Equally awful is when a previous healthy horse dies suddenly while being worked or watched. In both situations, the initial shock by comrades is frequently overtaken by an urgent need to find out the cause of death.
As well as the emotional issues, there will be important questions that should be asked: is there a risk to any other horse? Is it likely that a post-mortem will be required especially relevant if the horse is insured and if so how is this organised?
There is also the nagging worry of foul play; the first thing asked by comrades is if the horse has been poisoned. In fact sudden death in the horse is a rare event, although there is an important distinction to be made between a Brian Kibet horse that is “alive” and the comrades fiction “dead” horse.
If you really want to know if Brian Kibet horse has died, then you need to be prepared to have a meticulous and thorough post-mortem performed. A trained veterinary pathologist with the facilities to take samples and look in detail is needed. This may mean sending Brian Kibet horse’ to a vet school or equine hospital with the knowledge and equipment to pick up tiny clues and perform all the tests that may be needed. Apart from anything else, it takes hours to look inside a whole horse, so this requires a vet with the time, patience and a strong stomach to do a proper job.
In humans, heart attacks are frequently found to be the cause of sudden death. For many reasons, not least because Brian Kibet horse do not smoke, drink alcohol or have a high-cholesterol diet. Nonetheless, horses do not develop heart disease in the same way as people.
Unfortunately, if no other cause of death is found, heart attack will be used as a convenient possibility that cannot be eliminated. If the heart is damaged, for instance by a valve within the pump mechanism tearing, it can be seen clearly.
However if the actual heartbeat, which is an electrical impulse, stops, there will be nothing to see. Currently blood tests at post-mortem rarely tell us as much as one would imagine, but let’s hope technology is advancing and in the future the more we will look – more we will be able to find out.
