What a garbled mess. That's why people shouldn't use twitter...especially for medical news.

There is far too much room to misunderstand what he's saying and his intent.

Those assorted tweets make me wonder how much insurance is on the horse.

I'm seeing it the opposite way, Coachie.

I'm not on Twitter or FB but I'll look at certain stuff...

I don't pay too much attention to owners... I really don't know anything about the Zayats at all but I think they're pretty amazing.

It's extraordinary that they would repeatedly break away becaue they know that people who are simply fans are concerned... that they would not only break away but tell us their most personal thoughts.

I have nothing but admiration for the way they are handling things and i hope this poor horse makes it of course but it really is not sounding good. They won't let him suffer and that decision, if it has to be made, shows the ultimate kind of love. The selfless kind.

They seem like very decent people and I wish them the best.

Quite frankly Medicaid keeps people with illnesses living longer than this nonsense.

I'm amazed as to how they actually know how much pain the horse is in and how death would totally be a better option for the horse than pain.

I hope the horse has more than 10 days(?) to recover. Because right now it's feeling like a metaphorical strike count. 3 bad days and you're out.

"Depressing" is all I have to say.

Well...

I'm interested in how all of this is going to play out. From what I've read it could get real interesting...or at least has the potential.

this illness has such low rates of survival. it seems it's been one thing after another. i really hate to say it, but i don't expect a happy ending for this one. just too many complications.

saw in one article where they discussed the blood clotting problems, and that it can impede blood flow to organs. i'm assuming it also would impede flow to the laminae in his hooves, thus resulting in this latest setback.

Personally if the decision were mine I would euthanize Paynter today, I went through Laminitis with a show mare, on her front feet, and it was hell, she wasn't sick like Paynter is and she too was a fighter, the disease is excrutiatingly painful and it was hard for me to see her in such pain, I only kept her alive because she in spite of it was very alert and was a great patient, she almost seemed to know we were helping her and she was great to handle and medicate , after 10 days in the hospital she pulled through enough to go home, and is still with me, though she will never be sound enough to ride again, or breed, but her face looking out her stall every morning makes me happy and grateful she's still here, if she had it in 3 legs, there is no way on earth I would put her through the pain and anguish just to prolong her suffering. It's an extremely quick moving disease that progresses at an alarming pace, it's the worst thing a horse can have. :(

i think zayat has already come to grips with that being what will happen, and is waiting on the vet to say ok, it's time. i think it is just a matter of time at this point. it's just too many things gone wrong with that horse to think he can survive it all. it's a shame.
and yeah, if it were me, it would have been done as soon as the laminitis was discovered. on top of the other issues, there comes a time when you just have to say enough.
and from what i've read, there's only about a 10% survival rate for colitis. maybe up to 25% if caught very early, and treated aggressively.

The DIC is very bad news, worse than (and probably causal of) the laminitis. Very sad news. Doesn't look good.

More from Mr. Zayat: "Paynter had mild signs of foot pain today and mild radiographic changes. We flew in Dr. Bryan Fraley, an affiliate of the Hagyard Equine Medical Center, to evaluate him this afternoon and placed casts to support his feet. He was very good for the procedure. His appetite has been greatly improved today and the diarrhea is improving. We are hopeful but are taking it day at a time."

More good news/bad news. Would a hyperbaric chamber be helpful at all for the infection and laminitis? I read somewhere that horses in early stages of laminitis have benefitted.

Update from half an hour ago (noon eastern) on Twitter, which pretty much matches what Merlinsky just posted, I guess

Hyperbaric oxygen can indeed help expose O2-starved tissues to oxygen (laminae of feet, ischemic bowel, sepsis, etc) but with a horse as sick as this with his multiple problems, catheters present, foot support for his laminitis, etc, you have to worry about the physical pressurization causing complications, embolisms, pain and further organ damage. Couldn't be used at this point for this horse today.

If he's still having clotting problems with the DIC (I suspect not as they went ahead with foot support for the laminitits) that's a huge worry. The ongoing fever and ongoing low protein levels in the face of transfusion are major problems.

Poor horse - he's still right on the edge, multiple problems, prayers for him.

Comment on laminitis: it can be very mild or severe and horrible, the mere onset of laminitis itself is not cause for euthanasia, it depends entirely upon the severity and other complications, but greatly also upon the cause of the laminitis.

I worked W Bryan Fraley on a badly deformed foal a few year a go... great vet.

No news this afternoon on Twitter, just a message that next update will be 8pm.

7:30pm update from Twitter
 

Wow - this horse is tough as nails.

Yeah. He continues to survive things he really shouldn't be able to, at least not in combination. If he beats colitis, laminitis, DIC, etc. then the only thing that could take him down is gonna be kryptonite.

Don't know that I've ever been so glad to hear news about a horse's successful bowel movements.

A question regarding colitis...is this a sickness or is it more of an ongoing condition? More specifically, if he does somehow make it through all of this, is that the end of it? Or, is it something he will battle throughout his life?

Being keep alive to service mares

slew successfully battled colitis and raced at four, and lived a long life. i don't recall him ever having any issues with the illness after that winter.

but he didn't come down with laminitis either-and that is a different story altogether.

More of a sickness that should be over if he wins the fight.

Horses have a part of their large intestine which is like humans (where we get colitis), but also an additional part we don't have where fermentation and some other things take place. That's where horses get colitis - think of a damaged, leaking, infected large bowel. Different than human colitis.

Twitter update from late this morning - this is guardedly optimistically amazing:

Ahmed Zayat: Must Hear Amazing ESPN Interview
 

http://espn.go.com/sports/horse/triplecrown2012/

Ahmed Zayat gave an interview to ESPN and wow! It is a must hear!
He is very candid and open about Paynter and his condition! He is just raw and it made me an even bigger fan of his.

In the interview he even reveals that Baffert "Believes that [Paynter] is as good as Point Given." Check the 8 minute mark!

I am an even bigger fan of Ahmed Zayat's after hearing this interview and I believe anyone who hears this will feel the same way.

baffert saying paynter's as good as point given really doesn't matter much. the horse didn't prove it, and probably won't ever get the chance. i don't recall a horse ever returning to racing after a bout with laminitis.

He tweeted something to Doug Anderson about that:

I think I read something about it depending on the circumstances of why the laminitis developed. There usually isn't a need to try to run them after getting it during colitis because most horses that are in that situation die. Not sure that I'd bother trying, though. Take it as a sign that the horse has been through enough, and let's not tempt fate. If he broke down after surviving all that, Zayat would be devastated and accusations would fly. If the vet doesn't advise it, I bet he won't do it, though.

Ill be thrilled if paynter makes it, so will zayat. But i just dont see a chance in hell of the horse running again. Im just amazed at this point it would even get a second thought. Speaks to the fortitude of paynter.

Yeah, I'm sure it's still far-fetched, but this horse is rewriting the book so I don't even know what we can say he will or won't do. Here's another Twitter update:

"@jazz3162 Paynter update: Doing well. Protein stable. Feet comfortable. Temp 101.3. We are stopping the iv antibiotic and will monitor fevers. He is stable and comfortable. He has a long way to go but this is a step in the right direction. He's fighting hard."

He wasn't.

Point Given dominated the Preakness, won the Belmont with devastating ease -- and swept the Haskell and Travers in a bar shoe...running outstanding figures for a 3yo router in three of the four races.

Curtis Paynter was 1-for-4 lifetime in stakes races. Off the board in the SA Derby, beaten in the Derby Trial, blew an uncontested lead through easy fractions in the Belmont, and finally won a weak edition of the Haskell over Nonios and Steelcase.

The nonsense with Paynter has been going on before he ever raced. At least Baffert didn't say Silver Charm, who was even better than Point Given.

It was at Archwarrior levels. He was a very nice racehorse, but he wasn't even the best 3yo from his stable -- and had horses like Fed Biz and Secret Circle stayed healthy, I don't think he would have been the second best 3yo either.

Tom Brady was so impressive in workouts -- he got drafted in the 6th round 199th overall ahead of Spergon Wynn.

Yeah, doug, i was going to compare bafferts talk re paynter to gary stevens chatter after every race on his latest 'best ever'.

Bodemeister was open lengths better than Paynter.

Without a doubt.

Silver Charm and Free House had serious guts and talent. The more I've looked back at that Triple Crown season, the more impressed I am with the two of them. Not that I don't appreciate Touch Gold, but I do wonder what would've happened if Silver Charm had seen him coming that day. He was the most deserving of Baffert's chances really, and I'm a fan of the underrated "fish" Real Quiet. Charm deserved that win.

It's hard to think they'd have taken a Triple Crown winner down had Real Quiet gotten his nose in front of Victory Gallop (kind of like leaving up Goldikova when she clearly caused a mess). Talk about letting the air out of the balloon. The place would've exploded with enthusiasm and then turned into a mass of confusion. A real mess. He would've deserved the take down though. Maybe the best for everybody that it ended that way rather than have the controversy?

Did he bring up how his insistence on pushing the horse for a Travers start after the initial post-Haskell illness undoubtedly brought on the relapse that put him on death's door?

:tro:
Sadly, the truth usually gets in the way of a good story.

Had Silver Charm seen Touch Gold, Touch Gold would have won the race, the same as he did.

Had Touch Gold had a proper trip in the Preakness, Touch Gold would have won two thirds of the triple crown.

:tro:

They were so dismissal of that initial illness. It was unreal that they just blew it off like that. And paynter may pay a higher price then he already has for that.

Maybe things will get better for Mr. Twitter if he cuts the daily capping from $1,000,000 a day to $500,000

:D

Sorry can't help it.

hey at least he never painted the horses tail and had the bark to go on the air for 20 minutes and answer some tough questions
in a game about money and fame can you blame an owner for pushing to the top?
the horse is on death's door a wee bit bit of ability rhetoric is deserving of some poetic license

Lots of good conversation here. I hope though that you guys have gotten a chance to hear the interview. I am sure you will like it. :)

It's not a big deal that he wants to suggest that Paynter is one of Baffert's 'best ever'. Jess Jackson was constantly saying idiotic things about Curlin's place in racing history. Who cares...

What is troubling is that the horse was put in jeopardy by an intrusive owner who lied openly about the health status of the horse and its' whereabouts during the first illness and susbsequently is taking bows for 'doing right by the horse' now. In fact, he did 100% wrong by the horse.

He is finacially desperate?

Google Fifth Third bank and Zayat