cameras

[terre <tobytrot@bigfoot.com>]

from a previous (Boggs)discussion:

> >GREAT IDEA...let's ALL show up at a BIG Arab show with cameras in hand.

Hi there,
One thing though guys...
What if someone had a video of all those horses at the Pan Ams in the
treatment tent. As it was, the public who saw all the horses on IVs were
quite upset with what was going on. I must say that if I wasn't already
in the sport that would have turned me off endurance pretty quick.
I'd say we have some problems of our own.
Kerri-Jo


	OK, but think about this for a moment:  I think one of the reasons we are
seeing an increase in the numbers of horses treated at rides with IV fluids
is because the vets have learned to be far more aggressive in treating
horses with metabolic problems.  In other words, it is medically better to
run fluids into a 'compromised' animal--not one in life-threatening danger,
but merely more dehydrated than we like--than to wait for the horse to
drink over the next several hours.  I know that many of the horses treated
at the PAC were not in serious trouble--the vets essentially gave fluids to
all horses pulled for metabolic reasons, rather than wait and see if they
deteriorated to the point of NEEDING treatment.  I think this the the
current "best standard of care".  Even at smaller rides, I have seen vets
give fluids to metabolic pulls that were a long way from life-threatening
danger--to help the horse as much and as soon as possible, and perhaps also
to give the rider a 'heads-up' about their practices.  Early treatment with
IV fluids is probably very beneficial to any horse with a metabolic
problem.  Should we discontinue this practice, and let the horses take
their chances, because the IVs don't "look good to the public"?
	Just another of those pesky ethical/political questions.....

Terre


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