Barbaro has another significant setback (Fox alert: euthanized this morning

Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro suffered another significant setback over the weekend, and his fight for survival may have reached a critical point. After Barbaro developed a deep abscess in his right hind foot, surgery was performed Saturday to insert two steel pins in a bone, one that was shattered but now healthy, to eliminate all weight bearing on the ailing foot.

The procedure is a risky one, because it transfers more weight to the leg. If the bone were to break again, chief surgeon Dr. Dean Richardson said: "I think we'll quit.

"When things start to go bad, it's like a house of cards," he said Sunday in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "If one thing fails, that puts more stress on another part. And if that fails, then you're stuck with managing two problems. That's why these are difficult cases."

The right rear leg was on the mend until recently. It's the one Barbaro shattered at the start of the Preakness Stakes eight months ago, and the three broken bones had completely healed.

Now this. The surgery, in which a cast was removed and replaced by an external brace known as a skeletal fixation device, addresses one problem but could create others.

Barbaro likely will have to bear more weight on his front feet because of his two ailing back legs, making him more susceptible to laminitis, a painful and often fatal disease caused by uneven weight distribution. Laminitis already struck Barbaro's left rear foot in July, and 80 percent of the hoof was removed.

"It's something that we are watching closely, and that could also be a thing that could lead to us quitting," Richardson said.

The colt was doing well Sunday, according to Richardson, and "we will continue to treat Barbaro aggressively as long as he remains bright, alert and eating," he said in an update sent out by the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center in Kennett Square, Pa.

Based on Richardson's advice, owners Roy and Gretchen Jackson have been making the decisions concerning Barbaro. Their major concern from the start has been to keep Barbaro comfortable.

"No one is interested in putting the horse through any type of misery," Richardson said. "We're going to treat him the best way we can as long as he stays comfortable. And we're going to stick with that no matter if his chances are 1 percent or 90 percent.

"If he gets to the point where we just don't think it's reasonable to go on, we will not go on."

Gretchen Jackson spent time with Barbaro on Sunday, and said her colt is "still bright-eyed and still eating.

"It's not over 'til it's over," she said. "I'd say he's comfortable and being treated very well. As long as he's comfortable ... Dean knows our feelings. We trust him."

After months of upbeat progress reports, Barbaro has endured several setbacks the past three weeks.

On Jan. 9, Barbaro had a cast placed on his left rear leg to help realign a bone. The next day, Richardson removed damaged tissue from the colt's left rear hoof, and Barbaro was placed in a sling to help him keep weight off his feet.

On Jan. 13, another section of his left rear hoof was removed, and a cast was placed back on his right hind leg for additional support. He was gradually improving, but last Thursday, Barbaro's left rear cast was replaced and a custom-made plastic and steel brace was applied to his right hind leg. The leg also was fitted with a special orthotic brace for more support.

The pins in the right rear leg are connected to an external brace, which is connected to a lightweight alloy foot plate. This results "in the horse eliminating all weight bearing from the foot," Richardson said Sunday in a statement. "The horse's weight is borne through the pins across his cannon bone."

"We believed it was our only option given the worsening of the right hind foot problem," Richardson said in a statement. "Unfortunately, we felt we needed to take this risk because this approach offered our only hope of keeping Barbaro acceptably comfortable."

He explained Barbaro had been uncomfortable on his right hind foot because of an abscess that developed when the horse had a "period of discomfort" on the left hind foot.

"It is not laminitis, but the undermining of the sole and part of the lateral heel region are potentially just as serious," Richardson said.

Sunday, Richardson sounded as serious as he did on May 21, the day after the Preakness, when he delivered the news that Barbaro's chance of survival was a "coin toss."

"I'm upset, worried, not sleeping well," he said. "A lot of people are very, very committed and spent a huge amount of emotional sources on this horse. So it's very upsetting when things go badly."

This is a good column:

Remembering Barbaro
by Steve Haskin
Date Posted: January 29, 2007
Last Updated: January 29, 2007

Print This Article

RSS

On the morning of Jan. 29, Dr. Dean W. Richardson, head of surgery at New Bolton Medical Center, made the somber announcement most everyone had been prepared to hear more than eight months earlier. Barbaro had been euthanized. The wave of grief that was anticipated back then now came swiftly and unexpectedly.

After so many months of hope and high expectations, Barbaro’s fight for life and the miracle story he had written were over. There would be no happy ending to this fairy tale. One did not have to hear Richardson’s words to know they were as heavy as the millions of hearts around the world that had embraced Barbaro and his struggle to survive against all odds.

What made the news of Barbaro’s death even harder to accept was that only a month earlier, talk had begun about the colt’s possible release from New Bolton. When Richardson, although still guarded, said that Barbaro’s release could come in the “not so distant future,” it brought a wave of elation and optimism. The horse was happy, eating, and enjoying his daily walks and grazing sessions. Christmas brought a deluge of cards and gifts to New Bolton, and spirits were high.

Then, virtually overnight, the colt suffered a “significant setback” when some new separation of the hoof was found requiring additional removal of tissue, and a pall once again hung over the Kennett Square clinic, as it did back in May and again in July when Barbaro developed a severe case of laminitis that would ultimately lead to his death.

Following surgery to remove more of the left hind hoof, Barbaro “improved significantly” and the crisis appeared to have been averted. But it was soon followed by another when a “deep subsolar abscess” developed on the colt’s right hind foot, which necessitated yet another surgical procedure on Jan. 27, in which two steel pins were placed through the cannon bone to support an external skeletal fixation, which would eliminate all weight bearing on the foot and give it a chance to heal. Barbaro, despite being placed under anesthesia well over a dozen times since his arrival at New Bolton, remarkably came out of this latest complex and risky procedure eating and in good spirits.

But this time Barbaro was beyond all hope, and Dr. Richardson and owners Roy and Gretchen Jackson were forced to come to the realization that they had run out of miracles.

Having witnessed live the shocking breakdown of Ruffian and the horrific spills of Go For Wand and Pine Island, it is difficult to come to terms with the question: which is worse, watching the quick, relatively painless deaths of those magnificent fillies or riding the roller coaster of emotions that continued for more than eight months with Barbaro, ultimately leading to the same fate?

The answer, at least in Barbaro’s case, is the latter. The colt proved that greatness does not have to be achieved on the racetrack. His incredible will and indefatigable nature kept him alive long enough to show the world just how much emotion is capable of pouring out of one’s heart for a Thoroughbred racehorse, and how far the field of veterinary medicine has come. He made a hero out of an unknown veterinarian, whose dedication, wit, and wisdom turned him into a James Herriot-like figure to millions of people.

Rather than dwell on the outcome, it is best to concentrate on the heroic efforts that were made to save a horse that lived eight months longer than he should have. It was not disease or injury that ended Barbaro’s life, it was recovery. If there is a flaw in nature’s power of healing, it is that it cannot be applied to the Thoroughbred, to whom the words stationary and prone do not co-exist. Infused with the fiery blood of its ancestors, the Thoroughbred’s impetuous nature sadly is in constant conflict with its fragile legs, and it is that nature that often leads to its demise.

Although Barbaro had to endure a great deal of physical and mental anguish, he also experienced the ultimate in human kindness and compassion, while being pampered like the noblest of kings. And he leaves behind a legacy that far transcends his stunning victory in the Kentucky Derby.

Like everyone else, I was prepared to bid a tearful goodbye to Barbaro immediately following the Preakness, and then again in July when laminitis appeared. I was prepared yet again in early and then late January. I no longer have to prepare for the worst. After eight months, during which time the horse’s struggle made national headlines around the world, Barbaro’s ordeal finally is over.

Cervantes said, “The guts carry the feet, not the feet the guts.” Barbaro’s guts carried his feet to victory after victory. But it carried his heart a lot farther.

Remembering Barbaro | bloodhorse.com

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.