Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Darolyn Butler-Dial & Mark Dial
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Steph, John,

I would like you to post the following on ridecamp.  It is long & I wasn't
sure how to break it up.  I know there are questions out there and we might
as well face them.

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September 17, 2003

Dear Fellow Endurance Riders, Ride Managers and Veterinarians,

Please read the following letter that I wrote after the Pan American
Championship in 2001 regarding the loss of my horse DJB Albanet.  Following
this letter will be my observation of my recent loss of DJB Adios at the
2003 Pan American.  On Sunday I was asked by my Team Vet what I felt could
be or could have been done to eliminate this kind of tragedy.  These are my
thoughts and suggestions.

Darolyn Butler-Dial

======================
Regarding:  Pan American Championship 2001
January 24, 2002

Dear Vet Committee,

I have presented a letter to Donna Smith and the O.C. of the 2001 Pan
American games basically assuring them that I am not seeking to blame any
parties for the loss of my mare Albanet, and am essentially releasing them
from such.  However, I do want to share my observation of what may have
happened in this particular instance.

I appreciate the effort of Dr. Mike Foss in trying to assimilate and analyze
what may have happened by gathering information on Alley's trip up to
Vermont, feed and exercise schedule; However, after talking to two well
respected Veterinarians about my suspicions, they encouraged me to share my
personal opinion of what may have happened to her that day.  This
information should be shared and discussed with all Endurance Veterinarians
possible, because I feel that even though it may be a unique situation, it
could possibly happen to another horse some day.

Alley's History.  Alley was 13 years old, she had 8 years of competition,
3500 competition miles, and (14) 100-mile completions to her credit.  In May
1999, at Foxfire Endurance Ride, I was riding Alley in the 100-mile
division.  About the 50-mile point she stopped drinking well on the forest
trail, but would tank up in the nice clear water tank that management
provided at the vet checks.  In fact, she would REALLY tank up... so much
so, that it made her uncomfortable and she was much slower recovering than
her normal self.  I believe her stomach was so full, it gave her a similar
physical feeling that one might get from a gas colic discomfort, except her
stomach was stretched with too much water, not gas.

I continued riding her, but slowed down.  As the water was absorbed, she
felt better and would move out a bit better.  However, on each of the next
loops, this behavior repeated itself.  No drinking on trail, and over
drinking in camp.  We did finish and in top ten, but you could well see that
she wasn't her usual chipper self.  She was not treated by fluids and made a
normal recovery from the ride.

Tevis, July 1999, this behavior actually repeated again.  She was running in
the top twenty... seemingly having a great day.  We came through Michigan
Bluff where she ate & drank well and had a great vet check.  Went on to the
next check and I was feeling on top of the world when we came into it as she
was 100% and going strong.  Then as we walked the long asphalt road lined
with gleaming water tanks of fresh clear water, she started tanking up
again.  By the time I stood in line a few moments at the vet check she was
looking miserable.  Full tummy again???  I didn't click to that.  At Tevis
you're watching for so many other signs of problems... who would guess a
horse had over drunk.   The vets were not crazy about her appearance, but
there was nothing specific enough to pull her and they allowed me to
continue with the warning that if she didn't feel better in first few miles
out of the check to just turn around and come back.

I left Forest Hill and although she felt just a bit sluggish, I felt she
would be ok.  About 5 miles out or so she seemed to slow even more.   She
allowed the horses that I had been traveling with (who later went on to top
fifteen) to move off with no desire to stay with them.  She allowed horses
to catch and pass her without caring.  Since we all know how competitive
these top horses are, I was certainly aware of some sort of serious problem.
Then I started thinking about the Fox Fire Ride and the identical behavior
there.  I simply allowed her to slow down, all the time trying to get her to
eat and drink at the few places available on that stretch of trail.   Was it
a true colic or the "over drinking thing"?  It was a dangerous place to be
debating that.  I decided to lead on foot and keep moving forward, as it
seemed to be closer to go forward than backward.  I didn't realize that
there were no roads or spotters on this stretch at that time.  She never
offered to lie down, just seemed miserable, much like most of us after
Thanksgiving Dinner.  After two hours of walking and leading, she suddenly
seemed better.   A passing rider gave me a bit of grain, which Alley gobbled
up.  A few minutes after that, she was pulling me instead of me pulling her.
I mounted up and rode into the next check amid rumors of us being out on
course "dazed and confused".

She got all A's on her Vet. Check and much to my surprise and many others
who had witnessed the slow down via "radio", skated across the American
River, through the Quarry vet check and finished the ride.

I spent a lot of time thinking about both those performances, but they
didn't repeat themselves at any time in year 2000 so I had pretty well
forgotten about them.  Then after her ordeal, when I talked with Joaquin
(the Venezuelan rider that rode her at Pan Am), I asked about her drinking
during the Pan Am.  As you may know, he was riding a middle of the pack pace
and not racing up front.  He came in at the 55-mile point and he said she
really drank well!  So my feeling is, when she started showing colicky
signs, the vets immediately decided she must be dehydrated and gave her
fluids by nose tube.  There couldn't have been a worse thing to do.

Her stomach was already stretched and full of water and they put more fluids
in.  Then she became really uncomfortable according to the reports I
received.  They may have even gotten reflux, which further alarmed the
treatment veterinarian, but would have been par for the course, if her
stomach were overloaded with fluids.   I'm not really sure of the order of
events from that time on, but I suppose she was put on an IV drip & then
palpated when the eventual fatal injury of a rectal tear occurred.  I feel
if she had not been tubed, and been allowed to keep moving around she would
have worked out the stomach overload she had given herself.  Now I realize
that I am a layman, I understand that its not good manners to second guess a
vet, and that I wasn't there, but, I do know this horse, and considering the
two previous occasions, I strongly suspect this wais what was going on.

Now, the truth is, that none of us well ever really know.  Was it a "gas
colic", or a "water colic", was she dehydrated, or over hydrated?  I just
want the Endurance Veterinarian group to know and consider for future cases,
that this indeed could be the case, and not to immediately assume
dehydration signs mean an empty stomach.  Alley is gone now, but I would
feel better if I know that by her death, some education is garnered and may
prevent a misdiagnosis in future events.

Thanks for hearing me out.   We do really appreciate all the guys give to
the sport.  Thank you.

Riding Forever,

Darolyn Butler-Dial
==============================
Pan American Championship 2003

Fast forward to September 13, 2003.  Once again, I found myself representing
the Central Time Zone Squad.  DJB Rockin' Adios was my mount.  He was 10
years old, and had 3 good years and 1450 miles of endurance competition that
had followed another athletic career.

He was known as a tough horse.  Matter of fact, he sustained a fairly
serious cut to his back cannon bone en route to the 100 Mile Moonlight
Madness ride last January.  He still started, placed 1st in the FEI Division
and was 2nd in B.C.

He ran approximately 600 miles (50's and 100's) from the first of the 2003
season.  He finished 2nd at the 100 Mile Biltmore Challenge in May, only 10
minutes behind Stagg Newman, whom we were running slightly behind at PAC on
September 13.

Adios left home with four other horses destined to run in PAC with Mark Dial
and a wonderful crew on September 2.  The trip up was uneventful and took
about 4-5 days.  The Central Group camped and pastured our horses in good
sized pens about 3 miles from the PAC Venue as the fire danger was
discouraging the riders to actually camp at the final Venue.

Now here is a brief run down of my impression of what may have gone wrong
throughout the next 7 days that may have contributed to the demise of my
wonderful horse.

I arrived by plane on September 7th.  I arrived at the camp to find the
weather quite chilly.  A big change from the 90-degree weather that this
area had been experiencing.  The horses didn't seem to mind too much, but
their bodies had to be struggling to acclimate to this almost freezing
temperature at night compared to the 180 heat index they had just come from
near Houston, Tx.

Experts tell me that the seasonal change from summer to fall is very
difficult on a horse.  In this instance, we had gone from summer to winter
for our southern horses.  I think this was a terrible shock to their
systems.

That afternoon the crew and I saddled up and gave all the horses an easy
hour-plus ride in one of the nearby hay fields.  Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
all were similar temps, and they got a daily ride up to the venue with short
rides on the race trails.  They were fairly conservative rides as all my
horses were still barefooted, (as we keep them most of the time) so we
didn't want to push our luck until we put EquiFlex shoes on them on
Thursday.

Thursday we moved up to the Venue and three of the five horses were shod.
Adios was separated from his traveling buddies due to the countries being
separated.  He objected mightily.  We finally compromised and moved him near
his friends to settle him down.  This emotional upset may have somewhat
contributed to his overall physical condition as well.

Teammate Doug Sandlin/Apache and I seemed to logically pair up for our
training rides on Thursday and Friday.  We had ridden a good deal of
Biltmore together and finished almost tied.  The horses liked each other,
paced well with each other and we thought we would make a good team.  Mike
Campbell and I also talked about our similar pacing and thought we might
also ride some together.

All our horses were getting electrolytes in their feed during the trip and
the days proceeding the race.  They were orally dosed before the start of
the race Saturday morning.

The race started at 6 AM.   We started back in the high teens or twenties
probably.  We were one of the very few who actually stopped for electrolytes
at the first two P- stops on this loop.  I rode with several other Central
Team members and came in shortly behind them at the first Vet Check.  Adios
vetted through in 3 minutes, almost as quickly as we could get to my crew
area, remove the saddle and return to the vet gate.  We passed several
people in the vet check and went out right behind Doug somewhere in the top
ten.  Dr. Jeanne Waldron deemed his gut sounds poor in the initial check,
but he was obsessively eating grass, hay, and mush throughout the check and
on a recheck before departure was called ok to continue.  He was
electrolyted upon leaving.  I should have double electrolyted!

Doug and I rode together that entire loop.  Adios was electrolyted at the P
stops, but should have had more perhaps.  The weather was so cool; this
southern horse was loving the pace and felt as if he could go forever.  Doug
and I were having to hold back both of our horses and allowed four to six
riders to pass us on trail before Vet Check 2.  However, we once again
vetted in in 3 minutes and passed several slower recovering horses.  There
were a couple of pulls as well and we went out in 5/6 position.  Dr. Nancy
Loving was my checking vet and he received a B Gut, but ate continuously in
the check, so I was not concerned.  E-lyted upon leaving.

Note, Central lost Andrea Pace, one of our team riders, to lameness, at that
check, but coincidentally, this horse later had a serious metabolic issue
around 12:00, the same time that close to a dozen of us did at Vet Check #3.
Doug and I left together, but he had been requested to slow down since we
were down to 3 team members, and I opted to ride with other teammate Mike
Campbell for the balance of Loop 3.  Our horses also paced well together at
about the same previous pace that was just shy of 10 miles per hour.

We stopped for water at a "crewless" P-stop, administered e-lytes (which I
think Adios spit out) and continued on.  Lois McAfee had a tack issue and
the other two front runners had slowed down to assist her.  So it was with
some surprised that we actually caught up with them for a short while.  At
about 55 miles or so (6 miles from Vet check 3) Mike's horse suddenly backed
off.  I went on and was surprised to see Lois's horse also wanted to "only
walk" up the hills.  Shortly after that my horse was not displaying his
regular vigor either.  I allowed him to ease up and pick his own pace into
the 3rd check.  We arrived a few minutes behind the front 3, but Adios still
recovered quickly and outvetted Alex Luck's horse, (if I remember
correctly).  His CRI was still not bad, but I could tell he was not
particularly comfortable.  It's really hard to tell sometime, because he had
a terrible nervous habit of pawing vigorously even when he felt fine.  I
returned to my crew area and asked for e-lytes to be administered
immediately, along with some yogurt.

This was a 1-hour hold, so I hoped he would begin to relax, eat and pull out
of what we refer to as the "3rd Quarter Slump".... He continuously drank
throughout the hour, but refused to eat.  I returned for the re-check with
an unimpressive CRI and a horse that didn't look comfortable at all.  He was
pawing more than usual as well.  Time was 2:07 PM.

Dr. M. Tomlinson, with the assistance of two other voting vets called the
day for him and we proceeded to grassy yard near the hospital barn for a
check up.  Unfortunately, Doug's horse had gone into a full-blown colic
situation about 30 minutes earlier, and Mike was also pulled shortly after
me.  Two other Team members, Karron Goodman (m) and Shelly Bridges (L) also
retired there.   Yes, we did think this was highly coincidental that there
was so many metabolic pulls of our southern/heat acclimated horses.

My feeling is that all of us should have given a ton more electrolytes.  I
felt like I was giving about what I give at home, but in retrospect, perhaps
not.  Maybe the cool weather fooled us all into thinking that we didn't't
need to e-lyte quite so often, or perhaps the dry climate caused a metabolic
sapping of fluids that we are not use to.

Most of the treatment vets were very busy with Doug's horse, but a couple of
them wondered among the other pulls, checking membranes, and temps.  My
horse had a temp of 102, so one of the vets suggested giving him oral
electrolytes.  What was I thinking....???  I should have refused; insisting
that the horse had been drinking and if he perceived a problem, let's just
go ahead and put him on an IV drip.

However, as most of us do, I didn't question his wisdom and allowed him to
insert the nasal tube, saw a bit of reflux, which again should have been a
warning sign that the stomach did have water in it, and then watched as he
attempted to pump in close to a gallon of fluids.

Adios objected strenuously, and was actually caving in a bit in back as the
last fluids went down.  A friend led him a few steps away and he immediately
cringed and "self-refluxed".  Water and mucous shot out of his mouth and
nose.   The friend yelled at Mark and I, we walked him once around
Stephanie's house and he was trying his best to go down.  It hit me then
what had happened.  Déjà vu!!!  The same thing that had happened to Albanet
was happening again. I quickly found Dr. Foss and explained what I thought
was happening.  He roared into action as he inserted the tube once more to
reflux the offending liquid.  He also gave him a shot of torbagesic (sp) and
Adios quieted for a moment.

It is my humble opinion, that irreparable damage was done to the stomach at
the time the initial fluids were given by nose tube.  Other medical
professionals concur that if the stomach was extremely stretched at that
time, the outside lining could have been damaged to the point that the horse
entered a slow downward spiral.

All decided he would go in the treatment barn and receive an IV drip.  The
time was approximately 2:30 PM.  Dr. Matt Frazier had just arrived and then
took over his treatment.  I truly believe he did everything in his knowledge
and power to reverse the direction that Adios was taking.

Even though he was becoming well hydrated, Adios still required a pain
relieving shot about every 30-40 minutes.  By 5:30 PM he had received 24
liters of fluid and numerous shots.  He finally seemed anxious to eat grass,
hay or whatever we offered, and he was allowed to leave the barn area and
graze a bit.   At 6:00, since he was showing lots of interest in grazing and
moving around, all of us felt he was "out of the woods" and after a couple
more hours of observation he was hauled back up to the main venue.

He was put in his pen with hay and mush, but showed no interest. By 10:30 or
so he was returned to the med barn and received another reflux as fluids had
actually started to run out of his nose on their own.  Not good!  The next
4-5 hours were a blur of more IV fluid drip, more refluxing, and more pain
shots.  Blood work had been done several times during the day and the
Doctors did their best to correct the deficiencies, which at once time was
his Potassium level.

At approximately 3:00 A.M. they did another reflux, this time almost a
gallon of fluid came out, and I knew things were getting bad.  Finally near
4:00 AM they did a rectal, he seemed a bit dry and they decided to
administer a stool softener to see if they could get the guts moving and
stop the build up in the stomach.  I believe that was the final straw to his
poor stomach.  He went down twice, and I believe it was one of those times
that the stomach ruptured, as when he arose he was calmer, but also very
shocky.

The decision was made to haul to a Portland surgery center and Mark, Adios
and I arrived there at around 7:30 AM Sunday morning.  He was walking, but
in serious shock.  He was sweating profusely.  Upon examination the Dr.
pronounced a rupture, she assumed a gut rupture at that point, but said she
would do surgery anyway if we liked.  While she was prepping him, he went
into a final shock state and fell.  He was helped along immediately.  The
autopsy revealed a ruptured stomach.

I take full responsibility for putting Adios in that race.  I take full
responsibility for depleting his chemical balance to the point that he did
not feel good.  So, why have I gone into such graphic detail?  It would be
much more comfortable to grieve quietly in privacy.  However, I strongly
believe that both of the horses you have read about here would be alive
today had they not received nasal fluids.  I believe both those horses would
have easily recovered with a fluid IV drip, or perhaps just a couple of
hours of rest and a regular dosage of endurance electrolytes.   To honor two
glorious horses (and perhaps others) that have lost their lives to this
seemingly small mistake, please take the suggestions below into your heart
and memory.

*       If you are the rider, you need to be aware of the water intake that
your horse has had.  If he has been drinking well at all, insist on an IV
Drip (not nasal tubing) if your horse is not right, by a little or a lot.
*
*       If you are crew and you rider's horse ends up with a "treatment
case" discourage the use of nasal fluids.
*
*       If you are a Ride Manager, talk over pre-race what kind of treatment
the veterinarian will be using.  Discourage nasal tubing.
*
*       If you are a Veterinarian, please, please think twice before you
nasal tube compromised endurance horses with electrolytes, oil or any other
fluids.

It is heartbreaking that we have to learn these lessons by the death of
these two horses, however, stomach rupturing is becoming more and more
common with the advent of more autopsies.  I think this will be one easy
trend to stop.

I might add two additional suggestions.

(1) Implemented the use of machine tested blood chemistry and electrolyte
analysis during a race to see what the horses are doing.  If a rider is able
to see the deficiencies during a ride, they can correct it then, and will
know

Darolyn Butler-Dial & Mark Dial


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