Page 66 - The Hunt - Spring 2022

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came to the farm to check her and asked if we’d want to pursue surgery, although she said it was a long shot.”
But a long shot is better than no shot. The referring vet sent Osada’s X-rays to Ortved for an opinion. “It was a really severe fracture that was complicated by a second fracture at the growth plate at the top of the bone,” Ortved says. “In foals we usually see one or the other but rarely both. I knew it would be a bit more challenging to repair.”
The doctor put Osada’s prognosis at
50 percent. “I said go for it,” recalls Lapp. The New Bolton Center surgical team prepped the horse. Dr. Dean Richardson, Charles W. Raker Professor of Equine Surgery, also scrubbed in. Osada was placed under general anesthesia, and two long, locking compression plates were carefully screwed into the bone in two places,
a fracture repair approach for humans Richardson adopted for equines early in his career. After a lengthy, complex procedure, they closed the incision in several layers, covering it with a light bandage. “The thing we’re most worried about in these cases
is the implant becoming infected and the repair staying together,” Ortved says.
A few days after the operation, Ortved’s fears came true. The wound opened and fluid leaked from horse’s leg. “We cleaned the incision and placed a wound VAC over it to help with drainage,” she says.
A bacterial culture found infection, so Ortved changed the horse’s antibiotics. When Osada’s comfort didn’t improve, Ortved took her back to the operating room to lavage the wound. “She had an infection in the joint,” Ortved says.
“We flushed the joint and placed antibiotic-impregnated bone cement in the wound to help with healing.”
The treatment worked. The wound started to close, and Osada slowly improved. She was discharged a few weeks after her last procedure. “In the horse world, many people still think that fractures mean euthanasia,” Ortved says. “Over the past several decades, there have been so many advances in nursing care materials, anesthesia and surgical approaches that fractures don’t have
to mean death. There are more options today.” —Sacha Adorno
Visit willowdalesteeplechase.org, stroudcenter.org and vet.upenn.edu.
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