How many - give their own vaccines and do farrier work?

[scr]

I've got enough minis now that I"m thinking of every way to save a buck or two while making VERY SURE I keep their care at it's very best.

I wonder how bigger farms handle vaccinations and farrier work (and I can't think of other money savings right now.....)?

I only have 6 horses. They are all pretty much on the same vaccine and farrier schedule so when the vet comes out she does them all (vaccines) and I only have one farm call for them all. Looking at vaccines only, I could save about $8-10 per each 5-way vaccine and maybe $5 on another that we give (that's buying single doses for one time). So, I"m looking at a savings of maybe $80-90 twice a year.

Now, that's not chump change but I'm curious if there are any reasons NOT to give your own vaccines and to let the vet do it???? Because if it's only that much money and I'm going to run into big problems, I'd just rather have the vet do it. She's going to have to come out anyway once a year for rabies vaccines. I was wondering if folks have had problems with vaccines being no good or having reactions or anything else that might encourage me just to let the vet continue to do them all?

As to farrier work, I guess that's not as big a deal. I do have a rasp and nippers and I will do the feet about every other time they are due. Then the "real" farrier does it every other time and gets them in good shape.

 

[New2Minis]

I give all my horses their vaccines and it saves a bunch! I have not had any problems........

:

Farrier work scares me because I know you can really mess them up if you dont know what you are doing. I have full size horses too and just thinkin of making one of them lame scares me to death.........

 

[Fred]

My husband and I are both farriers and only I do the minis, {he's afraid he'll be in the doghouse if he messes them up!}. I used to have the vet do shots but with the amount of horses I have I'll be doing them from now on [last year it came to over $1800!]. I have a degree in vet tech so shots are not a problem for me at all. Next year they will do the rabies and coggins and I will do the rest. Linda B

 

[scr]

My husband and I are both farriers and only I do the minis, {he's afraid he'll be in the doghouse if he messes them up!}. I used to have the vet do shots but with the amount of horses I have I'll be doing them from now on [last year it came to over $1800!]. I have a degree in vet tech so shots are not a problem for me at all. Next year they will do the rabies and coggins and I will do the rest. Linda B

I have a friend that is a vet tech at the Univ of Georgia and she has told me she will administer the shots if I decide to go this route. I CANNOT do them as I can't stand needles. I look away when the vet is giving the shots

Where do you recommend purchasing the vaccines? Is one company more reputable than others? Have you had better experience with one than others (those of you that have done this for awhile)?

 

[Jill]

My husband and I give our own vaccinations and do our own farrier work. On the farrier stuff, we had our farriers show us / help us, read books and watched a video. It evolved over the years to where we are now doing it all by ourselves but it was a process and for some time, we'd kind of alternate where we'd trim them and then the next time, the farrier would. Harvey (husband) does a really good job and it was not ever easy to find both a good farrier and a farrier who would do minis. I'm happy with the way it is now because we can do 5 or so at a time, or all at once, or whatever suits the needs and our schedule.

 

[Fred]

Just make sure when they ship that you have a cooler with ice on your porch so the vaccines will stay cold if you are not home for the delivery. I use Omaha Vaccine and have had good luck with them. Linda B

 

[New2Minis]

The 2 catalogs I order from are Jeffers and American Livestock (they both have websites also). Like them both!!

 

[MBhorses]

Hello,

We use to have the vet give our horses shots as well, but now we do the shots. As for the farrier we have one come trim our horses. We would love to learn to trim the horses ourselves, but I am afraid of making a mistake.

Good luck,

Melissa

 

[Pandora]

My mom gives all the horses shot. She's a nurse so she's a pro at it. I really need to learn how to do it since I give myself shots now. This saves ALOT of money.

We pay a farrier for the farrier work.

 

[SHANA]

I do my own farrier work on the minis, was taught by my cousin Craig who does it for a living, though he comes and does my 2 arabian horses. :bgrin It saves me a lot of money doing it myself and if i see they need a trim I do them even if not due yet. My husband is doing some too, so we can do our 12 minis between the 2 of us and not get to sore. :lol: we worm our own horses but vet does the vaccines. My vet is great. I have had the same vet for about 15 years now and when I moved last winter he happened to also do my new area which was great.

:

 

[Becky]

I give my own vaccinations and have been for years. With 20 - 30 horses here, it's the only way I can afford to do it. My vet knows I vaccinate and in fact he expects me to do it! LOL! I shop online for most of my vaccines and generally order from the company that has the best price at the time. There are a number of veterinary supply catalogs including Jeffers, Valley Vet, K-V, Agri Med and more.

I used to do my own farrier work, but my back can't take it anymore and I do pay farriers to come here to trim. I actually use two. One that does my breeding herd and another that does my show horses.

 

[Warpony]

I've given my own vaccines in the past and may start doing that again. I have ordered with great satisfaction from both Jeffers and Omaha vaccine. I have my vet coach me through it if I haven't done it in a long time, thankfully I have always had vets that didn't mind helping owners do more stuff themselves.

I would do my own hoof trimming as well if my carpel tunnel syndrome, cubital tunnel syndrome and tendonitis didn't make it extremely difficult and painful for me. If I did start to do them myself I would still have a professional watch over me the first few time at least and then come out once or twice a year to make sure they looked OK. Most farriers really dislike working on the small ones and so they don;t mind teaching you to do them yourself.

 

[PaintedPromiseRanch]

with approximately 25 head, we do our own shots on all of them and farrier work on the minis. we pay a farrier to do the 8 big ones because of the shoes and because they are ridden... with the minis, just trimming, we err on the side of caution, taking off too little rather than too much - as our farrier told us, you can always take off a little more or trim more often, but you can't put it back on! he taught us after our very pregnant mini mare kicked him you-know-where :new_shocked: and he decided he didn't want to do the little ones any more. well, i TOLD him she was getting uncomfortable and cranky, and not to pick her back legs up very far...

at this point our 17-year-old does most of the mins to pay for her car insurance and she does an awesome job, which saves our bad backs. when she leaves i guess we will have to buckle down and do them ourselves... at which point we will have to finish modifying the "trimming table" my husband built, after reading in a magazine about a farrier who was in a horrific car accident and could not longer crouch or bend over... this farrier built a table that flipped over so that it was straight up and down, strapped the horse to it and then flipped it back to where they were laying down and he could trim without bending over. it actually works great once we get them flipped up on their sides - with their legs in hobbles trimming is quite quick and easy - except we can't figure out from the pictures how he kept them from slipping when flipping the table... so for now we have parked it and are letting ideas percolate while our daughter is around to trim.

 

[horsehug]

I do both my own shots and hooves, and have for most of my 19 years in minis.

Susan O.

 

[~Karen~]

Wow, a trimming table to flip horses and lay them down.... who would have thought! That would be a sight to behold. :~)

We have always given the over the counter part of thevaccinations ourselves (well, husband anyways, I tried once, but I chickened when it took a little umph to get the needle in and the way you pop it in there, I decided, no way for me.) the rest, the vet steps up to bat.

As for farrier, nope, never have done it, not trained to do it, and that will be left up to the farrier unless I ever decide to go to school for it. There are so many things to know when trimming and filing.

~Karen

 

[scr]

Ok, a few more questions to those of you that do your own vaccines.....

What brand/type do you buy? For example there are VARIOUS type of the Fort Dodge's FLUvac Inovator (4, 5 6 way) Do you ask your vet for advice?

Also, do you buy ONLY what you need right then or do you buy a year's worth (to get a quantity discount)? I"m assuming they have to be in a refridgerator to be kept cooled but can they loose potency over 6 months?

Thanks to everyone's wonderful replies so far!!!

 

[Filipowicz Farm]

I asked my vet if I bought my shots and needles would he give the shots. He charges me a farm call and $5.00 for each shot he gives and also taught me how to give shots in case I need to. This has saved us alot of money. My husband just starting trimming some of our brood mares and the next trimming the farrier does them. This has cut back on a farrier bill and vet bill.The farrier showed him how to do it.

 

[PondlakeMinis]

I give all the vaccines to the horses. I buy mine from United vet in Minnesota. After I order, they come the next day packed in ice and I transfer to the refrigerator. I usually buy Fort dodge vaccines. I am excited about getting the nasal strangles from them as they now stock that. I also give rabies to my horses as they can be shipped to wis. cost of rabies is only $3.00 per shot. Pneumobort comes to $10 which if I buy from my vet is $17.50. With as many horses that are at my place (60) the cost savings for everyone is great--plus the time saved.

I pay my farrier for all work done. I know nothing about that.

cyndia

 

[normajeanbaker]

I am a Farrier, so I do all the foot work here. We only have 7 Mini's here, so the vet does all the shots. I can give a shot, so the vet has me do any shots that anyone may need that would cost me a small fortune to have her do everytime(ie, my mare gets allergy shots and if I had to pay her a farm call everytime she was due for a shot, I'd be having to rob a bank

: ). I can fully see why people with herds of Mini's do their own shots...if we had anymore then what we do, we'd be doing our own shots as well. The bill isn't THAT bad with only 7 though. Besides, what I am saving by doing my horses feet and not having to pay someone to do that, pays for the vet bill

:

Jen

 

[Gena]

We have always done our own vaccinations (we would do up to 16 horses at a time) and bought our meds from Valley Vet, they use dry ice and are always nice and cool when they arrive. The expiration date is on each med. and they do need to be kept in your refrigerator. I recommend your vet teach you how to vaccinate, or if your friend that is a tech would that would be great! We have always used a farrier, he would come out every 6 to 8 weeks.