See More Recent Updates at the end of this entry. I will continue to post them until we no longer get the feeds. So far today, Barbaro is doing well, is eating and is apparently not in pain. Let's continue our prayers and send our glow to this magnificent horse and his keepers.
Jo
Updated: May 22, 2006, 4:09 PM ET
Barbaro improving, still faces long recovery
Associated Press
KENNETT SQUARE, Pa. -- Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro was "bright and appropriately frisky" Monday after surgery from his broken hind leg, even showing an interest in mares, but the colt still faces a long and perilous road to recovery.
AP Photo
Barbaro is lifted out of a special swimming pool following hours of surgery to repair his badly-injured right ind leg.
Dr. Dean Richardson, who performed the intricate five-hour operation, was satisfied with the result, but was blunt about the future for a horse who put together an unbeaten record until he broke down in the Preakness Stakes.
Richardson, who operated on Barbaro at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center for Large Animals on Sunday, said the horse's chances for survival were still 50-50. Barbaro was standing in his stall at the center's intensive care unit and showed interest in several mares in the vicinity.
Michael Matz, who trained the 3-year-old colt to six straight wins before the grotesque injury ended its unbeaten run Saturday, paid the horse a visit Monday and was encouraged by what he saw.
"He looked pretty bright just now," Matz said. "You can't ask for anything more. He was very alert and seemed fine."
Barbaro, fitted with a fiberglass cast, was standing in his stall at the center's intensive care unit earlier Monday and showed interest in several mares in the vicinity.
"He got through the night very well, day one and into day two is going as well as expected," Corinne Sweeney, a veterinarian and the hospital's executive director, said Monday. "He is standing on the leg, and with the appropriate amount of weight on it.
"He also showed appropriate interest in the mares, which means he's acting like a young colt should."
After his afternoon visit Monday, Matz smiled often -- an improvement over the evident fatigue of the night before.
"We've got the first step accomplished," he said. "He seemed fine. It's a new thing for him also to have this big thing on his leg and hopefully he's adjusting to it very well."
Sweeney said there are two major concerns in the first days of recovery, the possibility of infection from the surgery and laminitis, a potentially fatal disease sometimes brought on by uneven weight balance.
"He's doing exactly what the doctor wants, but he's got a long road ahead," Sweeney added. "A lot of possible problems that could occur have not."
Earlier Monday, Richardson emphasized that the horse had a long road ahead, and would never race again.
"Realistically, it's going to be months before we know if he's going to make it," Richardson told CBS' "The Early Show." "We're salvaging him as a breeding animal."
Barbaro's surgery to repair three bones shattered in his right rear leg at the Preakness went about as well as Richardson and Matz hoped. It wasn't long after surgery when Barbaro began to show signs he might make it after all.
After a dip into a large swimming pool before he was awakened -- part of New Bolton's renowned recovery system that minimizes injury risk -- Barbaro was brought back to his stall, where he should have been calmly rested on all four legs.
Barbaro had other ideas.
"He decided to jump up and down a few times," Richardson said, smiling. "But he didn't hurt anything. That's the only thing that really matters. It had Michael worried."
That's not much to worry about after the agony of the previous 24 hours. Barbaro sustained "life-threatening injuries" Saturday when he broke bones above and below his right rear ankle at the start of the Preakness Stakes.
AP Photo/Joseph Kaczmarek
Barbaro had 23 screws inserted into his leg during Sunday's six-plus hour surgery.
Barbaro sustained a broken cannon bone above the ankle, a broken sesamoid bone behind the ankle and a broken long pastern bone below the ankle. The fetlock joint -- the ankle -- was dislocated.
Richardson said the pastern bone was shattered in "20-plus pieces."
The bones were put in place to fuse the joint by inserting a plate and 23 screws to repair damage so severe that most horses would not be able to survive it.
Horses are often euthanized after serious leg injuries because circulation problems and deadly disease can arise if they are unable to distribute weight on all fours.
Barbaro's injury came a year after Afleet Alex's brush with catastrophe at the Preakness. Turning for home, the horse was bumped by another and nearly knocked to his knees before gathering himself and going on to win.
Update May 23rd: See Video there too. This is a continuing update!
See Barbaro's Sire Dynaformer
3 comments:
I hope Barbaro makes it.
He's a Great Horse! If any horse can survive this terrible accident, it will be him. I think he would have become a Triple Crown winner had this not happened. This horse has heart, you could see it in the way he won the Derby! Prayer's and mega glow flowing to him from his many fans! Best wishes Barbaro!
Dani
So Cal
"To My Gallant Hero"
It's tue.May 23,2006,you have MADE IT THR THE NIGHT!!!!!
It was on the Today show of your trainer and he was in tears when he talked about u.
U have given the world something to HOLD onto and dream,to keep out minds's off the war and the price's of gas...
In my 45 year's of life,i've never seen a Triple Crown winner.with all the Technolgy we have now,is it too much to ask these "Magnificent Creatures" to give their "Heart's and even their LIVES" so that we can have fun...
u my sweet friend,for that 1 moment in time that i watched u run,i would have the volum up on the tv so hight that i could hear your hoof beats with every pounding stride..I felt that i was with u,that the GOD'S in Heaven that gave u life would be with u all,to help carry u all home safe.
But for that split moment when u took that step,the GOD'S was helping one of their crieatures home,to cross the RaindBow Bridge.and u became the WORLD'S HORSE'.
In everyone's life,there is always a path we are all on,and for u my friend,your path has gone a different way... that it was in the heaves on that day of this past saturday for your life and proudness to go a different way...
I write this to the music of "Sprit"the song is "Dont let go to the things that u BELIEVE IN"
U were sent to this world,u took your first breath and steps onto greatness.u are what the world needed,just as the ' HEAROS' befor u..
Last night when i said my prayer's I thanked Jesus for U.. U have taken me back in time of my childhood when i had my own horse that he just as u was so full of his self and he was never afrain,not even in death.. for Death is just another step upto a place that we are all ment to be and will all be together again.
thank u my sweet gallant friend.U are a
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