Barbaro 'much better' today, vet says

Barbaro Update:

Treatment working for Derby winner

By Sandra McKee Sun Reporter
Originally published July 21, 2006, 7:44 PM EDT

Early last week, before Barbaro was diagnosed with the complication of laminitis in his left hind foot and with an infection in his broken right hind leg, Dr. Kathleen Anderson said the Kentucky Derby winner was letting his doctors know something was wrong.

"We're always monitoring blood work and X-rays," said Anderson, Barbaro's personal veterinarian. "But the foremost way he lets us know how he is managing is by his comfort level. You can tell by his demeanor how he is doing. Has he stopped eating? Is his head down? Is he looking poorly? Early last week, he was depressed, you could see it. He's good about putting the word out."

The word Barbaro is putting out now is that he is doing well.

For the eighth straight day in his update, Dr. Dean Richardson said Barbaro had another restful night and remained in stable condition Friday with good vital signs.

"We continue to monitor him closely and he is responding as well as can be expected to treatment," said Richardson, the chief of surgery at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center.

Barbaro remains in the intensive care unit of the George D. Widener Hospital, where he is attempting to recover from the broken right hind leg he suffered in the Preakness on May 20, and from the complication of laminitis in his left hind foot.

The hospital said the next update on Barbaro's condition will be Monday, unless there is a significant change in the 3-year-old's condition.

While Barbaro's comfort is helped by the sling he wears several hours a day, it is the medication that masks the pain from the laminitis, which is one of the most painful maladies an animal can have. The medical team's goal is to gradually reduce the painkillers and have the horse be pain-free.

"The medication will be decreased slowly," Anderson said. "He's on less today than he was yesterday. And when the report is that he had a restful night after his medication was reduced, that's an indication his physiological condition is improved.

"I'm not saying he's out of the woods, but in my opinion, he has really improved in the last week."

Anderson also said doctors are using a substance called "A-cell" on his left foot bandage. It is a membrane that helps stimulate new tissue growth. Barbaro is also being given nutritional supplements to help in the re-growing of his left hind foot, which is necessary for his survival.

In the course of his recovery, Barbaro's hoof should grow about one to two centimeters a month.

Just giving a little nudge-bump and nuzzle to our boy Barbaro, to let him know we're all thinking about him and hope he's doing great today.

Thanks for this story the other day. It was interesting to read about the membrane A-cell, to help the bone grow, and about the nutritional supplements he is taking. That's where my prayers have been directed most recently. Also notable that they were weaning him slowly downward from the pain meds.

I was going to make a quip about "how about some Knox gelatin for that hoof, like our fingernails," then it dawned on me that Knox gelatin possibly came from some of Barbaro's earlier horsey friends who weren't as lucky as he is. So, see, I'm not saying anything.

Cute, too, that he's "good about getting the word out" when he's feeling blue, lol. Good for him. Just enough of a rock star to not hide his feelings in trying to please the humans around him.

I had copied a good story late last week or maybe Saturday, for posting here - then I had thunderstorms move in on me very rapidly and had to shut down, which made me lose the story in memory and text.

Part of that one was about how "if love could heal Barbaro, he'd be out romping in a pasture now." It was exploring why so many of us really, really care about Barbaro's ultimate outcome of his break and subsequent attendant health problems.

The story also cited lots of numbers on what all the local florist had been delivering to Bobby last week from his adoring and concerned fans. In addition to lots and lots of bouquets of roses, plus the usual apples, carrots, peppermints and sugar cubes, the gift baskets also contained grapes, pears and gingersnaps.

LOL, I can't be there to give B anything, but I like to make a mental note of his little treats and favorites, so I can "wish" them to him virtually - so now I'm adding the two "new" fruits and especially, gingersnaps, because I love those, too!

Like that song, "Everything's Coming Up Roses" - Ethel Merman used to add in all sorts of things in the big finish - "honey, everything's coming up roses ... and lollipops ..." - I'd say "roses and buttercups ... roses and peppermints ... roses and gingersnaps ... for you and for me!"

Yikes, now we have a goal - 1-2 centimeters of hoof growth per month. Zowie. We'll have to change the old saying "it's like watching grass grow" to "it's like waiting for a hoof to grow." That's a yawner, but it's a *GOOD* yawner.

Come on, Bobby, you can do it! We're behind you all the way!

Grow, foot bone, Grow! (Both of them - all of them!)

Hang in there, Barbaro!

Hi - lemondropkid has posted a Barbaro story today here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1672491/posts

I wanted to copy my post from that thread to this one, because I had been laboring under a somewhat major misunderstanding on my part, as far as the left hind foot/hoof, and I wanted to correct it here on the add-on thread we've been using.

I replied to a poster who asked about the infection in Bobby's right hind injured leg, as contrasted with the laminitis in his left hind good leg.

~~~
" ... It was both. Yesterday, Doc R said he thought he would be changing the right hind cast this week sometime - which is a bigger deal than changing the left hind bandages.

I believe they at least have it down to using a local anesthetic and/or a sedative now, rather than putting him under for it and using the pool recovery. Could be wrong about that, but it was that way the last time (before his left hind was known to be so seriously laminitic.)

Doc R also said Barbaro has been really good about sleeping on his side at night, usually about 4 hours, which is helping a lot. B spends "a few hours" a day in his sling - I'm not sure if that is contiguous hours or a cumulative total. Some of that time, he is sitting like a puppy dog.

I misunderstood one portion of his recent treatment. The fresh bone graft was done to his right hind broken leg, which is mostly healing properly, but needed reinforcement in one area - the long pastern bone, I believe.

When the new bone graft was reported at the same time as the hoof resection on the left hind laminitic foot/hoof, I thought it was a reference to some fresh bone being implanted in the coffin bone of the left hind foot. Evidently, that is not the case, so I need to refocus my prayers - as I was wanting speedier healing than normal in his left foot/hoof. [Still do! It's just not a bone graft, as I had thought.]

They also said last week they were weaning him from the higher levels of pain meds, but I don't know the outcome of that - except that the doc says B's attitude has continued to be positive (which means to me he is not showing any great signs of discomfort).

*Keep hangin' in there, Barbaro - and swingin' that sling!*

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