FOAL SURGERIES ISSUE 23_Jerkins feature.qxd 31/01/2012 14:05 Page 1
VETERINARY
FOAL SURGERIES
Are they really worth it?
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HE two main most common limb deformities on the front legs that are treated are known as valgus and varus. A foal that has valgus conformation in his front limbs is when the legs move away from the midline between the foals shoulders. This can often be referred to as ‘knock-kneed’ when it occurs through the knees. Varus conformation is the reverse, so when a foal has limbs that bow outwards from the midline. As the movement of limbs suggests, this can be know as ‘bow-legged.’ As you would expect, most of these angular deformities come via the fetlock and knee joints when there is imbalance growth in the plates. Often the conformation issues in newborn foals are rectified as the foal grows and strengthens or with careful management, either via farriery or restricted exercise. However there will be a certain number who might “need” corrective surgery. The primary types of correct surgery available are periosteal elevations (P.E.), or stripping, and transphyseal bridging. The first, periosteal stripping, is when a small strip of periosteum is removed from a slower growing side of the growth plate in order to stimulate growth, and therefore one side catches up with the other. The second type of surgery is transphyseal bridging (screw), where a metal screw is inserted across one side of the growth plate in order to slow down the growth on other side, again as with the P.E. to let both sides catch up. These screws must be removed once the foal’s legs are corrected. As a foal’s fetlock growth plate is nearly closed by the 90th day of age, it therefore means that if surgery is needed on that joint it needs to done in the early stages of their life. Before the advances in transphyseal bridging, many breeders were using periosteal stripping, having to make a decision at just 45 days of age and as a result it was often hard to determine, if surgery was performed, whether the corrections were due to time and natural strengthening, or the surgery.
40 TRAINERMAGAZINE.com ISSUE 23
Foals that are born with correct conformation through their limbs have a far better chance of sustaining the pressures of being a racehorse. They are less likely to suffer lameness injures that could either prevent it from racing for a period of time or end their racing career. With this at the forefront of both commercial and home-bred breeders’ and buyers’ minds, if a foal is born with limb deformities, should corrective surgery be performed in order to give it best possible chance of success on not only the racetrack but also at auction? WORDS: CLIVE WEBB-CARTER PHOTOS: EMMA BERRY, HORSEPHOTOS.COM
“Where possible, I would prefer to let Mother Nature do the work with the help of good conservative management” James Tate
The transphyseal bridging technique now allows the decision made on a fetlock to be taken at around the 75-day stage, giving breeders a much better idea if surgery is really an option. By leaving surgery to just before the growth plates close (i.e. 75-100 days from birth), rectified limbs cannot revert back as they were. The growth plates in the knees close at a much later stage of a Thoroughbred’s life, therefore these corrections can be done right up into their yearling year. So how correct does a racehorse need to be in order to sustain the pressures of training? The Equine Veterinary Journal published a paper in 2004 on the “role of conformation in musculoskeletal problems in the racing Thoroughbred.” Professors Anderson, McIlwraith, and Douay concluded in their detailed findings that a horse with an “increase in the carpal angle as viewed from the front (carpal valgus) may serve as a protective mechanism, as the odds for a carpal angle fracture and carpal effusion decreased with an increase in the carpal angle.” James Tate, who is not only a vet but is also a trainer based in Newmarket, England, agrees very much with these findings and feels that only foals with extremely poor conformation require surgery on their limbs if