horse emergency care, emergency horse care

Several months ago, we had a horse that injured his knee and had a gaping wound that needed prompt veterinary attention. As is so often the case with an equine emergency, we discovered the wound after office hours at the veterinary practice.

Reaching our veterinarians, however, is a breeze, thanks to an efficient emergency care set-up. We simply call the clinic number, where a recording instructs us to press Number 2 for an emergency, then we leave a message and the phone number where we can be reached. The system alerts the veterinarian on call.

The recording also instructs us to expect a call back within 10 minutes; if more than 10 minutes elapses before the call is returned, we are instructed by the recording to call again, though we virtually always hear back after the first call anyway.

Sometimes, when we're tending to the horse in need, we miss the callback because our cell phones don't work well in the barn and we're in a stall too far away from the land line to hear it ring. It's not a problem though with this practice, since the vets freely leave their cell phone numbers so we can return the call and directly reach them.

Our experience with other practices has been quite different. We telephone the clinic number and an answering service takes the call. The operator always asks about the nature of the problem, but generally knows little about horses and trying to explain what's wrong is an exercise in frustration. The conversation usually ends with, "Just have the vet telephone right away please."

The answering service then relays the message to the veterinarian on call. We have no idea when to expect a callback. And if we miss the call, we have to go back through the answering service again because the vets from these practices won't leave their cell phone numbers. When they call, caller I.D. says "private number."

From our viewpoint, these systems are a detriment to the horse's health if the emergency is serious because it wastes time and delays treatment.

Thanks to a good emergency system that resulted in prompt veterinary care, this serious knee wound, shown here just after the vet finished stitching, healed perfectly, left minimal scarring and the horse is sound.

I suppose some veterinarians don't want to give out their cell phone numbers because there are clients who will call them unnecessarily. All of us in any job, however, have to put up with some amount of aggravation. Seems to me that for a veterinarian, care of a sick or injured horse should be the priority.

The point of this article is that emergency services should be carefully considered when selecting a veterinary practice to care for your horse. Ask detailed questions about the emergency system set-up. Ask if the clinic uses an answering service or if it has a more direct way to reach the veterinarian. Ask how fast emergency calls are returned, and if the veterinarians give out their cell phone numbers so clients can reach them directly when needed. If the veterinarian practices alone, ask who covers emergencies when he or she can't be reached and how that veterinarian's system works.

It's also always a good idea to get feedback from other horse owners about how a certain veterinary practice performs in an emergency.