Another Rspca Cock Up!

[BJean]

It is not normal practice, and a lot of vets are not au fait with shooting horses - although I presume the RSPCA vet would be.

Yep

I had a vet come out to shoot one of my horses

and when they "couldn't find" the vet inhouse gun

I offered them one of mine (shotgun or .303) -

and then I had to show them how to use it

Vet needed two .303 shots to bring the foal down (dont want to know .......................)

Edited May 1, 2010 by lilli

[centitout]

I have seen,like Jed,more colic cases than i can remember.Most acute and severe,several resulting in euthanasia.I had a horse that suffered repeated bouts of colic due to worm damage before i bought her,the last one resulted in a twisted bowel before her stomach ruptured.In all cases i have seen,they have sweated,the last one i identified for the owner(they were leasing the paddock at my house) in the early stages and called the vet out,he had impaction colic and even in the very early stage,had light sweating on the neck and behind the elbows.

And a lot of vets do clip the area for an iv injection in a horse,same as they would any other animal being euthanased.

[WoofnHoof]

I've seen enough colics to know they don't all sweat and I've never seen a vet clip a horse in summer coat (which this one definetly was) for an IV. Obviously our experiences are very different.

[centitout]

Different vets,different methods i guess

[casowner]

When my two colts were gelded a couple of months ago they were not clipped at the vein site and my OH said that when my old boy was pts a couple of months ago they didn't shave him either.

[centitout]

My vets sometimes wouldnt,but would if the horse was hairy,or the vein deeper down in the case of a thick necked or fat horse.The newer vet did though as she had a few incidents with losing the vein during small ops requiring anaesthetic or sedation,made it easier to feel/see.

[Jed]

I don't remember any vet I've used clipping a horse for an iv, even the shaggy ones, but I know some do it as a matter or routine.

And those horses with colic who didn't sweat, Woofnhoof, what type of colic was it, how long did it go, and what was the resolution?

I've seen many colics, and I can't remember one not sweating.

Edited May 2, 2010 by Jed

[WoofnHoof]

I don't remember any vet I've used clipping a horse for an iv, even the shaggy ones, but I know some do it as a matter or routine.

And those horses with colic who didn't sweat, Woofnhoof, what type of colic was it, how long did it go, and what was the resolution?

I've seen many colics, and I can't remember one not sweating.

Several mild to moderate colics (cause unknown but suspected impaction mostly treated with walking) didn't sweat, one severe colic suspected impaction/sand colic resolved in a day or so with treatment (drenching, walking and pain relief - no abdo scans availabe) didn't sweat, and of course my fellow who went from moderate to severe in two hours scans showing multiple distended loops senior vet advised that severety indicated surgery if condition didn't improve but didn't recommend it and it resolved overnight (root cause took longer to resolve).

Maybe it depends on whether it's grain associated since grain would raise temp anyway, I know that sweating and pain are usually associated but with those cases though they were definetly showing clear signs of pain and colic (severe agitation, pawing, rolling, restlessness, lack of appetite etc) didn't sweat.

There are also plenty of cases which did sweat but those are the ones I remember which didn't.

If you know that clipping an IV site is not practiced at all times what other signs of IV injection were you referring to in your earlier post?

[Erny]

That story and sequence of events is an RSPCA created catastrophe. Shame on them.

They care about animals? : ..... that's not what they show, IMO.

The staff who work at the shelters and who routinely care, feed etc the animals, I do not include in this. But heck, there's so much the RSPCA has to answer for in terms of their policy and decision making processes and actions.

It's about time the Government struck off the powers they've granted the RSPCA and started by making them legally accountable for their actions. They just seem to be able to walk away from these things so easily - all they have to do is cope with a few public crying and wait until the dust settles, then they move on their merry way and continue as though this sort of thing never happened.

[Danielle]

For horses prone to colic, stress is a factor.

You wouldn't move a colic prone horse to a different location / feed routine / pasture

to monitor it for colic.

Er

great work by the RSPCA vet team yet again.

Like the typical RSPCA storyline, it goes from the bizarre to the ridiculous to tragic

You are absolutely right. Who in their right minds would move a colicy horse to a different pasture? Bloody disgusting. And if she was being "monitored" by a vet, why didnt he see the signs before it was too late? It isnt hard to see if a horse is starting to colic if u know what you are looking for... These people are absolute morons!

RIP Brandy.

[ripbrandy]

To WoofnHoof, who remains very sceptical about the Brandy story, perhaps an open dialogue can clear his assumptions:

Our fencing is standard fencing for North Queensland. We have one section of dog fence, only about 4 metres long, on a property of 190 acres, which is what you keep referring to. This has actually since been amended, but at the time, no problems were ever caused by this fence. In fact, the injury you saw in one of the photos was a cut on her leg which she did when she went down with colic on a previous occasion, and we have a lot of stones and rocks on the property.

Your other concern was her lack of weight gain, which I completely agree. Her weight was still an ongoing issue for us, but her windsucking was so severe, and completely untreatable, as we had tried several methods. If we fed her larger feeds, she would windsuck more, so she benefited from smaller, more regular feeds, and constant grazing or access to hay. She in fact had no front teeth at all from windsucking. Her weight gain was slow, but steady. I will attempt to find the photo I have from when she was seized, to demonstrate the significant weight gain she actually did incur whilst with us. She was extremely poor, and in fact could hardly stand when seized.

Regarding the monthly checks, we live in a remote area, and have nearly 20 horses, cattle, dogs etc. So I have a monthly visit from a mobile vet, for various things each month, and as Brandy was always kept in our house paddock, this is why her progress was monitored with interested from this vet, for no other reason. In fact, her colic had decreased after coming to us, and during the 7 months we had her, we dealt with colic on about 6 occasions successfully. We were not prolonging an ill and unhappy life.

The RSPCA claim they kept me informed of her progress with the vets. They did keep me informed on the Saturday, but on Sunday morning, I called every contact I had at the RSPCA, and got no response at all. It wasn't until I contacted the Bulletin after 3pm to see if they knew anything that they informed me she had been euthanised. This had been a really upsetting end to a day of ignored phone calls.

The reason for the 7-month period waiting for us to be able to adopt Brandy was that there had been a court case going on, in my understanding, which prevented any ongoing action regarding her circumstances until this was resolved. I believe this is the case with most foster care, taking place during the leagl wrangling. Otherwise, of course we would have applied sooner.

Regarding the communication from the shelter with ourselves during this period, it would be fair to state that this was relatively nil. They did not return phone calls, and demonstrated no interest in her welfare. There was no intial explanation of what fostering actually meant, as it was only after this fiasco that they admitted to me that all expenses I incurred for her care should have been covered by the RSPCA. We paid for all of her care, and her feed bill was significant, reaching thousands.

And finally, Michael Beatty's alleged email only further demonstrates the man and the organisation's sheer arrogance to the general public, from whom they rely on every year for millions in donations. In fact, I have spoken on a few occasions to Michael Beatty, and surprisingly, he was actually polite and reasonable when I spoke with him. However, it would appear that his written communication skills are somewhat lacking, which is a shame, considering his role as Media Liasion and Community Relations spokeman.

Siobhan McCabe