I didn’t see any mention of giving the Adequan IV in Nancy Jaffer’s report - only a list of what was given.
I’m curious if the selevit has been linked to pulmonary hemorrhage before? Or… if something else was administered in an artery… maybe that did it?
ETA - I see now in the Chronicle report that the way they wrote it, it does seem as though they administered adequan IV instead of IM. I wonder if that is poor wording, or if that is what actually happened…
Now I understand why Andrew Nicholson went ballistic on NZ team vets after an event. I’m guessing it was something similar.
Vets administering your horse something without discussing it with you is WILD. I can not comprehend this. Heads should roll.
apparently it does have a known history of causing this.
Here’s a NYT article about the deaths of the polo ponies around 15 years ago… that situation seemed to be an issue related to a supplement and a compounding error by the pharmacy, resulting in acute selenium toxicity.
Looks like they did do necropsies on some of the polo ponies, and found toxic levels of selenium in their livers and kidneys. I wonder if they investigated those organs during Chromatic’s necropsy? I would imagine they might have.
If the horse was given E-Se a) IV and b) without a clear indication that it was needed, I’d be livid.
I quit using the stuff “routinely” years ago, after witnessing an anaphylactic reaction to it being given IV as a vet student (fortunately the horse lived), and later, after only using it IM, dividing the dose into different sites, and administering slowly, had a tech’s horse have an allergic reaction (less pronounced than full blown anaphylaxis, but not pretty).
Most horses can be treated for E/Se deficiency with oral medication, so in my thinking, the risks clearly outweigh the benefits in most cases.
To give a drug like that as a routine “recovery” medication is nuts, IMHO. There is known risk and no documented beneficial action.
The presence of a shopping list of prohibited medications in the animal’s system makes me wonder WTF actually happened.
This makes me ill just thinking about it! I would be incandescent with rage if this was my horse.
This whole situation infuriates me. Not only that fact that it is apparently required for owners to “lease” their horse to USEF for international team competitions and give permission for USEF vets to administer whatever drugs/medications they wish without owner consent, but also USEF’s clear attempt to avoid blame and try to claim the death was caused by something other than complete incompetence by one of their veterinarians. I know Ms. Branscomb (owner of Chromatic BF) has been working with USEF to change the rules and revise the Horse Participation Agreement, and I seriously hope USEF actually implements these changes. I don’t have a lot of faith though after seeing how they are now trying to change their tune after the full autopsy report was released.
It almost has the framework of a Dick Francis mystery. And with such a lack of oversight, accountability and credibility, the system is open to corruption and bribery.
Any thoughts on the reported Selevit dosage of 20 milliliters?
Per Nancy Jaffer’s report:
“A report on the necropsy performed at King Faisal University in Saudi Arabia included information that the horse had been treated at 10:41 p.m. with 4 milliliters of Legend, 5 of Adequan, 20 of Traumeel, 20 of arnica and 20 of Selevit, a selenium/vitamin combination.
At 10:44 p.m., Chromatic returned to his stall. A minute later, he began to stumble. Chromatic received dexamethasone at 10:48 p.m. He was pronounced dead at 10:59.”
One of the comments on Facebook indicates recommended equine dosage is 1cc per 100 lbs body weight.
Trade name Selevit, so it isn’t the E-Se that I am familiar with, but more of a combination medication. The ingredients are, from what I can find:
Selevit 100ml Per ml: Selenium 0.15 mg, Tocopherol (vit E) 70 mg, Cyanocobalamin (vit B 12) 0.1 mg, Adenosine 5 monophosphoric acid (AMP) 5 mg
and the listed dose is 10-20 ml for horses.
.
I don’t believe it is FDA approved in the US. The manufacturer, Syva, appears to be in Spain.
Looks like exercise induced pulmonary hemorrhage may not cause death. “Exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage is a rare cause of death of racehorses . Necropsy examination of affected horses is usually incidental to examination for another cause of death. Pertinent abnormalities in horses with EIPH are restricted to the respiratory tract.”
[
Correct. EIPH is very common in racehorses, and finding bleeding on endoscopy after a work is/was required to run a horse on Lasix. The pharmacology of how furosemide stops EIPH isn’t well understood. But racehorses don’t die of EIPH, they just perform poorly.
Thanks for educating on the meds involved 
I have to wonder about the traumeel, too. Selevit at least is manufactured as a drug to those standards even if used off label here. Homeopathic meds to my understanding have no oversight and there could have been anything in there.
It’s truly shocking. I thought all those medications were used as long-acting, maintenance type medications. So why is the horse being injected with them immediately after a strenuous performance while on the road at an international competition? It all seems really fishy–and risky.
Maybe it was not so much post-performance for the second round as pre-performance for the third round coming up two days later.
Horribly tragic, no matter how it happened.
I am absolutely baffled and horrified by how this played out. It is a tragedy no matter which way you look at it, but USEF’s response is, at a minimum, breathtakingly poor. They seem to have blundered this fatal error at every step of the way. What a senseless loss.
I know there’s a terrible shortage of vets, but wtf?!
Traumheal is homeopathic. I don’t know about you guys but I prefer my multi million dollar horses only be given actual medication.
Pepe is an incredible horseman, he is far far more knowledgeable than most. He did a lot of the riding on that horse from the time they started him. I can’t imagine how he feels about this.
I compete in the FEI classes regularly
Adequan, Legend, Traumeel, and Arnica are all commonly given in FEI to help with inflammation and “relieve pain”. Most high level FEI horses are getting at least Legend Daily while showing, I usually add in the Adequan as needed; same with Traumeel. It may be “homeopathic” but it works. I personally have never given Selevit so I can’t comment on that.
I have had vets ask if I wanted the Adequan given IM or IV, I stick with IM.
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