06/04/2026
It’s that time of year! Let’s talk about a plan for equine emergencies. 🚨
We strive at HHVC to provide the highest quality of care for our patients. We provide emergency services for our active patients. What constitutes an active patient?
🐎Equine patients with a valid veterinary-client-patient-relationship (VCPR). This means we’ve examined your horse and provided routine services within the last 12 months. 💉
🛑 A horse *does not* qualify for a current VCPR or access to emergency services if:
🚩If it has been more than 12 months since we last evaluated the horse for an annual examination and performed routine services.
🚩If the only time we’ve treated the patient in the last 12 months was during an emergency or urgent care issue that our veterinarians saw out of good will because we truly do care about your horses health.
🚩If we’ve only dispensed non-prescription over the counter items (such as certain vaccines, ointments, etc) without seeing the patient within 12 months.
For patients located more than 35-40 minutes from HHVC owners should have a plan in place to haul their horse to the clinic if asked to do so. This plan should be readily executable to ensure your horse is seen in a timely manner.
🎉 Several commercial haulers are located in the area who can haul for those who do not have a truck and trailer at their disposal. Our office is happy to provide a list ahead of time for you to have available should something happen. There are also several central Indiana horse facebook groups that have haulers posted.
🚑 WEEKENDS AND HOLIDAYS we are part of a cooperative emergency services. This is a shared emergency service for central Indiana equine current patients. Participants are HHVC, Hillview, Midwest Equine, Skillman Equine and KCK Equine. Patients with a valid VCPR can receive services. Due to the large area we are servicing this is a HAUL IN service. Exceptions can be made by the doctor on call. Remember this is ONE doctor on call for Five clinics! Sometimes we may refer you to Purdue if we feel that your horse needs immediate advanced care- example colic surgery…
💔 There is a dwindling number of equine practitioners at an alarming rate. This greatly affects available emergency veterinarians in the industry, these guidelines were established so we can provide prompt and reliable care for our clients and patients. We are hopeful that having good guidelines will help encourage more veterinary students to become equine doctors and help sustain our profession. 🩺
🐎❤️ We would love to help every animal in every situation, unfortunately that’s neither a sustainable expectation. We are unwaveringly committed to being there for our patients, and can continue to do so in cooperation with owners who are prepared. We recognize that this process may be challenging for some but encourage all horse owners to have a viable emergency fund and plan in place.
For the love of horses,
HHVC
*Special thanks to JVC for posting their policy and my techs for reminding me to post our policy as well.
