Interesting- my equine dental practitioner is a veterinarian. Equine dentistry is all he does. I believe from our talks it was a lifestyle decision for him. He has done the equine surgical training and emergency practice gig and now prefers regular fixed daytime hours. He is one of three separate equine dental-only veterinarians in practice near me.
If your tires are rotting, it doesnât help in an emergency 
if you use it every 6 months to take the horse to the vet, it forces you to make sure itâs in good working order, which then hopefully means youâll never need it for an emergency 
That said - there are a lot of areas where none of the vets do farm calls, never did, itâs all trailer in. Meaning, sometimes itâs just not that simple to find another vet.
I would HOPE any of those vets would have something in place to be able to get to a farm for an emergency where the horse cannot be moved. Or do farm calls if youâve got 10 horses and itâs worth their drive time to come do vaccinations and anything else the needs doing for all those horses. Work that takes 1/2 or a full day is worth their time, as theyâre not waiting on (often late) clients to arrive
If not, Iâd be shopping around.
If coming to you is a priority, then I would at least start shopping around to find out who still does basic maintenance farm calls
I am very fortunate that my vet still does and LOVES farm calls. It has always been her business model, even when she has been a solo practitioner. Sheâs also to the point where she is able to pick and choose clients, which ones to keep, whether to take on new ones, etc. Iâm also lucky that there are enough vets around where I live that if she ever retires (Iâve told her itâs unacceptable, but sheâs been practicing for at least 35 years now) I can switch to a multi-vet, does farm calls clinic thatâs even closer to me.
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Maybe your BO got a kickback or free services for using the sheep vet.
I boarded one time where BO badmouthed every vet but the one she used because she got free services for her own horses, and possibly kickback too.
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I think it continues to be a viable business model for the practice I use. With the rising costs of real estate, I would think eliminating an office might make more business sense for some!
I think there maybe situations where some practices get into situations where the farm call isnât appropriately priced and/or the client load to staff ratio creates a situation where such long hours are required that a practice looking to adjust itâs business plan may see eliminating farm call service (particularly for small farms) as a sensible idea. Popping into a large boarding facility and seeing a dozen horses is a lot different than driving to 12 farms seeing one horse at each. Pricing reflects that IME.
Clients whining about the fees arenât helping. Any vet looking to reduce their work hours may find in the clinic service only attractive particularly if their clients are crying about a $50 trip charge.
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This was one of the thoughts I had.
Going to a clinic only practice makes it much easier to set business hours and follow them, like most small animal vets do.
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Another idea, if you think thereâs demand and that you know how to run a practice-- open one and manage it. I think youâll find that itâs much harder than you think to stay afloat. Itâs not as simple as âjust hire helpâ in a lot of cases.
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the BO was certainly charging for administering vaxx etc. Itâs possible she had some sort of financially beneficial arrangement with the vet or how she billed clients.
I speculate she was posturing to protect her position of absolute knowledge and power in her cult aka the barn. Run of the mill crazy horse peep stuff lol
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I have long believed the problem is in large part due to the shifting priority of schooling in the US: from field work/apprenticeship to degreed schooling, and now the heavy reliance upon testing and grades to get into vet school. Iâve known some lovely, hard working, compassionate, smart, knowledgeable horse people who simply couldnât get into vet school. Ones coming out have a lot of book sense but not much if any horse sense.
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My dentist is not a vet, but he practiced equine dentistry long before our state required vets only practice dentistry, so he was grandfathered in.
Yikes. I hope this isnât the trend. I donât even have a truck and trailer, plus I have some very ancient horses that Iâm not even sure about hauling.
If my vet did this switch, I would be forced to call other vets in the area and switch to one that did farm calls. Nothing else would make sense.
If no vets did farm calls, I think Iâd honestly likely be forced to euthanize at least one of the very senior older horses prior to winter.
I am willing to pay a dramatic premium for farm calls because, as stated, I have to hire hauling and Iâm honestly not that comfortable towing. Hopefully there will be some vets willing to do farm calls (for a price).
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And clients arenât always considerate of vetsâ time, even if they arenât complaining about the surcharge.
âWhile youâre here doc, can you pull a coggins on Dobbin? Oh, and thereâs a new horse who just came in yesterday who needs some vaccinations. Also Trigger just came in this morning with a swollen eye and I knew youâd be here todayâŠâ
Not to mention that while they have made communication so much easier, cells phones also become a huge time suck for vets. Everyone says their vet doesnât mind when clients text them, and maybe their vet truly doesnât mind, but replying to constant messages takes time.
Our equine vets are overworked and underpaid. Recent grads are swimming in debt. Their job is already hard. Then âwe,â collectively, as a society, donât appreciate them. Whether itâs complaining about costs, expecting free services, disregarding their expertise in lieu of Dr. Internet, or even just being oblivious to the challenges that vets face, âweâ as a society pile on to the stressors.
I know some people donât think itâs a big deal to lose farm call services, but I disagree. I think @NancyMâs post is a harbinger of what many of us will be facing the future, even if we live in a more populated area. Thatâs a step backwards in terms of horse welfare.
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I do not think anyone in this thread thinks that at all. I know I do not think that. It is a huge deal.
My point was simply that owners can not demand it not happen, and they need to decide how they are going to deal with it if it happens.
That is very different than me saying I think it is not a big deal.
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As a medical college faculty member, I trained 4 people with veterinary degrees who gave up vet practice to enter medical schools where they were given advanced standing. Their stories were all similar. "I realized that I could make a far better living (more money) by using my skills and knowledge to treat humans rather than animals.â One 5 year small animal practice vet told me his income from actually seeing dogs and cats had peaked and any future increase was dependent on him selling more high-markup animal meds and special food (Hillâs) to his clients.
As vet schools largely are more difficult to get into than medical schools and tend to have higher minimum college GPAâs and such, these were people who took up a vet school place who likely had little idea what they were getting into - income level, weather exposure and other adverse working conditions, and lack of prestige in the minds of the general public.
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And, I think I have just experienced a trend in my community, if a trend can be determined based on 2 experiences.
First was my solo vet deciding to stop making farm calls. When I called the large equine practice nearby today to set up a new appointment, they tried their best to talk me out of a farm call, stressing how much I would be able to save in farm call charges if I trailered my horses to their clinic.
I am so fortunate to have 2 large animal vets near me who still make farm calls. One I use for my dogs and goats since they are just 6 miles away. This practice has 2 vets.
The other vet practice ( 17 miles away) I have used almost exclusively for my horses for 25+ years . I think his staff tries to get most people to trailer in. I have a trailer , I can haul a trailer just fine but I prefer to pay the farm call, always have. This practice is a husband/ wife vet team who has in the past had other vets on staff.
I had an appointment scheduled not too long ago and the office person had it down as a haul in. My vet saw my name and knew it should have been a farm call. He was later than I expected but he came out anyways.
If OPâs vet is a solo practitioner I canât see them making anywhere near enough money if they have to make farm calls, especially that are an hour away.
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Solo vet lives and has her barn clinic way out from town. Iâd guess the majority of the clients live near or in town, so if she schedules wisely (she seemed to) she only makes the long portion of her drive one time a day, with all the farm calls very close together. I am in an equestrian community with over 200 horse farms inside a 2 square mile area, so farm to farm is maybe a 10 minutes maximum drive. And there are other similar horse farm concentrations within just a few miles from me.
She is trading in her own single hour a day drive hoping multiple clients daily will make their own long hauls to her. I really like her and hope the new plan works for her, but as I said I have decided to move on to a different vet practice.
well, there is also the probability that personal circumstances demand her being around the house more than on the road.
Tough to say.
Good luck finding a new vet
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Thatâs right.
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To anyone saying, âWell, donât live in Podunkville if you want access to vets:â. This problem doesnât just affect horse owners. The ranchers where I live are also stuck because no vets will make farm calls.
I love my vets, show them my appreciation, and understand their predicament. That doesnât mean that I am joyful about the reality of potentially having to consult YouTube to learn suturing and splinting, or having to call my neighbor to bring his gun.
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This is a good point. Being on the road makes lots of personal medical situations harder to deal with (just an example). Or maybe there is a family member she is now responsible forâŠorâŠthe list is endless.
