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 I Prefer to Live in Fantasy Land
Posts: 64864
    
Location: In the Hills of Texas | I'm very sorry for your loss.
As far as sueing. I'm old and I've never known someone that sued a vet win.
I have a vet that is known for colic surgeries and he told me that the biggest reason horse's don't make it with colic cases, is vets and horse owners wait too long to do the surgery. I had a horse that was colicing and I had him at the vets within an hour. He felt he was doing everything he could and I felt he was just masking the pain. I had him at a colic surgery facility within in six hours and he was on the table at hour 7. His surgery was successful but he was put down months later because he wouldn't heal. When they opened him up they found his liver was bad and when they biopsied it, it came back he had a chronic liver disease.
Horses are way too fragile for as big as they are.
If all of your horses had a reaction to the Moxidectin it sounds like they could have been full of worms. Did they say the impaction was caused from a parasite overload?
Prayers that the Good Lord mends your broken heart. I also would be looking for another job as I'm sure it's hard to go and work like nothing happened.
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 Swiffer PIcker Upper
Posts: 4015
Location: Four Corners Colorado | Nevertooold - 2014-12-20 10:16 AM I'm very sorry for your loss.
As far as sueing. I'm old and I've never known someone that sued a vet win.
I have a vet that is known for colic surgeries and he told me that the biggest reason horse's don't make it with colic cases, is vets and horse owners wait too long to do the surgery. I had a horse that was colicing and I had him at the vets within an hour. He felt he was doing everything he could and I felt he was just masking the pain. I had him at a colic surgery facility within in six hours and he was on the table at hour 7. His surgery was successful but he was put down months later because he wouldn't heal. When they opened him up they found his liver was bad and when they biopsied it, it came back he had a chronic liver disease.
Horses are way too fragile for as big as they are.
If all of your horses had a reaction to the Moxidectin it sounds like they could have been full of worms. Did they say the impaction was caused from a parasite overload?
Prayers that the Good Lord mends your broken heart. I also would be looking for another job as I'm sure it's hard to go and work like nothing happened.
I was thinking this or an overdose. It is very easy to overdose. I tape every horse before I used it. If I had a scale I would weight them. | |
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The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
| runningincircles - 2014-12-20 8:27 AM
cheryl makofka - 2014-12-20 12:05 AM
My first thought is
You are just as responsible for her being missed at the beginning when you initially clocked in.
I honestly would have brought her to work spoke with my manager and asked for the day off to be with horse while examined.
I am a very pushy person when it comes to my horse, so I would have been insisting on seeing blood work and being there every step. I also wouldn't have left the barn at night.
If my horse was still getting banamine the day of, she wouldn't be eating, and she would have stayed. But again this is up to the owner, I am pushy and I would have said I am not taking her home because of said reasons, I would have reviewed her chart and made sure temp was being done.
This is when I would have asked for a more in depth description of what was going on CBC, lytes, a breakdown of WBC panel, temp, etc.
When the surgical option came up when it did, I personally would have declined as I have had multiple discussions with my vet, and gathered my own information. A good surgical candidate which yours was not has a 25% survival rate.
Why would I ask for the day off? The mare was at work with me and it's m. Job to care for the sick/injured. I paid VERY close attention to her all day. My job is to care for them and report to the vets. That's what I did. I couldn't imagine what care she would have gotten if I wasn't there- working.
I saw bloodwork. Normal on the 16th. Dead on the 18th. If you take a horse to the vet and it stays overnight with 2 gets that have to stay there all night for other reasons, your not going to trust them to care for your animal over the course of 12 hours? If that's the case you need to find a better vet. Obviously i do to.
I'm the one that wrote 90% of what was on her chart. I did all of her vitals checks. Every time she was down plus 4 times a day. The mare never had a fever. Yes. She had a lot of banimine but I have seen minor infections break banimine. This mare was FULL of infection. By the time she was dying and they did another round of bloodwork that proved that, they were actually doing their jobs but it was too late.
I don't know where you are getting your surgery numbers from but for our clinic, that is very incorrect. I have seen 2 of probably 50 surgeries not make it. 1 had nothing to do with the surgery. As I said, they are an amazing vet clinic and get referred emergency colics from all over. They dropped the ball huge and did not care about my mare.
Now you have given more info, but that still wouldn't change my opinion.
The other reason I wouldn't work thst day is I would not be giving all the other horses my full attention when I know mine is not in good shape. By continuing to work it poses an ethical dilemma.
Colic surgery the stats are from my vet who is an equine surgeon. The stats include the horses who survived surgery that go home and die within the first week due to complications of the surgery.
Blood work may look normal but comparing to the previous blood work can tell a different story, my vet runs a CBC every 4 hrs. A drop in hgb even though still normal can tell you different things depending on the horse history ie horse was dehydrated or horse has internal bleeding. A shift in WBC production can also give information such as if it is inflammation, bacterial or viral or if the infection is acute or chronic.
As for me staying the night, I trust my vet entirely but I am staying for me and my horse. I can do a lot of praying at her side. Again this is my preference.
I don't understand what you are saying when you say YOU HAVE SEEN MINOR INFECTIONS BREAK BANAMINE
In your situation you are the only one who knows how the clinic works. You probably have the right to be mad.
You do need to ask yourself by being mad what is it going to accomplish, yes I would discuss with the manager my concerns in a civilized manner. I would use the situation as a learning tool, and ask what should have been done, but I would leave it there.
If you decide to sue, you will be forced to dig this up many times. And if this is the best clinic, then when you do need their expertise, they will refuse. Also vets do talk if you sue one, others may decide they don't want to work for you for that reason.
You need to grieve the loss of your horse and yes it sucks, I know myself I have lost 3 over the years one to colic 2 weeks after we cleared the impaction, one due to toxic weed, and one unknown (vet lost liscence due to this horse due to falsifying federal documents I never lodged a complaint or told anyone found out from a different vet said vet lost his liscence). This had been over a span of 20 years and I still think about each horse weekly and try to figure out what I could have done to have the outcome different. I don't blame any of the vets.
I am sorry for your loss
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Cold hands and Warm Heart
Location: oklahoma | Sorry for your loss.
Btw, she said in the op that her intent isn't to sue. | |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 678
Location: Canada | First off I'm sorry for your loss!!!!
If your horses all reacted to the moxidectin I'd be concerned about WHY they all went down. Something is wrong there whether it's an overload of parasites or if the dosing was incorrect, or if the batch was bad. One horse having an issue I could see but all five having an issue at the same time is rare so I'd be investigating the reasons. Did you do a fecal count before de-worming?
As for the vet, they always say hindsight is 20/20. Personally if I felt that my horse wasn't getting the attention it deserved I'd be speaking to the vet's, or the vet's supervisor, and if that didn't satisfy me I'd be putting her in a trailer and taking her elsewhere.
There isn't much you can do now. Suing won't get you anywhere especially since it's not neglect. They gave her fluids, banamine, palpated her, and she was examined so she was looked at and her pain was managed. You're just not happy with how they treated her and that's certainly your right to feel that way.
You need to actively start searching for another job. You are understandably angry for your loss and don't trust them so you need to find another place of employment before that festers into resentment. Until then you need to be professional and do your job to the best of your abilities.
This is a crappy situation and I'm sorry you lost your horse. I hope you are able to find a new job soon and try to start putting this behind you. | |
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  The Original Cyber Bartender
Location: Washington | Nevertooold - 2014-12-20 9:16 AM I'm very sorry for your loss.
As far as sueing. I'm old and I've never known someone that sued a vet win.
I have a vet that is known for colic surgeries and he told me that the biggest reason horse's don't make it with colic cases, is vets and horse owners wait too long to do the surgery. I had a horse that was colicing and I had him at the vets within an hour. He felt he was doing everything he could and I felt he was just masking the pain. I had him at a colic surgery facility within in six hours and he was on the table at hour 7. His surgery was successful but he was put down months later because he wouldn't heal. When they opened him up they found his liver was bad and when they biopsied it, it came back he had a chronic liver disease.
Horses are way too fragile for as big as they are.
If all of your horses had a reaction to the Moxidectin it sounds like they could have been full of worms. Did they say the impaction was caused from a parasite overload?
Prayers that the Good Lord mends your broken heart. I also would be looking for another job as I'm sure it's hard to go and work like nothing happened.
I agree with the whole post but especially what I highlighted. | |
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 Expert
Posts: 3815
Location: The best kept secret in TX | Sorry for your loss...  | |
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 Worst.Housekeeper.EVER.
Location: Missouri | I am so sorry for your loss. 
As a side note, I worked as an assistant at a large mixed-animal practice for years. All of our pets received excellent care, especially in ermergency situations, and we did not clock out to care for them (if it was during our work hours.) Kind of a perk of the job...
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