WEST LAFAYETTE, IN — It looks a little odd to see a black helmet obscuring the face of Sassy, the quarter horse, but the extra protection is helping her heal from several broken bones in her face.
“Sassy is a resident of Michigan. There was a severe storm about two weeks ago … winds reaching up to 100 mph,” Dr. Danielle Cucuzella said describing how the gentle-spirited mare found her way to Purdue University’s Equine Hospital.
“A gust hit the farm when she was taking shelter behind a tree,” Cucuzella said. “It was surmised that a large branch from the tree came down and hit her on the left side of the face, caused massive trauma — multiple fractures.”
After the storm passed, Sassy’s family walked the pastures to check on the animals and discovered Sassy bloodied and wounded. They got her to Michigan State’s large-animal veterinary hospital, where she was stabilized, Cucuzella said.
“Historically, we think fracture and horse, and you walk them out back, right?” Cucuzella said.
“That’s no longer becoming the case, especially with universities like Michigan State and here at Purdue, where we do have the ability to perform advance imaging like the CT scan,” Cucuzella said.
Those scans at the Purdue large-animal hospital showed that Sassy had several broken bones, some of which posed a threat to Sassy’s vision and optic nerve, Cucuzella said.
The stars aligned for Sassy’s fate in the days after her unfortunate circumstance.
Her family has a good relationship with their veterinarian, who came out the night of the storm and stabilized her, Cucuzella said.
That vet helped transport Sassy to Michigan State, and both were integral to Sassy’s positive prognosis, Cucuzella said.
Michigan State vets treated Sassy, stopped the bleeding and came up with a plan to move Sassy to Purdue’s large-animal hospital, where they could take CT scans without anesthetizing her.
The good news is she still has her vision in the left eye. The bad news is Sassy has infection in her skull, which so far is successfully being treated, Cucuzella said.
That’s when Cucuzella reached out to Dr. Michelle Tucker, a Purdue University veterinarian/surgeon at the equine hospital who also has a degree in engineering — and access to the school’s 3D printer.
“Dr. Cucuzella messaged me and she was like, ‘Do you think you could print me a horse helmet?'” Tucker said. “Let’s talk about it.”
The idea of a shield or a helmet isn’t new. It’s been used on dogs and even people, Tucker said, citing how basketball players who have broken noses often play while wearing a shield to protect their face. But this is the first time a shield or helmet has been made for a horse. It’s fitted to a halter, which should make it convenient for Sassy’s family to slip the shield on and off during her healing, Cucuzella said.
Working with Cucuzella and her team of fourth-year students — Emma Zaicow, Megan Pemberton and Alexa Vesey — Tucker figured out how to customize a helmet to a specific horse.
Using the CT images, they got Sassy’s measurements and printed the helmets — one of resin and polylactic acid.
“I used the CT of her actual head to create the helmet itself,” Tucker said, adding a bubbled space to shield Sassy’s eye, which for now is sewn shut. “The shape of it is based on her personal head from the CT.”
“One of the first things we learned about Sassy is that when she can’t see, she’ll throw her head,” Pemberton said. “That was the first thing we needed to stop her from doing. The quick thinking was really important in this case to protect that area.”
“The plan is that she won’t go back to full turnout,” Tucker said. “We ultimately need to give her time to heal. Her body, I think, will do a very good job of that given the opportunity. We really just need this to last a few weeks.”
The helmet’s job is to protect the face where the bones are broken. This should allow nature to take its course and heal together, Cucuzella said. It’s likely to take several months and require follow-up visits.
On Friday afternoon, Sassy was in her stall greeting visitors from the Journal & Courier and pressing her medical team for apple treats, which she got.
Asked about Sassy’ prognosis, Cucuzella said, “The owners are aware that her prognosis for life is great so long as we pursue treatment.
“Her prognosis for lifelong vision is still good to guarded. It’s going to depend on what happens with the eye,” Cucuzella said. “At any point the infection could spread to the eye or the fracture fragments could either penetrate the eye itself or the optic nerve.
“Horses on occasion will be one-eyed, and that’s a life they can live and even go on to have a performance future,” she said. “As far as living, she does have a great prognosis.”
She’ll soon be loaded back into a horse trailer and head back to her Michigan family, and a special 10-year-old girl who rides Sassy.
“Our goal in stabilizing her fractures was so she can go home, and she can be a horse,” Cucuzella said. “She can be around her people. She can live a more normal lifestyle, and they can manage her at home.”
Reach Ron Wilkins at rwilkins@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @RonWilkins2.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Purdue veterinarians engineer a shield to protect injured horse’s face
Reporting by Ron Wilkins, Lafayette Journal & Courier / Lafayette Journal & Courier
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