Pamplemousse Scratched; Out 6 months

[Sightseek]

Originally Posted by cabvmd

As an examining veterinarian for 21 years, my hat and great thanks goes to Dr. Baily and the LA Turf Club Association. She most likely prevented yet another high profile raceday from having a horse get hurt. The job of examining Veterinarian is not easy. You only have short time to perform your exam and determine the soundness of a horse. Having the same veterinarian when ever posssible examine the horse each time it races is key. I remembered the horses I checked from week to week. When I first started in the job the assignments were the same every time a horse raced. Over the years the job climate has changed and there is a shortage of qualified examining veterinarians, forcing racing associations to rely on substitute veterinarians more often. Notes are kept in a master program for each days races so an examiner can go back to the previous starts to see if there has been any changes in the horse, but there is no better way to insure consistant evaluations of these horses than by having the same person examin the horse each time.

When I have recommended a horse be scratched, I have been sworn at, my skills as a veterinarian belittled, but I would rather have been "proved" wrong about any horse a thousand times than be right once. If I had questions about a horse and let it run any way and have something bad happen it would be just terrible. Most of the horses I have sratched pre-race did not race again, or had limited carreers after they had been scratched, meaning I had found some thing significant and the horse was not safe to race.

It is a TOUGH JOB. Thanks for all the Dr. Baily's out there. I hope racing will look to find enough qualifed veterinarians to perform this most important of jobs a the race track and compenstate these professional men and women at a level that reflects their knowledge and importance to the racing industry.

[Cannon Shell]

While Dr. Bailey should be commended for a job well done, where the hell was the assistant trainer? You would think that they would have at the very least caught this issue before the examining vet. I mean it is only a Grade 1 Derby prep...

[cabvmd]

Dear Cannon Shell,

I totally agree with you. Many of these cases they just do not know or many times the people involved just do not what to know.

The type of race is important as well as you state, A Grade 1 Prep. These young horses are the most vunerable. They are competitors, willing to over extend themselves because of their class and determination. The horses that have never won a race even after many tries or older horses that know how to take care of themselves and will not try to the point that they would hurt themselvses.

We examining veterinarians get the line from the trainers "This is a stakes horse how can there be anything wrong with him/her. I would not run if I did not think the horse could win"

As I said, these are the most difficult of cases.

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by cabvmd

Dear Cannon Shell,

I totally agree with you. Many of these cases they just do not know or many times the people involved just do not what to know.

The type of race is important as well as you state, A Grade 1 Prep. These young horses are the most vunerable. They are competitors, willing to over extend themselves because of their class and determination. The horses that have never won a race even after many tries or older horses that know how to take care of themselves and will not try to the point that they would hurt themselvses.

We examining veterinarians get the line from the trainers "This is a stakes horse how can there be anything wrong with him/her. I would not run if I did not think the horse could win"

As I said, these are the most difficult of cases.

I think that the examining vets have a very hard job as they only see the horse in question when they are in. I just thought that it was kind of embarrassing for the barn that the examining vet had to be the one to pick up a tendon on a high profile Derby horse. Doesn't anybody check legs in that barn?

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by Cardus

When a horse has a tendon lesion, how much different does it look from a horse with an uninjured tendon? What stands out?

It is usually thicker or has a bump on the tendon if it was really serious. If you are paying attention, you will find it.