OSU trip 2008 - Part 4

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

After we came back to the hospital after lunch we walked around, looking at the llamas, cows, and other horses. There are four aisles of stalls that open on both ends into two large main hallways. The one large hallway is reception, while the other one has exam rooms, procedure rooms, and the entrance to the surgical suite. We just wandered around, and I was taking pictures of things I thought were interesting. Such as, this picture of the treadmill room, which I'm assuming is for gait analysis or some kind of stress test.



Then I took a picture of a situation, without knowing what was really going on. L and I discussed what we were seeing, and it soon became apparent that this was not something that we should be seeing, let alone have a photo of. I'm not going into details, and nothing unethical or illegal was going on, it's just that this particular situation was not one that should be seen by patients, or, more importantly, posted on my blog. I immediately deleted the picture, and we decided to move on to another area. However, one of the technicians (or possibly a student - hard to tell) saw that we had been standing there. She didn't say anything, but I felt like we had been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

We walked over to the surgery center, hoping to see a horse prepped for, or even undergoing surgery, but there was nothing to see there. So we headed back to our stall to wait for Dr. Derm. A few minutes later she showed up, read the test again, then had Senior Student get the paperwork together for our discharge. Before we left I had another question for her about Kaswyn's coat. His coat looked terrible. It was rough, dull, and had lots of long guard hairs everywhere. Dr. Derm said that he had a classical steroid coat, indicitive of a horse who'd been on a course of steriods. I had never heard that, so I was surprised. He also has a little hump in the center of his neck that he hadn't had before this whole hive incident. She explained that steroid use in horses, as with humans, can redistribute fat in the body, so he might have picked up a little fatty area on the crest of his neck. I'm hoping that his coat will eventually return to normal and that fat pad will go away. It's not a big deal, but I don't like the way it looks.

After Dr. Derm answered my questions she said it would just be a few minutes for the paperwork, and that we could wait at the stall. That's when Dr. Med came up and asked if he could talk to us. I thought he was just going to tell me about after care for the surgery site, but he said "I heard that you were walking around, and that you saw something and took a picture?"

I said yes, it was true, and that I hadn't understood when I took the picture, but once I understood what was happening I deleted the picture. He seemed concerned that we might be upset about what we saw, and wanted to make sure that we understood what was actually going on. We said that we had figured it out and that we were sorry, but he seemed more concerned that we would misinterpret what was happening, get upset, and then tell people what we think we saw. He seemed to accept that this was not the case and that we weren't crazy people. We thanked him for his help and he said goodbye.

Both L and I felt like we had broken the rules. We felt really bad, and figured that the staff all knew about it by now. It got really uncomfortable and I really was ready to leave, but noticed that Kaswyn's lead rope was missing. Even though we didn't want to, we started walking around searching for the missing lead rope. Dr. Med saw us in another aisle, and said "Can I help you?" I explained, sheepishly, that our lead rope was missing and he said he'd get right on it. I didn't want to walk around any more so I went to go check out and pay my bill while L hitched up the trailer. By the time I got back to the stall, the lead rope was there. Dr. Med must have found it in an attempt to get us out of the facility before we could cause any more trouble!

As you can tell, Ohio State Vet Hospital is a teaching hospital. It's a fantastic facility and any time a student touched my horse there was always a vet present. Because it's a teaching hospital, the prices are fantastic. The allergy test was the most expensive, coming in at $290. The splinter removal? A reasonable $90. No charge for the skin scrapings, and I went home with a free bottle of anti-bacterial/anti-fungal shampoo and a syringe full of wound ointment for the surgery site.

I'm just hoping it's a long time before I have to go back there. That will give the staff a chance to forget the trouble that L and I think we might have caused. I'm hoping the remember Kaswyn, though. As we were leaving Dr. Derm said "You're horse was such a wonderful patient. He just made my day!"

I couldn't agree more.

To be concluded with the test results!

Part 5