Polo Horses Poisoning: New Details Show Need to Ban Horse-Drugging
Reader Comments
doses of MEDICATION that can poision
IF IT WERE MANDATORY THAT A DECIMAL BE SHOWN, PHRMACISRT WOULD HAVE TO SEE WHETHER A DOSE CALLS FOR .5MG OR 5.MG.
dead horses
What desirable effect was sought from the drug? Did anybody have a way to measure that effect, had the horses not died?
nutritional suplement
If this was something these horses were on continually, why didn't the team bring their own supply with them? Why trust strange pharmacists to mix a batch for such an expensive herd of horses? If it was selenium, there are warnings all over the place and on bottles of the stuff about avoiding over supplementation. It's well known what too much selenium can do.
My heart bleeds for those poor unfortunate horses. I just don't understand why a foreign team would not come prepared with their own supplement.
Polo Ponies
From what I have read so far, the horses were not drugged--they were given a nutrient supplement that was incorrectly mixed for them by an American pharmacy that was trying to duplicate a branded nutritional supplement mix normally bought over the counter in their home country. I'm no vet, but I know that selenium is a necessary micronutrient that kills when too much is ingested, and since a pharmacist (and not an animal nutritionist) mixed the formula for them, selenium looks like a prime suspect in their deaths. No, we probably don't have a horse drugging problem in this case. In my opinion, this is more likely another case (along with the melamine poisonings) of failure to hire the appropriately trained people (nutritionists) to do the job right.
Polo ponies
Amen Brother! I breed arabian show horses, I should live as well. Children are murdered in their own homes and we are concerned about these horses receiving proformance drugs. The medication was mixed incorrectly, the best and safest drug can be mixed incorrecly has the ability to kill. My sadness is for these wonderful horses and their owners.
polo ponies
Excellent rebutal by "Get a Grip! of NY
Apr 23, 2009 19:07:17 PM"! The rebutal was well worded and had good solid information.
A NEW WORRY FOR BONNIE....
but it's not p.c... Robert Mugabe, dictator for life of Zimbabwea has, for years stripped white people of their homes and property - while starving the black population. He has also turned his attention to dogs. It seems Rhodesian (former name of Zimbabwea) Ridgebacks (dogs) are being exterminated in Zimbabwea. Mugabe has made public comments that these dogs need to be exterminated because they were bred by white folks - therefore the spawn of Satan...
Now Bonnie, I don't expect you to care about the displaced, robbed, raped and murdered white people - but surely you must have compassion for their suffering dogs.
REPLY TO COMMENT ON POLO ONIES
I AM SO GLAD YOU POSTED YOUR comment. PEOPLE SHOULD GET A GRIP! I worked on the racetrack for 15 years and have never seen a horse mistreated. In fact, most horses were treated better than a human. They get wonderful, loving care. Some of the retrictions they want to put on Thoroughbreds could end up being the very cause that hurts them. The article somehow makes the owners of those poor horses the criminals. Don't they realize that they just lost a part of their family!
You are uninformed
The polo ponies were not on performance enhancing drugs. They were given a B vitamin and selenium compound as a weekly maintanence. Since when are vitamins and minerals considered to be drugs? If so, close down all GNCs, because they sell performance enchancing drugs to humans! Most substances can be fatal if given in high enough concentrations... vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E... shall I go on? Selenium, in particular, should be administered only in trace amounts, and more would be rapidly fatal. That doesn't make it a drug, and it doesn't mean people are administering them with the intent to illegally enchance performance. In fact, much of the country has selenium-deficient soil, so equine forages are also deficient, making supplementation essential! The deficiency causes White Muscle Disease, where muscle fibers start to break down... even affecting the heart. This is also a huge problem with sheep and other domestic livestock! It is more than reasonable to give a performance animal like a polo pony or a race horse, a selenium supplement to prevent muscle breakdown due to increased utilization of selenium.
BTW, the RMTC is a joke. They have no real authority, and can only make recommendations to the racing jurisdictions, many of which are resistant to change. This is one area where real, tangible change will not occur until the older generations retire. That being said, many racing jurisdictions are choosing to adopt some of the recommendations... with most states banning steroids and many tracks banning front toe-grab shoes and other forms of traction devices which cause greatly increased torque on the essential suspensory ligament and digital flexor tendons of the horse. But, adoption of standardized rules are a long way off, if it ever happens, because each state has jurisdiction over its own tracks.
