Rare Russian Trotter Gets Relief Through a Pioneering Penn Vet Surgery

Gallant Kitten was one of the latest in a storied line – the Orlov Trotter. Rare in this country and repeatedly at risk in their native land, these smart, stylish horses have their roots in 18th-century Russian nobility, bred for speed, grace, and character. And not least of all, beauty.

But several months ago, this bay filly was beset not with the weight of history, but an uncommon, particularly nasty congenital condition – an ectopic ureter that sent scalding urine constantly dribbling down her legs. A well-regarded veterinary hospital had already said they couldn’t help her.

Judith Robinson, an 87-year-old Maryland horsewoman, refused to accept that. A former USAID employee who’d lived and worked in Russia, she had long been passionate about helping preserve this special breed by bringing them to the United States so they could grow and thrive. Gallant Kitten came from that effort. Robinson wasn’t about to give up on her.

“I called in cold to the New Bolton Center,” she said. The person who answered the phone told her one of their veterinarians had performed surgery on two other horses with the same ill. “Those mares are successfully recovering,” she was told.

“I said, Will you lead me to him right now?”

Cold call to NBC results in relief – plus help for other horses

Robinson was put in touch with Eric J. Parente, a professor of surgery well-versed in transendoscopic surgery with lasers. He had pioneered a way to correct ectopic ureters in horses using those methods. Adapted from a similar surgery performed on dogs, Parente had performed the procedure only twice before, but both surgeries cured the fillies’ conditions. Robinson was all in.

Flash forward: Gallant Kitten is now a healthy, happy young mare.

And her healing may help others. Dr. Parente has since published an article about his surgery in the Equine Veterinary Journal at the publication’s invitation so others could learn about it and spare other horses from more dangerous, invasive procedures and, in some cases, death. Plus, Parente and his team learned of this obscure but special breed and, in doing so, helped aid its preservation.

“They are really beautiful horses, and this filly was just wonderful to work with, as was Ms. Robinson,” said Parente. “So we were just really glad we could help them.”

Ureteral ectopia is a congenital abnormality uncommon in dogs and even rarer in horses and other animals. In this malformation, the ureter does not empty into the bladder but elsewhere, such as in Gallant Kitten’s case, the vagina. The result is incontinence, accompanied by severe dermatitis, possible urinary tract and other infections, and significant discomfort. In some cases, euthanasia is considered the best option.

Higher-cost and more risky operations – major abdominal surgery or removal of a kidney, had been the previously only available corrections. But Parente said those methods have had mixed results, as well as complications and even death.

Parente’s surgery, cystoscopy-guided laser neouretercystostomy, is minimally invasive, safe, and all three fillies were able to urinate normally after the procedure.

Because of Gallant Kitten’s particular abnormality, her surgery required anesthesia, but the other two fillies’ only needed a local anesthetic and sedation.

For his Orlov Trotter patient, Parente used ultrasound to determine the position of the ureter – in Gallant Kitten’s case, tunneling within the bladder wall but not emptying into the bladder. Using endoscopes and a laser, he and his team created an opening which permitted urine to flow directly, and correctly, into the horse’s bladder.

“It’s a whole lot easier on the patient,” Parente. “It has been at least in the three cases we’ve done. It’s worked remarkably well right away.”

Recently, Parente performed the surgery on a fourth horse; that one came all the way from Texas. Its owner had heard about the earlier surgeries.  That horse is still being treated at New Bolton Center, but Parente said the surgery greatly improved her condition.

Gallant Kitten’s people are delighted with her progress.

“I was really, really pleased and amazed when that surgery went well,” said David Beachy, an Indiana horse breeder and blacksmith on whose farm Gallant Kitten was born of Russian parents. For several years, Beachy has been breeding and training Orlov Trotters which Robinson helped him acquire with her Russian connections. Most of them he sells to his fellow members of the Amish community for use as driving horses. They’ve developed a following because of their many good qualities, which include possessing a temperament for families.

“They have a good mind and a good personality,” Beachy said. “They take well to kind handling.”

The Orlovs also have more endurance and overall speed than some other breeds that he has worked with. And they’re quite pretty as well.

“We kind of think we’ve got everything in one package,” he said.

A new life for the filly from a rare breed that’s rich in history

Currently, Gallant Kitten is getting early training on the Maryland farm of Mary Pearre, a retired nurse and friend of Robinson who now owns the filly. Eventually, she will learn to be driven, probably for Pearre’s leisure use, and, in a couple of years, to be ridden as well, possibly as a mount for her horse-loving granddaughter.

For Robinson, Gallant Kitten deserves nothing less. She fell in love with the breed from the time she met her first Orlov Trotter decades ago. She saved that horse from a slaughterhouse fate and went on to author a three-book series about the breed. Her continuing her passion project is trying to preserve the Orlov, which was at risk of ruin at various points in Russia’s volatile history.

Gallant Kitten now gets to carry on the legacy of that august line.    

“She’s healthy. That’s the main thing,” Robinson said of Gallant Kitten. “She can have a healthy life.”

Parente is glad for his team’s part. “It’s an honor,” he said. “Ms. Robinson entrusted us to do this while she’s trying to do something that’s really special herself. And we got to help.”