WWYD if a boarder brought a reportable illness into a large boarding complex and it spread among one barn for up to two months without the trainer, a vet, or any of the boarders saying anything and finally infected your horse in a different barn? Who is ultimately responsible for the bills?
Unfortunately, you are.
Yes, other boarder is an idiot and an ass and put all the horses there at risk. Barns’ staff are also complicit. You can report them all to the state but that won’t change who has to pay the bills.
Boarding your horse puts you at the mercy of both the other boarders and staff. That’s a risk you agreed to take by boarding your horse (I know I know, I can’t have mine at home either) and you are responsible for the bills.
That said, I’d have my walking papers ready so you can leave the MOMENT the state clears you to. These folks have all shown you that they’re willing to keep critical knowledge from their boarders, risking everyone’s health. Believe me when I say, if they do it for something serious, they’re going to play fast & loose, health wise, for the minor stuff too. When people show you who they are, believe them.
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I have to agree, you are responsible for your vet bills.
Did they close the one barn so there was not in and out traffic?
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You are responsible for your horse’s heath care and the expenses. There is nothing in your contract that would force anyone to pay your bills. Any financial settlement you obtain would be the result of 1) negotiating with the barn owner to make an accommodation for a good client, or 2) lawsuit in small claims court. Given that they are so careless about biosecurity and lacking in courtesy, there’s almost no point in asking them to pay. And to succeed in small claims court would be very difficult and probably not worth the hassle (your calculation of “worth it” may change if your vet bills run in the thousands (but check your state’s $ limit on small claims court cases, usually it’s $5000 or less).
Only thing you can definitely do is find another barn and give notice when your horse is well enough to move. Up to you whether you tell them why you’re leaving-- they’re not likely to suddenly see the error of their ways, and it opens you up to greater risk that they will be vindictive towards you & your horse?
What are the rules of that particular reportable illness? (Isolation? No movement of the animals out of the barn? Posted notifications?) It’s not clear from the OP whether the barn did those things and news of that just didn’t make it to the other barn? i.e. was this inconsiderate management, or do you know for sure that they violated state biosecurity laws? If it’s the latter, you can report the barn to your state authorities. I’d probably wait until you’ve left to do that.
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You pay the bills. If your horse was immunized for whatever the disease is you might be able to get reimbursed by the vaccine company.
I had a horse get sick from a horse that was released from quarantine (Jet Pets, LAX) with a cough. Both that horse and mine developed a fever and cough, or worse cough in the other horse’s case. The other horse’s owner bought me dinner. Apparent going after Jet Pets was not an option but I still glare at their facility every time I drive past.
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Your horse, your bills, unfortunately.
However, if this is a reportable disease, and it was not reported, I’d be having a long talk with the state department of animal health, particularly wrt the DVM involved.
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Your horse, your bills. Although you may have legal discourse if you can prove they brought it, and the barn refused to close down for a QT is mandated by the state/local government.
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I left a barn for this reason, a long long time ago, once my horse was cleared to move again I packed and left that same day without giving notice.
They’re your bills, but any additional money you give to these people is your fault.
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Thank you for the replies, everyone. It sucks. I am getting more information now that is clarifying what happened. First, this is a self care farm and the farm owner was not aware until now and now one of her own horses is ill. I am not interested in holding her accountable in any way. The boarder who brought it in (out of state horse) and the trainer who allowed it to be spread are the people I feel are responsible. If it was a case of they brought a horse in, the horse got sick and immediately mine got sick, it would be one thing. I’d pay and be done with it. But the horse brought it in, boarder ignored vet advice, allowed it to spread throughout barn 1, trainer brought illness to other barns and allowed a very sick horse beside mine for weeks. When I asked specifically what was going on, he told me the horse had a cold for a few days and that he was fine. Because trainer’s spouse is a vet, I thought they had it under control. Because of the weather, I wasn’t riding, so I wasn’t really around as much as normal and never caught on to what was happening. There were 3 or 4 things I can think of off the top of my head that would have stopped this from happening and none of it was done. Furthermore, my vet asked several times before starting treatment if it was possible he had this particular illness and I answered no because of what I was told. The entire property is shut down. But it is like shutting the barn door after the horse gets out IMO.
Unless you can prove they knew what it was without a doubt, I’m going to say no. The fact that the trainer’s spouse is a vet (I assume a large animal vet, if small animal disregard my thoughts) might give you a hope and a prayer, because he/she should surely have known what this probably could be.
That said, your own personal vet should NOT have been treating something presenting as potentially strangles without knowing that it was NOT strangles. As we say in my world “Trust, but verify”.
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I think this is worth repeating here.
Your vet also dropped the ball. If it looked like what I assume is Strangles, I do not get why the vet would assume otherwise just because someone else said it wasn’t.
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Thanks. For the record, I do not blame my own vet at all. I do understand what you are saying but she verified the first day. I should not have been adamant it was not that.
I don’t want to go into any more details on here but there was a reason she did. I do not blame her at all. She ran the test the first day.
She did not culture. Other horses in the barn presenting + new horses in and out = potentially strangles.
Asking the question “Is this strangles” is not sufficient.
Your vet, though I’m sure meant well, is partially at fault for not doing due diligence prior to starting treatment.
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I understand what you are saying. She did culture on the first day though. We were not aware a new horse was on the property until after culture came back. No one had traveled anywhere for months.
For future reference for yourself - never KNOW it is not something like strangles even if no horses have gone anywhere. Many things can be transported on humans to the next horse. All it takes is for someone to visit a barn, not knowing that the nose they interacted with is positive and they bring it home to their barn.
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Thank you, I am aware of this. I have owned horses over 30 years, boarded at least 20 different barns and have never seen such irresponsible behavior as what is going on. I guess I have been lucky up to now. It is a mess. I am glad my vet caught it and stopped it at my horse. No one else has gotten sick. It will definitely change a lot of the things I am doing in the future.
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If this is strangles, which seems to be the general assumption, then “No one had traveled anywhere for months.” means exactly zip. That stuff spreads like wildfire from barn to barn exactly because it’s so damn easy to carry from place to place on hands, shoes, clothing, anything really. Any vet or horse person worth their salt knows this and treats symptoms appropriately, especially when two horses side by side are both showing the same thing.
That the boarder brought the disease in - well, that happens. It’s why you’re supposed to quarantine new horses (but few actually barns do).
So far, it’s not been clear the the boarder with case 0 actually knew it was strangles. If it WAS strangles and the vet was out and diagnosed it (boarder 0 ignored vet advice), then I don’t understand how the property owner was not notified when the state was. In my experience (been through strangles multiple times in multiple states), the state is always in tight coordination with the property owner (not necessarily the horse owners) to put together a plan for the quarantine and the criteria for lifting it.
So either the vet didn’t say it was strangles or the vet didn’t notify the state (which will get their license yanked) or the barn owner is playing stupid here to avoid angry boarders but something is not lining up.
None of that, though, absolves the OP from 1) not recognizing a possible strangles outbreak when it was in the stall next to her and telling her vet it couldn’t possibly be strangles when it got to her horse and 2) her vet believing her. And none of that, by any definition, results in someone else picking up the OP’s vet bills. Strangles happens and it’s part of horse ownership and if/when it hits your barn, you deal with it.
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Thank you for your opinion. Not going to go into all the details here on a public forum. I didn’t come on here to oust anyone and further details will do that. I have never been involved in a barn wide illness like this and I just was asking what the norms were. It doesn’t seem right that Owner 0 can do this and not end up with any consequences as he is without any remorse and will do it again.
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Did owner 0 know that their horse had a contagious illness when they moved them in?
I would say your problem should be with the barn that did not quarantine a horse coming from a situation that will likely result in a positive (strangles) situation. If the horse was just a typical move in, not doing quarantine is pretty typical. (Otherwise no one would be able to go to a show with out doing quarantine.) Other than that, contagious diseases that spread easily are hard to contain sometimes. Even more so when some people are clueless (as we all know with Covid).
I am sorry that your horse is sick and I wish your horse a speedy and full recovery. I can imagine the whole thing is so frustrating.
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