Page 55 - The Hunt - Spring 2021

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distance. It seemed that Flip Flop would jump it quite easily. But when he started to leave the ground, he grabbed his left front shoe in a way that felt like it nailed his leg to the floor. His front leg didn’t come off the ground, and he hit the rail of the jump really hard.”
The horse succeeded in not falling, but Horan was unseated during the accident. Medics attended to her while Flip Flop galloped away, seemingly unfazed. Horse and rider reconnected about five minutes later in the stables. “He looked like he’d been hit by a semi truck,” says Horan.
“He had multiple wounds and lacerations inconsistent with the accident. A few people saw him on the Fair Hill grounds. We know at one point he was in the parking lot and hit a parked car. But we don’t have a full picture of those minutes after the accident.”
Flip Flop needed immediate medical attention, leaving no time for Horan to retrace his steps. Dr. Bernadette Smith of Equine Veterinary Care at Fair Hill
Training Center examined him and found wounds on all four legs. Several were in areas that, if infected, could’ve meant
a poor prognosis for the animal. “The locations of his lacerations were a big red flag,” Smith says. “Some of Flip Flop’s cuts were near joints—a terrible location—and he needed immediate specialty care.”
Smith referred him to Penn Vet’s New Bolton Center, where his case would have the full attention of dedicated specialists in one location. “In cases like these, having New Bolton Center as a referring facility can mean the difference between death or life,” says Smith. “It’s always in the best interest of the horse to be cared for in a hospital that has a full team of specialists on site, where they can do everything needed in good time and as a team.”
At New Bolton Center, Dr. Maia Aitken met Flip Flop and Horan. She immediately assessed the full extent of his injuries and checked all his vitals. “He was walking well, but with trauma, there can be a lot of adrenaline that masks underlying damage,” says Aitken, who’s double board-certified in surgery
and emergency and critical care. “So we took several radiographs to look for signs of fractures and found none. Then we systematically looked carefully at each joint, each wound and the joints close to each wound.”
Flip Flop arrived at New Bolton
Center in the window of time where,
with specialized and aggressive emergency care, his wounds were treatable. A board- certified anesthesiologist placed him
under general anesthesia, and Aitken and her team got to work. All of his repaired lacerations were then bandaged and he
was moved to a padded recovery stall. “He recovered uneventfully from the anesthesia and was an absolutely perfect patient while he was with us,” Aitken says.
In the postoperative period,
Flip Flop was treated aggressively
with systemic and local antimicrobials, pain medication, wound care, and bandaging. “Flip Flop was in the best hands at New Bolton Center,” Horan says. “He was recovering nicely, and had there been any complications, he would’ve received immediate, amazing care.”
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