Barbaro has life-threatening inflammation in hind foot-Long Version 7/13

Associated Press
Updated July 13th

KENNETT SQUARE, Pa. -- Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro has developed a severe case of laminitis, a potentially fatal disease caused by uneven weight distribution in the limbs, and his veterinarian called his chances for survival "a long shot."


Dean Richardson, the chief surgeon who has been treating Barbaro since the colt suffered catastrophic injuries in the Preakness on May 20, said the Derby winner's chances of survival are poor.

"I'd be lying if I said anything other than poor," Richardson said Thursday at a news conference at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center. "As long as the horse is not suffering, we're going to continue to try" to save him.

"If we can keep him comfortable, we think it's worth the effort."

If not, Barbaro could be euthanized at any time. Richardson said if Barbaro doesn't respond quickly to treatment, "It could happen within 24 hours."

Richardson said the laminitis, a painful condition, has all but destroyed the colt's hoof on his uninjured left hind leg.

"The left hind foot is basically as bad a laminitis as you can have. It's as bad as it gets," Richardson said, while adding that horses can recover from the disease. He said he has discussed the situation closely with owners Roy and Gretchen Jackson, who have stressed that their main concern is for Barbaro to be pain-free.

AP Photo/Matt Rourke
Dr. Dean Richardson said as long as Barbaro isn't suffering, "we're going to continue to try" to save him.

Richardson said Barbaro's injured right hind leg -- the one that shattered at the start of the Preakness -- is healing well, but because a horse has to be evenly balanced to carry his weight, laminitis set in on the other foot.

A procedure called a hoof wall resection removed 80 percent of Barbaro's left rear hoof. Both rear legs are now in casts.

"The reason we cut away the hoof wall is because the hoof wall is not connected" to the bone, Richardson said. "If you had a nail that was separated from the end you'd pull it off. It's dead tissue that's in the way of living tissue. It's a problem in horses due to excessive weight bearing inflammation."

Richardson said it would take several months for the hoof to grow back. "What we're doing on this horse is absolutely unusual, but it's not unheard of.

"It's a devastating problem in horses that nobody has a solution to."

Perhaps what makes it even more wrenching is that the horse is acting normal.

"This horse, you look at him in the stall -- his ears are up, he's bright. He's looking around," Richardson said.

"He's spending some time in the sling. Other times, he's out of the sling. We are not torturing this horse."

The grim update came after nearly six weeks of what was considered to be a smooth recovery. Barbaro underwent five hours of surgery May 21 so a titanium plate and 27 screws could be inserted into three broken bones and the pastern joint. He has had three more operations in recent days.

"I really thought we were going to make it two weeks ago," Richardson said. "Today I'm not as confident."

Barbaro won the Derby by 6½ lengths, was unbeaten in six races and expected to make a Triple Crown bid before his misstep ended his racing career. He was taken to the New Bolton Center hours after breaking down and underwent five hours of surgery the next day.

At that time, Richardson said the chances of the horse's survival were 50-50.

Since the breakdown, there has been a public outpouring of sympathy as well-wishers, young and old, showed up at the New Bolton Center with cards, flowers, gifts and goodies. And thousands of e-mails poured in to the hospital's Web site to voice concern and support.

What is Laminitis?

A horse's hoof is not a single, solid body part. It's a complex combination of parts, an evolutionary marvel that allows a half-ton animal to run at tremendous speeds on the tips of its toes.

But when a horse develops laminitis, an inflamation of the tissue that bonds the horse's bone to the inner wall of the hoof, the hoof doesn't work properly, the animal is in pain and its health can be severely compromised.

That's what Barbaro is up against, and why his doctors say his prognosis is "poor." No lesser horse than the great Secretariat, the 1973 Triple Crown winner, was felled by laminitis. He was euthanized because of it in 1989.

Laminitis, or founder as it's also called, has multiple causes, and scientists still are debating exactly what prompts the disease, said Rob Sigafoos, a horse expert at the University of Pennsylvania. In Barbaro's case, it's blamed on the uneven weight distribution between the rear legs after the injury to the right hind leg in the Preakness Stakes.

Specifically, laminitis is an inflamation of the sensitive laminae -- the sensitive tissue beneath the hoof wall that contains nerves and vessels. Laminitis can develop rapidly and is life-threatening, although it is treatable. In mild cases, horses can recover and resume some athletic activity, according to Lexington, Ky.-based American Association of Equine Practitioners.

Dr. Dean Richardson, the chief surgeon who has been treating Barbaro, described the problem this way at his news conference on Thursday:

"A horse walks on the tip of its middle digit, OK? Evolutionarily speaking, they adapted to walk on the tip of their middle digit. ... So, they're essentially walking on the nail of their middle finger. And if really what you're talking about is the bone inside of the hoof has to be attached to that nail ... what's called the keratinized tissue, the hard tissue of the hoof.The bone is attached to that by tissue called lamina. They are inter-digitating pieces of tissue ... basically the inanimate tissue goes to the animate tissue, if you want to look at it that way.
That tissue, if it becomes damaged, which is what happens in laminitis, separates, and then you lose the connection between the bone and the hoof. And if the horse loses the connection between the bone and the hoof, it's exquisitely painful to the horse because the horse needs that connection to walk around...

" The only way you can cure it once it's at this point is many, many months of the horse actually growing a new hoof wall that extends down from the top, just the way you would regrow a nail if you had your nail essentially pulled out, which I think everyone recognizes to be very painful.So, it is, it's a painful condition. It's a serious condition. And it's a very difficult, long-standing problem to deal with."

The disease also is seen in horses with systemic infections and mares that retain the placenta. Diet also has been implicated. When the condition strikes their front feet, horses can be seen trying to shift their weight to their back feet.

Laminitis is treatable with drugs and special horse shoes, especially in mild cases. One recent study, a survey of United States horse operations other than racetracks with at least three horses, found that about 13 percent of them had at least one laminitis case in the previous year.

The Asociated Press and the National Thoroughbred Racing Association contributed to this report.

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