On December 28, 2021, our ‘gentle giant’ Zack, a 2,000-pound Belgian Draft who lives in the Main Barn, underwent a complicated surgery to eliminate canker from all four of his feet. Canker, also known as chronic pododermatitis, is an infectious disease that generally starts in the frog (sole) of a horse’s foot. This degeneration causes the enlargement of the horn-producing tissues of the equine hoof.
“They grow similar to [how] cancer does, uncontrolled, and it will start to invade the rest of the foot, and that’s usually what causes some soreness, and if not taken care of, it can lead to a fatal condition,” said Dr. Jaret Pullen, an equine podiatrist.
Dr. Pullen was one of three equine veterinarians on-site during Zack’s surgery. He assisted Dr. Ric Redden, a world-renowned equine podiatrist, who made a trip from Versailles, Kentucky, to work on Zack’s feet during an eight-hour-long surgical procedure. Dr. Shawn Morrell, a local equine podiatrist with Rood and Riddle, was also on hand to assist.
“It wasn’t nearly as extensive as some [surgeries] that I’ve done,” said Dr. Redden. “It’s just a lengthy process because he had four feet involved.”
The procedure involved first creating special custom-made shoes for Zack, which Dr. Redden designed and brought up with him from Kentucky. Then, the medical team and Equine Advocates staff secured Zack in treatment stocks before he was sedated. Dr. Redden then spent hours scraping and removing the canker from all four of Zack’s feet. While the surgery is over, the aftercare for Zack is quite intensive and will be ongoing for at least 100 days or more. It involves cleaning, debriding, medicating, and bandaging his feet four to five times a week.
Zack’s issues would have become life-threatening if his canker disease had been left untreated. With Canker, Dr. Pullen says that if the growth is uncontrolled, it can affect the normal structure of the hoof and take over, invading some of the surrounding tissues.
“The other structures start to get affected, and you start to get a lot more bloody tissue that just kind of takes over,” said Dr. Pullen. “The horse is no longer able to walk. The horse becomes more uncomfortable and ends up laying down a lot more, and then you have a series of problems because of that.”
“Zack had been diagnosed with Canker Disease more than a year ago and was treated for it by several equine veterinarians,” said Equine Advocates Founder and President Susan Wagner. “However, what we found out during this difficult period is that there are very few veterinarians with the expertise in successfully dealing with this particular disease to the extent that Dr. Redden does, which is why I reached out to him. I believe he is in a class by himself when it comes to his knowledge and experience in the area of equine podiatry and diseases of the equine foot and hoof. I was greatly relieved when he agreed to take Zack on as a patient.”
Throughout this entire ordeal, Zack has proven to be an excellent patient and is tolerating all the work involved in his aftercare, which is a vital part of the recovery process.
Thanks to Dr. Redden’s exceptional skills as an equine podiatrist and surgeon in treating Canker Disease in horses, Zack continues to make progress every day. Dr. Pullen and Dr. Morrell each come to the sanctuary to examine and treat Zack regularly. Combined with the dedicated staff at Equine Advocates who love and care for him every day, Zack has his very own Dream Team determined to help him beat this disease. We couldn’t be happier that it looks like Zack is going to beat the odds and make it.