Ethical Issues

I have one ethical issue that I'd like to discuss. I have a second thing going on but its not really resolved so I'm going to hold off on discussing that one. It happened today and really stressed me out. I remained calm throughout it and with cooler heads, hopefully everything turns out well.

Okay, my ethical issue. Its not really an ethical issue but I guess in some ways it could be.

A couple months ago, Joe and I talked about moving the ponies back to Missouri. I simply didn't have the time to spend with them because I'm on call a lot more and work a lot more here than I did at FVA. Also, even though I liked where they were boarded in terms of the care they were receiving, I didn't enjoy going out there. They didn't have an arena. AND everytime I went out there, the people that ran the place always came out and annoyed me. And a final reason for moving them was that every bit of board we paid was money that was going away from paying bills, paying my student loan and saving for a house. (Unfortunately, all of the New Year's resolutions to save money have yet to be started. Same with losing weight. BUT I do have an appointment to go to the doctor Friday! Small steps.) Anyway, we knew my  mom wouldn't go for it so it wasn't until a few weeks ago that I brought it up with her. It didn't go well.

So with winter and the early nights, I was only going out to see the ponies maybe five times a month if even that. I was only out there long enough to make sure they were alive and to give them some cookies. The ponies being ponies, could have cared less.
But the last couple of time I was out there (after an admittedly long gap), I noticed that the gelding, Cody, was looking really skinny. Now Cody is not an easy keeper. He easily gets bullied out of his own food and has bad teeth. I also noticed that Nell and some of the other horses out there were skinny too. I didn't think much of it other than I wanted CB to come out and float Cody's teeth. I think this probably prompted me to call my mom and see if it was possible for them to go back to Missouri.
Then I went out one Saturday morning when it was cold and the ponies were in their stall happily eating hay. However, they had no bedding in their stall and their bucket had been kicked around. The bucket was filled with ice and no water. So I went and got water at the clinic and the ponies drank happily. Sunday, I repeated the act but they luckily had water. So now I was really determined to get the ponies back to Missouri but my mom shot me down.

Fast forward to this week...
Tuesday afternoon, we get a call at the office about a down horse that was colicking out where the ponies are boarded. The horse was down and rolling but had passed manure and eating. Didn't sound like a colic to me but whatever, I'd go out there once I finished my ice cream (yum!). When I got there, there was indeed a down horse, eating. The horse was very skinny and old. I checked him out and in doing so, I thought that his stifle didn't look normal and then concluded that his femur was broken. I called CB to see if she could come out and confirm my findings. She did and indeed the femur was broken. We euthanized the horse. It didn't go great.
At this point, I decided I really needed to push my mom about moving the ponies. Sure freak accidents happen. Horses fall and get pinned in the stall and break their legs. This was unfortunate but I still wanted the ponies gone.
The next day, in the late afternoon, I'm hanging out at the clinic finishing up for the day when my work cell phone rings. Most of the time its a wrong number if I'm not on call or not out in the field. It was the people where I board the ponies. Why she called me directly, I don't know. Same thing-down horse that was eating and had passed manure. Did they want me to come out? Sure. So get in Margie and drive out there. The horse is down and very skinny. I don't find much wrong with her other than her eyes are slightly yellow (icterus can happen for a variety of reasons including not eating in herbivores) and her heart has an arrhythmia. So I pull some blood, offer to run fluids while I'm gone (declined), give a HUGE dose of steroids, give a poor prognosis (horses no matter how big or small are not designed to go down) and then run back to the office to run the bloodwork. It takes way too long to run the blood. Its sort of all over the place with a calcium so low its should be incompatible with life. I relay this back, go back and run 10 liters of fluids spiked with calcium to the horse. About half way through the first bag, she starts perking up and the arrhythmia disappears. Maybe the calcium was really that low. Anyway, I finish but leave the catheter in. I'm expecting to have to euthanize the horse in the morning anyway. I tell them to call me at the office in the morning and let me know how the horse is doing. I go home taking Margie, the vet truck, with me. I call my mom and tell her that I have to move the ponies now. I talk to TC and plan to move the ponies into the barn at the clinic.

Thursday, I'm on my way to work when my phone rings-first my work cell and then my personal Missouri cell. Both times its the people from where the ponies are boarded. I didn't answer. I told her to call the office. I get to the office and she tries my personal phone again. Obviously, she's trying to avoid the clinic and the associated charges. I eventually call them back and left a message. As I'm on the way out the door for an emergency, she calls me back on my work cell. The horse died overnight. I offer rabies testing and a necropsy. I tell them to call the office and the message can be relayed to me. They call me back on my work cell looking for someone to haul off the dead horse. CALL THE OFFICE!!!

Anyway, we're moving the ponies ASAP. Unfortunately, I wanted ASAP to be today but the 2-4" of snow that we got prevented that. Hopefully, next weekend. Or maybe before that depending on if we get enough time. I'm not asking for my board check back. I know that those horses need the $300 more than I do. In fact, I had asked about feed changes and they said they had about the time my check would have got there. I hadn't seen any signs of grain the days before that.

So my dilemma which really isn't a dilemma, is I noticed the horses losing weight but turned a blind eye. As a boarder, it was none of my business as long as I felt my horses were getting taken care of well enough. But as a vet, I should have said something. But I wasn't out there in the capacity of a vet. Then when I was running all those fluids to the horse, I asked what was going on and was fed some line about old hay. Whatever. These people aren't telling me the full story. How can I continue to trust my ponies to their care?