Veterinary Committee 2004 Fatality Reports

On April 17, 2004 Julie Sutton's 11-year-old bay gelding "Cisco" colicked following the completion of a 50-mile ride and was subsequently euthanized.

From AERC records it was the beginning of the horse's fifth year of successful competition with all rides completed. All but one of its previous rides were in limited distance and spaced over four years. In 2000 the horse did four limited distance rides (three 25-milers and one 30-miler) at speeds ranging from 5.97 miles/hour to 9.52 miles/hour. In 2001 the horse did three limited distance rides (two 25-milers and one 30-miler) at speeds ranging from 8.62 miles/hour to 11.04 miles/hour. In 2002 the horse did two 25-mile rides at speeds of 7.93 miles/hour and 10.27 miles/hour. In 2003 the horse did two 25-mile rides at speeds of 10.49 miles/hour and 10.95 miles/hour then moved up to a 50-mile ride and completed it in 23rd place with a riding time of 7.04 miles/hour.

The Grizzly Mountain Ride lacked five days being nine months from the date of its last ride which was a 50-mile ride. This Grizzly Mountain Ride was the first ride of the year for this team and it was completed in 17th place with a ride time of six hours and 27 minutes. The first leg of the ride was 18.9 miles and was ridden in two hours and twenty-eight minutes (7.66 m/h). The second leg was 21.5 miles and was ridden in three hours and thirty-five minutes (6 m/h). The final leg was 10 miles and was ridden in one hour and nine minutes (8.69 m/h). From a speed perspective this horse had completed nine rides at a faster pace and only three at a slower pace. This was the horse's fourth time to ride this particular trail and it was ridden at just a slightly higher speed than its only other 50-mile ride (7.04 vs 7.75 m/h). There were two 45-minute holds between the vet checks.

The Grizzly Mountain Ride this year had a large turnout with a total of 201 entries. It offered a total of four rides: 75 miles, 50 miles, 25 miles and 10 miles. The 50-mile portion of it had 89 starters and 71 finishers compared with last year's entries of 73 starters and 68 finishers. The ride manager of record is Linda Tribby but the duties were shared between Linda and Sarah Miller with Sarah doing most if not all of the paperwork. The head veterinarian was Dr. Gene Nance who was assisted by Dr. Jennifer Strelkauskas (also served as treatment vet) and one other veterinarian. There were three horses treated with all of them being in the 50-mile distance.

The rider card indicates that the horse was vetted in by Dr. Nance (whom I was told has a nickname of Dr. B's) with a resting pulse of 38 and B+'s across the board. At the first vet check Dr. Strelkauskas examined it and it had a pulse of 60, A- on gut sounds, tack galls, impulsion and attitude with the rest all recorded as A's. The second vet check Dr. Nance examined it again with a 60 pulse and the rest A's. Dr. Nance again saw it at the finish where the pulse was 60 and all A's. In talking with Dr. Nance, he indicated that the horse looked good enough at the finish to pass a pre-purchase examination.

The horse was presented to Dr. Strelkauskas sometime after 5:00pm (finishing time was 2:57pm) while she was working with a more violent colic (which responded to treatment). Within a short time, however, the horse was attended to. Upon presentation to the treatment vet it had a pulse of 38 with gut sounds present. It was started on fluids and refluxed. DMSO was added to the second five-liter bag of fluids and analgesics were administered. Gut sounds progressively diminished during this time. Around 8:00pm the decision to ship the horse to Bend Equine Clinic was made and the owner immediately started packing and left as soon as possible with the horse.

Dr. Leslie Griffith, DVM, MS, Dipl. ACVIM, attended to the horse while at the clinic. He was presented with abdominal cramping, T101.8, pulse 66 to 70 bpm and a respiration of 24. His mucous membranes were hyperemic, tacky and with a capillary refill time of 3 seconds. There were no gut sounds. Upon insertion of a stomach tube, 8 liters of spontaneous reflux came out. Rectally there were multiple loops of turgid distended small intestine. An ultrasound of the abdomen also revealed loops of distended small intestine with no visible motility. An abdominal paracentesis revealed a normal cell count but elevated protein. Blood work indicated a mild hemoconcentration with low sodium/chloride and a mild metabolic alkalosis. There was a mild increase in AST/CK, BUN, total bilirubin/glucose and a mild hypocalcemia. The urine was within normal limits with a specific gravity of 1.040.

Over the next twelve hours the horse received Banamine plus three doses of analgesics for pain plus 48 liters of fluids with Calcium Gluconate and Potassium Chloride added. Also one liter of 7% sodium chloride was added to bring the low sodium up to normal. The horse was refluxed every two hours. After twelve hours, the heart rate had come down to 60 bpm and normal CRT. There was no improvement in volume of reflux, gut sounds, rectal or ultrasound findings. Due to finances and a poor prognosis the owner elected to euthanize.

A gross postmortem examination (no histopath) was done and it revealed 30 feet of distended necrohemorrhagic small intestine. There were numerous petechiations on abdominal and intestinal serosal surfaces. No other gross abnormalities were found. When asked specifically about gastric ulcers it was reported that the horse had none. When reviewing disease processes such as this it illustrates how rapidly body tissue can deteriorate and how subtle the signs are early on. The bowel has a compromised blood supply that initiates early tissue degeneration without showing any clinical signs. But as the tissue degeneration accelerates it becomes uncontrollable with anything short of surgical intervention. In this particular case had finances not been a problem the removal of the damaged bowel is possible and if no abdominal peritonitus resulted and the remaining bowel healed with no complications the horse might have survived. If this had been possible and all things went perfectly and the horse survived it would still have a lifetime of decreased bowel digestion and would never be able to compete. The veterinary committee agrees that all things considered euthanasia was the proper thing to do.

Even though this was a large ride and the veterinarians were probably rushed, most of the Veterinary Committee still feel that doing a cardiac recovery index at all vet checks within the ride and at the post-ride will pick up some problems and may give a treatment veterinarian a jump on realizing there is a problem going on.

Our sympathies to all concerned.

Dr. Jim Baldwin, Chair, Veterinary Committee

On July 31, 2004, Debora Wilson's horse Moonshadow Bey ("Shadow") died on the trail during the ride.

For the Veterinary Committee, I examined the facts in this situation and sent my findings to the Veterinary Committee. I think those that wanted to comment have had sufficient time to do so, consequently, I am going to give my report to the board.

Debora Wilson is an experienced endurance rider that has been riding in endurance competition since 1988. She has 2640 miles of endurance competition and 60 limited distance competition listed in AERC records. She lives close to the Tevis trail and trains on it frequently. The horse Moonshadow Bey shows 150 endurance miles and 60 limited distance miles in AERC's records.

This report will be written from conversation with Ms. Wilson, AERC records and the postmortem report from Dr. Bradd C. Barr, DVM, PhD, who is with the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory, Davis, California (UCD Vet School).

In visiting with Ms. Wilson she indicated that "Shadow" ate and drank well during the Foresthill vet check and eagerly returned to a sharp trot leaving the check. They crossed the highway right out of the check and had gone only 100 to 150 feet on the trail alongside the highway when "Shadow" took two wobbly strides then collapsed on the third and died almost immediately. Veterinarians were on the scene within three minutes but there was nothing that could be done. The horse was transported to University of California at Davis (UCD) for a postmortem examination.

The diagnosis from the laboratory was, "Focal pulmonary artery rupture with secondary diffuse perivascular hemorrhage surrounding the proximal pulmonary artery and aorta." This, said in layman's terms, is a ruptured blood vessel. This could have happened at any time and the stress of the competition probably had very little to do with it.

Our condolences to Debora.

Dr. Jim Baldwin, Chair, Veterinary Committee

On June 12, 2004, Roy Cronnelly's 11-year-old Arabian mare Sunday Silver Rose won the 50-mile division of the NASTR ride and received Best Condition. She appeared fine through the 3:00am check but was found in distress at 7:00am and died at approximately 11:30am on the 13th of June.

For the Veterinary Committee, I examined the facts in this situation and sent my findings out to the Veterinary Committee members. I think those that wanted to comment have had sufficient time to do so, consequently, I am going to give my report to the board.

Dr. Cronnelly is an experienced endurance rider with 7485 miles (170 rides with 155 completions) to his credit. The horse, "Sunday," had 18 rides with 17 completions to her credit. Dr. Cronnelly's statements follow:

"Sunday completed 555 miles of competition always in good condition. She then suffered an injury at home during a lighting storm and was a sweeny horse (atrophy of shoulder) with the left shoulder affected. This was in September of 2001. She was laid off for a year and she began to recover. She was examined and found satisfactory to return to conditioning. She was started back conditioning in July of 2002. She did a couple days of the XP summer ride after almost a year of returning to riding. In January of this year she completed the Twenty Mule Team ride but she had a cramp in a leg later that evening. She was found to be behind on fluids, was treated with fluids and recovered well. The conclusion was reached that she tended to go faster on a ride than the speed she conditioned at so the conditioning program was reviewed and we began to condition at a faster pace with the thought that we would start taking her to limited distance rides as part of her conditioning. She completed the two LD rides at Land of the Neversweats and was judged best condition. She then went on to the Wild Wild West Ride and completed all three limited distances and was in beautiful condition at the end of each day.

"Sunday completed the NASTR Ride with ease and grace. She was never tired and took good care of herself by eating and drinking well. She finished first (riding time of 7:15), although that was not the intent and she was judged Best Condition by Dr. Susan McCartney. She returned to her trailer and continued to eat and drink well. She looked bright and energetic. She was observed at about 3:00am and looked fine. At about 7:00am the neighbor was pounding on the door of my rig. Sunday was trying to roll and acting colicky. She was taken to Comstock Large Animal Hospital and blood work all looked promising. She continued being painful when the sedation would wear off. IVs were started, she was tubed and had a rectal examination. As surgery was being discussed, she began to seizure and appeared to go into arrest. A post mortum examination revealed a large enterolith that had occluded the colon and she had hemorrhaged into the bowel and mesentery. Her heart appeared normal and she had no gastric ulcers. A diagnosis of acute endotoxemia was made."

In visiting with and reviewing the case with Dr. Joe Coli of the Comstock Large Animal Hospital, the data from Dr. Cronnelly is the same. The mare was presented between 7:00am and 7:30am showing signs of colic. Her temperature was 99.4, pulse 48, and respiration 40 with normal heart and lung sounds, however, there were no gut sounds in any of the four quadrants. The medical record is quite good and documents very competent work. It has a time line that showed the bowel sounds were never present. At 10:15am the mare started to tremble and at 11:15 she went into a seizure and died.

The postmortem report states, "Enterolith lodged in descending colon with petechial hemorrhage on the serosa and pronounced hemorrhage in the mesentery. Another enterolith also found in the left ventral colon. When the descending colon was opened to remove the enterolith the lumen was full of blood and the mucosa was severely hemorrhagic from one foot orally of the enterolith to about eighteen inches aborally. The bowel was dying. Death probably due to acute endotoxemia." Unfortunately, this mare had a time bomb ticking inside of her with these pre-existing enteroliths.

Our sincere condolences to Dr. Cronnelly.

Dr. Jim Baldwin, Chair, Veterinary Committee

On June 8, 2004, Amy Berggren's Arabian mare "Tejada" (4B Cameo Rose) got loose during the night and injured herself where she had to be euthanized.

For the Veterinary Committee, I examined the facts in this situation and sent my findings to the Veterinary Committee. I think those that wanted to comment have had sufficient time to do so, consequently, I am going to give my report to the board.

About 3:30am on the morning of the second day of a multi-day ride this horse broke free and escaped from camp. She was one of three horses brought to the ride by Amy. After she broke her tie and escaped she jumped several fences and got hung up going over one and flipped. On physical examination she had several deep lacerations and a palpable fracture at T4 (behind shoulders). There was no deep pain or withdrawal reflex on either rear limb and no tail tone. She was treated initially with pain medication while a decision was being made as to the best treatment plan given the extremely poor prognosis. Considering her condition the owner elected euthanasia.

Our condolences to Amy.

Jim Baldwin, Chair, Veterinary Committee

On July 3, 2004, Tonjia Chandler's 16-year-old grey Arabian "Tenzing" died from a fall from the trail.

For the Veterinary Committee, I examined the facts in this situation and sent my findings out to the Vet Committee members. I think those that wanted to comment have had sufficient time to do so, consequently, I am going to give my report to the board.

This ride takes place on the last half of the Tevis trail that lays between Devil's Thumb and Auburn. The horse fell from the trail approximately two miles out from the Deadwood veterinary checkpoint. The horse took a misstep and went over the side. Tonjia was able to get away from the horse and was not injured in the initial fall but in climbing down the mountain looking for the horse she injured her ankle.

The horse was found about four hours after the initial fall and appeared to have been killed instantly. Its fall was stopped by small scrubs with trunks of about four to six inches. The ground around the horse had not been broken up by any struggling or movement which is why it is thought the horse died instantly from the fall. Only a visual postmortem examination was done.

This part of the trail is going down El Dorado Canyon that descends from Deadwood and comes out at Michigan Bluff. The rider lives in Michigan Bluff and has ridden this section of the trail many, many times. She has multiple completions on the Tevis and over 3000 miles of completed competition. The horse had 875 miles of completed competition so this was not an inexperienced team. Even though the rider says there were no others horses that caused her horse to take a misstep, it does illustrate that keeping some space between horses is safer.

Our condolences go out to Tonjia!

Jim Baldwin, Chair, Veterinary Committee

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