Barbaro ~ America's Horse

[FourWands]

Do a search of Barbaro on news.google.com

There are literally 1000s of articles about Churchill Down’s offer.

I said yesterday that I hope they bury him in a public setting and several people disagreed with me. I would love to see him at Churchill Downs or at the Kentucky Horse Park. Both venues would do a super job. I realize he was “THEIR” horse but even the Jacksons thought he was “the people’s horse”. I think they will make a good choice - I just think it would be nice for the people to pay their respects without needing to make an appointment…

[411]

@LAZ;2179498

Editorial
One Horse Dies
…You would have to look a long, long time to find a dishonest or cruel horse. And the odds are that if you did find one, it was made cruel or dishonest by the company it kept with humans. It is no exaggeration to say that nearly every horse — Barbaro included — is pure of heart.

I love this excerpt from the NY Times article. Thank you for posting that, LAZ.

The Jacksons put themselves on an emotionally draining roller coaster trying to save their horse, when they knew the odds were stacked against him. As a horse owner I feel an enormous debt of gratitude to them. Veterinary medicine is better for what they did, and while I hope it never happens, one day one of my own horses may benefit from the knowledge gained through Barbaro’s fight.

If the Jacksons decide to bury him at home, I hope Churchill Downs will erect a memorial giving his fans someplace special to pay their respects.

[vineyridge]

Do any of you think we, the public, will ever know what really happened this past month? Barbaro seemed to be doing so well, growing hoof, actually walking without a cast or support on his broken leg. Then Scott Morrison was brought in to work on the laminitic hoof, and things went downhill very quickly. There was never any real explanation, of why intervention was so critical at that point.

Maybe Laura Hillenbrand or someone like her will do a Barbaro book–soon. She was on the Nightline piece yesterday evening and seemed truly affected by his death.

[Kenike]

Viney, Dr. Richardson was actually quite detailed in the press conference yesterday.

The laminitic hoof was growing well in part of the area, but not all. After that was worked on, a deep abcess was found in the other hoof (the broken side). To alleviate that pain, the brace was put on, didn’t work, was taken off, pins put into the coffin bone, but didn’t work. He started over-compensating on the front end, developed “fairly severe” laminitis up there, became rather cranky, couldn’t get comfortable, and was clearly not satisfied with his quality of life. (the very short version, of course).

I’d be surprised if it was the entire story, but, quite frankly, the public really doesn’t need to know the entire story. JMHO.

[VirginiaBred]

@vineyridge

Do any of you think we, the public, will ever know what really happened this past month? Barbaro seemed to be doing so well, growing hoof, actually walking without a cast or support on his broken leg. Then Scott Morrison was brought in to work on the laminitic hoof, and things went downhill very quickly. There was never any real explanation, of why intervention was so critical at that point.

There have been quite a few reports explaining why.

After the work on the laminitic hoof, (which at that time was found to be uneven and soft), a boot was added for additional support on that foot. Ends up that the hoof, was growing up and inward on one side and the boot irritated it and made it feel similiar to an ingrown toenail. The result was additional trimming of the hoof to relieve the irritation.

Maybe it was Barbaro’s way of standing to relieve the area they had trimmed, or something else, but a deep bruise was the result, and then the abscess, which needed to be drained several times. You know the rest.

Back in July, an abscess preceeded the laminitis. Yesterday, Dr. Richardson said laminitis was found in both front feet. He just didn’t have a good foot to stand on anymore.

[FourWands]

The Jacksons will be on Larry King Live tonight.

[VirginiaBred]

“I’m still having trouble dealing with it,” said Richardson, the chief of surgery for the University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center, his voice cracking. “I don’t really want to talk about it. It’s still hard to deal with.”

“I’ve been getting up before six every morning for the last eight months to look at the horse,” said Richardson, pausing to collect his thoughts. “And he’s not there. It’s kind of tough.”

Quote from Dr. Richardson this morning about Barbaro’s outcome.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/R/RAC_BARBARO_DAY_AFTER?SITE=PAPIT&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=sports.htm

[ivy62]

It was obvious that this horse touched many people. During the press conference they all had to stop and take a deep breath to keep going. It is good to know Barbaro was loved by all, certainly not all owners are like this, He gave a valiant effort but in the end the result was not what we wanted.
Dr. R seems to be a very caring person that’s why he takes care of horses because he loves them and it shows…

Remembering Barbaro “THE CHAMPION”

VB your dedication is unprecidented.(sp)…Thank you and all who contributed to this forum…

[Spoilsport]

[QUOTE=vineyridge;2180619]
Do any of you think we, the public, will ever know what really happened this past month? Barbaro seemed to be doing so well, growing hoof, actually walking without a cast or support on his broken leg. Then Scott Morrison was brought in to work on the laminitic hoof, and things went downhill very quickly. There was never any real explanation, of why intervention was so critical at that point.[/QUOTE]

I don’t think we’ll ever know 100%, and I don’t think they know 100% beyond what they have already said. Medicine is far from black-and-white. But I’ve wondered why things seemed to take a sudden turn for the worse, and this is my “guess.” Dr. R is not an expert on laminitis, and from mid-June he had said that managing the laminitis would be the most challenging part of the recovery. I “think” (“guess”) that Barbaro had healed to the point where he was comfortable in the short-term but wasn’t going to have quality of life in the long-term. I don’t think anything bad happened that led them to consult with Dr. Morrison. I think they realized they needed to do something – change the way the left hoof was growing – if Barbaro was to have the best long-term chance of survival with quality of life. It is possible that the intervention led to the other problems that hastened his end, but that’s the nature of medicine. A human example would be someone with a disease who is stable but with a poor prognosis and undergoes a treatment with the hope that it will improve the prognosis, but as a result of the treatment (or its side effects) dies sooner. It happens all the time. I’m not saying that’s what happened in Barbaro’s case, just offering a guess.

Just to repeat the obvious. The Jacksons, Dr. Richardson, and everyone who loved and cared for Barbaro have my utmost respect. As many have said, this was a class act all the way.

[vineyridge]

I understand completely why he was put down. And agree that the time had come for him, given his descent into pain this last month.

What I didn’t understand is wheter things were going so badly with the laminitic hoof that they decided to tempt fate by calling in an outside specialist to work on it. It would seem to me, looking at what we know now, that perhaps that intervention started the downhill spiral. As it was explained here and in the press, the condition of neither hind foot was quite critical at that time.

That’s why I’d like for the story to be told. I have this deep seated feeling that, perhaps, things were going askew BEFORE the hoof expert made his first appearance. If not, I, for one, would hate to be labeled as the hoof expert who might have caused Barbaro’s recovery to go wrong.

Please don’t flame me. This might have been an inevitable result of just being a horse with today’s veterinary knowledge. Or maybe fate was tempted to step in just because things seemed to be going so well. Fate is fickle in so many ways–and giving humankind the finger is one of them.

Edited to add: Thanks for the previous response. That makes very good sense to me.

[monstrpony]

@VirginiaBred;2180696

"
“I’ve been getting up before six every morning for the last eight months to look at the horse,” said Richardson, pausing to collect his thoughts. “And he’s not there. It’s kind of tough.”

Quote from Dr. Richardson this morning about Barbaro’s outcome.

How can anyone, anyone who calls themself a horse person, question the veracitiy of a self-proclaimed “egotistical surgeon” who will stand in front of a camera with tears in his eyes, and make a statement like the one above?

There may be more to “know” about the Barbaro saga, but I don’t need to know it, at least not now. What Dr. R said above is all I need to know to be absolutely certain that everything done for Barbaro, as sad as the outcome is, was done as well as it can be done.

[harvestmoon]

I thought the final straw was the laminitis in the front two feet?

[J_Turner]

[QUOTE=harvestmoon;2180757]
I thought the final straw was the laminitis in the front two feet?[/QUOTE]

I believe that is correct.

[2ndyrgal]

They called in Dr. Morrison, because he is simply the best “founder” guy in the country. It is his specialty. They needed his expertise. If one surgeon calls in another specialist for a consult, it’s because they have checked their “ego” at the door, and brought in the best in the business.

[debsinsb]

@VirginiaBred;2180696

“I’m still having trouble dealing with it,” said Richardson, the chief of surgery for the University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center, his voice cracking. “I don’t really want to talk about it. It’s still hard to deal with.”

“I’ve been getting up before six every morning for the last eight months to look at the horse,” said Richardson, pausing to collect his thoughts. “And he’s not there. It’s kind of tough.”

Quote from Dr. Richardson this morning about Barbaro’s outcome.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/R/RAC_BARBARO_DAY_AFTER?SITE=PAPIT&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=sports.htm

If one can take away something good from all of this, it’s the advancements made in critical care and the donations received by the Barbaro Foundation.

VirginiaBred, thank you for all of your efforts and those of your friends to keep everyone updated for these past months. I was a regular reader, but don’t think I said “thank you” often enough.

[vineyridge]

Please, folks, I’m not criticizing. It’s patent that every decision that was made was made by and for Barbaro’s best interests by people who loved him.

Reason I’m a bit curious about the things that were going on behind the scenes that affected those decisions is that the founder man wasn’t brought in until so close to the actual end. Not when the founder first happened, not in all the procedures and openings and closing of the bandages on that foot, not for about six months. When he was brought in, it was presented to the public as a sort of “ho hum” procedure, just like so many others in the past. I simply hadn’t gotten the impression that what was done was critical to survival at that point.

2ndyrgal, is Scott Morrison actually better than Ric Redden? I’m not up on Kentucky goldplated hoof vets and have been wondering about the choice.

[msj]

[QUOTE=2ndyrgal;2180829]
They called in Dr. Morrison, because he is simply the best “founder” guy in the country. It is his specialty. They needed his expertise. If one surgeon calls in another specialist for a consult, it’s because they have checked their “ego” at the door, and brought in the best in the business.[/QUOTE]

Right on!

Dr. Richardson is far from an egotistical Dr, unlike many human Drs. Veterinarians surpass the Drs in the human field many times over. Stop and think about it, a human can tell the Dr where it hurts, whereas the Vet has to use all of his knowledge to determine what the problem is often times.

I’ve said it time and time again, that I have more faith in my veterinarian than I do my primary care physician. :rolleyes:

[Carol_Ames]

viney ridge, unfortunately laminitis is a horribly cruel disease:mad: ; I know I and I suspect most others here also had a horribly sinking feeling when we first heard the word laminitis:sadsmile: ; Despite valiant round the clock efforts with seeming improvement in the patient, it can come back with a vengeance leaving a horse who spends most of the day , and night , lying down I have had to help a severely laminitic horse, a “sinker” move from his stall .to the aisle way in order to be put down, and recall the feeling/shudder of pain which went through his body :eek: and while his owner hoped as we did that there might be some miracle cure, there was none, and recalling the pain shuddering through his body, trying to keep hm going when he would never be pain free enough to sallow him to live a life of quality out in a pasture was unkind, it would have been "for us " :mad: and not for the horse.I prefer remembdring Barbaro on the end of the lead trying to get Dr. Dean to "head butt " with him, just two guys having a little guy fun:lol: ; It is highly unlikely that we would have seen that again:( ; Dr. Dean said early on "If we had put him down at the track you would have asked"Why so soon " and if we put him down later people will say "Why did you wait solong?:mad: :eek: Avery shrewd understanding of human nature.:yes: Laminitis is a systemic disease with often deadly consequences.:eek:

[Carol_Ames]

I second this!I’ve said it time and time again, that I have more faith in my veterinarian than I do my primary care physician. :rolleyes::yes:

---

Susan

[cartera45]

[QUOTE=vineyridge;2180619]
Do any of you think we, the public, will ever know what really happened this past month? Barbaro seemed to be doing so well, growing hoof, actually walking without a cast or support on his broken leg. Then Scott Morrison was brought in to work on the laminitic hoof, and things went downhill very quickly. There was never any real explanation, of why intervention was so critical at that point.

Maybe Laura Hillenbrand or someone like her will do a Barbaro book–soon. She was on the Nightline piece yesterday evening and seemed truly affected by his death.[/QUOTE]

I didn’t get that impression at all but maybe that is because our local stations had Barbaro reports pretty regularly. We have to remember that Richardson said from the beginning that he had less than a 50% chance of survival. At one point, he may have said 50/50 and that was before any laminitis showed up. They knew from the very beginning - before he ever touched that leg that laminitis was a bigger threat than any break would be. Very early on, the Sigafoos shoe was put on the left hoof in an attempt to avoid laminitis. Sigafoos is no amateur when it comes to laminitis. They predicted laminitis at 6 wks - he got it at 7 wks. After the first laminitis bout on the left leg, Richardson said the chances were “poor.” Losing 80% of the hoof can give you nothing but a poor prognosis. I know he hoped for a miracle but I think it would have been a miracle at that point. He said some time ago that the hoof was not growing back evenly and was growing in the wrong direction. The deep digital flexor tendon had been cut and had healed and was still pulling the coffin bone out of whack so they had to cut it again. They knew then that procedures would be needed along the way to deal with the way the hoof was growing. They just needed it to be stable enough and comfortable enough for him to put enough weight on it to save the others. That didn’t happen. Finally, the left hoof bruised and became infected. When he shifted the weight to the front, there were signs of laminitis there. They said back in July that if he got laminitis in another hoof, they would end it. Something so simple really was his undoing. Barbaro didn’t want to lay down and they couldn’t get him to do it - he needed to do that to give his hooves a break but how do you tell a horse to do something that goes against his nature. Horses don’t lie down when they don’t feel confident in getting back up. They aren’t meant to stay down for long periods - it is vulnerable, it is scary and it is something that a horse who will not give up is loathe to do. He probably knew that this time, if he went down, he wouldn’t get back up. We all had more hope that we probably should have, but that’s what we do - thank goodness.