If there is any good in this, the owner /rider are apparently asking for some changes regarding the USEF “Loan of the horse” and evidently the US has discontinued the use of Selevit, and
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No surprise there. 
This tragedy should never have happened, and I am appalled that USEF gives its team vets free rein to use off-label treatments without first clearing it with the horse’s owner. I don’t blame Branscomb for being in a rage about it!
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I am simply aghast at the number of injections after what is apparently each performance FEI horses are given.
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As am I.
One wonders what real evidence supports their use.
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The report is so unclear. Isn’t the active ingredient of Traumeel arnica? So two injections of the same homeopathic substance, or one? And no blood work prior to giving selenium (especially to a California horse) is to me, like practicing without a license.
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Yes! I think there is something extra in Traumeel though in addition to the arnica.
The reporting does lack clarity as to how each medication was administered, and the specific timing… except for the selevit - that was clearly given IV, and the horse experienced acute distress minutes after the shot, then got Dex… but was not given epinephrine (was it even available?)… and the horse passed away minutes later.
I wonder why they didn’t try epinephrine. Really sad.
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Traumeel is always confusing to me… It’s “homeopathic” but somehow not. It contains actual active ingredients, rather than just water that’s been exposed to agents and then diluted to nothing (which is what homeopathy is.)
Anyway, here’s an actual research paper that discusses Traumeel and it’s ingredients, both the injectable stuff and the cream. It does have arnica, but quite a bit more.
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Interestingly I use the former team vet who stepped down recently after a long stint and we were chatting last summer. He feels that the rampant overuse of medication in the sport is a huge risk of it ceasing to exist. Something like this, for example, he says is just as easily a threat to our sport as the poor horsemanship from pentathlon changing theirs forever.
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I think it’s safe to say that horse was insured out the ying yang. I wonder what the insurance company has to say about all this. I have a feeling this will drag out for at least a couple of years, and it should. Some heads need to roll and someone needs to get hit hard in their wallet for this one
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And the administering vet needs to have his veterinary license revoked.
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I wouldn’t be so quick to assume the horse was insured. It’s expensive to insure a horse like that for full value, and many breeders insure for just enough value to obtain major medical coverage or self-insure. I have no idea whether this horse was insured or not, and for what value; I’m speaking in generalities.
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It’s a reasonable question to ask, is it ethical to continue using horses at a level of sport that requires so much medical intervention just to maintain their bodies?
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I linked it to share the ingredients, not as support of it’s use, which I thought was clear from my post.
But it’s clearly HERBAL rather than HOMEOPATHIC, which is why it’s odd it’s somehow considered homeopathic.
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They are looking for any edge up. Legend will genuinely help the horse the next day. Adequan will help but probably not the next day. The Traumeel is probably neither here nor there, as long as it was not mis-manufactured or contaminated. The Selevit is notorious for severe reactions. I would be curious who authorized giving it.
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Thank you for revealing Traumell’s ingredients. It’s puzzling to me that the vet injected the horse with a substance that contains both belladonna and St. John’s wort, both of which are extremely toxic to horses. As a topical, perhaps. I know it is very popular with athletes as a topical.
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I found the wording in the article weird about the timeline of the medications given. Read one way, it looks like all those meds were given in one shot, which would be really odd. Read another way, the horse had been given the other meds at some point, but the E-se was the one administered shortly before the bad reaction.
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I cannot believe USEF is doing anything other than throwing the full weight of their support behind the owner. Hugely problematic for a sport that relies on owner generosity and million dollar animals.
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I cannot find anything about the vet’s credentials, other than that he was recently in Rome and other big stick events. He has a Medico Veterinario y Zootechnista (MVZ) which is a five-year undergraduate program of schools in Colombia, Guatemala, and Mexico. This is just weird to me.
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Same.
I definitely can understand administration of Legend to ensure the horse was feeling his best prior to the next competition ride. Adequan has me scratching my head a little… it’s not as immediate in action. There are many formulations of traumeel and arnica… I wonder how they were given. IV doesn’t make sense to me. Topical does.
The selevit I don’t understand. Especially without testing of the horse’s existing selenium levels. And once the reaction started… I’m shocked they didn’t immediately treat for anaphylaxis. The more I read, the more it’s clear that it’s not uncommon when IV selenium is given.
Very very sad and avoidable.
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So… not a “vet” the way we think of vets?
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