Maggot therapy is helping St Nicholas Abbey get the better of the life-threatening disease laminitis.
Tom O'Brien, the surgeon at Ireland's Fethard Equine Hospital, said the Coolmore stallion was beginning to show signs of recovery.
The Racing Post reported the six-time group one winner's improvement had been marked since the
introduction of the maggots.
"We used maggot therapy, so we got medical grade maggots and enclosed them in the foot cast," O'Brien said. "By putting them in there they eat all the dead and infected tissue. They eat it all and the change that has happened since doing that has been quite remarkable."
St Nicholas Abbey suffered a career-ending fracture of a pasternin July and has had to overcome complications since surgery to mend the leg.
