Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Regarding the proposal that every horse that dies at a ride should be
necropsied---I agree with Jim that such agreement should be included on the
liability waiver, with maybe the penalty for refusal being loss of points
for the entire year or some such.

As for payment---I can only speak for myself, but if I were vetting a ride,
and a horse died on my "watch", it would drive me totally nuts *not* to know
what else might have been going on inside.  It does potentially cost a lot
of money to take tissue samples for lab analysis, but it seems to me that
the majority of diagnosis of gut torsions, lipomas, ulcers, aneurysms and so
on can be made with just a sharp knife and a little time, and further
analysis would very rarely be necessary.  It doesn't seem unreasonable to
ask one of the ride vets to perform a quick necropsy on site, especially if
some help were available from any other willing hands.

No, it isn't pretty.  Yes, it is probably very upsetting for an already
upset owner to watch (and I would suggest them not watching), although the
possibility of knowing that "this wasn't your fault" might be a strong
mediating factor.  I know speaking only for myself and with only one
exception, I necropsy every one of my own animals that have died, if only to
find out what might have been missed, treated differently, prevented, or to
protect my other animals.  I'll bet every other vet here does so as well.

As for site contamination, every large animal vet knows how to quickly and
neatly put a carcass back together again sufficiently for neat removal (we
have to do it all the time for cattle).

I dunno, maybe I have a bad case of New Almost-a-Vet Enthusiasm and I'll be
a lot less likely to volunteer vet services ten years from now.  All I know
is that a group of two senior vet students can jump onto a Holstein carcass
and have it necropsied, thoroughly examined and put back together again in
less than 30 minutes.  If it's really cold out and Friday afternoon...then
we can get it done in about 15!!! <vbg>

JMO.

Susan G



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