I’m sorry Branscomb didn’t pursue legal action and make them pay for this unnecessary death. A change in policy and an admission that the injection probably caused the death costs them nothing. And what about the vet, why isn’t he (she?) suspended or lose their license?
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Wasn’t the veterinarian a Spanish vet? Not licensed in the USA?
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I don’t know anything about the vet, but surely there are suspensions or loss of license in other countries? If a Spanish vet can practice in Paris then why can’t they be penalized in some way? The death didn’t take place in the USA so why does that matter?
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The way it was explained to me that the “vet” involved in this incident was not a vet in the way we think of them in the US. The standards and education are much different, so more like a PA or maybe a nurse practitioner qualifications wise.
Although I kind of don’t think it’s right to just make him the scapegoat since USEF was using g him for his license , but I guess that’s how things go
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The vet was from Mexico. Just because they are called by a different name in another country, doesn’t mean they wouldn’t be up to US standards. I believe @Ghazzu explained this earlier. It’s like Doctors have different titles in the UK than they do in NA. Doesn’t mean they aren’t good to go when they move here.
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I’m not sure that’s true. I had a doctor years ago who was a surgeon in Italy, but when he moved to the US he wasn’t willing to undergo the additional schooling he would need to practice as a surgeon in the US, so he could only practice as a GP. And I had a small animal vet who took tests in three different states in the US as soon as he graduated from vet school, because each state had a different test and he wasn’t sure where he wanted to practice. It seems logical that a vet from another country might need additional certification to practice in a country other than the one they went to school in. Although for the Olympics I’m sure there must be some type of temporary certification to treat all horses. But it was the vet who made the decision to give the injection that killed the horse so why shouldn’t he be punished?
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You were seriously misinfromed then.
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MVZ (Medico Veterinario Zootecnista) is the degree awarded to veterinary school graduates in Colombia, Guatemala, and Mexico.
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To be eligible for a veterinary license in Mexico one must:
- Be a citizen of Mexico or have a valid visa that allows you to work in Mexico.
- Graduate from a veterinary school that is accredited by the Mexican government.
- Pass the National Veterinary Licensing Examination (NVLE).
- Complete a one-year internship in Mexico.
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They are considered “veterinarians” and/or “Doctors” by the AVMA., along with many other veterinary degrees from various countries.
Dr. Ulibarri is on the FEI “Permitted Treating Veterinarian” list.
He is an official veterinarian with the Mexican Equestrian Federation.
He is a current member of the Mexican equine veterinarians association.
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The 3 different tests would be state veterinary boards. they range from the non-existant to the ridiculous.
When I graduated, the “exam” was oral, and I was asked such thorny questions as “name some breeds of goats”.
They stopped me before I ran out of goat breeds to name.
At the end, I asked them WTF?
I was told that the main root cause of complaints from owners was poor communication, and that the Board felt that what was then the National Board Exam and the associated Clinical Competency Exam were a thorough test of our veterinary knowledge, and they just needed to see if we could communicate.
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Some states ask questions pertinent to locally important diseases, poisonous plants, etc.
Historically, some state boards used the exam to throttle competition, but I think getting dragged into court has put an end to that by and large.
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“To practice as a veterinarian in the United States, you must have either graduated from a veterinary school accredited by the AVMA Council on Education(https://www.avma.org/education/center-for-veterinary-accreditation/accredited-veterinary-colleges) (AVMA COE®) or successfully completed an educational equivalency certification program such as that administered by the AVMA’s [Educational Commission for Foreign Veterinary Graduates® (ECFVG®)avma.org/education/ecfvg).”
ETA: the NBE/CCT has been replaced by NAVLE (North American Veterinary Licensing Examination) which needs to be taken and passed in order to apply for licensure by the various states.
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This was what I was responding to when I mentioned the veterinarian may have been Spanish (Mexican it seems). Who would make that call? It was a US horse, would USEF be the governing body to file a complaint? I don’t really see how…
I guess that would depend on if a complaint was filed with the board where he is licensed.
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Thank you for clarifying
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It was mentioned either up thread here–or maybe I saw it on Diva–that the USET/USEF vet in Riyadh regularly treated horses in Florida (during WEF?), and was referred by USET vet Tim Ober. It’s my belief this was not just some random vet from Mexico, or the Mexico team. Seems he should have been educated in Selenium use…or NON-USE!!! But, with so much crap in that injection…could’ve neen any or all pf the ingredients.
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Thank you…I had not read that.
I just assumed that the tests would be a written test, when my vet was telling me why he wanted to be licensed in several states he felt it was best to do it when he was fresh out of vet school rather than waiting several years and then having to take a test in another state if he decided to relocate. I remember that he took the tests for NY and FL, I don’t remember the third state. He has been retired for at least 17 years, was the licensing requirements different from when you took them?
I’m sure they are in some places.
They weren’t in MA at the time I first got licensed. (close to 40 years ago)
There was a practical component in NYS at one point, and it was widely known that the Cornell grads should wear their red coveralls to the large animal portion to let the examiners know where they were from.
These days there’s a lot of reciprocity–if you have an active license and a clean record in one state, it’s relatively straightforward to get licensed in another state.
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Funny in a bad way.
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My current small animal vets (there are 3 in the practice) all went to Cornell vet school, I will have to ask them about wearing red. Two of them are 72-73 so a bit older than you I think. The vet I was referring to who took the licensing test in three states went to vet school in Italy.
I don’t know if they do the same thing at other vet schools, but there is a hall at Cornell that has a picture of each graduating class.
It’s kind of fascinating to compare and contrast all the pictures. Particularly the ratio of men and women as the years go by.
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That’s interesting, when I was growing up there was no such thing as a female vet or a female doctor either! In my area we have lots of women vets now, both equine and small animal. If my vets have pictures of their graduation they are not on display in the office but I had another Cornell vet who had something on the wall in one of the examining rooms showing that he was first in his anatomy class. He is a lot younger than my current vets.
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When I was in HS, I worked for Norman Hall.
His son Pete went to Cornell.
I was interested in becoming a DVM, and was talking to Norman’s wife Kay one day.
This was before title IX, and Cornell had a policy of admitting 2 women per class, IIRC.
Didn’t matter how qualified they were compared to the men–there was a ridiculously small quota.
Kay was very supportive of my dreams, but told me that one of the muckamucks at Cornell at the time thought admitting any women was a waste of resources, because “they’ll just get married and have kids.”
One of Pete’s woman classmates got married, had twins, and still graduated near the top of the class.
Kay said that when she pointed that out at commencement and said that sort of blew his argument out of the water that the old fart harumphed and said, “If she hadn’t had kids, she could have been valedictorian” in a tone that indicated her achievement was some sort of failure.
Kay then looked at me, sighed, and said, “you just can’t change some people.”
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