Posted on 01/09/2007 4:23:15 PM PST by STARWISE
Barbaro's right hind leg is improving and the Kentucky Derby winner had a cast put on his laminitis-stricken left hind foot to help realign the bone.
"This cast was applied with the goal of starting to help re-align his coffin bone properly in that foot," said Dean Richardson, chief surgeon at the New Bolton Center.
Richardson also said on Tuesday that tests on Barbaro's right hind leg showed improved alignment and continued healing.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Go Barbaro! You're one special guy!!
It Takes a Team to Mend a Horse: How New Bolton Center Staff Joined Forces to Help Barbaro
Barbaro has new cast applied to his left hind foot
Doctors 'Optimistic' About Happy Life for Barbaro
Defying All Odds, Barbaro Is on the Mend
""He was a great patient, not just a good patient," said surgeon Dean Richardson of the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. "I'd say [he] was a great patient."
Barbaro PING!
Somebody was just asking me about Barbaro the other day.
Can you add me to your Barbaro ping list please?
Ping list please
It is so nice to read posts like this...thank you
Sure thing.
Headline = THANK GOODNESS!!!! GO BARBARO!!!!
Great post! What a beautiful horse.
Awesome news!!
Great news!
So,
Is there some magic with Barbaro that HIS leg is healing?
Aren't all bones the same .. like us .. we can be set and the bone comes back together .. does a horse's bone not knit back?
Or is it all in the time and money you have to put into a very long healing time?
Barbaro's amazing recovery was a "perfect storm" -
1. His owners had the money to get top flight care
2. The vets were the best in the country with all the latest techniques (especially the recovery pool and the nursing care)
3. Barbaro did not panic on the track and damage the leg further or damage the opposite leg
4. Barbaro has a tremendous will to survive and heal. Some horses give up when they are immobilized.
I admit that when laminitis (founder) developed in the opposite hind foot I thought Barbaro was a goner. I think he fooled a lot of people -- but it's good to be fooled in this instance.
The article said laminitis. Here are some of the causes of laminitis:
2.1 Carbohydrate overload
2.2 Insulin resistance
2.3 Nitrogen compound overload
2.4 Hard ground
2.5 Lush pastures
2.6 Frosted grass
2.7 Freezing or overheating of the feet
2.8 Untreated infections
2.9 Colic
2.10 Lameness
2.11 Cushings disease
2.12 Peripheral Cushings disease
2.13 Retained placenta
2.14 Drug reactions
2.15 Exposure to agro-chemicals
This means that the injury was brought on by his race-horse lifestyle -- too many carbs, overly-rich hay (they feed race horses hay which is 26% protein as opposed to the 12-14% we use), drugs, perhaps even freezing of the foot to resist pain.
But it's a very common sequela of severe leg injury to develop laminitis in the opposite foot. In fact if a horse survives an initial broken bone but is ultimately destroyed, foundering and tilting of the coffin bone in the opposite foot is usually the reason.
The technical veterinary term is laminitis because the laminae or layers of horn in the hoof become inflamed and separate, but around the barn it's almost always known as founder. Once the coffin (navicular) bone tilts, it's usually over, but it looks like with Barbaro they are going to use some sort of therapy to re-align the bone. That's way above my pay grade, or the pay grade of any horse I ever had anything to do with . . .
Interesting sidelight -- I worked for an old-timey equine vet who believed in bleeding in cases of founder. He would open a vein in the foundered leg -- it did seem to work, I wonder if anybody's done any studies on that.
My mistake - the coffin bone is technically the pedal bone, not the navicular bone. The navicular is the little bone higher up above the pedal bone - and with T'breds the cause of much trouble for other reasons but not usually involved in cases of founder.
Bless our boy!
A small objection here to the headline, lol:
"Barbaro keeps getting better"
There is NO WAY in this world that Barbaro could ever get any *better* than the horse he is with the heart he has and that big personality of his!
Now, his left back hoof can get much better and his right hind leg bone can align more properly and he might improve his gait a little (but it's OK if he doesn't) ... those are "just" body parts getting better!
Barbaro is already the BEST!!!
Go Bobby Go!
Hoping things contimue positively.
Yes, pedal not navicular. However, your suggestion of bleeding is interesting. I have a horse with navicular -- a TB who was never raced but developed it quite young (6) -- the condition is under control. However, the 'usual' application of bar shoes has been questioned since they do NOT allow the foot to move to let blood to the navicular area... and blood is the great healer for horses... the highway for oxygen and nutrients. Perhaps the benefit of bleeding is simply getting that blood to move quickly.
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