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As an expatriate worker, to work in a place far away from your home is like hell. Once a friend of mine asked me which place do you like most in Saudi Arabia. I said" the departure terminal at king Khalid international airport, Riyadh and the place which I hate most is the departure terminal at Chennai international airport". It can’t be expressed but only experienced. Especially when I came back after a month of vacation, I sometimes felt I should runaway back to home. For a week the heart would ache and nothing goes down the throat, after that it is horse,horses,horses for another year.

Feeding

On many occasions I met mangers who cause more damage than managing their farms. Once a manager asked me why should we feed those horses which are not pregnant. He asked me why not they thrive only on the grass which is available in the paddock as he had read that in UK and USA they are left in the paddocks unattended. I showed him the barren paddocks in the farm, no grass but plenty of sand to eat. You lose more than what you save if you don’t feed them. In USA and UK the paddocks are very big and lush green so the mares get plenty to eat.

Damage

The same manager once attended a dystocia in his farm, he tried to pull the foal out for hours and finally pulled out the whole intestine. And on another dystocia he tried to pull the foal out but could not, finally he tied the legs of the foal with his car and took the car, the foal along with the uterus came out and the mare died in a few minutes of severe haemerrhage. He proudly told me once he is equivalent to ten doctors, I asked him how, he had a chance of working along with ten vets from different nations, one American, two british, one swiss, a Syrian, four Indians and a Saudi. So he knows the treatments and methods followed by these vets and he is a collection of all these. I was stumped by this assumption of himself. I had no words to say further.

Stud Manager

Sometimes we get into managers who behave like psycho. One such person we had to deal with approached us to work for his farm. We were asked to visit his farm once in two days to scan the broodmares and have to advise on some problems related to the health of their horses. We found the deal was attractive and accepted without knowing the background of that person. You would have never met such nice person before, in a few minutes you will see the worst side of him, the mood changes so fast. He used to lock the grooms and labourers in a room, beats and tortures them and the next day give them money as a compensation for the sufferings. Many ran away unable to withstand the torture methods applied by him. On the first day of our work in the farm we were made to wait for three hours saying that the manager was very busy the night before attending a foaling and now taking rest. During my next visit he invited me to have break-fast with him then he asked me to scan 25 mares and a few foals, my half day was gone and I was bombarded with phone calls from janadriya. On my next trip(in the evening) he was not there and his mobile was switched-off, so I checked some(twenty) mares for ovulation, estrus and pregnancy. I wrote my observations and told the supervisor to convey it to the manager when he returns. When I was about to leave he arrived and told me to check all the mares again, I refused. He started beating the grooms and threatened them that he would lock them all. Most of the grooms were from Pakistan and were from very poor families. They came and told me the consequences they are to face if I don’t yield to his demand. Then I agreed to check them again it was 11:00 in the night when I returned home. Once I reached the farm at 2:00 p.m, there was a dystocia, she was a maiden mare and nervous to lie down, the fetlock of the foal was flexed, I corrected the flexion and the mare foaled. When the manager arrived he came to know of this and started beating the supervisor for not informing him(his mobile was switched off when the supervisor tried to call him).

Working Condition

People back home think that those working abroad are minting money, but it is the opposite on most cases. It is harder than making money at home. If you come on a work contract(applies only for middle-east), and due to some reasons you don’t like to work with that particular employer, you can’t terminate and look for someone else or abruptly leave the job and go back home. We are like modern slaves. We have to stay and work till the contract period is over(mostly it is one year)with whatever salary mentioned in the contract. Many people don’t have the privilege of even getting a contract, so it is verbal which has no standing in the court of law. Even if you go to the court it will drag for months or years, who will feed you during this time and you cant work anywhere else during this period. There is no one to hear your woes and give some soothing words as every expatriate suffers due to some reasons. It is not like home you get some one from your family or friends to share your sorrow. Problems back home faced by family members sink our confidence and mental strength further on many occasions. If someone withstands all and survive for a couple of years he is a hard nut to crack. I see some people go home, get married and come back in a few weeks and part away for two or three years, it is a hell. Many times expatriates are also at fault, without knowing the existing law they think that they can somehow manage to earn more by doing menial jobs. I had met people coming here for a salary as low as 250SAR per month(3000 Rupees), a person told me that he was told by the agent back home that he can wash cars and earn another 1000 SAR. But the place where he was working is in a remote area, no houses and no cars.

Charity

There is no place for charity in private practice, there were misunderstandings on many occasions when we were a bit generous towards some people. It was with grooms on many occasions, when we see someone who was not paid his salary for months and in desperate need of money we give some money from our pocket(most occasions). Sometimes when my pocket was empty I tell them to take the money given by the horse owner for the scan(may be not more than 50 SAR). These things are not welcome by the employers. During such situations my credibility was at stake. Also when we scan mares at 14 days, it is a bit too early to diagnose twins, I prefer to scan at 16 days so as to squeeze if there is another conceptus. In one scan I can do all. The owners resent the idea of bringing the mare again for ruling out a twin as they don’t want to waste their money for one more scan, some even accused me of greedy for making more money. On a few occasions I noticed twins with a age difference of upto three days, people may say the small one may resorb as the bigger one grows bigger, but we cant take chance once we noticed it as there is every chance it can grow and abort at a later stage. I prefer two scans at two days interval that to when there is a twin ovulation at the time of covering. My professional ability, credibility are at stake. If the mare aborts a twin then we are in a big trouble, and it is going to cost very heavily on the owner. To avoid these things I make a point to the owner that I scan it for free. But these things are not welcome with the management

The Vet

During my twelve years tenure in the chettinad stud, India I had the privilege of working along with about 30 vets. When I came to janadriya, some youngsters working in india at regular intervals used to contact me for a job in Saudi Arabia. One such vet who worked along with me, after coming here had ridiculed who ever worked along with him(the seniors and juniors)before and passed some derogatory comments about many. The funny thing was that he was thinking too high about him and he was arguing with his superiors even on trivial matters and quarrelling with his subordinate staff. After a year the management had felt it was enough of him and fired. Another vet who had come here wanted to impress everyone and started talking about doing so many new things which had never been heard by the owner before, like inferior check ligament desmotomy, etc. When there was a colic in his stable he tubed and had to ask the help of another vet to arrest the bleeding due to naso-gastric tubing. My sincere advise to the youngsters is that this place is too adventurous and people have seen so many vets, and they have a habbit of comparing. What you will do counts not your past glory of working alongside some big names in the industry.

Rectal Tear

In practice, when working under extreme conditions without proper facilities life gets tougher. When we do rectal examination without a stock, the groom will say don’t worry sir my mare will not kick, I don’t take their assurances, if you are kicked the same person will say I know the way you were approaching my mare I thought it is going to kick. There are chances of us getting injured and sometimes the animal getting injured both way it is a loss to us. Many times we will be distracted by manythings, like cell phone, a horse owner, etc. During these times we have a great chance of injuring or getting injured. Whenever I am tired physically or mentally I caused rectal tears mostly non life threatening(first degree). Once when I was examining a mare which was straining very much and I got a call from another person saying that there is a dystocia I had to rush to finish the rectal examination. There was a rectal tear and the bleeding was a bit more than that of a minor one. I got cold sweats, shivering and black outs. Noticing a difference my assistant asked me what happened, I told him what has happened, he told me that he never noticed the blood in dung eventhough he was holding the tail, no one else knew what happened so forget about it, don’t worry too much about it. I said,”no body knows but I know”. Then we went to attend the dystocia and we took out a live foal. In the night I got a call from the owner of the mare which had a rectal tear saying that it to be off feed showing colic signs. I was almost dead, this is the feeling I had. I treated her with some analgesics, laxatives and intravenous fluids and went back to my room. The whole night I did not sleep, I was just praying I could see my heart beating so fast.Next morning I went to the stable at 4 there was no one as it was a Friday, I was looking around the paddocks I could not identify that mare. At 7 the groom came and I was looking at him so nervously, he asked me what happened , you come so early that too on a Friday. I asked him how the mare is, he said she is fine, passed dung and now eating well. I could not believe what he said, I asked him where is she, he took to me inside the stable and showed, I was so much relieved and happy that I wanted to give a big hug to the mare.

High and Dry

Resorption, a very big problem in the horses(mares), the mare will be in foal at 14,21,30,45 and 60 days come out barren at 75 days when we check, it can happen any time upto nearly four months. Sometimes it happens between 14 days to four months. This is one of the major embarrassments to the practitioner. So when every time I re-check the mares I am a bit nervous. Eventhough it is well known that some mares resorb their conceptus/foetus without expelling upto four months of pregnancy, it is very difficult to explain to the people around you. Many owners immediately think that we have mistaken a cyst for an embryo. I should admit that I may have done that on a few occasions, but I would say it may be less than 2%, because when the mares come for breeding examination for the first time I make a note of the cysts, the location and size, and when I scan mares for pregnancy at 14 days, if the mare had a cyst before and if she had a double ovulation I recheck after 24 hours to confirm a single pregnancy. Inspite of these efforts if I diagnose a cyst for an embryo, it is god given what else I can say. Once, in a farm I scanned a mare at three months, she was in foal, when the owner decided to sell after a month he wanted me to confirm it again, she was barren this time. I was shell shocked and started having a re-think of continuing as an equine practitioner, my confidence dipping to the lowest. I could not face the owner. But to my luck the owner did not show his anger in front of me. After a few days when I had a chance to go back to his stable for tending a colic, I enquired a Bangladeshi groom working there, he told me that the mare aborted about ten days after I scanned her last time( 3 months). The groom of that mare a Pakistani who was preparing to go on vacation covered it up as he did not want to upset his owner as it may have a negative impact on the bakshish(incentive money) he would get before his departure. He left with a handful of gifts but I was left high and dry.
(to be continued)

Distress signs

As we were progressing in our practice in janadriya, sometimes I found it too difficult to manage the case load ending up scanning 80 to 90 mares a day apart from the regulars like colics, vulvoplasty, injuries,foal diarrhea,etc,etc. During foaling season life became miserable as we were working in the nights and start early in the morning to catch up with the scanings. Dystocias put us in a very difficult situation, sometimes in the middle of the night we are called to attend a dystocia and after about half hour’s drive when you reach the stable, there would be a normal foal chuckling at you. Apart from these types of situations there are some other occasions wherein your patience is at your best, once a horse owner called me at 1 in the night to tell that I should swab his mare in the morning. I asked him why could not he call me in the morning as I am at the stables early, he said that he would be asleep and cant wake up before 10 that is why he wanted to instruct me before he slept. What a person he is. We frequently got threats from not only the owners but also the grooms, sometimes the grooms tell me that the master is unhappy with the service we provide and thinking of changing the vet. My answer mostly was a big grin and told them to do at the earliest. After tending to a dystocia the fatigue in the hands stay for a few days and carrying on with our scannings become more difficult. Sometimes when I drove my car to attend to an emergency in the middle of night I looked below my waist to make sure whether I put my pants or not, it became so mechanical that before picking up the ringing phone in the night I look for the key of my car. These are all some distressing signs I noticed, due mainly to loss of sufficient sleep.

vet/mechanic

The expectations of horse owners sometimes would be unjustifiable, they expect us to be like a mechanic,diagnose the problem, fix it and give a trial run this is the expectation I see in most cases. Once a trainer told me to have a look at one of his racing fillies, which had a very good racing career, she had a swollen right knee, I examined and there was severe pain, I suspected it to be a chip fracture, I told the trainer that it is better to take a x-ray and give her some rest, but he said that it should run in a very important race in a few days. I told him it is impossible. He advised me that a good vet should find out the problem and resolve it, should not tell to stop exercise. I took a x-ray and I found a big chip and told him that it is better to take her to a referral clinic, but he administered a heavy dose of anti-inflammatory and raced her, she finished last. Another owner had a filly, he covered her thinking to retire from racing, then he brought her back to work a week after the cover, on 14th day when we scanned, she was in foal and told the owner to retire her from racing. But he sent her for racing, she won four races and placed a few times. After four months when he brought her again, I confirmed her to be pregnant and told him not to race any further. He said he wants to run her for the last time, she dislocated her right shoulder during that race, she spent most of her time recumbent. After the term she foaled a very weak and small foal.

colics

The knowledge of some horse owners about different ailments on many occasions gave me some anxious moments. Especially during colics, they give all the available medicines and try for hours before calling us to treat. When we arrive at the farm, the animal would be toxemic, dehydrated and near death. The habit of giving Lasix(frusemide) to horses suffering from colic is so rampant that sometimes they end up giving double the therapeutic dose. So when we arrive at the scene it is almost no hope. We tried hard to convince the owners that diuretics should not be administered without the advice of the veterinarian, as it causes more damage than relieve the suffering during colic due to impaction. Here we more often face colics due to feed impaction, sand colics and torsion or displacement of intestines. Once I was called to attend a colic in a racing filly, which I referred it for surgery as it can’t be cured by medical therapy. The owner kept telling me that the filly is not passing urine, I removed the urine by catheterization and told him that it should be sent for surgery. After an hour when I came back to the stable to know the status of the filly, I was shocked to see the filly being covered by a racing colt. When the colt mounted on the filly, she collapsed and died instantly. I asked the owner what he was trying to do. He said some experienced trainer had told him that the colic is due to block in the urinary passage and if covered by a stallion, it will open up the urinary passage and the filly will pass urine freely. On a few occasions those horses we referred for surgery with displaced colon or impaction, when they reached the referral clinic after about two hours of drive, landed healthy as if nothing has happened. These were some embarrassing moments for us. A horse owner made it as a treatment schedule, whenever there is a colic in his stable, load the horse in the horse float and drive for an hour, some times it worked.. Once I was asked by a Prince to attend to his mare suffering from colic, after the initial treatments and examination I found it to be a displacement of colon, i told him that it should be sent for surgery, but the prince insisted that it is not passing dung and I give the injection to make the mare pass dung, I told him that it is not possible and there is no readymade drug available to do like that. He said that I don’t know anything about the horses and told me to leave the place immediately, those who were with him(sycophants) also told him that I am a brainless vet refused to pay for whatever the treatments I did, after about six hours the mare died, the groom who was a Pakistani told me later that the sycophants bought some medicine from local pharmacy saying that it will cause the mare to pass dung immediately, even after five repeated injections the mare did not pass the dung but breathed last.
(to be continued)

Test of integrity

Some times we faced difficulties from Indians who work as grooms in the stables in janadriya, they expected kickbacks for recommending us to their owners, many kept on asking us for commission from whatever we do in their stables also wanted us to put something extra in the invoices we produced for carrying out our work , we did not budge to these demands and we had to lose some practice because of this. Working here has given me a chance to work along with an international team which is very rare for many, had a chance to taste different types of food, and on many occasions I had my break-fast with the grooms and the owners in the stables. It was mostly a multi-cuisine break-fast from Saudi, Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sudani, Egyptian and Chadian. Sometimes the owners tried to corrupt our minds and practice, they would want us to give a clean report for breeding their mares, saying that they will pay double the money normally we charge for carrying out breeding examination, we stood firm against those and this brought more people towards us. The practice was mostly breeding, here in Saudi Arabia for coverings the stallion owner cant charge money, it should be free as taking money for covering is against the religion. So if a owner wants to cover his mare with a stallion he can take his mare to the stallion after confirming that the stallion is available on a particular time. For this they need a vet’s report that it is free from any pathogenic organism and ultra-sound examination of the reproductive tract. I should also mention that I made so many friends from west, we had a good relationship with other vets practicing in janadriya. Once a Saudi asked us to give a certificate that his mare was clean of any pathogenic organism and said he would pay me 500 saudi riyals, we refused and told him not to approach us with such a demand again. In the evening one of the stallion owners came to me and said that he would accept mare reports issued only by us, I asked him the reason, he said that the person who approached me in the morning had told everyone of what had happened in the morning, so it was a test for our integrity.

My life at Al-Jinadriya

My decision to venture into a new assignment in Saudi Arabia brought me the stiffest opposition from my loved ones. Looking back I think it is the most rewarding and in right direction in my career. The hype and negative propaganda by the media in west and at home made my decision look wrong and at a time when I was having a good and secure job everyone was telling me that I am a studpid. I had to start everything fresh as the language,people and the land were new to me, I was dumb and deaf in a foreign soil. When we started a clinic exclusively for horses in Al-janadriya where about 200 small horse breeding and racing stables housing about 4000 horses , there were many things at odds against us. There were so many Indian grooms working in the farms, but to my disadvantage, most of them were from northern india they speak hindi or urdu, I speak none of the two as I come from southern state of tamilnadu I speak in Tamil and English. Luckily I had Dr.Kirmani, my colleague and collegemate of mine with me who can speak fluently in Arabic, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, English and Urdu who had spent about ten years working in a poultry hatchery in Saudi Arabia. When we go and introduce ourselves to the horse owners there would be so many irritating questions like do you know how to scan a mare for breeding, to treat colic, to stitch vulva,etc.etc. Once a horse owner told me that his horse is lame and wanted me to have a look at it, I examined and told that it was lame on right hind, but the owner said it is lame on left hind, I stood by what I said, but owner was unwilling to accept so I prescribed the medicines and told him to give. After some time the owner said, he was wrong and I was right, just to check whether I have brain or not, he argued like that(Mukh fi alla maafi). The most irritating thing to me was the owners lack of knowledge of horse breeding industry in india, when they see a indian introducing himself as an equinevet, giggles and teasing comments were the first to come. The practice was mostly restricted to vets from the west, I had to face the stiffest competition from them, but to my luck a british vet who was having a roaring practice left janadriyah on a better assignment in west. So I could fill some of the gap created by him. Our practice started picking up on a gradual phase and those who doubted the abilities of a Indian vet started giving us job.
(to be continued)

equinevet

This is the place for us to share our knowledge and experiences on horses, I welcome those who want to share their horse experiences. Good luck.