The WRANGLER Horse and Rodeo News is an equine and rodeo publication with circulation in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota, Utah and Idaho.
Issue link: http://thewrangler.uberflip.com/i/880673
October 5-19, 2017 • The Wrangler, Horse and rodeo news 5 especially with something that wasn't so widely accepted even in some circles in veterinary medicine. It is hard to change old minds and to break old horse traditions, but when we are able to save a horse, it is gratifying. I had a very respected stallion veterinarian in Kentucky come up to me at our national convention the year after Barbaro was euthanized, and he said Ted, we would be standing Barbaro in our breeding shed had you had the case. It was certainly nice to know that people are becoming more aware of the procedures (and) it is getting more and more acceptance. Lincoln: Can you address the challenges regarding traditional thinking about horses and broken legs? Dr. Vlahos: The obstacle we have is getting over those traditions in the racing world of what we have told people for decades in television, you just kill horses if they break their leg. So the public has been educated that is how veterinarians treat horses with broken legs and that is absolutely false. People walk into our clinics every day across America saying, I didn't know you could fix a horse that had a broken leg. That has been one of the most frustrating things for those of us that (a) fix a lot of broken legs and (b) have done amputation and prosthesis as a good treatment option. We have made great advances in surgeries to repair fractures with the development of new orthopedic implants. If we cannot repair a fracture or save a leg, then we do have amputation as a very good option in most cases. Lincoln: Can a horse have a quality of life with a prosthetic limb? Dr. Vlahos: The goal of doing an amputation and prosthetic is to take away a chronically painful limb or, in most of our cases, a dead limb that has been wrapped in wire or loss of blood supply. By giving them an artificial fourth limb, they can do well. We usually remove a limb at the level of a joint, usually a fetlock joint, so we have a stiff limb, but it is not a painful limb. It is no different from you walking in a ski boot or a knee brace. You would have a stiff limb, but you would not be in any pain. Lincoln: Looking ahead, what do envision for your role in this area of equine amputation and prosthetic limbs? Dr. Vlahos: I love teaching. We are really into teaching our young doctors (and) we have vet students from all over the world, here. We are able to follow up with several of the veterinary schools in the US, now, who are really starting to implement the procedures. It is a cool thing to see them implement procedures that you either pioneered or helped train them and watch it continue. But I tell my students, I don't want anything on my tombstone to reference that I was even a veterinarian. I want to be a good, godly man that loves his wife and his kids and his God. I don't it to be that he was a great horse guy. I want us to be good stewards of this profession. It is such a privilege to be able to do this for a living. Lincoln: Your Yellowstone Equine Hospital in Cody, WY (and facility in Billings, MT) does more than amputations and prosthetics? Dr. Vlahos: We really see a big variety of horses in the practice. We do everything from routine vaccinations and dental work to complex fracture repair and colic surgery. We have a state of the art surgery hospital in Cody, right across from the Cody night rodeo. Our practice is about fifty-percent lameness in performance horses and the other half medicine and surgery cases. I started my thirtieth year in practice, this year, and it is still a blast. I am all about the horse and I am all about our profession. I cherish those two things. For more information or to contact the Yellowstone Equine Hospital, you can telephone them at (307) 527-6968 and you can find them via their Yellowstone Equine Hospital's Facebook page.