PrintThe condition of Debbie Stephens’ grand prix jumper All Star was deteriorating rapidly in February of 2009. After a routine rhinopneumonitis vaccination, he showed severe neurological symptoms as a result of a virulent bacterial infection in his spinal cord.
“When it went downhill, it went downhill fast. He couldn’t move or eat or turn his head or lay down,” Stephens said.
“He’d had his sacrum injected maybe a month before the immunization, and it’s hard to say, but we’re thinking possibly that went septic,” she added, “and when we gave him the rhino shot, possibly his immune system was so compromised that he contracted the infection.”
Stephens’ veterinarian, Dr. Haynes Stevens, was aggressively treating All Star with antibiotics and anti-inflammatories, but without good results.
“This horse had atrophied so badly that there was an L shape from his spine to his hip bone. He was concave where his gluteal muscles are. I’ve never seen anything like it before,” said Stephens, of Palmetto, Fla. “But I just wanted to save him no matter what, even if he just lived in a field for the rest of his life.”
Stevens recommended consulting with Dr. Meg Miller-Turpin of the Equine Hyperbaric Center of South Florida.
“In a spinal tap, we got pus from his cerebrospinal spinal fluid, and that is horrible,” Miller-Turpin said. “He’d lost all the muscle on one side, and he couldn’t urinate. He’d lay down and then have difficulty standing back up.”
All Star received 30 sessions of hyperbaric oxygen treatment, conjunctively with 60 days of antibiotic treatment.
“I told Debbie that they don’t usually recover from these types of infections, but he made a total recovery,” said Miller-Turpin. “Even with the hyperbarics, I told her his prognosis was very guarded. It was guarded even for his survival, but he would most likely retain permanent neurological deficits and not be usable as an athlete. I didn’t think the horse was going to make it, and he really made a remarkable recovery.”
Within months, All Star had recovered enough to go back to work.
“We put weighted boots on him, and we’d just walk him, and then he trotted with them. We worked the weights up just like you would in a rehab center. When he started jumping, we just jumped a lot of low jumps to get his muscles back,” said Stephens.
All Star was back to jumping in small classes by August, then showed in the adult amateur division in early 2010 with Kyle Owens.
By the spring of 2010, All Star was strong enough to show in the high junior jumper classes with Michael Murphy, and he traveled to Europe that summer as Murphy’s second mount on the U.S. Equestrian Federation Young Riders tour, showing in France, Belgium and the Netherlands. In the fall, Stephens took back the reins on All Star for grand prix classes, and they placed sixth in the $250,000 FTI Consulting Grand Prix CSI-W at the Hampton Classic (N.Y.) in September.
