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[RC] More Regional Differences? - k s swigartTruman said: Several years ago at one of my rides I used my own vet as the treatment vet. She was a good vet and had vetted one endurance ride prior but had little experience in what to expect at a ride. Of course she didn't bring enough fluids...
I must confess to being startled by this statement,
especially the "of course" part. Since for me, there is no
"of course" about it. Certainly, if I were managing an
endurance ride and were using a treatment vet that didn't
already have experience with the sport and they asked me if
there were anythings that they ought to bring, I would tell
them that they ought to bring more than their stock supply
of IV fluids "just in case."
However, I would be very surprised if, even if I hadn't done
so, that the vet would use up his normal supply. I just
don't see all that many horses being treated with IV fluids
at the rides I go to, so unless they are a bunch of horses
hiding behind trailers that are being given fluids that I
don't know about, the chances of running out of fluids in
these parts is about as rare as hens teeth.
So, am I living in a fantasy land and am just unaware of the
horses being treated at the endurance rides I go to; or this
another one of those "regional differences" in which horses
in the SE (and the other regions that I don't ride in) are
being treated with way more fluids than those out here?
Question for the vets:
a) How much fluids do you bring to a ride?
b) How much fluids do you usually use?
and
c) How much fluids do you give to the horse before you say
"this is enough for the horse to recover on its own?" or
alternatively "This horse needs way more but I have given it
enough for the horse to be sufficiently stable to transport
to a facility that is better equiped to deal with such a
compromised horse?"
It seems to me that if the UF is close enough to go pick up
more fluids, that it is also close enough to take horses
that need that much fluids (a place, I might add, that they
are more likely to have all the facilities needed to best
determine exactly what the horse needs, which may not be
just fluids).
Maybe it is the trained EMT in me ("stablize and transport")
that says that treatment vets at endurance rides are not
supposed to "fix" the problems that horses might encounter
at a ride, they just need to be able to stabilize them well
enough so that they can be taken off-site (which may be
home, but is probably the hospital if the condition is
serious enough) where they can be treated properly in order
to properly recover.
Am I missing something here? The last thing in the world
that I would expect a treatment vet to run out of at an
endurance ride is IV fluids, my home vet carries enough
fluids around with him on a regular basis (just for the
things that he might encounter in the field treating horses
that never leave home) that he would have enough with him to
have treated every horse that I have ever seen treated with
IV fluids at an endurance ride.
And yet Truman says "Of course, she didn't bring enough
fluids."
kat
Orange County, Calif.
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