‘Let’s Talk’ Explores the Obstacles Facing Vets

   The TDN's 'Let's Talk'–a podcast series featuring TDN's Christina Bossinakis and TVG's on-air analyst Gabby Gaudet, offers candid discussion on personal and professional issues often faced within the racing community.

   The latest edition presents a trio of successful veterinarians–The Stronach Group's Chief Veterinary Officer Dr. Dionne Benson, equine surgeon Dr. Patty Hogan (Hogan Equine Clinic in Cream Ridge, NJ) and longtime racetrack practitioner Dr. Bill Hawk, who counts Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen among his vast clientele.

Over the course of the last decade, racing has faced significant growing pains, transitioning from the norms of yesterday into the necessities of today. And veterinary medicine is no different, having seen its equine professionals put under increasing scrutiny and pressure. Also, long work hours and weekends and keeping pace with the enormous volume of work among a dwindling community of peers are just a few of the factors making it increasingly harder to entice graduating vets and to keep existing ones in the equine branch.

“It's an incredible career but it does have some real highs but some real lows,” admitted Dr. Hogan.

One of the highs in the industry, according to Dr. Hawk, is a communal approach among vets, including both track practitioners and regulatory veterinarians, who help propel the industry in the right direction.

“This is where practicing and regulatory veterinarians in my view work very well together,” he said. “Every time that I had an incidence where I thought there was not proper care being delivered or stalls bedded properly or certainly an injury not properly taken care of, I spoke to our regulatory veterinarians anywhere I've ever been and I always found that was attended to almost immediately.”

While equine health and safety is generally among the key talking points in the industry, the health–both physical and psychological–of the equine veterinary community is one that is often overlooked. However, the emotional investment by the equine vet underscores the unwavering commitment to made to the animal and their clients.

“I'm like a high-end auto repair shop for sports cars, but these sports cars are animals that have personalities and they react to you,” said Dr. Hogan. “When I have a particularly hard case, and I lose that case, it's very tough. I still think of horses that I had to euthanize 20 years ago. They are all individuals. That's the hard part for me. They're real-life animals and you get to know them.. So it's still very personal for me because I have very individual relationships with these horses.”

And like other professions in racing, veterinarians have come under fire of late for the behavior and actions of a few bad apples, however, the vast majority of vets remain staunchly motivated to do right, and passionately work to help protect the animals they oversee on a day-to-day basis.

“I get really offended when somebody mistreats one of these horses,” admitted Dr. Hawk. “Let's be honest, this is an entertainment industry and they are giving there all for our entertainment..and we're not doing our part if someone does not take care of that animal and then we don't say anything about it. It's just wrong on every level.”

Despite all the hard work and oftentimes thankless press, the men and women that are charged with caring for the sport's equine athletes are often driven by the most basic of forces–the sheer love of the horse and the commitment to its health and welfare.

“I can't look at the day-to-day, because I'm going to have really bad days and, hopefully, a lot of really great days,” Dr. Benson added. “I look at where we're headed. Are we improving the industry? Are we making things better? Are we seeing fatalities drop? Are we seeing horses racing healthy longer. If I feel like we're still moving, that's what keeps me going personally is that I feel like there are still things we can do to help.”

To watch the 'Let's Talk' podcast, click here and to listen to the audio only version, click here.

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Veterinary Researcher Swerczek, Who Discovered Secretariat’s Large Heart, Dies

Dr. Thomas Swerczek, longtime researcher and professor at the University of Kentucky, died on Jan. 9. Swerczek was best known to many laypeople in racing as the veterinarian who performed a necropsy on Secretariat and discovered Big Red's abnormally-large heart, which has been credited by many as the reason for his dominance on the racetrack.

Swerczek received his bachelor's degree in 1962 from Kansas State University, with a DVM to follow in 1964. He got a master's degree and a PhD from the University of Connecticut before taking a job in 1969 at the University of Kentucky's Department of Veterinary Science, where he worked until his retirement in 2018. Much of Swerczek's focus as a researcher was the potential impacts of electrolyte changes, particularly potassium and nitrate in winter pasture, and excesses or imbalances of those electrolytes in commercial grain.

According to an interview he gave in 2020, Swerczek came to believe such seasonal changes were responsible for the worsening of Secretariat's laminitis and that they could play a role in fetal losses in broodmares.

Swerczek served as a reviewer for the AVMA's American Journal of Veterinary Research, and had been on the editorial boards for the Journal of Equine Veterinary Science and Journal of Modern Horse Breeding.

A funeral mass is scheduled for Jan. 14 at the Cathedral of Christ the King in Lexington, Ky., with a burial to follow at Calvary Cemetery.

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RMTC to Hold RegVet CE 2022 in March

The Racing Medication & Testing Consortium (RMTC) will hold the 5th annual RegVet CE 2022, a veterinary continuing education program for racing regulatory veterinarians, at Churchill Downs Mar. 21-22. With 18 hours of lectures and labs, in addition to interactive and hands-on sessions, the theme will be 'Infectious Disease and Movement of Horses.' Internationally recognized experts including Peter Timoney FRCVS, PhD (University of Kentucky); David Horohov, PhD (University of Kentucky); Maureen Long, DVM, PhD, DACVIM (University of Florida); and Laurie Beard, DVM, DACVIM (Kansas State University) will be featured. The conference provides training directly related to the duties and responsibilities of the racing regulatory veterinarian in protecting the health and welfare of racehorses and supporting the integrity of competition.

“To have become established as an international source of quality education for these specialist veterinarians in such a short period of time validates the work of so many in assembling these events,” said RMTC Executive Director Dr. Mary Scollay. “We are grateful to all our stakeholder sponsors who invest in our regulatory veterinarians–and the safety and integrity of our sport–by supporting this program.”

Visit RMTCnet.com for more information.

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Vets Should Be Taught Resiliency In School, Study Shows

The well-being of veterinarians has been brought to the forefront lately as practicing vets leave the profession in large numbers, citing mental health as one of their top concerns. Veterinarians and vet students have been reported to be at an increased risk of burnout, depression, and suicide when compared to other occupations. Vets say the main difficulties they face include long hours, heavy workloads, job demands, lack of work-life balance, challenging clients and unattainable client expectations, among other issues.

Dr. Marta Brscis and her research team report that younger and female veterinarians are at greater risk of job dissatisfaction, mental health issues, and suicidal thoughts. The scientists used text mining and topic modelling analysis on 211 scientific papers and abstracts that have studied the issues facing vet students between 1985 and 2019. They report that their approach can be used to comprehend in-depth phenomena involving vets and vet students.

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The team said their work uncovered several changes that should be considered in the admission process, while students are in vet school and after graduation to reduce well-being risks. These include including coursework that includes psychology models to prepare students to deal with animal death and pet owner grief, as well as information on how to handle moral stressors and ethical dilemmas. Learning to work in a team, how to communicate effectively and how to promote a work-life balance are also important action items.

The scientists also suggest investigating student's level of empathy with animals before admission to vet school and perhaps prolonging their training, though vet school involves an already-difficult curriculum. Continuing education training might involve updating working veterinarians on different ways to look at their mental health.

Read the study here.

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