KENNETT SQUARE, Pa., May 30 (UPI) -- The veterinary surgeon caring for injured Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro said Tuesday that the horse's prognosis improves every day.
But Dr. Dean Richardson, chief of surgery at the University of Pennsylvania's Bolton Center emphasized that Barbaro is not out of danger because the risk of infection is still there, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported. Barbaro suffered multiple fractures in his right hind leg during the running of the Preakness Stakes on May 20.
"Seriously, every day that goes by is a big day," Richardson said at a news conference with owners Roy and Gretchen Jackson and jockey Edgar Prado. "In terms of some of the complications, some of them are more likely to rear their head in the earliest stages of the convalescence."
Richardson said serious infection is more likely in the first 10 days to two weeks after an injury, while laminitis, a foot condition caused by a horse putting more weight on an uninjured leg, shows up later.
Prado, who won his first Derby on Barbaro, said he saw him for the first time since the injury Tuesday and was relieved to see him "looking so great."
