What was the cause of Barbaro's (the racehorse) death? How did he break the bone?

Question

What was the cause of Barbaro's (the racehorse) death? How did he break the bone?

Answer 1

here's a very good video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmgf-ocQF...

Barbaro broke down a short way into the Preakness.  He took a bad step and shattered his hind right leg into many many pieces.  He spent 8 months recovering including a couple surgeries, some time spent in a sling, and a lot of stall rest with a cast on that leg.  He developed laminitis in his left hind leg in July because he had been standing with more weight on that leg because of the pain in his right leg.  He was doing remarkably well until the end of the year.  the vet had removed the cast, Barbaro could walk without it, and the vet said he could go home soon.  Then January brought some more problems.  Barbaro got an abscess in his hind right (the one that had a broken bone)...  with more pain in that leg and with pain from the laminitis in his hind left, he stood with more weight on his front legs.  both of them developed laminitis.  he had a very rough night and was put down the next morning.

Answer 2

watch the special tonight on NBC at 8 pm

Answer 3

sometimes (rarely) during a race, a horse steps on his hoof wrong and steps too far forward. that woukd break the entire bone above his hoof and no one gives horses a chance to heal from that. In the movie Dreamer, theres a harness that holds the horse halfway up in the air while the whole leg heals. no one thinks of that. or maybe it doesn't work anymore.

Answer 4

He broke his leg in a race, while he was running. He died from complications of that break.

Answer 5

A series of ailments, including laminitis in the left rear hoof and a recent abscess in the right rear hoof, proved too much for the gallant colt.

Barbaro battled in his ICU stall for eight months. The 4-year-old colt underwent several procedures and was fitted with fiberglass casts. He spent time in a sling to ease pressure on his legs, had pins inserted and was fitted at the end with an external brace. These were all extraordinary measures for a horse with such injuries.

Answer 6

Barbaro died from complications of laminitis, a painful condition that has multiple causes and is not well understood by the medical community. The original injuries, the fractures, occured shortly after the start of the Preakness Stakes last May. The colt took a bad step and shattered 3 bones in his right hind leg. After extensive surgery at the New Bolton Center, Barbaro spent 8 months recuperating. In July, he suffered his first attack of laminitis ( also called founder by those of us in the horse business) in his left hind leg. This was thought to have been caused by  the uneven weight distribution from the cast on the other leg. In an attempt to prevent some of the bone changes and relieve the pain that founder causes, the vets removed 80% of the hoof on that side. For a while, this actually worked- until January, when the colt developed an abscess in the right hind foot. The vets then fitted the newly healed bones with a brace to try to relieve some of the pressure and pain- but this only worked for a few hours at best. Sometime during the night that followed, Barbaro foundered again- this time in both front feet. At that point, the vet and his owners decided to put him down, especially once it became clear that the colt would never be free from pain, no matter what was done for him. He was euthanized on the morning of January 29, 2007.  It is important to remember that the horse died from a disease, not from the fractures- those actually had healed by the time he was put down. There has been some good that has come out of this- millions of dollars have now been raised for research into the causes of laminitis and hopefully, some new treatments will be developed for it that will work. This will benefit ALL horses, regardless of their lifestyle or work, and will someday ( I hope) result in a cure for this disease.