This course is designed to provide rescue and emergency training to enable delegates to work effectively with the Emergency Services in equine rescue and to provide emergency care of rescued horses. This is a new course for 2008 and is provided through the partnership between BEVA and Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service (FRS). Following harrowing reports of unacceptable delays in horses being rescued and receiving appropriate care following road traffic and other incidents, BEVA, the BHS and Hampshire FRS have worked together to produce the Emergency Services Protocol which was launched in May 2007. The Protocol contains a national directory of equine practices, organised geographically, that can be contacted by the emergency services in the event of an incident involving horses where veterinary attention is required. This course is suitable for all veterinary surgeons who work with horses, especially those from practices in the Protocol’s directory.

Day One of the course, led by Hampshire FRS, covers rescue techniques and is a mixture of seminars and hands-on practical sessions where delegates will learn rescue techniques using a life-sized anatomical horse manikin in simulated, but life-like, rescue situations. Day Two is led by equine clinicians who are skilled in emergency medicine and is a mixture of seminars, case-based discussion and hands-on practical sessions designed to cover the practical aspects of veterinary care in emergency situations. We hope that having attended this course, the prospect of attending a road traffic accident, or other rescue incident, will no longer be your worst nightmare.
Course Objectives: Having attended this course delegates will:

• Feel confident to respond to and participate in equine rescues
• Understand the role of the veterinary surgeon when attending equine rescue incidents and how the veterinary surgeon interacts with the Fire and Rescue Service and other emergency services
• Understand the techniques used by the Fire and Rescue Service to rescue horses involved in road accidents and other incidents including getting stuck in rivers, ditches,
cattle grids etc
• Be able to work safely and effectively to assist the FRS in equine rescue, including provision of appropriate sedation, analgesia or anaesthesia
• Be able to deal with the emergency medical and surgical care of horses that have been rescued.

Seminars and problem solving:

1. The non-weight bearing horse
   a) Approach to non-weight bearing lameness following trauma
   b) Assessment, decision making, stabilisation, transport
2. Wounds: lacerations and punctures
   a) Assessment, initial management and referral
   b) Dressing and complications
   c) Synovial sepsis
   d) Body cavity punctures
3. Head Trauma
   a) Potential consequences, initial assessment and management, prognostic indicators, complications
4. Eye trauma
   a) Assessment, management, prognosis
   b) When to refe

Seminars and problem solving

1. The recumbent horse
   a) Assessment, differential diagnosis, decision making
   b) Spinal trauma
2. Shock
   a) Causes, assessment and immediate therapy
   b) Hypothermia
   c) Management of hypovolaemia and use of different fluids
3. Sepsis and septicaemia
   a) Assessment, management and decision making