AN INNOVATIVE, EXTRAORDINARY TREATMENT PROCEDURE THAT PRODUCED A VERY HAPPY ENDING

By Graham Potter | Wednesday, October 20, 2021

On the back of the story posted on HRO about Commandeering’s amazing comeback to racing, it is worth taking a look at the extraordinary rescue procedure undertaken on Commandeering from another perspective. Tegan Harrison praised the vet involved for saving Commandeering’s life and thanked him for never giving up on the horse … but the details of that ‘never giving up’ attitude, from its commitment to the cause, to the innovative thinking to find an alternative resolution to the problem, to the extraordinary execution of an unusual plan is a complete and compelling story in its own right.

There are many unsung heroes in the racing industry and many of them prefer to go about their work quietly and stay under the radar. Vets, like David Ahern, who treated and cared for Commandeering, arguably top that list … but sometimes the only way they can be thanked properly, and their work recognised by the greater community, is for their story to be told. This is one of those stories.
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They say every horse has a story. Well, here is one slightly out of left field.

“The horse (Commandeering) had a stem from a bunya pine with the barb like mature leaves stuck down in its stomach,” said David Ahern of Scenic Rim Veterinary Services, taking up the story.

“Initially they (the connections) had thought it was just a collection of normal leaves. I think that was an assumption, but when we scoped it and got proper visualisation, I knew straight away what it was. I gave them a description and they said, you know what, there is a bunya pine. We looked at pictures of bunya pine-cones and leaves and I said, yep, that’s it!

“There are risks associated with stomach surgery, obviously, and they didn’t want to go to surgery, so initially the horse was with us for a couple of days without us being able to remove it.

“Attempts were made to see if we could soften the cone with drenches of diet coke. They are brittle and very rigid. The diet coke did soften it a little bit but it couldn’t dissolve it, and it wasn’t shifting at all, which left us contemplating our next move, so we had to try and find another way of solving the problem.

“The leaves on the stem almost act as barbs … they can only go in one direction, so we came up with the idea of using a large bore nasogastric tube to hold the stomach sphincter open, and then putting the scope down inside that and then flipping the cone over in the stomach with some endoscopic graspers … then using a little noose, guided by the endoscope, to grab the correct end of the cone once we had flipped it … then we had to pull it into the large tube and then to draw it up the oesophagus and out of the nose.

“I called them and told them my plan. I told them I had got the extra equipment I needed. I got a different sized nose tube and larger endoscopic graspers and a different endoscopic snare … and I said to bring the horse in, and we’ll have another go at getting it out like that.

“So, the horse came back in for a second time. We spent a couple of hours fiddling with it to get it out … which we succeeded in doing. It really was an interesting one.

“When you get it out there is such a sense of relief. You never get carried away with any success though … it is a sense of relief more than anything else … because you do also have your disappointments. You can’t win them all.

“It can be emotionally draining because you want the perfect outcome in every case, but you can’t always have it,” concluded Ahern.

That final word is a sobering reminder of the overall picture, but when a plan does come together the ending is a happy one … and that is exactly what it was in the Commandeering case!

Credit to all concerned with the Commandeering treatment assessment and execution, and also to all of those who do similar sterling work behind the scenes far away from the bright lights, glitter and grandness of the top end of the racing tree … where their happy ending has nothing to do with any finding of fame, personal glory or gain … with their reward, rather simply, being just a sense of relief and satisfaction at a job well done!

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