Vet charges...

Each one gets lumbered for a full call out is my experience , just like a doctor when he's called to do rounds at a hospital, charges full travel to all patients ... sick world the medical profession it seems...like so many others

Greg,

You should know that he charges each one individually. There is no way they will be as honest as to split the bill.
As far as each of the individual trainers know.....The vet just arrived to see him ONLY!!!

Vet bills seem to be just another reason why nobody would want to get involved in this beautiful sport of ours.

I think the sedate for dentist is for the vet when he is nervous. Helps steady his hands.

Lawyers just as bad, they even charge if you go for a dump on there premises

I think Vets should apply for rights to visit the major training centres - then when they make the trip to Randjes etc only one travel charge per visit paid to the Vet per day - Flat rate and not dependant on how many yards he visits in the centre. Any emergency call out is then owner of the sick horse's responsibility.

will never happen Mr H - much too logical to work - lol

i told my trainer to stop using a certain vet in KZN due to all the sundry charges on their invoices, the monthly bills were looking like a Shoprite-Checkers receipt. Felt like i needed the sedation juice more than the horse.

Mr Hassan Adams raised the issue of veterinary costs some months ago in the Sporting Post and was rather shouted down. Good to see it re-emerge as it is becoming ( no pun intended ) a cancer in the sport.

I must agree with many of the posters - these charges have escalated outrageously in the last couple of years and WILL threaten the viability of keeping horses.

There are a number of issues which need to be considered :

Singapore subsidise their vets. I see the 'club vet' as a positive and viable option for the following reasons :

It shows a comittment from the operators. It allows a vet to specialise in horses only. It contains direct costs to owners. It could also allow the NHRA to monitor medication trends ( and effects ) in the industry.

Owners who believe that club vets are below par need not be prohibited from using a private practitioner. As much of veterinary work is routine I believe the majority of owners would opt for the club practitioner.

I would be interested to learn what the operators are considering in this area as they can hardly be unaware of the discontent regarding horses' medical costs.

The whole veterinary issue throws up a number of side bars :

It would seem that a lot of yards outsource teeth care. When I cam into racing ALL yards did their own teeth. It was part of the training fee. Not an extra. Possibly some trainers' punishing golf schedules do not allow for teeth any longer?

Excessive vets bills bring, for me, the whole matter of the Authority To Act under the microscope. When one gets a vets bill the treatment is already a fait accompli. The trainer will probably claim the treatment needed to be administered urgently and he/she didn't realise it would cost so much etc., etc. I have a huge problem with this : Again - going back to former years - vets played nowhere near as influential a role as appears to be the case now. It makes me wonder whether many trainers are not being co-erced or pressurised into treatment when REST would have been the most obvious and appropriate option. I would certainly be very reluctant to simply award a blanket Authority To Act today - specifically where medical treatment is concerned.

The nett result of this is that owners who would formerly have kept a horse or two for fun purposes are likely to be wary of re-committing to the industry. An accurate evaluation of the likely cost of keep with an accomplished trainer in a major South African racing jurisdiction would probably reveal that an effective R100,000 per annum to keep a horse in training is not that far off the mark any longer. Which means that if you race a horse for three seasons you are looking at R300,000 in keep without even addressing the capital outlay. So possibly R300,000 should now become the breakeven target for keeping a horse. Add approximately 20% to this figure to take account of deductions from stakes earned and you probably need to earn about R 350,000 gross on each animal to BREAK EVEN and have that elusive FUN that the industry is continually promising us.

We all understand that it COSTS to keep a horse. And that it is a luxury. But I get the sneaking suspicion that in some circles owners are regarded as ignorant idiots who can be cynically and shamelessly exploited as part of the process.

My past experience with vets was a nightmare(not with my present trainer ,thank god) and my complaint was this:
I would get a bill direct from the vet without having been signed off by the trainer.Only He/She would know if treatment was requested and what was provided and yet no interest in the bill.
If you think that my concern was unnecessary I'll tell you that I got a bill for gelding a filly!

My question is: "Did it help her!" lol

Brilliant!

I cannot tell you how many fillies I would have liked to be able to geld over the years!

And there have been some colts that I gelded and wished I could geld a second time.

I remember years ago having a horse gelded and had it in a medical claim file and sent to to discovery by mistake

had a reply see code 123 "not a registered family member"

lol