Dr. Taylor, thank you for taking time to address the issues i have had. I read all your post, and find them educational, and this one is no different.
Veterinary Teaching Hospitals are considered tertiary referral facilities. Tertiary describes 3rd level specialized care which is the highest available. Although students are present, they do very, very little. They never make decisions and only rarely do procedures. Residents are erroneously thought of as being students because they still attend class, but the classes are not Veterinary classes, rather they are classes like statistics that teach them how to do research down the road. Residents are fully educated practicing doctors who were in the top 1% of their class from around the world. Veterinary Teaching Hospitals are full of people that not only know more than general practitioners about specific areas, they also are surrounded by other experts in different fields like anesthesia which allows a Surgeon to concentrate on just the surgery.
I did not know this! I am 100% sure you are right, but.... they really did not seem like the top 1%???? i mean maybe i was just nervous about their judgments because i have never used those particular people as my Vet, and was unsure of their ability????
i would want someone to attempt to save my life, go above and beyond what they were "comfortable" doing, to do any and all last ditch attempts, no matter how far fetched it may seem, to save my life. Death only when absolutely everything has been tried and has failed.
"Primo non nocere." First, do no harm. It is an oath all Doctors took and it should be at the cornerstone of how we practice. The Author of the above post cannot imagine something worse than death. Those of us in the industry and trained to do the job can imagine fates worse than death.
I had a colt one time suffering from choke, for over 36 hours, he had a CRT of 6 seconds, fast, labored breathing, and by that time, aspiration pneumonia, he was circling the drain (and i mean going down fast.) When Dr. Schultz came, and saw, he said the foal would not survive, he sat there for a few minutes thinking ( probably about "Primo non nocere.") and said, "well i am here, so i might as well try something" It could rupture his esophagus, and that could kill him, but he is going to surely die if nothing is done, do you want me to try?". without hesitation, i said "heck yes i want you to try, thats why i called you!" By a MIRICLE, and i do mean MIRICLE and Dr. Schultz ability and willingness to give it a shot, however a long shot it may have been , he survived!!!! I am forever amazed at what animals and humans can live through, and how easily life can be extinguished. I understand how easily the foal could have died, i knew the risk, and i am sure the procedure the Vet did caused some pain to the foal. But if he had died, at least he would have been given a chance, no matter how slim it was.
i would want someone to attempt to save my life, go above and beyond what they were "comfortable" doing, to do any and all last ditch attempts, no matter how far fetched it may seem, to save my life. Death only when absolutely everything has been tried and has failed.
Me, Julie Sherrill , am the author of that post! and i mean every word i wrote!!!
Those of us in the industry and trained to do the job can imagine fates worse than death.
One should NEVER destroy life, all life is valuable, and EVERY attempt to preserve it should be made, no matter how slim the chance or how far fetched a good outcome may seem. Try something! Give a B12 shot if nothing else can be done! If the animal lives you will be a hero, and B12 the new "miricle" drug, it it dies well, at least you did something! (Hope you are catching my drift here)
"Primo non nocere." is that latin??? What are the Latin words for "Take a Chance" sometimes i have found taking a chance can work in my favor. I am sure Dr. Schults was thinking about that "do no harm" thing, but he decided to take a chance, and i am sure glad he did.
The 'bags' of fluid you are referring to are either 3 or 5 liter (more likely 5) bags of LRS. The last ones I bought cost me $11.46. The average cost for Vets to get a product from needing to order, to receiving and storing on a shelf, to distribution to a patient is $20.55. I do not consider either the LRS or Banamine charges to be out of line. Consider what the charge would be to receive a Tylenol at a Human Hospital understanding that the cost must reflect not only the 'cost' of the drug but also the cost to order/store/administer the drug.
You are right the bags of LRS that i priced are for humans, so maybe the cost for horses is greater. But i still consider the cost of Buscopam, and Banamine that was given, extremely excessive, as i can but the whole bottle for the cost of one dose that was given. So yes, i consider it excessive.
But thank you for posting, you have made some valid points, and i will consider what you have pointed out, if/when i use another teaching school. I have learned from your post, and as always, will pay attention and try to get everything out of it i can, and what i do not understand i will ask and try to learn, just like your post about sterile water, i found out why both my repo Vets use this, and why they still continue to use this, but you were 100% correct in what you said about it!!!