What was the most expensive health concern your horse had last year? what happened and how was it treated? what was the final outcome? cost?

My horses didn't have any real expensive health concerns last year - probably the most expensive was three visits to treat a tooth that didn't have an opposing tooth, and took three sessions to reduce to the appropriate size.

In past years, it's been more expensive. I've had five years where a horse required major surgery, costing up to $10,000. That was for a repeat eye surgery for recurring epithelial squamous cell carcinoma on the cornea, and included surgery to remove the tumor, radiation treatments, and chemotherapy.

The surgery was done out of state, so the horse had to be trailered there and we spent several nights in a hotel while the horse was in the equine ICU after surgery. He came home with multiple medications, including 3 different kinds of eye meds. He had a sub-palpebral catheter - a tube inserted under the skin above the eye that deposited the medicine on the eyeball; the other end was tied in his mane and ended near the withers. We injected the meds into the withers end of the tube, and it magically got to his eye ball without having to fight him. Wonderful, wonderful thing! In addition, he had meds by mouth as well.

Because of the tube and recovery, he had to be stalled 24/7 for months, which was more expensive than his usual pasture with run-in, because we had to buy him hay, grain, and shavings instead of just the pasture.

He had the unfortunate side effect of dry eye, and required artifical tears four times a day, plus restasin, for years. He ultimately did recover his tear capacity.

He kept his vision in they eye for another three years, and the eye another year after that, but the cancer recurred again, and the eye was enucleated. This solved the problem.

Another horse I had - the wonderful babysitter horse I trusted with the 4 year olds - suddenly became very tender on the back to where she bucked people for the first time ever, and had personality changes, and actually began studdish behavior, mounting other mares. Turned out she had a benign ovarian tumor, which had to be removed.

This surgery was less expensive that the other one, but the mare was sensitive to almost everything they used. The surgical scrub caused hives. The surgical adhesive used to secure the surgical drape raised welts. The suture material was rejected by her body - took years before the last piece, which should have been absorbed, was ejected.

This was topped off by an anaphylactic shock episode while I was administering penicillin at home afterwards. She went stiff as a board, toppled over like a tree, then began thrashing wildly.

Long story short, she recovered from the shock episode, she recovered from all the sensitivities, she recovered her personality and again knew she was a mare. She did not recover all her former athleticism - she spent a long time on the table, and one leg was deprived of oxygen for a while. She was sound, but she'd been a good barrel racer before, and wasn't quite as good afterwards.

You never know when one of these issues is going to come up out of the blue. I've had years when more than one of my horses had surgery or other expensive treatments; I've had years when none did.

We deal with them and move on.

Really bad colic. He had to get surgery where they removed 200 pounds of sand from his stomach and nearly 50 pounds of poop. He's a draft and we're lucky that he's alive through the anesthesia; caught it just in time. None of the sand was from when he was with us, it was all from his previous owner who gave him to us 2 years ago. He's perfectly fine and I was able to jump him 2'6" in July:) the surgery costed us nothing because the surgeon was a well known family friend who's been operating on our horses for a long time