Question for Fellow BO/BM's - post-op care

I was just wondering what other Barn Managers or Owners charge customers for post-operative recovery services such as medicine administration, cold/hot therapies, hand-walking, bandage changing, special accommodations, etc.

In the past I have not charged for the occasional times I have been asked to give medicine with food or clean and Betadine a wound. However, I have a boarding horse returning from a surgical intervention this week which will require 6 weeks of stall rest, a variety of wound care procedures on a daily basis and special handling/accommodations. Prior to his transport to the hospital we were doing twice daily cold water therapies and administering a medicine regime over a ten day period in the owner's absence. This resulted in approximately 45 minutes extra work time per day on the horse as the owner was unable to provide care for the horse.

Our boarding agreement states that there will be a charge for additional services but I have never had to bill for post-operative care and would welcome any input you might have based on experiences at your barn.

Also, I am not too keen on changing bandages following complicated surgery and feel the owner should do that personally. Do you require your customers handle that or do you do it for them?

We've never had to provide post-op care to that sort of extent, but I would certainly charge for it. Just as a vet would charge for the extra time spent on those types of things. In the event that a situation like this arose, I'd recommend that the owner be as involved as possible. I'd be willing to provide whatever services they need us to provide and would recommend letting us provide the services if the owner is barely knowledgeable enough to tack up their horse and ride it, pick it's feet, etc. If the owner is a bit more adept at horse handling, then I'd simply ask the owner if they want to do it, or would like for us to for an extra (whatever sounds reasonable).

An extra 45 minutes out of the day is an extra 45 minutes that could have gone to training another horse, giving a lesson, fixing something around the farm or anything else that brings in income. I'm all for going over and above our boarders' expectations, but certain things like medical care falls under the same category as training, exercise riding, grooming or any other form of service.

If medicine is given in the feed and you do not charge an extra fee for giving supplements and the like I can not see charging for that.

If you are required to do wound care, etc then I for sure think you should charge for it.
Figure out how much your time is worth and charge it that way.

I would think the horse owner would take care of most of that though.

We charge for administration of injectable meds, not oral. As for post operative care, it depends on how much needs to be done. For castrations (open) we charge $6 daily for scrubbing drainage off the legs, hand walk etc. For daily changing of bandages (bone chip removal etc), we charge exact amount for materials (or owner can provide) such as gauze and vetwrap, plus $8.00 for the actual work. It may sound like a lot, but consider that you must remove old stuff, clean surgical site, re-bandage and usually hand walk. The boarder is also paying for your expertise, which is not cheap. I'd bill out exact cost of special bedding required (if any) plus a small handling fee for your trouble. It might seem like penny pinching, but you have to deal with the stress of having apost surgical animal, and that is worth something, plus the owner gets peace of mind.
Good luck!