Just saw this.
What a complicated chain of events from the sesamoid fractures to conjecture (just because they canât know exactly what happened) on the spinal injuries that ultimately caused Bobby Abu Dhabiâs death.
Is anyone here familiar with the possible causes of extremely enlarged spleens in race horses?
The article uses the phrase, âtwice the normal size,â and in absence of any pathology Iâd say he was born that way.
No, Iâm not familiar. I had a friend who was mugged and beaten. Due to the trauma, he had to have his spleen removed.
For what it is worth Google says in humans âAn enlarged spleen can be caused by infections, cirrhosis and other liver diseases, blood diseases characterized by abnormal blood cells, problems with the lymph system, or other conditions. Other causes of an enlarged spleen include: Inflammatory diseases such as sarcoidosis, lupus, and rheumatoid arthritis.â
Wow, I am so glad they released this. I had such an uneasy feeling after hearing about Winnerâs comments. While itâs tragic that we lost such a nice horse, I am relieved that it was just due to an unfortunate series of events. Sending Espinoza continued healing jingles.
I asked about markedly enlarged spleens in horses because I know that in people, they are a sign of disease, not an anomaly from birth.
Iâd use the term âreleaseâ a bit loosely. Bloodhorse via a Public Records Act request through the California Horse Racing Board got the necropsy. I donât know if CHRB would have released it anyway but BH asked for it and CHRB maybe had limited options other than to release it.
Thank you for the article. I know that people with enlarged spleens are not âborn that wayâ and horses are not either.
I wonder what caused the issue in Bobby abu Dhabi. I suppose they wonât be telling us. I would just find it interesting to know, apparently it is an unusual finding in horses.
From that article;
Cause: enlargement of spleen can be physiological or pathological:
- [B]Physiological[/B]: [LIST]
- Parasympathetic stimulation or lack of sympathetic stimulation, sedation, anesthesia.
Parasympathetic meaning;
ârelating to the part of the automatic nervous system that counterbalances the action of the sympathetic nerves. It consists of nerves arising from the brain and the lower end of the spinal cord and supplying the internal organs, blood vessels, and glands.â
Spinal injury looks like a culprit.
Would this still be the case if the spinal injury immediately preceded death? Sounded to me like the spinal injury is what caused Bobby Abu Dhabi to die almost instantaneously. Would the spleen have time to enlarge unless it occurred post mortem?
Sounded to me like the enlarged spleen was an incidental finding during the necropsy.
PS. As I reread the BH article I realized how extensive the necropsy was. I suspect the sesamoid fractures were fairly easy to find. The fractured cervical vertebrae would have been a good place to start for COD as the ankle alone should not have caused death. To continue to look to find the sacral fractures was, to me, the looking at the whole horse and not stopping when the first plausible COD was found.
He broke sesamoids, went down, landed on head breaking his neck (rotational fall you see in eventer horses sometimes) landed on rider, and also Bobby broke his back at sacral vertebrae as well. Hemorrhaged-out at the cervical vertebrae. That caused immediate paralysis and blood loss to brain.Thats why they thought he had a coronary event at first, because he didnât - couldnât move. but lay still on track.
Brigid, this recounting seems to be slightly different than the article published by the BH as well as some conjecture as there was, to the best of my knowledge, no video of the actual incident.
The spinal cord was severed causing BAD to stop breathing and that was the cause of death; technically not blood loss to the brain although severing the spinal cord pretty much stops everything including the heart beating.
It is speculation that BAD landed on his head fracturing the cervical spine followed by the continuation of the flip onto his sacrum. It is reasonable that this was a ârotational fallâ such as what is seen in eventers but it is after the fact based on the injuries experienced along with anecdotal recounting of what happened in that BAD was motionless on the track after he went down.
