MERS-Horse Down in Pasture-St. Jacob, Illinois December 03, 2009

Updated at December 06, 2009 18:17

MERS responded on Thursday December 03, for a horse that was was down in a pasture, and could not get up on it’s own. We were called after 2 different veterinarians had evaluated the horse, and requested our services to get the horse safely transported to a hospital. Through their evaluation, they decided against getting the horse up on the property, in that the horse needed more urgent care at their facility. We responded @ 6:30pm, the outside temperature was below 30 degrees, and the horse had been down for 2 days. Upon our arrival, we immediately placed our head protector on the horse, rolled the horse over onto the Rescue Glide, safely strapped the horse down, hobbled the horse, and had the horse safely packaged for transportation. This entire process took 18 minutes, then we were off the the veterinarian hospital in Pacific, Missouri. Upon our arrival at the hospital, we immediately transported the horse into an awaiting stall. We released all of our Rescue Glide equipment from the horse while the veterinarian evaluated the horse. Per the veterinarians request, we then hooked up our equipment to the horse, and raised the horse up into a horizontal position. Within approximately 4 minutes, the horse was standing under it’s own power. After approximately 30 minutes of being hooked up to our equipment, receiving fluids and additional evaluations, we released all of our equipment from the standing horse. As we were loading our equipment back into the rescue trailer, the veterinarian led the horse to an outside area and continued walking the horse. We were released by the veterinarian at 11:10pm. As of the next morning, the horse is still doing very well, and has a positive prognosis for recovery. MERS traveled 155 miles round trip on this mission.

UPDATE: This beautiful horse was released from the hospital on Saturday, December 05, and his going home where she will celebrate her birthday on  December 25th, Christmas day! (Her name is Joy)

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