Thorn Song's Amazing Recovery

Huge news in the fight against laminitis comes in the form of the remarkable recovery made by seven year old Thorn Song, who was injured in his final start last summer at Del Mar. He was sent to Alamo Pintado Equine Medical Center in Los Olivos, California under the care of Dr. Doug Herthel.

Thorn Song's injuries included a partially ruptured deep digital flexor tendon and severe infections, including multiple abscesses. Herthel got the horse through those injuries only to have him develop laminitis. According to Bloodhorse, in October the prognosis for Thorn Song was so bleak that his vets recommended that he be put down.

Enter one distraught owner, Ahmed Zayat, who had called the equine hospital every day to check on his horse. "Mr. Zayat was devastated," said Herthel. "He was actually crying on the phone. I've had thousands of clients and you could tell he genuinely cared about this horse."

Zayat's mortality insurance claim for $2.75 million was paid off by the insurance company, North American Specialty Insurance Company, on October 19, 2009. But instead of putting the horse down, Herthel decided to try "a last ditch effort" to save the horse and injected him with stem cells grown from the horse's bone marrow. Though Herthel has been very successful with this technique for the treatment of joint, tendon and ligament issues, he has not had much luck with stem cell therapy on the handful of horses with laminitis, on which he has tried the technique.

But what did he have to lose? "I thought there would still be less than 10% chance for him even if we tried stem cell," said Herthel. "But within 48 hours we saw a turnaround. There was a dramatic decrease in pain and swelling, and within two weeks we started seeing amazing hoof growth. We were blown away. It went beyond our expectations. It may be the most exciting thing I have ever seen. Technology is moving forward."

Herthel emphasizes that Thorn Song, who is now owned by the insurance company, is not completely out of the woods, but he continues to make progress. He even gives the horse a 70% chance of becoming a stallion!

What an amazing breakthrough. I know that stem cell therapy has been tried in horses with laminitis before without success but the key question here is what was different about Thorn Song? Why did it work this time?

These are questions veterinarians and scientists will continue to ponder as science takes another giant leap forward.