help even though Iām not their client anymore. THAT is the relationship I used to and try to cultivate.
edited to add quote
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Thatās not a bad idea and if push comes to shove thatās what will have to happen.
I really have to question the judgment of a vet that conducts exams and business like that though, you know? Any vet I know worth their salt would never subject a horse and more importantly their techs to an environment like that. It gets up to 110 degrees here in the summer, below freezing in the winter and with no shade or windbreak for anyone how is that acceptable? Equine welfare issues aside it sounds like a crappy and possibly dangerous work environment for everyone.
Not sticking up for that vet, but I am sure that some farm visits can be described in the same exact way - No shade or windbreak for anyone.
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I absolutely agree. It might be a wash 25-50% of the time when looking at only environmental conditions. Factoring in facilities (stalls, round pens, arenas), footing, and proximity of other horses could swing either way depending on the client. My guess that most of the time the client would be able to provide a safer and more comfortable environment than an unfenced parking lot.
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@Halfpasser11, Phoenix resident here. This probably wonāt help you for this situation, but Iāve been told that Cave Creek Equine is in Flagstaff every month. Another vet sees lots of clients at the place where I board in Gilbert- these people haul in from the area between Chandler and Tucson (like Coolidge, Casa Grande, etc). Same vet goes to Payson area once a week. My point: maybe you can get some kind of relationship set up with other owners in your area, and have at least some additional coverage options with a vet who is willing to travel from ā. Iām lucky enough to board at a large operation, with ~150 horses on the property. We have 7 vets serving us. Jingles for your horse!
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