 |
Re: [RC] Deaths - the list - Barbara McCraryI'm another one of those people who have a demanding curiosity to know "what happened", and I've never been to vet school. However, I've been the "family vet" here on our ranch for over 50 years, and I want to know what's going on with all our animals. This morning, I just caught up one of our cows that has "woody tongue". Her tongue was so swollen and stiff that she couldn't eat or drink. One learns a lot of things about animal health, if one just lives with it long enough. I'm with Susan G. on this one. Barbara ----- Original Message ----- From: "Susan Garlinghouse" <suendavid@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: "Jim Holland" <lanconn@xxxxxxx>; "Ridecamp" <ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Tuesday, February 18, 2003 7:35 PM Subject: Re: [RC] Deaths - the list 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 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
|