HELPING OUT HORSES
Veterinarians teach first responders how to handle the larger animals
NORTHUMBERLAND, N.Y. >> Teamwork is everything, especially when responding to an accident involving a horse, cow or other large animal.
Husband-and-wife veterinarians, Drs. Steven Sedrish and Tracy Bartick, taught the “do’s and don’ts” of such situations during a course specifically designed for police, fire and emergency personnel.
People from Warren to Schenectady counties turned out for the class, at Upstate Equine Medical Center on Rugg Road in Northumberland.
“The biggest thing with rescues is safety first, for people and the horse,” Sedrish said. “It’s easy to get into situations where someone will get hurt. There should always be an incident commander. They’re calling the shots. His or her word is gospel. You don’t argue with them.”
Typically, when responding together, Sedrish takes care of the horse while Bartick oversees and is in charge the scene, making sure people aren’t putting themselves in a bad position.
For example, the only safe place to be around a sick or injured horse, lying on its side, is by its upper hind quarters, away from the back hooves. Even unconscious horses may kick, and when they get up, the first thing they’ll do is run straight ahead. So a person standing in front of the animal is at risk, in a dangerous place.
“You always have to remember where the horse is going,” Sedrish said.
By nature, horses are flight animals.
Using numerous images, Sedrish showed the many unusual types of incidents first responders might be called to, such as horses stuck in the mud, fallen into a hole or trapped inside a flipped-over trailer.
Upstate Equine is equipped to answer such calls with a rescue trailer that hooks onto the back of its vet truck.
In addition to accidents, veterinarians are sometimes called
on to help horses that have gone down on frozen ground in winter because they’ve been neglected — victims of animal abuse without proper food and water. Sedrish showed a photo of one emaciated horse, about 400 to 500 pounds underweight, that simply couldn’t stand on its own because it had little muscle left.
He demonstrated how to place straps under a fallen horse, so it can be hoisted up using a large tripod or farm machinery such as a front-end loader.
But that’s only half the battle.
Feeding the horse hay starts the digestion process, which produces heat in the body.
Unfortunately, some horses Sedrish and Bartick have tried helping were so weak they couldn’t stand and had to be euthanized. So they invested in an expensive device called an Anderson Sling, which supports the horse with straps distributed over its body length, and allows it to move around in a stall and eat. The equipment is quite expensive, but saving a horse’s life makes it worth every penny.
“Realizing you need certain pieces of equipment and that if you had it the outcome would be different, gives you the impetus to get training and equipment and put it together to prevent this tragedy from happening again,” Bartick said.
The recent First Responder Large Animal Rescue Course was the latest in a series of educational programs Upstate Equine hosts on a regular basis.
Following the lecture part of the program, Bartick and Dr. Pandora Davis, of H&N Bovine, led a hands-on presentation in the veterinary clinic’s large new riding ring, where they demonstrated safe handling of horses and cattle. Davis’s husband, Jan King, is co-owner of Kings Ransom Farm and King Brothers Dairy in Northumberland.