NC State Vet Med Hires Renowned Equine Podiatrist 

In the world of equine medicine, Dr. Raul Bras is a hall of fame star, a rare podiatrist who travels all over the United States and globe sharing his expertise in hoof health.

Now, Bras’ home base is the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine, where he has accepted the role of clinical veterinarian of Equine Podiatry. He has been seeing clients for three weeks.

“This just underscores how NC State is truly a world-class veterinary institution,” says Dr. Anthony Blikslager, associate dean and director of Veterinary Medical Services. “If you had an astronaut program, this would be like landing Neil Armstrong.”

Bras, who grew up in Puerto Rico, received a bachelor’s in animal science from Louisiana State University and graduated with his DVM from Ross University Veterinary School in 2005. He also completed the farrier program at Cornell University in 2007 and, in 2010, became a Certified Journeyman Farrier of the American Farriers Association. 

In 2015, Dr. Bras was inducted into the International Equine Veterinarian Hall of Fame. 

“He’s been really busy already, mostly because clients calling to book into the hospital to have a horse seen and reshod have been told we have this new amazing podiatrist coming,” says Blikslager, who is an equine surgeon. “And people know who he is because he has such a strong reputation on the East Coast and in social media.”

Particularly over the past decade, there has been a recognition of increasingly complex issues of equine foot issues, and the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine had been contracting with farriers and a local veterinary podiatrist to see the college’s clients, Blikslager says. The local podiatrist has now retired, and the college wanted to be innovative in trying to improve patient-centered care by recruiting Bras.

“Across the board in equine veterinary medicine, particularly with the advent of advanced imaging techniques like MRI, foot problems are becoming more recognized as the cause of lameness and unfortunately also for the loss of life in horses,” Blikslager says. “Hooves for horses are a shock organ, as in, when a horse gets shock from a disease syndrome like colic or pneumonia, the feet are particularly susceptible.”

The hoof is extremely sensitive to changes in circulation, and an interruption or change in blood flow can lead to laminitis, when the hoof starts separating from the bone beneath it. Once that happens, horses can be difficult to save, Blikslager says.

“It takes a lot of work on the part of a podiatrist to try to rescue the foot and the horse, and Dr. Bras is one of the very best in the world,” he says.

North Carolina is home to more than 250,000 horses, and the equine industry contributes about $2 billion to the state’s budget each year. State lawmakers recently approved contributing $70 million to expanding NC State’s Large Animal Hospital and including a new Equine Veterinary Center.

Bras says that those expansion plans are one of the things that attracted him to NC State and that he’s looking forward to working with veterinary students and helping them pursue equine medicine.

“Especially with the industry, we don’t have enough equine vets,” Bras says. “I have so much passion and dedication for this work. I just want to be inspiring to young students to help them see there could be something bigger in their careers.”