I'll Have Another treatments prior to Belmont

[miff]

JB,

My daughter has taken Albuterol for asthma.FYI Not a steroid according to her doc.



\"Albuterol is not a steroid. Many websites that sell anabolic steroids typically lump Albuterol as a steroid, which is wrong. Albuterol is not a steroid but is classified as a symphatomimetic drug. Sympathomimetic drugs, like Albuterol, are used to treat cardiac arrest, low blood pressure, and other conditions. Albuterol, as direct-acting symphatomimetic drug, is commonly used to treat asthma.

In bodybuilding, Albuterol is sought after because of its thermogenic effect, which means that Albuterol, like many popular steroids, is an effective fat-loss agent. This property is probably the reason why many mistakenly consider Albuterol as a steroid. Albuterol is not a steroid but it can be a used as a bodybuilding drug. Albuterol is great when cutting up, the period when you want to shed unwanted body fat. Albuterol works by elevating an individual's metabolic rate so that the body's free fatty acids are utilized as fuel source and not stored as fat in adipose tissues. This mode of action is similarly observed with the drug Clenbuterol, as these compounds share common chemical structures. Albuterol is actually considered as a short-acting cousin of Clenbuterol. Remember that Albuterol, like steroids, is a prescription drug.  This means that in order to legally obtain Albuterol you need a prescription from a medical practitioner.

[BitPlayer]

http://therail.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/12/q-and-a-understanding-joint-injections/

[TGJB]

That is really good, and it would have been nice if Drape had read it before writing his piece on IHA.

By the way, the HA he refers to is synthetic joint fluid. It would have been nice if they used it on humans while I was playing ball, I might have some cartilege left.

[HP]

Miff is right.  Albuterol is not a steroid.  If you\'re going to be in the Olympics you have to tell them you\'re taking it and you can get a \"therapeutic exemption.\"  If you take it and it pops up on a test and you didn\'t tell them it can be a headache.  I think this applies to that whole class of drugs.  Some view it as a performance enhancing drug, but it\'s not a slam dunk, more of a borderline case.  

HP

[TGJB]

The buterols are definitely PID\'s (broncho dilators aside from what are accepted to be steroidal qualities, whether they technically qualify as steroids or not). There\'s a movement to ban them now. I doubt all the horses that are on them have asthma. One of the things that certain trainers with connections to the quarter horse game are suspected of using are two versions of Clenbuterol that are 5-10 times stronger and are not currently being tested for, Zipitrol is one and I don\'t remember the other.

[sighthound]

\"I am SHOCKED that there is gambling in Casablanca!\"  

\"Here\'s your winnings.\"

\"Give them to Drape.  He needs to buy a clue\"

[sighthound]

Hyaluronic acid.  I had it injected in my knee instead of steroid at my demand (and it cost me $700 as insurance wouldn\'t cover it).  Dubious results.

Hang in there, TGJB, human knees will probably have stem cell-laboratory-grown replacement new menisci within 8-10 years.

[sighthound]

Out of a daily card of 10 horses per race, for 10 races (100 horses) at a good track, I\'d estimate 70-80% are running with treatment or being managed for injuries and problems gamblers are unawares of.

I wonder how many other Derby, Preakness and Belmont horses had joint injections?  I would guess ... many.

[sighthound]

Having said that-- context is important, and the article does not do a good job in that regard. Miff, the issue is not whether the drugs are legal, it\'s whether they should be. BUT-- anyone who has ever seen a vet report knows that all horses have imperfections and/or issues, some things are just a lot more relevant than others (which is why it should be trainers, not owners, who talk to vets). Drape has done a bad job in that through the whole series he has conflated quarter horse and thoroughbred racing, pulled stats out of context, and not explained that all athletes deal with physical issues all the time.

I would like to hear Sight\'s comments on IHA\'s issues.

Your accurate and fair assessment has earned you free, professional, twice-weekly chiropractic/sportsmassage therapy as needed for one of your runners at Keeneland meet this fall.

(how\'s that for suckup?)

Seriously, you\'ve said it as I would regarding Drape. It\'s alot too inflammatory the way it\'s presented.

 I don\'t like seeing alot of arthritic changes in young horses, but those problems are there in athletes, as they are there in late high-school and college basketball and football players.  

Quantity of radiographic evidence of same doesn\'t always correlate directly with severity, pain, loss of motion or use, however.  In other words, may look bad on x-ray, but horse may move fine.

[sighthound]

If we had detailed medical records on horses publicized (never happen, can\'t happen due to privacy oncerns, claiming game, etc) how many handicappers would know what to do with it?  

But yes, I am in favor of as much transparency as we can get.

The vets did a terrific job working - within the realm of GOOD veterinary medicine - to keep this athlete running through two Triple Crown races.  Wish he made that last run, I was dying to see what this year would have given us at Belmont and through the fall with this guy.

[sighthound]

HP, I believe he was referring to the treatments not being given to allow the horse to race, but they were given to prevent additional, further degenerative changes that are expected and associated with the wear and tear of racing.

When I run, when my dogs run, when my horses run and jump, we all get glucosamines and anti-inflammatories to prevent the inflammatory cascades post-exercise that accumulate and cause problems.

The horse was fine to race with the arthritic changes.  It was that little tendon inflammation that did him in.

[sighthound]

Both docs have good reputations, and they don\'t agree just because they are partners.

[sighthound]

Vinyl has it\'s own sound, that cannot be replicated!   Except yeah, re-mastered Stones is pretty good.

[miff]

Lightweight Joe Dope/NY Times, double duh!


Bloodhorse:

Bramlage Responds to Recent Media Reports

In the wake of a New York Times article and an NBC Nightly News segment focused on injuries to I\'ll Have Another and the medications used to treat the winner of the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) and the Preakness Stakes (gr. I), Dr. Larry Bramlage, who served as the American Association of Equine Practitioners\' on-call veterinarian for this year\'s Triple Crown races, has issued a response.

Bramlage released his statement through Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, where he serves as the chief orthopedic surgeon.

According to the statement\'s introduction, released July 13, \"The Times alleges that \'powerful painkillers\' were given to the horse, and that X rays taken of the colt\'s joints prior to his withdrawal indicate a much more severe problem. The author also alleges that the practice of running horses with high doses of drugs to overcome painful injuries is common practice in Thoroughbred racing.\"

Bramlage–a member of the Jockey Club, and past president of the AAEP and the American College of Veterinary Surgeons–subsequently provided an interview to NBC news anchor Brian Williams \"in an attempt to more accurately inform the public about health and safety practices in racing.\"

\"Dr. Bramlage became concerned following the release of that segment that the public did not have all the facts regarding the issues presented by the Times and NBC,\" the statement\'s introduction read.

\"In my opinion, the New York Times piece published on July 11 titled, \'I\'ll Have Another had history of ailments, records show\' was closer to tabloid journalism than in-depth reporting, as was the selective editing demonstrated on the July 11 edition of NBC\'s Nightly News with Brian Williams,\" Bramlage said in his statement.

\"The misinterpretation of the medical terminology \'osteoarthritis\' and the substitution of \'major painkillers\' for anti-inflammatory medications is unfair to the uninformed general public. It\'s useful only to sell newspapers, not to allow the public to understand what actually happened for the horse. The phenylbutazone given to I\'ll Have Another is from the same drug group as aspirin and ibuprofen in humans, can\'t be given to a horse within 24 hours of a race, and is tested for with blood and urine samples at all levels of the sport. Dexamethasone is a corticosteroid used as an anti-inflammatory as well.

\"There have been 11 horses that have won two of the three legs of the Triple Crown in the last 33 years. I would guess that almost all of those horses had X rays after winning the second leg as a monitoring, precautionary measure. That\'s routine veterinary care, and would be akin to the kind of examinations that human Olympic athletes who just qualified in the U.S. championships will undergo prior to competing in the Olympics at the end of July.

\"While veterinary ethics preclude us from speculating on I\'ll Have Another\'s case specifically as we were not the attending veterinarian, the records provided to New York State Racing and Wagering Board do not indicate anything inappropriate,\" Bramlage concluded. \"No illegal, unprofessional, or medically unwarranted medication was given to this horse. We totally agree with the approach that Dr. Jim Hunt, attending veterinarian, took to get this horse ready.

[HP]

I agree with your point, and your other posts are very illuminating.  However, from a JOURNALISM and NEWS ANALYSIS perspective, the BloodHorse article is LAME.  They ARE partners and they should have mentioned that.  Plus, there are NO other vets in Kentucky to ask?  One of these guys was on the committee that voted for no lasix on race day.  He voted against it, which is fine.  I personally don\'t think lasix is the problem.  But you go to him and he says \"yeah, the Joe Drape article is off\" and you go to his partner and his partner says \"yeah, what he said.\"  Come on.  They didn\'t present ONE vet\'s opinion because they wanted to express this as something perhaps a consensus of vets could agree to.  It\'s disingenuous and misleading to do this with two guys that you KNOW are going to agree.  

If you were investigating finance and you asked two guys at the same firm what they thought, and that was the extent of your investigation, is that quality journalism?  It is not.  And this is true regardless of how you feel about this issue overall.  You need to go further afield and ask others, not two guys working hand in glove.  Lame.  

HP