I Want Revenge ... NYTIMES Article

[Niall]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/sports/06horse.html

[miff]

Check out the comments of the idiot vet Northrop who thinks issues like how the Kentucky Derby favorite is doing physically, should NOT be told to the betting public.

[Niall]

There is also a pdf of the vet bills attached to the article. Wonder if any ownwers would (or could) comment on ...

[covelj70]

I can\'t comment on this vet bill specifically but what I can say is that I was so confused and overwhelmed by my vet bills that I actually hired someone who has more knowledge of vet medicine than I do (not hard to find) to review my bills to make sure that a) what the horses are getting are allowed and b) that the horses aren\'t getting things they don\'t need just to jack up my bill.

This has proven to be very useful as my vet bills went down once she called several months in a row to review the bill with the vet. Certainly not all vets but some vets will take advantage of whatever owners/trainers allow them to get away with.

Sad that it has to come to this but the whole vet thing has gotten completely out of control.  

As an owner, I am very much in favor of the idea that Barry proposed and Jerry highlighted that vets only be allowed to treat horses with drugs that are sold on the backstretch and therefore what goes into the horses can be controlled better than the current situation where vets bring their street vendor like suitcases full of drugs onto the backstretch.

[girly]

Or better yet, if a horse has inflammation, they shouldn\'t race until it\'s cleared. We are crazy for drugs in this country as the answer for everything-good article!

[TGJB]

Most interesting thing about the article is I got to find out what else my lawyer on the Rachel case is working on-- he\'s the IEAH lawyer quoted.

[miff]

Sight,

Please look at the vet bill on this NY Times article. I have seen just about every single item mentioned on many of my old bills.

Do you see lots of excess in your opinion considering what IWR was being treated for.Thanks.

Mike

[sighthound]

>> As an owner, I am very much in favor of the idea that Barry proposed and Jerry highlighted that vets only be allowed to treat horses with drugs that are sold on the backstretch and therefore what goes into the horses can be controlled better than the current situation where vets bring their street vendor like suitcases full of drugs onto the backstretch.

Guys, having a pharmacy on the backstretch won\'t do a thing.  People who are going to bring stuff in now do it, and they can/will still do it.

[firmturf]

If policed properly this idea could work.

If Horse A has a test come back and he has drugs X, Y and Z in his system, simply cross check to the ONLY pharmacy on the track. If the vet only purchased drugs X and Y from them, for that horse, then they are ruled off for having Z in the system.

All tracks could be intertwined with their pharmacies on a network so shippers coming and going would all have the same info.

The only reason this would never work is that horse racing and technology (needed in this instance) do not go well together. Somehow I can track a package around the world at fedex.com but these guys can\'t trace an item that only a licensed vet can have.

[sighthound]

I don\'t find anything unusual, excessive or weird in this vet bill - it\'s the vet bill of an owner that can afford good care for their horses, in a grade one horse going towards the race of it\'s lifetime, who has an unspecified problem in the right front leg.

Some of the stuff is simply good routine health maintenance (panacur powerpack is a dewormer, gastro-guard to help prevent gastric ulcers, electrolytes/vitamins in fluids to help recovery post-race or post-work, lasix before/scope check after around a race or work)  

The rest of the stuff is that they are obviously looking at and treating an unspecified problem in the right front leg (the x-ray, the ultrasound, the anti-inflammatories, the injections)   There may have been a little fever or cough, too. Can\'t say for sure.  Not too unusual after works or races.

Nothing is odd or excessive about this, it\'s just good care.

[sighthound]

It won\'t work because you cannot prevent people from bringing in a vial of anything else they want to.  Having a pharmacy on track won\'t stop that.  

And think of what having only one feed company (like having one pharmacy) allowed on track would do to both costs to the trainer, and quality and variety of feeds available.

And a track pharmacy limiting me only to certain brands or formulations of a particular drug   - no way.  

And that\'s a \"captive audience\" financial coup, rife with abuse, any manufacturer would want to obtain.

Very bad idea.

[TGJB]

The idea is that they won\'t be permitted to walk onto the backside with anything. To do this properly you would have to do random searches, which tracks have the legal right to do. Any vial-- innocent or not-- gets you a year. Period.

[sighthound]

Seriously - I get what you are trying to do, but the idea that vets cannot carry drugs onto the backstretch in their vehicles is completely unworkable by any remote stretch of the imagination.  

And that won\'t change a thing.  The problem isn\'t legal drugs, and where you purchase them  - it\'s illegal drugs.

I need to drive onto the backstretch with my stocked vehicle and assistant (stocked meaning other than drugs, too, btw).

If you expect me to go barn to barn, and run off and buy drugs at a track pharmacy as I need them, or even that morning to stock on a daily basis - how completely ridiculous.

What exactly am I supposed to do with the vial of lasix, the vial of bute, the vial of adequan, legend, penicillin, baytril, etc. etc (about 50-60 drugs) as I walk off the track at noon?   How exactly am I supposed to carry them around?  Leave my truck at the track every night?  No way in hell - I need it.  It needs to be restocked and cleaned daily.

What am I supposed to do when running to a barn in a life-threaten emergency, because a 2-year-old just tied up after it\'s first work, a horse is colicking, or some young filly just staked herself outside her barn on a shovel?  Stop at the pharmacy?  Be carrying bottles in my pockets?

Do you want physical searches?  We have physical searches now.  Searching worked pretty well for Biancone and his vet and cobra venom at Keeneland.   That\'s not where you are going to catch stuff, you\'ll catch it in the horse\'s blood and urine.

[basket777]

Sighthound seems to have a grasp. he/she seems not to be at all adverse against the drug in parmacy only and good testing.  

this sounds pretty good and may even be afordable by the tracks

[TGJB]

Sight-- come on, please. Ten seconds thought deals with those issues.

1-- Cars-- vets would park in a restricted area. When they leave that area they are supposed to be carrying no drugs, if they are caught with anything in their posession it\'s a violation.

2-- Yeah, the problem is illegal drugs. Welcome to the party. The idea is to make sure vets don\'t bring them on track disguised as legal drugs.

3-- The track would have to give you an area where you could store legal drugs you buy on track so you don\'t have to run to buy them as needed. My guess is a locker and a fridge with combo locks would do it.

4-- There can certainly be exceptions made and protocols set up for life threatening and other unusual situations. For example, if you notify someone the track could probably have security meet you and observe.

5-- Physical searches now require testing of anything found. This would not. If you have anything AT ALL not bought at the track pharmacy, you\'re gone.

The issues that are trickier involve OTHER people carrying the drugs for the vets. They can be dealt with too.