An acquaintance of mine called home at 9:00 at night to find out where the vets office was. The phone was then given to me to discuss the problem with his dog.
As he told me what was going on I asked how long this "lump" had been there. I was told about a week. It started out the size of his thumb and over the last 2 days turned into the size of a grapefruit!
As it turns out the dog went into surgery to remove a hardend abcess.
This inceident got me to thinking about how many people wait until the last possible minute to take their animals to the vet, and some dont take them at all.
When I worked at the local vet clinic it was one of the biggest complaints we had. It was extreamly typical for an owner to wait at least a week or more before bring in the suffering animal to get treatment.
One of the causes of this was money related, but it seemed that the worst cause was just plain stupidity!
You love your animals, thats why you have them, right? So why not take care of them? If you dont know how, there are ways to find that information out. You need to go to a local vet, its free to talk to your vet, or a very minimal charge for a full consultation, but trust me it is worth it. Talk to neighbrors, or other animal owners. Trainers, farriers, or riders, go to the library, or if your reading this, look on the internet while your logged on! Talk to someone at the feed store.
There is alot of work to keeping horses, and until you know what your doing,(which you never stop learning how), you need to make sure that you keep a proffesionals phone number handy, they wont mind helping you out if it means the welfare of the horse!
Just having a place where your horse can get out of the weather and a pen doesn't mean you are properly taking care of them. They must have a clean and injury free area to be in that is big enough to get proper exercise and not be injured. Also, you need to make sure that your feeders and waterers are safe and appropriately made for what you are using them for. Old bathtubs, or 55 gallon garbage cans do not make good waters or feeders! They can be very hazardous.
There are plenty of avenues by which you can get a multitude of information about how to care for your animals.
Keep your horse or other pets away from the vets office by taking the time to properly research the type of pet and how to properly care for the animal BEFORE you buy it.
Don't wait to long to take them in to see the vet, when in doubt, call your vet to see if you need to bring them in or if there is something you can do at home. You may not think its serious, but your vet paid thousands of dollars on the education to know, not think!
Veterinarians in Buena Vista and Salida
Large animal - -
Peak Vet Service - Leslie Harrison 3956250
Cottonwood Vet Services - Joel Stahlecker 395-8900
Mountian Shadows - Kit Riff 539-2533
Small Animal - -
Cottonwood Vet Service - Joel Stahlecker 395-8900
Buena Vista Vet Clinic - Greg Kettering 395-8239
Best Friends Mobile Vet Service Beth Ritchie - 395-0968
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