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: