Navigating the Loss of Your Friesian Horse
Navigating the loss of your Friesian Horse:
A Guide to help you prepare
By Sharon Bechler
There comes that difficult time when every Friesian horse owner experiences the pain of losing their beloved friend. This may occur suddenly after an accident, be the result of an illness, or a decision made with love and courage for a senior friend. Regardless of the reason, you will need to make some important decisions.
Considering the many decisions that need to be made, preparing in advance for such an event will help you to make the correct choices for you, and may benefit the future of the Friesian Breed.
This article is written in hopes that when you are faced with this emotional event, you will be better prepared and understand some of the options available to you.
Things to consider
- Don’t do this alone
If you are alone, call someone who will be a good support to be with you or to come and stay with you as you walk through this day.
- Notify the Insurance Company
If your horse is insured, you will need to notify your insurance company promptly and do not dispose of the horses body until you receive approval from the insurance adjuster.
- Schedule a Necropsy
Discuss how and where to schedule this with your veterinarian in advance so that you will understand the process and know how to proceed when it is necessary. With most equine insurance companies, the owner, not the insurance policy, pays for the necropsy. Check with your insurance to verify who is financially responsible for the necropsy. There is financial assistance available for a necropsy from the Fenway Foundation(see information below).
- Collect and ship tissue and hair samples as requested for research purposes
Request the appropriate(see list of researchers to send samples to)tissue and hair samples from your veterinarian to send to the research projects of your choice. Coordinate with your veterinarian regarding shipping samples. Ensure that all hair and tissue samples are preserved, packaged and labeled per the requirements of each research entity.
- Make arrangements to bury, cremate or dispose of your horse
Discuss the different options with your veterinarian.
If you are planning to bury your horse on your property, research the current laws in your locale relating to this. Counties and states have differing laws about the burial of horses and some require permits for burial on your property. Some states forbid it or regulate how deep the horse must be buried, how the body is required to be prepared and how much land must be available, to name a few possible requirements. You will need a back hoe or similar device to excavate the gravesite for a horse. Costs to hire someone for this work are generally between $200-400 dollars in most locations. The grave site must be excavated well away from the water table and house. A good depth is approximately nine feet deep and six feet wide. At least three to four feet of soil should cover the horses remains. In some states, the abdomen must be opened for more rapid decomposition and you must spread a thick layer of lime over the body. A horse should be buried and, thoroughly covered with the dirt above compacted firmly. Grass ,flowers or grave markers can then be planted/placed over the grave.
If your state has laws which prohibit burial on your property and your desire is to bury your horse, there are many pet cemeteries which take horses. Check with your local vendors for details and costs.
If you are planning to cremate your horse, your veterinarian can assist you with making those arrangements. You will need to arrange transportation of the horse to the crematory. These costs vary so it is wise to check in advance. The costs for the cremation range between $250.00 – $1500.00. If you will be keeping the ashes, urns are available for purchase at the crematories and costs are variable depending the materials and type of urn desired.
If you chose to hire a disposal service, your local veterinarian will have the particulars for your area. Most disposal services will also come to your farm to pick up the horse if the death occurs at home.
- Ovary Retrieval
If you desire to save your mares’ ovaries it is important that you discuss this in advance with your veterinarian to ensure they are prepared to act quickly and identify a facility to ship the ovaries to for processing The earlier the ovaries are retrieved and shipped to the facility for oocyte retrieval, the better. The ovaries should be surgically removed then rinsed in normal saline to remove the debris. Place them in a plastic bag with a small amount of sterile fluid to keep the ovaries from drying out. If the ovaries will be processed in an hour or two, maintain them at room temperature. If it will be longer that two hours, store them at body temperature, 37degrees C. Ship in equitaner with the coolant cants removed or a Styrofoam box with 1 liter bags of room temperature saline to stabilize the temperature. Consider the ambient temperature of the weather. The sooner the ovaries are processed, the better chance there is of obtaining viable oocytes for fertilization. Schedule the semen shipment to be available within 24 hours of processing the ovaries. They would then fertilize the embryo with the stallion sperm you select and can freeze them or place the embryo in a recipient mare. The average cost to process the ovaries at a retrieval facility is $1300.00. There are additional costs to perform ICSI, embryo transfer and embryo vitrification (freezing). Check with the facility nearest you for specific costs as they vary.
- Testicle Retrieval
It is possible to obtain semen for freezing by removing and processing the testicles. It is important when removing the testes to remove the epididymis as well, and to leave as much of the vas deferens intact as possible. The vas deferens needs to be ligated (tied off) as high as possible to prevent the loss of any sperm cells currently in it. Rinse the testes in sterile solution (LRS, saline, etc) and package in a small amount of fluid like you would when packaging ovaries. Unlike the ovaries that we want to keep close to body temperature, the testicles need to be cooled during shipping to slow down the metabolism of the sperm cells and reduce loss. They can be packaged in an Equitainer like you would use to ship cooled semen or in a Styrofoam box with ice packs. It is important not to place the testicles directly on the ice packs, since that could freeze them. The easiest thing to do is wrap the bag with the testicles in a towel to prevent direct contact. Again, the sooner the testicles are processed the better, so shipping them via air transport or the fastest way available is the best option. Once the testicles are received, the epididymis and vas deferens will be dissected away from the testicles. The epididymis is where sperm maturation and storage takes place, with the majority of fertile sperm located in the tail portion. The veterinarian will then use semen extender to retrograde flush the sperm from the vas deferens, through the tail of the epididymis and into a graduated cylinder. Once collected, the concentration of sperm can be determined and the semen is frozen just as it would be in an ejaculated sample. Be sure to contact the nearest facility for processing and follow their recommendations for retrieval and shipping.
- Loss of a mare with a foal at her side.
Please see reference articles below.
- Horse/Animal Friends Grieve Too
It is important to allow horse friends and relatives to say goodbye to their companions when possible. Take them to the body and allow them to spend as much time as they want smelling and saying farewell. That being said, this may be difficult to watch and will often release your own feelings of grief so is a very individual decision to make. If you feel that it is too much for you to take part in but you would still like to give the remaining horses an opportunity to say their farewells, you can request that a friend come and do this for you. If it is a mare who has lost her foal, it is best to leave the foal with the mare for several hours. She will smell the foal, move away from it and do this again a number of times until she just ignores the deceased foal. You can then remove the foal and she will accept that without intense emotion. You may want to milk the mare to remove a small of the milk to prevent engorgement/mastitis for several days as her milk dries up. It is not unusual for a horse to grieve after losing a close friend or relative. They may go off of their feed and act generally depressed. Contact your veterinarian for advice if your horse refuses to eat anything. Encourage them to eat by offering their favorite foods and spending time with them when they are eating. If you have other horses, be sure to put them together or if that is not possible, next to each other. Spend as much time as you can with the grieving horse grooming, riding and playing games with them. A radio left on in the horses living area will also give them support when you are not around and they may be feeling lonely. Horses are herd animals so if there are no other horses for companionship, consider getting another horse, if that is possible, or a companion animal to keep your horse company.
- Grief support
The grief process is unique to each individual and situation. It is a stressful time and the latest research shows that grief related to the loss of a beloved horse is often as intense as the experience of losing a human family member. It takes time to grieve and the grief process does not follow the same timeline for everyone. If you are having difficulty, there are many organizations that are available to assist and support you as you navigate the grief process.
- Report Death to FHANA
FHANA Rules and Regulation, Section 4 – 4.7.2. Death – Upon the death of a horse, it is requested the original Registration Certificate must be sent to the FHANA along with a statement signed by the owner indicating the date and reason of death. If a necropsy (autopsy) was performed a copy should be sent with the Certificate. The Certificate will be canceled and will not be returned. The owners of a deceased horse should not have the Registration Certificate in their possession.
Assist in Research
It is always tragic when a seemingly healthy Friesian Horse dies. As a breed, Friesian horses continue to have a number of genetic disorders resulting in untimely deaths of adult and young horses alike. Fortunately, there are a number of organizations working diligently through research to unravel the mystery of why this happens. When you lose your beloved horse, one of the things to consider is supporting current research by sending genetic samples to entities involved in Friesian horse research. Below is some information on how you can help.
Fenway Foundation Necropsy Assistance and Genetic Research www.fenwayfoundation.com
Necropsy Assistance, Research, Genetic Database Collection/Hair samples
“Eventually all owners will face the heartache of the loss of their Friesian horses. In spite of the emotional loss, we, at the Fenway Foundation, hope to learn from this tragedy. Each departure of one of our equine partners offers those left behind an opportunity to learn from the remaining cadaver. The Foundation will provide a detailed Necropsy report to be filled out by the examining veterinarian and may provide financial assistance if necessary for the production of that report.
Click Here To Download Necropsy Form (rev 2018)
Click Here To Download Necropsy Guidelines(rev. 2018)
University of California Davis, California
Michael Mienaltowski
Working in collaboration with Dr. Rebecca Bellone who is a geneticist at the UC Davis Veterinary Genetics Laboratory studying the genetics of collagen disorders, particularly corneal stromal loss, in Friesians. Accepting specimens for their research.
References:
Baker, Lisa Majestic Acres, “Raising Orphan Foals “, The Friesian Magazine, April/May 2020 Issue, pgs. 44-47.
Paradis, Mary Rose DVM, MS, Diplomate ACVIM (LAIM), “In Depth: Orphan Foals – Getting a Good Start on Life”, AAEP Proceedings, Vol. 58, 2012