Ridecamp: Re: [RC] Vets staying after ride

> Well, here is a question I have wanted to ask for a little bit.  Years
ago,
> at a ride, my mare tied up.  We chose aggressive treatment to mimimize
> damage and blood was drawn ASAP to be analyzed later.  The ride vets
started
> IV fluids and I think by 5 that day, we had two five liter bags into her.
> Horse never showed any symptoms or seemed very distressed.  At 5, the head
> vet told me that I either needed to haul the horse home (over 2 hours) and
> find my regular vet to continue treatment, or haul the hour to U. C.
Davis,
> as all the vets were going out to dinner and leaving.  Not knowing if I
> could get a local vet, I chose to haul to Davis, where they continued
fluids
> all night and I picked the horse up two days later.  Due to immediate
> treatment, she was fine and has done 50;s afterward. However, someone once
> told me that if a vet started treatment on a horse, they could not abandon
> it?  Any comments on this?

Since the vets gave you two options for continuing treatment, I don't think
"abandoning" is an appropriate description.  At best, treatment at an
endurance ride site is emergency intervention.  It isn't any different than
an MD at a sporting event who likely is not your regular doc, but who
provides emergency aid on-site until you can be safely transported to a
hospital or to your own doctor.  In the case that you describe, it sounds
like your mare was stable for transport, so the docs felt free to refer you.
Had your mare been thrashing around on the ground in crisis and they had
walked off to dinner, that might be another matter.

To go one step further, if a horse should have monitoring or treatment
beyond what is feasible under a tree in the middle of nowhere, the docs
would be negligent NOT to pass the case on to an equipped facility, as soon
as the horse is sufficiently stable to transport.  Referring to a facility
is not the same thing as abandoning the case.  In fact, it is far more
responsible than having a king-sized ego and thinking that they can do
better than anyone else.  Thank heavens those egos have not been in the
majority among endurance vets.

Heidi


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