explain yourself.
It goes back a number of years and certainly a number of jobs in the past. At the time I was working in equine practice. It was all fairly high stress and featured a good number of high maintenance clients.

One afternoon my colleague had gone out to visit one of the "super special" clients as one of the mares was unwell. In the end, no conclusive diagnosis was reached and some basic treatment was given, with the caveat that there would be a re-examination the very next day.

All seemed well.

All would have been fine had I not received a call that night, and being the on-duty vet, it was my turn. The mare was much worse, and lay collapsed in the stable.

On arrival, I quickly realised that there was no exaggeration in the description given by the yard manager.

During the whole of the examination there was a foal in the stable which persisted in pushing its nose all over me and slightly getting in the way, but I preferred to keep it there as the distress which could have been caused by the separation would not have been good. I concluded my examination of the now exceedingly unwell mare with a rectal examination. This was not good. There was horseshit in places where horseshit should never be (the pelvic canal, outside of the rectum where it should have been).

A call to my colleague confirmed my suspicions that this was a very serious problem. I called a specialist who confirmed my concern that this was unlikely to be a salvageable situation. In addition the mare was unfit to be transported to the nearest suitable facilities for such work. There was only one answer.

The yard manager became a bit twitchy at this point and explained that this was no ordinary mare. She was a specially bred one-of-a-kind and whilst we have all heard that before, this was actually the case. The owner, who was actively involved in the breeding programme, was revealed as being exceedingly royal. ah.

In the end I euthanased the mare and my abiding memory is of the foal pawing at its mother once she was dead.

Cue: one very awkward phone call with the owner the next day, during which I had to explain why I euthanased this mare. I wasnt quite invited to the Tower but I got the impression that this was not a good day.
(gearanach #wankwankwank, Fri 21 Sep 2012, 22:00, Reply)