When I lived out in Rosedale with my family, we had several horses. Unfortunately when you have any living animal, you are going to need a veterinarian, not only for routine health maintenance but for any emergencies that may arise.
When we first bought each one of our horses, we called out the vet from Panama Equine Hospital to come out to our house to check the horses’ teeth, to worm them and just to make sure that they were generally healthy. This is a step we should have done before buying the horse, but we always did do things a little backwards! Also, it was hard to resist that sweet horse face and those chocolate brown eyes….
I found it very convenient [and kind of cool!] that the vet would come out to your house on a house call [horse call?]. We didn’t have a horse trailer at the time so we were unable to take the horses to Panama Equine Hospital on Taft Highway. So then, here comes the vet in his or her vet truck, sort of like a miniature traveling veterinarian hospital. The truck was full of all kinds of fascinating medical instruments and medications which made you think that your horse was in good hands.
Fortunately whenever we needed the vet, they did come. After my mare foaled, I wanted the vet to come out to make sure that everything was ok and that the foal was healthy, so in the middle of the night, the vet did come out. There were no problems with the birth but in my inexperience, I needed the piece of mind that a professional veterinarian could give me.
The price to have the vet come out to your house is more than if you take your horse TO the vet hospital but without a horse trailer at that time, it was an expense we could not avoid. The prices that Panama Equine Hospital charged us seemed fair and were in line with any of the other veterinarians in town. If you have several friends that have horses, I suppose it would be possible for the vet to come out on a group call to take care of all your horses’ and friends horses at a lower rate though I would ask when calling them on the phone before assuming there would be a price break. This was something we did when we called out the horseshoer but not something we tried with the vet.
All in all, I would recommend the Panama Equine Hospital as a place to get your horses competent medical care.
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