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Post by bluebluesea on Jan 10, 2007 12:52:38 GMT -5
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Post by Smay on Jan 10, 2007 14:57:01 GMT -5
For those of us who can't access the Daily Racing Form, here is the text of the article:
Barbaro has ‘significant setback’ in recoveryBy Mike Jensen
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Barbaro's recovery from a life-threatening laminitis condition in his left hind foot has taken a turn for the worse.
The Kentucky Derby winner, who has been at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center for the last 7 1/2 months, has had "a significant setback" over the last 24 hours, hospital officials announced this morning.
"He became acutely more uncomfortable on his left hind foot," New Bolton officials said in a statement. "The foot cast was removed and some new separation of the medial [inside] portion of his hoof was found. This required some additional debridement - removal of the damaged tissue - last night."
The statement went on: "He is being treated much more aggressively at this time for his discomfort. He is continuing to eat well and is otherwise stable."
After visiting Barbaro in his stall in the intensive-care unit this morning, co-owner Gretchen Jackson said in an interview in the New Bolton lobby at 10:45 a.m. that the horse doesn't have a temperature and is eating, but as for Barbaro's general comfort level, she said, "He's under drugs. I can't tell."
She had seen him the day before and could tell he wasn't as comfortable because "he just was not using his foot as much."
Jackson mentioned that surgeon Dean Richardson had continually warned of the potential for a setback since the laminitis cropped up in July.
"This is what we were being told the whole time," Jackson said.
In recent weeks, plans were being made to move Barbaro out of New Bolton, with a horse farm in Kentucky the expected destination. In an interview on Monday, Richardson had indicated that the possibility for trouble still existed, although he expressed no concern about the horse being moved.
"I wouldn't send him unless I thought it was safe to send him," Richardson had said Monday. "The thing for people to keep in mind: At some point, the management we've done with him is something that can readily be done in a more normal environment for a horse. The intensive-care unit at New Bolton Center is not a completely normal environment for a horse.
"But if he's to the point where he's on fairly low-level medical care - which he already is, really - and that the major issues are going to relate to his left hind foot, and those are going to be extremely chronic and capable of being dealt with by veterinarians in Kentucky, then I would feel that at the point, if everyone's in agreement, we'll probably move the horse."
After 7 1/2 months caring for the horse, the surgeon still used the same phrase he had mentioned in every conversation: "Not out of the woods yet." He made it clear that the laminitis that cropped up in Barbaro's left rear hoof last July, causing Richardson to surgically remove 80 percent of the hoof, still could be Barbaro's downfall.
"Part of it has grown almost to the bottom, pretty much," Richardson said on Monday. "The lateral part, the outside part of the hoof wall, is almost all the way to the bottom. But the inside part of the hoof has probably a tenth of that. It's really slow. It's very disparate between the different parts of the foot and that's going to be a real problem for us."
Scott Morrison, an equine podiatry specialist at Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Ky., made his second visit to see Barbaro at New Bolton last Wednesday and applied a cast to the left hoof.
"There are a lot of subtle things involved in treating this type of laminitis, and one of them is making sure that you have the alignment of the coffin bone correct," Richardson had said.
Morrison also was brought in "because, [when] the horse moves, and obviously he's likely to move to Lexington, Ky.," Richardson had said, "we need to have made a smooth transition to someone who is going to handle that left hind foot."
Those plans are obviously on hold right now.
Contact staff writer Mike Jensen at 215-854-4489 or mjensen@phillynews.com.
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Post by MegaRock on Jan 10, 2007 15:41:35 GMT -5
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Post by juliab on Jan 11, 2007 9:44:59 GMT -5
It would be so sad and unfair to lose him now, after all he's been through. I hope they can make him comfortable and get BOTH back feet healed. Poor, beautiful boy.
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Post by Lisann on Jan 11, 2007 14:12:12 GMT -5
I heard about this earlier this afternoon on TVG. Jingles and prayers for Barbaro's continued recovery.
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Post by johnnysauntie on Jan 15, 2007 20:04:25 GMT -5
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Post by ZenRider on Jan 20, 2007 11:52:12 GMT -5
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