- TB broodmare with a foal at her side presenting for a moderately painful colic:
On evaluation, nothing major is
noted about her large colon (wall thickness, etc), and for the most part, the
majority of her small intestine was just moderately dilated. Regardless, she
was taken to surgery as she was insured and of significant value to the farm.
The surgeon on her case, Dr. Embertson, found that (oddly enough) she had a
moderately large diaphragmatic hernia, with protruding small intestine and the
cranial portion of her spleen… quite a rare finding! The intern on the case
even noted that she was able to reach through the diaphragm and feel the heart
beating – which, in and of itself, was impressive. Normal repair of
diaphragmatic hernias in horses often require implantation with a prosthetic
mesh across the lesion, but RREH rarely keeps mesh on hand because of how
rarely it is used. Dr. E repaired it by repositioning of the viscera and
careful appositional suturing, and to date, the mare (with her foal) is doing well
in recovery!
- Emergency presentation of a Quarter horse gelding (yes, I did say quarter horse!), with a severe right hindlimb lameness after showing:
This gelding came in after hours on
the weekend after barrel racing, and was essentially 3-legged lame. Upon
radiographs, it was discovered that he had a severely communited P1 fracture.
In fact, I would not even call it a fracture – I would call it a shatter. There
was hardly any intact bone that could be used as a “strut” to help reconstruct
the pastern, to at least allow him to live as a retired pet. He had two
options: cast the limb and see how it healed on its own, or euthanasia. In all
honesty, casting the limb had an extremely poor prognosis for any return to
function, and it was suspected that he would develop other complications during
the healing process, such as laminitis in the contralateral limb, etc. The
owner reluctantly and difficultly chose to euthanize him, and we all felt for
her and her situation. I can’t imagine what I would do in her situation (knock
on wood that it never happens to anyone…).
- Young TB mare presenting for an elective fetlock arthrodesis:
This mare presented as a Dr. Larry
Bramlage case (the master of most things orthopedic) for front fetlock (cannon
bone to phalanx 1) arthodesis, mostly as a salvage procedure. I have personally
experienced Dr. Bramlage’s mastery of joints and bony structures, including one
fetlock arthroscopy lasting merely 5 minutes… but even this surgery was a
challenging one and it took several hours. Dr. Bramlage used a standard method
of LCP plating on the dorsal surface of the bones with 4.5 and 5.5 mm screws
(in this case, he used a 12-hole plate). Again, this is entirely a salvage
procedure to allow the mare to be more comfortable in her fetlock in her future
years, although the procedure itself does create quite a substantial amount of
pain in the initial recovery period. However, like many of our orthopedic
cases, she is recovering well here in the hospital and is regularly having her cast changed to prevent pressure sores.
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| Stella's Kentucky Deli: a to-die-for homestyle brunch place with all you can eat cheese grits, stratas, orange pecan pancakes... yum. Definitely give it a try if you are in town! |
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| The Local Taco: some of the best Mexican food I've had anywhere. The mole sauce is particularly delicious, as is the sangria, if you are old enough! |
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| North Lime Coffee and Donuts: a quirkly little place featuring delectable espresso and tea drinks, as well as fun doughnut flavors like Root Beer Float, Strawberry Yeti, Chocolate Covered Blueberry, and Pink Lemonade, to name just a few! |
Did you know that Lexington is actually the childhood home of Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of President Abraham Lincoln?! This is her historic house, which sits right on Main Street in downtown Lexington.
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