Injured foal now has “a bright future”
When the breeder of a five-day-old filly found her with a bloody face and her lower jaw hanging, broken on both sides, she probably feared the worst. But thanks to the work of expert vets, Quincy has made an incredible recovery – after she had external plates bolted to her face.
Breeder Amanda Johnson took the foal to the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) veterinary hospital in the US where faculty surgeon Scott Katzman and surgery residents Bridget Ratliff and David Orozco-Lopez reduced the fractures and placed locking compression plates on the exterior of her face.
A UC Davis spokesperson said: “Quincy was able to nurse just one day after surgery. She was hospitalised for the following week before being discharged to continue her recovery at home. X-rays at her two re-check appointments showed appropriate healing, and the fixators were removed five weeks after surgery.”
Pioneering surgery could help more horses
We also take our hats off to the team at Rainbow Equine Hospital in the UK, who used a “pioneering” keyhole surgery technique to remove a life-threatening 12cm tumour from the stomach of 15-year-old warmblood Valtano last autumn. A scan six months later showed the mass had not regrown, and Valtano is now back in work and “feeling amazing”, according to his owner Katie Boddy.
Matthew Cullen, a European specialist in equine surgery who performed the operation with fellow surgical specialist Jonathan Anderson, said: “As well as successfully helping Valtano, this surgical method could be beneficial in the future by giving us another option to operate on the inside of other hollow organs inside the body that are difficult to access, such as the bladder, uterus and other parts of the gastrointestinal tract.”
Arrival of a “miracle” foal
A pregnant mare who was one of a lorryload intercepted en route to Europe – probably for slaughter – has defied the odds to give birth to a healthy “miracle” foal.
Amy was one of the “trafficked 20”, a group of horses crammed into an unsuitable lorry and intercepted in Dover at the end of last year. Many of the horses were too sick to travel, and five had to be put down.
But Amy has given birth to a filly, who has been named Joy, and taken her first steps at World Horse Welfare’s Norfolk rescue and rehoming centre.
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