The Bigger The Pet, The Bigger The Expense: How To Cut Vet Costs

Sometimes it is not the purchase price of a pet that is the most expensive part of owning that pet. Sometimes it is the animal medical care bills that keep your pet safe and healthy. The bigger the pet, the bigger the medical expenses are, too. Here are some ways to help you cut the vet costs when you own a horse:

Deworming

Horses have to be dewormed every couple of months or every six to eight weeks in warm weather. This is the time when your horse is out to pasture, consuming grass, and picking up a lot of eggs from internal pests that exit other horses and pasture animals in their feces. If you do not deworm your horse, the parasites will take over and your horse will starve to death or die from a lack of blood cells.

You could have a vet do this, but it is just easier to buy a tube of ivermectin paste and give it to your horse yourself. Most of these pastes taste like cinnamon and apples to your horse. You get the dose set up in the syringe, and just squirt it into the side of your horse's mouth...done!

Trimming Hoofs

A horse's hoofs are to the horse what your fingernails are to you. They need to be trimmed regularly, or they could make your horse go lame and unable to walk or run properly. A vet can show you how to cut them the first time, taking pains not to get too close to the softer inner wall of the hoof. Then you can buy a hoof trimmers and do the job yourself. It also helps if you pick up your horse's feet daily to clean and examine them because then the horse will not try to kick you when you need to clip the hoofs.

Treating Colic

There is a way to treat colic that you can do without calling the vet. You should have someone with more horse experience help you, however, since your horse will not like the treatment and will try to run. As you hold the horse's head, a clear hose is pushed down the horse's throat and into the stomach. (A vet would push the hose through the nostril, but this is riskier because it could end up in your horse's lung, and only a vet can tell where the hose has landed.)Then you flush the horse's stomach with lots of warm water, which pushes the blockage of food out. This will save your horse's life, as colic kills and horses are unable to vomit.