MERS responds to incumbent horse on July 07, 2010

Updated at July 08, 2010 12:23

MERS responded to an emergency call from a veterinarian for a horse that was down, in a pasture, and was unable to get up. The horse was thrashing about violently, trying to get up, but with no mobility in it’s hind quarters. The veterinarian feared that there may some serious pelvic injury, but could not properly evaluate unless the horse was in a horizontal position. The horse was 18 hands, and weighed 1,500 pounds. While we were responding , we also requested a heavy equipment boom truck to respond, that we have access to.

Upon our arrival, the horse was being given fluids via IV, was still thrashing around, trying to get up. We immediately placed our MERS Head Protector on the horse, placed 2 short webbings on the dorsal side of the incumbent horse, and rolled the horse over onto the webbings . We then hooked our webbings up to our spreader bar that was already attached to the boom truck. Upon lifting the horse up, the horse was lifeless in it’s hind quarters. Through a specific process that we train for, after several minutes, we were able to get the horse to put some weight on it’s hind quarters. After several more minutes of massaging the horse’s muscles, the horse began to put all of it’s weight on all four legs. We then began walking the horse back and forth, still attached to our equipment. After 20 minutes, we released all of our equipment, walked the horse out to a pasture, and continued walking the horse until we finally put the horse in it’s stall. We continued on standby while the veterinarian performed his evaluations, and continued giving the horse fluids and medications. After approximately 30 minutes, we were released by the veterinarian.

 

As of 9:00am Thursday, July 8th—The horse is doing great, has had breakfast, and is enjoying the blowing breeze in the stall!

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