St Nicholas Abbey

Update from Coolmore

St Nicholas Abbey is struggling to overcome the laminitis in his left front foot, this is indeed life threatening and is the single biggest complication he has faced since his initial lifesaving surgery.

The worry is that if the condition progresses and further sinking of the pedal bone takes place it may prolapse through the sole of his foot.

In spite of this St Nicholas Abbey is very comfortable, being just a little ouchy when walking in his first steps and better thereafter, his appetite and demeanour remain incredibly good.

His intensive veterinary treatment continues and includes maggot therapy for the slight discharge at the toe of the laminitic foot and a daily session on a vibrating plate.

The next few weeks are critical for St Nicholas Abbey – we are just hoping that he can turn the corner.
 
I wish they would talk to some of the people who are turning really bad lami cases around, or maybe they are, but the barefoot people are often poo pooed by the vet profession despite their obvious success. Of course weight caused lami is different in a lot of ways to metabolic Induced lami, but a lot of the treatment options are the same.

Sad news, not what we wanted at all.

I expect they don't want lots of suggestions, but it was a third party suggestion that is credited with Monet's recovery.....

Niki x
 
I dont for one minute imagine they arent calling in the best around to deal with this. Vibration plates to deal with a hoof that you are worried is still foundering and rotating is a new one on me, but Id be really interested in the theory behind that one, they must be hopeful it will help to do it, but all the stuff we deal with is trying to stop movement as far as possible!! ( have a feeling google is going to be my friend here !)

Even if the pedal bone does start to come through, its recoverable in some cases - its a horrible long job, but they can come back from it, and its not like they dont have the money to throw at it to give him every chance.

Really hope he wins this one, but I REALLY hope that he doesnt turn out to be a jaffa after all this... ;)
 
Some of the barefoot people, Pete Ramey in the US for instance are getting horses who have fully rotated and come through the sole back. But they are still very much on the fringe and considered bonkers by some/most vets, though some are coming round to the idea.

One of my vets told me that a foot couldn't collapse in 2 weeks and it took 9 months to grow a new hoof. Correct time to grow, but a barefoot can collapse very quickly, and I had the photos to prove it. So some vets are behind the times, as my vet was, she wanted my horse rim shod!!! Peripheral loading is the last thing to do with a laminitic hoof! (He had stress lami after a bad bout of pneumonia)

So I don't have that much faith in even the best vets on this one. Though I'd love it if they we're that open minded.

Nx
 
ahh - but I said the best around - not the best vets.... people like Andy Poynton are doing wonderous things for laminitics (and have done for years) I would be very suprised if they dont have plenty of people who know their stuff dealing with him.

Presumably the plate is one of these or similar http://theraplate.com/Equine.html it looks really good to my small brain, though its hard to get past supporting the pedal bones with the correctly sized frog support on an appropriate shoe (who the feck told you to put plain rim shoes on a laminitic?? what a nutter, and how lucky is your horse that you arent the kind of owner who totally relies on the vet!) and to try and stop movement until things have settled - but this is the beauty of the veterinary world, it never stops learning. if it increases bloodflow, then its going to help everything, and thats what this plate looks to do.

Weight bearing lami is a horrible thing - same as concussion lami, the horses arent fat, they arent typical types to get it and owners really struggle to understand the implications and that you have to treat them pretty much the same way as if it was the classic fat pony. Horrible horrible condition, its the biggest killer in the UK (as our receptionist will take great delight in telling you after her exams last year!) although at the moment things like atypical myopathy are coming close to taking over.

Just got to hope that he doesnt drop completely and that he comes right. Ive nursed two that have come through - one survived by some miracle and a lot of care both by us at work and then from the owner after, and the other we fought for months before the owners finally pulled the plug. I hate nursing them, they were in a lot of pain and its certainally nothing that I could even remotely contemplate putting mine through. Thankfully for my concience, most people who see the x-rays (or the bruising that comes before it pushes through) will euthanase their horses before it comes right through - and these days we have so much more on our side to help them NOT go like it, that its really quite unusual now.

Ultimately, I REALLY hope this vibration plate and all the other treatments can get him sorted, but his road is defiantely a fair bit bumpier now. :(
 
I SO hope he does pull through! It's so cruel that they can recover from the fracture and then get the other foot to kaput. So sad. And laminitis is still so misunderstood even by the best, they are all on a learning curve.

I know more about metabolic lami, after all the majority of cases are! But in no case would I put any kind of shoe on a laminitic foot, no when there are so many supportive devices and padding and even glue on shoes that do a better job than to put nails and metal into a compromised foot. But this is what I'm saying, the barefoot brigade, and some are very militant I admit, are still more on the fringe, yet their results are generally far better with far worse cases than most vets. Let's hope some of St nicks experts have looked Into why this is....oh and the other vital thing, changing his diet, weight bearing lami or no....

I know I would and did, look in all the nooks and crannies for hope.

Nikixx
 
Fizzbw said:
I SO hope he does pull through! It's so cruel that they can recover from the fracture and then get the other foot to kaput. So sad. And laminitis is still so misunderstood even by the best, they are all on a learning curve.

Nikixx
Click to expand...

The same happened to Barbaro, his injury was fixed & it was the laminitis that got him in the end, it does seem like a very sad twist of fate
 
I suppose that everything about a horse is built for speed and in the wild it would not survive for long if lame, so not designed to regenerate if injured; animals that are not prey animals probably heal better? Sorry, just thinking out loud here. Really want him to get better but, above all don't want him to suffer. Laminitis, colic. What curses they are.
 
And they tried too long with Barbaro IMO. Hard to know when to say enough though, especially if they appear to be dealing with it ok. Hard choices.

The chance of a recovery of a decent quality of life must be the overriding aim.

Poor Nick :(
 
I think the question 'Why did they start this process' is the key one. Because he's a valuable stallion prospect is the obvious answer. But the owners aren't the ones actually putting the hard, physical graft in on this - obviously the vets are getting extremely well paid for the who job and never forget vet practices, even the very best ones, have to make a profit and aren't charities. Not saying this in the vets' case here it's money first, horse second at all but very much doubt if it was an unknown gelding with no attached publicity they'd be going quite so far....it's the stable/vet staff who I feel most sorry for, apart from the horse. I sincerely hope this has a happy outcome for their sakes because it's one of the most depressing parts of caring for livestock when you put weeks of effort into trying to get one of your animals healthy and well in order to lead a useful life and then it dies on you.. Expect Troods will be able to comment best not his post, as she's been through the mill more than most in this arena...
 
To be fair to connections, they went through the hoops with Nick Dundee in 99 even bringing in Gazza's surgeon of the time (knee not liver) for any ideas he might have.
Again the horse lost the most of his value after his 2000 Gns run relative to what it could have been, great horse that he undoubtedly is.
 
St Nicholas Abbey Regretfully St Nicholas Abbey has lost his brave battle after suffering a colic this morning. Surgery revealed a severe strangulating colon t...orsion that was unviable and he had to be euthanized on humane grounds. This is extremely unfortunate as St Nicholas Abbey had been in terrific form, the laminitis was resolving very well and the fracture had healed better than expected. Coolmore would like to thank the surgeons, the international experts and all the staff at Fethard Equine Hospital who gave him such excellent care 24/7. We would also like to thank the multitude of well-wishers for all the cards and messages of support for St Nicholas Abbey. He will be buried in the graveyard here at Coolmore.
 
Sad news.

I assume the colic was in some way caused by the other problems he had; e.g. reduced mobility, stress etc. rather than just a random occurrence (which would be just the worst luck)?
 
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