21 polo horses killed in Florida

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/20/dead.horses/index.html

It is suspected that the animals were injected with something - who would do such a thing??

Horse death toll up to 21 at polo club in Wellington

WELLINGTON -- The death toll is now 21 horses struck by a mysterious ailment just before competition at the U.S. Open polo tournament in Wellington, according to Dr. Scott Swerdlin of the Palm Beach Equine Club, International Polo's consulting veterinarian group.

At least 14 polo horses, collectively worth as much as $1.5 million, collapsed and died Sunday. Another seven died later, the vet said. Fourteen of the horses died Sunday, and one was euthanized. The remainder died at the Lechuza Caracas barn, said Swerdlin, who treated the horses. He believes the likely culprits are food or shots.

There are regualtions against doping, but vitamins and IV fluids are permitted. Swerdlin called the idea that the deaths were intentional "very far-fetched." Samples of every possible substance have been sent to the Kissimmee Diagnostic Lab and the University of Florida School of Veterinary Medicine, he said. The horses suffered pulmonary edema, which means fluid accumulated in their lungs, and cardiogenic shock, Swerdlin said. They had elevated temperatures and were disoriented but felt no pain.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationw...-wellington-palm-beach-041909,0,3852561.story

OMG, how horrible! Who would do suck a thing, that is just awful. I hope they find out what happened and the culprit is punished.

I just hope it was something other than someone injecting them with a poison. Whatever it was I hope they find out soon and no other horse suffers.

They are thinking it is in the feed, or that the club used an unlicensed vet, that injected them with a steroid, that he did not know was tainted with a cleaning agent. If thats the case, i don't feel sorry for the club itself, because they did this to save money, and it cost them even more money then in the long run. I do feel sorry for the horses though.

Any company that tries to save money, by doing illigal things, such as hiring an unliscensed vet to administer the shots, rather then a liscensed vet i think is playing with fire, and THEY should be held accoutnable for these horses deaths, and be charged to the FULLEST extent!!!!!

(CNN) -- The captain of a polo team at the center of the mysterious deaths of 21 horses told an Argentine newspaper that he has "no doubts" vitamins administered to the animals by a laboratory are at fault.







"For us, we are suspecting that something on the laboratory's part went wrong. We have no doubts of the origin of the problem," Juan Martín Nero, top player for the Lechuza Caracas polo team, told the newspaper La Nacion. The Venezuela-based team trained the horses.
For Nero, the vitamins -- either the dosages or the possibility of them being tainted -- are the obvious culprit.
"There were five horses that did not get the vitamin and those were the only ones that survived," he told the Argentine newspaper.
The deaths of the ponies, witnessed in full view by spectators Sunday in a dramatic scene where horses collapsed one after another, have jolted the prestigious polo tournament at the marquee International Polo Club Palm Beach in Wellington, Florida.



http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/22/polo.horses/index.html

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2009/04/22/0422horsedeath.html
State investigators: Dead Wellington polo horses had hemorrhaging lungs


By ANDREW ABRAMSON
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
With the necropsies on the 21 horses that died in Wellington on Sunday nearly complete, the Florida Department of Agriculture confirmed today that the horses suffered from hemorrhaging of the lungs.
"The thing that is consistent with all the horses is hemorrhaging and pulmonary edema," said Mark Fagan, spokesman for the agricultural department. "That's consistent through all the necropsies so far, and we certainly expect that with the remaining few necropsies."
Fagan said that an official cause of death wouldn't be released until the toxicology reports are completed - those results aren't expected until the end of the week, at the earliest.
Fagan said that investigators are following a report in the La Nacion newspaper of Buenos Aires where a captain of the Lechuza Caracas polo team said the horses were injected with a vitamin supplement called Biodyl that is not approved for use in the United States, Fagan said.
"I will tell you certainly screening for Biodyl will be done, and we're trying to get some answers about Biodyl," Fagan said.

http://www.wesh.com/news/19261115/detail.html

FTA: WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- An official at a Florida pharmacy said Thursday the business incorrectly prepared a supplement given to 21 polo horses that died over the weekend while preparing to play in a championship match...also acknowledging that a Florida veterinarian wrote the prescription for the pharmacy to create a compound similar to Biodyl, a French-made supplement that includes vitamins and minerals and is not approved for use in the United States.