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RE: [RC] Gut Sounds low score - Susan E. Garlinghouse, D.V.M.

 

Shannon, it sounds to me like you did everything fine and had a good ride, despite the Cs on guts.  A few things to mull over…

 

Was it the same vet that gave the Cs as later gave the As?  Different vets have slightly different criteria, and what counts as a C to one vet may count as a B, or an A- to another.

 

At the time of the C score, was the horse happy, eating, perky and looking around?  Peeing, pooping, well hydrated?  Gut sounds are a cyclical thing, and can be a bit quiet for a few seconds, or even a few minutes, then go right back to chugging along happily gugling---no pathology anywhere in sight, it’s just the vet might have caught him in between cycles.

 

Was the vet check fairly busy at the time?  If things are backed up, I may spend less time listening than if there aren’t ten horses in line.  I won’t let a horse go if I don’t hear GI motility at some level, but if I have a lot of horses to look at, plus caught your horse on a ‘quiet’ cycle at that particular moment, then I might give him a C or a B, whereas if I listened for a good minute or two, I might grade him a bit higher.

 

Was the vet fairly new at vetting endurance rides?  It takes awhile to get a feel for who’s okay and who isn’t, and if the vet has only vetted a few rides and still isn’t totally comfortable with it, they might tend to grade on average a bit lower than another vet might.  

 

It’s not a bad idea for you to get yourself a good stethoscope (something a bit better than the ones that typically equip a P&R check), have a vet or an experienced rider show you where the four abdominal quadrants are to listen to, and get familiar with what your horse sounds like when you know all is well.  Then listen at other times---when your horse is working hard and maybe pretty tired, after or during trailering, etc.  It doesn’t take too long to get a feel for what’s normal.  There’s a lot more to listening to GI sounds than just presence (ie, a colicky horse getting ready to develop a torsion often has gut sounds going a mile a minute), but you can learn a lot about taking care of *your* horse by learning his normal gut sounds.  If nothing else, it’s a lot more likely you will know when something ISN’T right, whether there’s a vet there to verify it or not.

 

Congrats on the good finishes, sounds like you had a good day with a happy, healthy horse. J

 

Susan Garlinghouse, DVM

 


Replies
Re: [RC] Gut Sounds low score, Chris Paus