Surgery for Speed : UC Davis Teams Return Ailing Racehorses to Winning Ways

The 1,250-pound racehorse from Bay Meadows lay anesthetized on its back, strapped to the operating table and covered with a blue surgical blanket, its legs stiff in the air.

Performing surgery on the horse’s right foreleg was Dr. Dennis M. Meagher, 52, chief of equine surgery at the University of California, Davis, veterinary medical teaching hospital.

Gingerly, he scraped a fractured bone chip loose with a curette, a small pen-point sized instrument shaped like an ice cream scoop. For 45 minutes, Meagher removed tiny bone fragments from the animal’s leg, assisted by a team of staffers and veterinary students, all in surgical caps and gowns.

Ready to Run Soon

“In three to six months, this thoroughbred will be running in races,” Meagher, an internationally recognized expert in equine surgery and horse lameness, said when the operation ended.

Horses, like human beings, experience stress from running, he explained. “They overextend their legs at the end of the race at the speeds they go. There is a lot of stress on the front of a horse running around a race track.”

Racehorses operated on at the hospital are not publicly identified because of the speculative nature of the sport. More than half the horses in surgery at UC Davis each year are quarter horses and thoroughbreds involved in racing. Many famous racehorses have had surgery here.

Every day an average of five operations on horses are conducted at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. Orthopedic, upper respiratory and abdominal problems are the most frequent equine surgeries. The school’s Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital is the biggest animal hospital in California and one of the largest and most prestigious in the world.

California, with about 900,000 horses, has more than any other state. Of the 2,662 veterinarian members of the California Veterinary Medical Assn., 104 are equine practitioners.

Numerous species of smaller animals--dogs, cats, cows, pigs, sheep and zoo animals--also are cared for at the hospital. The treatments also serve as a teaching setting for veterinary students and residents.

“Veterinarians will refer horses to us that may have good teaching value or horses needing surgery that for one reason or another they are unable to handle,” Meagher said.

Fees are comparable to those charged in private practice. Horse surgery varies from a few hundred dollars to as much as $5,000. Vet care and medical treatment costs are in addition to the daily fee. The four equine surgeons, anesthesiologist and other staff members receive regular salaries from the university and are not paid by horse owners. Income from patients (animals) represents 60% of the total operating costs of the teaching hospital.

When horses arrive at the hospital they are examined in a receiving room by staff and students. A horse undergoing surgery generally stays a few days, occasionally several weeks if there is a major problem. One of the hospital barns is filled with bales of hay--food for the patients.

Padded Floors, Walls

Owners may visit their animals in the hospital, which accommodates as many as 100 horses. There are surgical, recovery, intensive-care rooms in the hospital barns.

Recovery rooms have padded floors and walls. A horse lies on its side 20 minutes to a half hour recovering from anesthesia, then gets on its feet, albeit wobbly at first. Recovery is rapid. The horses walk back to a hospital stall within an hour after leaving the operating room.

Extremely ill horses are sent to the extensive-care ward after surgery, where they usually remain one or two days with around-the-clock nursing care. Horses don’t lie in bed like humans do after surgery. They recuperate standing up in stalls.