Acceptable condition to discharge a horse after operation?

cptrayes

cptrayes

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I agree, I would expect my horse returned without blood stains if at all possible. On the flip side, I'd like to use the opportunity to publicly praise Newmarket equine centre who were performing diagnostics on my mare a couple of weeks ago. Someone, I presume on of the grooms, had taken the trouble to wash her tail, oil her feet, groom her till she polished and had applied the most beautiful quarter markings. Completely unasked for, but brought a massive lump in my throat to see her walk off the lorry. What a wonderful team to go to so much trouble.
 
To be honest I think you are being a bit unreasonable. Usually you pay for part livery at vets which means mucking out, feeding, rugging but not grooming. At the same time the vets and nurses provide medical care but I would not take that to include grooming the horse. The operation site is nice and clean which is the important bit as far as the veterinary care goes. If, for example, they had turned your horse out in a muddy field as part of its recovery would you expect them to groom the mud off him? I would suggest not.
 
Booboos said:
To be honest I think you are being a bit unreasonable. Usually you pay for part livery at vets which means mucking out, feeding, rugging but not grooming. At the same time the vets and nurses provide medical care but I would not take that to include grooming the horse. The operation site is nice and clean which is the important bit as far as the veterinary care goes. If, for example, they had turned your horse out in a muddy field as part of its recovery would you expect them to groom the mud off him? I would suggest not.
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What if the owner has a blood phobia Boobos? What about flies being attracted to the dried blood? Is £36 a day not enough to pay, not including any of the medical care, that's extra, for a horse to be washed off or brushed off some time in two whole days? £256 a week doesn't sound like a part livery to me.
 
Flies are not generlly attracted to dried blood to be fair. Also, by brushing your horse following surgery they would be raising dust and given the op that has just been carried out on your horse he is probably a bit bruised. That does appear to be blood from peri/post op in which case i would be expecting them not to bother him by doing unnecessary cleaning. However if he was there 3-5 days then I would think there would be cause for complaint. The surgery was yesterday, right?
 
glenruby said:
Flies are not generlly attracted to dried blood to be fair. Also, by brushing your horse following surgery they would be raising dust and given the op that has just been carried out on your horse he is probably a bit bruised. That does appear to be blood from peri/post op in which case i would be expecting them not to bother him by doing unnecessary cleaning. However if he was there 3-5 days then I would think there would be cause for complaint. The surgery was yesterday, right?
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No the surgery was 48 hours before, the blood is what he came out of surgery like, there has been no new blood since. A vet apologised at the time he came out of theatre for him not being clean. I assumed she would instruct a groom to complete the washing off task while he was still wet, but she didn't. I didn't touch him because he was brand new out of the operation. The blood is nowhere near the operation site or any place where he would be sore, which is scrupulously clean. The failure to complete the clean-up is inexplicable.
 
To be honest, if it were my horse I'd have more important things to be focusing my energy on than a patch of dried blood. And no I would not be cleaning it off when he was fresh out of surgery but maybe today.
 
I wouldn't particularly expect my horse to be cleaned up away from the operation site, it's not doing any harm. The staff don't know how any of the horses will react to being washed down so better not to risk upsetting them and possibly disturbing the operation site.
 
You didn't pay a "supplier". And you didn't pay £2000 for grooming. I'm sure that was never mentioned in the quotation. It may look good from a practice point of view and most practices do send horses home clean and usually groomed but it does depend on the situation. Still no reason to send a "howler" but if you are getting that het up about it it might be worth mentioning in passing to your vet next time.
 
OK, those who think this is ok, let's turn it around. You pick your husband/wife/daughter/son etc. up from hospital after they've had major surgery and get them home, help them to undress and find quite a bit of dried blood quite some way from the site of the operation. Bet you'd be unhappy!

CPT - I wouldn't be happy as doesn't take much to have sponged him down before you pick him up as obviously healthy enough to come home. On the other hand, I wouldn't go loopy at the vets, but definitely mention it as part of post-op communication/visits.
 
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Gloi, They had already washed him down, just not well enough, while he wAs heavily sedated. This blood is nowhere near the operation site. . A vet was embarassed about his condition immediately post op but no one did anything.
 
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glenruby said:
You didn't pay a "supplier". And you didn't pay £2000 for grooming. I'm sure that was never mentioned in the quotation. It may look good from a practice point of view and most practices do send horses home clean and usually groomed but it does depend on the situation. Still no reason to send a "howler" but if you are getting that het up about it it might be worth mentioning in passing to your vet next time.
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I certainly DID pay a supplier. I had a choice of two others locally and another several elsewhere.
 
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Personally i wouldn't send a horse home with blood stains (apart from fresh standing castration) to be fair but i stand by my original sentiment that it does not deserve a "howler". Mention it to the vet at a post op check.
 
glenruby said:
Personally i wouldn't send a horse home with blood stains (apart from fresh standing castration) to be fair but i stand by my original sentiment that it does not deserve a "howler". Mention it to the vet at a post op check.
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That's fair. I'm uptight because this wasn't the only problem. I don't want to write here about the rest.
 
Surgeon was a fantastic, by the way. Did a marvellous job for me and jeepers creepers the horse can flex his back like a longbow!!
 
I was a vet nurse in an equine clinic in the 90s, horses in our care did not go home with 2 day old blood on them, I would wonder about the post op care when the nurses can't be bothered to make the horse look respectable, no one would expect a 1 hour grooming session, but removing dried blood post op should be a minimum surely ??
 
cptrayes said:
Surgeon was a fantastic, by the way. Did a marvellous job for me and jeepers creepers the horse can flex his back like a longbow!!
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Good news then :)

To be honest, I'd not be impressed but would not go 'into one', but I'd be having a quiet word with head vet nurse on the yard & also in the office to mention you feel a bit let down as horsey still has deitrus (blood) from the op & ask if this is common practice.

Occasionally, things can get overlooked, maybe this wasn't a priority - perhaps they have been run off their feet with casualties? Who knows, but until you mention it in a reasonable way, you wont know :)
 
Nicnac said:
OK, those who think this is ok, let's turn it around. You pick your husband/wife/daughter/son etc. up from hospital after they've had major surgery and get them home, help them to undress and find quite a bit of dried blood quite some way from the site of the operation. Bet you'd be unhappy!

I was sent home with dried blood down my rib cage after breast surgery and left in a stained gown over night - and yes I was most unhappy.

On the horse point of view, I wonder if the surgery had an emergency colic or similar come in at the same time the horse was on his way out. The grooms would have dropped everything.
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No, everything the whole three days he was there was scheduled and non emergency.


Sorry about your bad experience :(
 
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When my horse was in horsepital... (not surgery), she was immactulate groomed.....she went in dragged out the field (emergancy), the technicians cleaned her up the next day and she was immaculate....

i didnt expect that clean....but was nice

i wouldnt go ape**** OP.....but i would mention it yes ! :)
 
GermanyJo said:
I was a vet nurse in an equine clinic in the 90s, horses in our care did not go home with 2 day old blood on them, I would wonder about the post op care when the nurses can't be bothered to make the horse look respectable, no one would expect a 1 hour grooming session, but removing dried blood post op should be a minimum surely ??
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Well I certainly thought so. I'm glad someone who's done the job thinks so too.

That picture is after I rubbed a load off, as well. It was much worse than that.
 
Well, are you paying for surgery/fixing the problem or grooming? I assume you can do the grooming yourself (cosmetic), but not the surgery?
 
When your horse is in hospital on top of the operation and surgeons fees and drugs and other consumables; there is a separate and quite high charge for livery (my local one is just over £30 a day). I get very detailed breakdowns on exactly where my money went. There are equine techs/grooms whose job it is to look after the horses in addition to the vets and assistants and students who take care of the veterinary side.

I have had to rush a horse up without time to groom the mud off his legs and got my horse back mud free. I have had two in for surgery and never had any blood other than around a drain and that was constantly cleaned.

So yes I would be a little surprised if it came back like that.
 
Cortez,


I paid £750 plus VAT for the surgery. I paid separately for every drug he's been injected with. And I paid £36 a day for livery.

For thirty six quid would you not expect him properly washed down after surgery? As someone else has pointed out to me elsewhere, the fluids that come out of wounds burn healthy skin. On a medical basis alone it should have been removed. Never mind the customer service.
 
Nicnac said:
OK, those who think this is ok, let's turn it around. You pick your husband/wife/daughter/son etc. up from hospital after they've had major surgery and get them home, help them to undress and find quite a bit of dried blood quite some way from the site of the operation. Bet you'd be unhappy!

CPT - I wouldn't be happy as doesn't take much to have sponged him down before you pick him up as obviously healthy enough to come home. On the other hand, I wouldn't go loopy at the vets, but definitely mention it as part of post-op communication/visits.
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I have had to wash off dried blood from myself post surgery. Didnt bother me!

More than once actually. Assumed it was normal!
 
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