When Not to Call the Vet

It is not always necessary to call the vet if the horse's pulse and temperature is normal or if the wounds can be cleaned up with water and diluted soap. Avoid calling the vet in the middle of the night for certain situations with helpful advice from a veterinarian in this video on caring for horses.

Make this Community Strong:

Be the first to add a comment!

Hi! I'm Dr. Joanna Robson. I'm a doctor of veterinary medicine with Inspiritus Equine, Inc., and I'm here to actually talk to you about when you might not need to call your veterinarian, or more specifically when you get home at midnight or one o'clock in the morning and you go out to the barn, and you think your horse is having an emergency, when is it really an emergency and when can you actually wait until the morning? So, this is an important time to know when how to take your horse's pulse and temperature. More importantly, to take a deep a breath and stand back, and ask yourself, how is your horse acting? There are certain wounds that are obviously emergencies, degloving wounds, spurting, bright blood. If your horse is acting colicky or hasn't been eating or obviously show signs of trauma where he's been rolling or thrashing on the ground. However, there's a number of things that can definitely wait until the morning. Such things include minor cuts, minor abrasions, things that you can clean yourself with either warm water and dilute soap, and little triple antibiotic. And if your horse is still eating and drinking normally and more importantly, defecating normally but might be acting just a little bit off, you can probably wait until the morning. If your horse has normal temperature and no bounding pulses, and maybe has a little bit of a runny nose or a little bit of a snotty nose but is otherwise acting fairly bright, probably wait until the morning 'til you need to call your veterinarian to come out for a full examination. So, as not to say that aren't times when calling a vet is definitely an emergency, but there's also times when you can wait until the morning to schedule a regular barn call for your veterinarian to come out to check your horse.