Making decisions for the Horse Flashcards
Which horses switch careers?
- Off the Track Thoroughbreds (OTTB) most common horse to have a significant career change (high earning horses -> breeding stock)
- working ranch horse are often switched to other western disciplines
What retraining needs to be done for OTTB?
- trained to run in a circle to the left
- complete “re-training” required when racing career ends
What new career paths are there for OTTB?
hunter, jumper, dressage, barrel racing, ranch work, pony club, polo
How are OTTB acquired?
- direct racing connect
- resale
- non-profit aftercare facility
- action/kill pen
What are options for horses that require a reduced workload due to age, illness, or injury?
- retirement
- lower level of work/performance
- sell
- donate
- o’s may ask for your advice
- definitive diagnosis will help define the best decisions for the horse
What are good retirement plans for a horse?
- kid horse
- companion animal (for another horse or person)
- equine therapy
- retirement or rescue farms
What must happen during euthanasia?
- euthanasia method must cause immediate unconsciousness
- horse must not regain consciousness
- reflex movements may occur
- death may take several minutes to occur
reasons for euthanasia?
- illness, injury, age, behavior/safety, economics
Methods of euth in horses?
- lethal injection
- intrathecal lidocaine injection
- captive bolt (penetrating or followed by pithing)
- gun shot
What is pentobarbitol?
- barbiturate acting on the CNS
- controlled substance
- toxic to scavengers
How does pentobarbitol work?
- binds gaba receptors -> CNS depression
- inhibits glutamate -> nerve depolarization in voltage activated calcium currents
- loss of respiration, then brain dead in 73-261 secs, heart beat stops, brainstem reflexes stop, ECG activity will be the last to go
Process of pentobarbital use in horses?
- catheter, 2 long extension sets
- sedate
- dose
- stand back!
- rapid injection
- unpredictable reflexes
- agonal breaths
- caution in compromised horses
How are KCl & Mg salts used in euthanasia for horses?
- animal needs to be anesthetized prior in injection to be considered humane
- powder is dissolved in warm water & rapidly injected IB
- not a controlled substance, not environmentally toxic
- KCl: cardiotoxic, colonic spasms
- MgCl, MgSO4: suppression of neural activity
How does intrathecal lidocaine work for euthanasia in horses?
- 2% lidocaine hydrochloride administered at the atlanto-occipital space under general anesthesia
- direct anesthetic effect on neural structures
- halts brainstem function (breathing stops immediately)
- loss of brain electrical activity in up to 226 seconds
- heart stops in ~10 mins
What is positive about using lidocaine for anesthesia?
- inexpensive
- readily available
- drug residues in meat are not toxic to scavengers
How do you administer intrathecal lidocaine?
- anesthetize the horse
- AO tap w/ 18g spinal needle or catheter stylet
- 30-60 mL of CSF removed prior to injection (reduces pressure for ease of injection)
- administer 30-90 mL of 2% lidocaine
Where do you administer a gunshot or captive bolt in a horse?
- just above the point of intersection of the lines drawn from the medial canthus of the eye to the middle of the opposite ear
What is an alternative method to euthanize a horse?
- laceration of the aorta via rectal palpation
- difficult & dangerous
- only perform if the horse is already down
How do we confirm death in a horse?
- absence of movement, absence of auscultable heartbeat & pulse, absence of respiration, fixed & dilated pupil, lack of corneal blink reflex
how do we dispose of horse carcasses?
- burial, landfill, rendering, cremation, chemical digestion
- pentobarbitol is toxic so may not be accepted at rendering facilities & needs to be buried 6 feet deep
How do we move horse carcasses?
often towing companies
