Back to Civvy Street…almost.

There have been no BEVA days away from TCEH this week, which has been different, enlightening, refreshing and not to mention…hard work!

I was on call on Tuesday night this week.   I’d swapped it with David (Blakey) so that I could be off on Thursday night.  As always seems to happen whenever you initiate swap, it was a bugger of a night on call.  A medical colic early evening followed by 2.30am, “…old horse down in stable, can’t get up…”  Who looks at their horses at 2.30am?  On arrival at the yard the yard owner, a 60ish year old farmer who’s diversified into a livery yard had arrived back at 1am with a load of straw and had found the horse down in the stable.  After 90 minutes the horse was still down and yours truly was summoned.  As soon as I arrived I recognised the unfortunate patient as one who’d made an appearance at the BEVA Geriatric Medicine Course, which we’d hosted at the Hospital in 2013 and 2014 because of his severe bilateral carpal DJD.

In his attempts to stand he’d now managed to scramble onto the concrete corridor outside the stable and was in lateral recumbency.  It was obvious that we needed to get him from the unsure footing of fresh straw (which had been provided by the farmer before I arrived) on concrete (a place of danger) to the dry paddock adjacent to the barn (a place of safety).

“Shall I get the tractor?” said the farmer.

“Er, no!” I replied.

“Do you think he needs putting down?” he retorted.  I suppose that might resolve our problem, I thought - my bed was still calling.

“Ian, I know we might be feeling strong but I think we need some muscle.  I think we need to call the Fire & Rescue Service to help”.  My suggestion induced a predictable searing pain in the farmer’s wallet, “What will they charge?”  I’d worked with and knew the local FRS crew on several occasions in the past and had recently asked that very same question to which the answer had been, no.  I let the farmer call 999 in order that the appropriate station was mustered.  They arrived within 20 minutes and were absolutely “bloody brilliant”.

We all knew our jobs and worked quietly, quickly and efficiently.  Within 40 minutes and after plenty of sedation, cotton wool filled ears, the perfect roll over onto the rescue glide and a lot of grunt we dragged the gelding into the paddock and left him to his own devices to stand when he was ready; which he did some 3 hours later.

The point of this story is that without the help of the FRS I’d never have managed to achieve the rescue.  To me it was the fruit of almost 10 years of labour developing Large Animal Rescue coming to bear, which made it such a pleasure to be part of it.  What concerns me though is that if this incident had occurred in an area serviced by North Wales FRS, no such help would have been available.  From the 1^st April this year, North Wales FRS decided to discontinue Large Animal Rescue and Rope Rescue both of which are deemed to be non-statutory services - http://www.nwales-fireservice.org.uk/large-animal-rescue/frequently-asked-questions-large-animal-rescues-and-rope-rescues.aspx.  What would I have done? – the farmer’s tractor may have been deployed; euthanasia may have been the only “humane” option; more importantly one of us could have been seriously injured attempting the rescue.

The farmer’s request about charging is also very relevant.  At the most recent Chief Fire Officers Association (CFOA) Animal Rescue Practitioners Forum there was much discussion about North Wales FRS decision and although all of the other FRS present at the meeting declared that they had no intention of withdrawing the service, a handful of FRS’s were starting to charge for it.  Upon enquiry the approximate figure mentioned was £300 per appliance (which may include up to 8 people) per hour, which I think is extremely good value for money.  However, it is something to bear in mind if you do call for their help.  Furthermore, I’m not clear in my own mind whether deployment of this kind of assistance would be covered under a Vets Fees Insurance Policy.  Maybe that’s another job on the list!

I was back home by 6am but by then sleep was never going to happen again that night!

Incidentally the owner was not present throughout.  The farmer said she was difficult / impossible to contact at night – thank heavens for small mercies.  When I met her at the yard the following morning I did enquire with my unsurprising sardonic humour, whether she’d had a good night’s sleep. 

The unfortunate victim of the previous night’s drama was none the worse for wear other than some fairly large abrasions on his dependent side.  I did recommend to the owner to try and avoid stabling him at all again in the future in order to prevent a repeat of the crisis.  He is a native after all and is far less likely to come to any harm well rugged-up in a field than he is inside on a straw bed on concrete.

But finally a massive thank you to the Hereford and Worcester FRS Animal Rescue crew from Pershore, you were great - keep up the good work; even the farmer was full of praise for you the next day.