Sad & bad news for Lost In The Fog, Update! 9-2-06

[HorseLovinLady]

Inoperable Tumors Found In Lost In the Fog
by Jack Shinar
Date Posted: 8/18/2006 6:46:37 PM

Champion sprinter Lost in the Fog has inoperable tumors in addition to the large one found this week on his spleen and has no more than two weeks to live, trainer Greg Gilchrist told TVG Friday.
The popular colt, owned by Harry Aleo, has been at the University of California at Davis' Large Animal Clinic since Sunday when he was sent there with what was believed to be a slight case of colic. It was soon discovered that his spleen was covered by a mass the size of a football.

"We went in and did a little camera search looking for more cancer (Friday)," Gilchrist told TVG. "He has two or three more tumors in there in bad places. They're inoperable. I'm sorry to say it's just the bottom of the ninth for Lost in the Fog.

"There are no choices as far as him going on. His life is pretty much over. The horse is not in excruciating pain. He's not writhing or anything. But, the best you can put it is he's just uncomfortable, not all of the time, but some of the time."

Gilchrist said he would retrieve Lost in the Fog, a 4-year-old Florida-bred colt by Lost Solider, from the clinic Saturday and return him to his stable at Golden Gate Fields.

"We'll keep him at the stall a week or 10 days," the trainer said. "This would be the best thing to do. I just couldn't leave him up there to be euthanized and thrown in the bone yard."

He said the horse's remains would be cremated and sent back to Southern Chase Farm in Ocala, Fla., where Lost in the Fog was raised, to be buried there.

Of Aleo, Gilchrist said, "Harry's a tough guy. He's been through a lot. But with an animal, it's sometimes tougher than with humans. I gotta tell you. I've got more respect for this horse than I have for 75% of the people I deal with."

Lost in the Fog captured the imagination of race fans across North America last year when he made seven cross-country trips and won eight stakes, including the King's Bishop (gr. I). Lost in the Fog won 10 races in a row to begin his career and 11 of 14 starts while earning $978,099.

Doctors told Gilchrist that Lost in the Fog has had the cancer for months and it probably affected all of his races this year, when he won just once in three starts.

"It definitely wasn't helping him," the trainer said. "What a warrior; I've never had a horse that comes close to this one."

Gilchrist said it would not be proper to try to extend Lost in the Fog's life.

"We're fine with a week, 10 days, maybe two weeks," he said. "But you get beyond that, his quality of life wouldn't be good. This way we'll let the people who have always been around him take care of him. We'll bring him home and make him as happy as we can for awhile."

http://news.bloodhorse.com/viewstory.asp?id=34925

[Pixiefly]

oh no! I love him. I'd been hoping it wasnt that bad when they'd announced it earlier in the week. he is such a big gorgeous guy.

[HorseLovinLady]

Lost in the Fog Given 'Reasonable Chance'
by Jack Shinar
Date Posted: August 26, 2006
Last Updated: August 27, 2006


The doctor treating sprint champion Lost in the Fog for cancerous tumors said Friday that the colt has "a reasonable chance" of reducing them to a size that's conducive for chemotherapy or surgery.
Dr. Gary Magdesian, chief of equine medicine at University of California at Davis, said Friday that Lost in the Fog is being treated with Dexamethasone, a corticosteroid sometimes used in treating lymphoma.

"We want to see if (the tumors) will respond to the extent that they are reduced to a size that will make them amenable to surgery or chemotherapy," Magdesian said

"There's a reasonable chance (of success)," he added.

If the tumors shrink, Magdesian noted, "I would say that chemotherapy, especially, gives him the best hope (of surviving)."

One of the tumors, described as the size of a football when it was discovered a week ago, is located very near the spine and was said to be inoperable. A second large tumor is located in the colt's spleen. A third mass was found in the membrane that suspends the spleen.

Magdesian said an ultrasound on Lost in the Fog would be performed next week, probably Thursday, to determine whether Dexamethasone is helping to shrink the tumors.

If chemotherapy is determined to be in order, Magdesian said Lost in the Fog would be treated with a combination of four other drugs.

Lost in the Fog has been at the Golden Gate Fields stable of trainer Greg Gilchrist since Aug. 19 after spending a week at UCD's Large Animal Clinic, where the cancer was diagnosed.
http://www.bloodhorse.com/articleind...e.asp?id=35041

[princesskristin]

I hope he pulls through.

[HorseLovinLady]

Chemotherapy Next for Champ Lost in the Fog
by Jack Shinar
Date Posted: 9/1/2006 6:19:30 PM
Last Updated: 9/2/2006 2:01:00 PM

Lost in the Fog, champion sprinter of 2005, will begin chemotherapy treatments for his cancer at the University of California at Davis next week, trainer Greg Gilchrist said Sept. 1. The process could last for as long as five months.
Gilchrist, during a brief teleconference from Golden Gate Fields, said the hope is that chemotherapy can put the 4-year-old colt's lymphoma into remission and give the horse as much as two years of quality life.

"It would have to be a miracle for Lost in the Fog to be cured," Gilchrist said. "This is something that puts it into remission and allows him to go on. As far as a cure, I think we're pretty much up against it."

Gilchrist, along with owner Harry Aleo, were disappointed to learn earlier in the day that Lost in the Fog's tumors had not shrunk in size since the horse began treatment with injections of the corticosteroid Dexamethasone 10 days ago.

"Doctors came down from the university Thursday to do a scan," he said. "Nothing had changed. Nothing had gotten any smaller. Nothing had gotten any larger."

Lost in the Fog was diagnosed with a terminal cancer two weeks ago. Gilchrist assumed they would have to put down the horse who won the 2005 Eclipse Award as the nation's leading sprinter after winning the first 10 races of his career.

Aleo and Gilchrist made the decision on chemotherapy on the advice of Dr. Gary Magdesian, UCD's chief of equine medicine. He told them that it was unlikely that Lost in the Fog would derive any benefit from further use of the steroid, which if effective enough on Lost in the Fog's football-sized tumors, could have made surgery a possibility.

"We've come to another cross in the road. They feel that we were doing isn't really helping that much," Gilchrist said. "He could have two, three, four months (to live) with what we are doing right now. There are always exceptions, of course, when you are dealing with something like this. But with chemotherapy it could be as much as two years."

The chemotherapy at UC Davis would consist of up to six sessions, if they prove successful, three weeks apart. The horse will go to the university for the treatments and then return to the barn.

Because cancer in horses is considered rare, Gilchrist said, the treatment "is pretty experimental." He said that, if midway through the process it is determined that chemotherapy isn't helping, they would stop.

"Horses don't suffer the same side effects (from chemotherapy) that people do," he said. "With horses, they pretty much get over it in a day and move on."

In the meantime, Lost in the Fog "is in very good spirits and doing very well," Gilchrist said, although he has lost a little weight because they haven't been feeding him as much as they did when he was in training. "His quality of life is good right now. If you just walked up to him, you wouldn't know there was anything wrong with him. I don't think he's being affected by anything going on around him or within him."

Gilchrist said he takes Lost in the Fog out of his stall every morning for about 30 minutes to graze, and for about 30 minutes in the evening when he has time. They often walk to a spot where the popular colt with the oddball blaze can scan the track.

"It does seem to pick his head up when he gets to do that," the trainer said.
http://news.bloodhorse.com/viewstory.asp?id=35139