It has been a while sorry so much has happened here. Wllie is doing so well that he was adopted and is enjoying a wonderful life. he is completely sound. No special work or meds for him. He does require front shoes every 6 weeks and during the summer he will get back shoes. Willie has gotten one abcess in his rear leg but that is it. His frog looks great and his sole has come around completely. You cant even tell he had any problems. I saved Willies hospital plates just to remember the times. i have learned alot from him. he has gotten quite fat and has a very pretty shine to him. We do put Keretex on his hooves each week but that is it. this stuff is a dream maker. If you have a horse with brittle hooves or throws shoes alot, this you will want. It is not cheap but it works very well. I will post pics of his hooves now and of him as you wont beleave he is the same horse. What was once a horse fighting for his life is now a happy healthy active guy! Willie will always get his hooves w
Update Feb,2010
Willie has been doing great. He is doing so well we gave his hooves a break from being shod. The snow is so deep here,it is like walking on cotton. So we do not have to worry about it hurting him. He has put on alot of weight and we are still dealing with some skin issues. It does not help that it is so cold here and cant bath him!!! Anyhow, This guy has his spirit back and looks out over the trails just waiting to get tacked and go! I am hoping in another 2 weeks the snow may melt enough that we can try a trail ride. He is such a good boy and the kids are waiting to ride him. I do have him on some really good hoof treatments and he has done an 180. Just goes to show why us woman are called stubborn! Soooo If anybody knows someone looking for a really sweet super laid back kid friendly horse let me know. I will be very selective with him!! Willie is doing really well. His plates are off and he is walking sound. He has not been out of the recovery barn yet. The frozen ground will be too much for his sole to handle right now. He seems very happy now. It is funny how one little thing can cause so much damage. Willie is putting on weight great now and we hope to see a full recovery from him. He is healing very fast. He has such great will. We hope that in the near future he will be back riding and then go up for adoption. Willie will always need shoes and pads for now. I will get some new pics of him on here as soon as I can.
Willie is walking around very well, just a little off. His hooves still look bad but he looks so much better. Who would have guessed removing half his sole and putting metal screw on plates could do so much. This guy really might have a chance. It is alot of work keeping him clean and changing the plates which are not easy as rgey have this huge horse putting all his weight on the screws. He is handling his new shoes well, and biy does he look taller with all that metal now.
Well I decieded to start a blog about one of my wonderful rescue horses who just wont give up or let me. This is a journal of the life of a TB Gelding who came off the track. Willie was too slow to be a race horse just didnt have the personality for it. When willie came he was sweet and in your pockets. We started Willie after a couple weeks rest from life at the track. He was great. Took everything in stride, then he was lame. Not on one leg but all four. This is how I found him in the field. All four legs swollen, he did not know which legs to walk on. We thought he ate some thing in the field so we stalled him and medicated him. No luck. This lasted several days, then weeks no luck. So we turned him out to see if that would help. Well after a couple days the swelling did go down a little but now he was dead lame. No swelling just real lame.We could not find a reason. Again we stalled him. No matter how deep he stayed lame.My farrier Chris Diehl and I, decieded to put on glue ons with pads and gel filler to protect his hooves. We were hoping maybe some bruising we could not see was the cause.(at $250 for front glue ons) We again crossed our fingers that we were on the right track. He was sound for a couple days then he went more lame then before. He would not even put his front leg down. After checking to make sure there were no broken bones or other damage(he was pastured by himslf).We decieded to remove the gel filler and take another look. Well soon as we did we found an infection. That releaved some pressure, But he was still lame.We went back to stalling him and soaking and drawing out the infection. We of course medicated him to try and keep him happy. Well he ended up getting really sick while all this is going on because I rescued 2 really sick horses who made all mine at the rescue sick. So now he was lame, sick and did not want to eat or stand. When is enough..... I, nor he was ready to quit. He became a bag of bones as we fought off all the infections. Now I was treating him from the inside out. While trying to keep his feet under him.Everyday I looked at him, wondering where to go next. He was always so pleasing. He wanted to be here. He nickered everytime he saw you. He would stand in the same spot all day if you didnt make him step. We decieded to give him a break from shoes since he was still too lame and could not handle the shoes going on. I decieded to bute him and treat his hooves with a hardner to see if just maybe we could get some where. Meanwhile, with a healthy load of feed( Fiberized Omega 3, the greatest stuff ever) He really started to pick up weight. Now he still was dead lame and would walk some, but that was it. Maybe he would never be sound. We knew it was not in his legs. He had not foundered. Yet he was lame. Shoes, no shoes, stall, no stall all the same still lame. Ok so now I was back packing his hooves and rapping them. But I just felt something more was going on. Never had I ever had a horse go on like this with no cause, there had to be a cause. When Chris came out to work his magic on some of my other guys I asked him to take a look at Willie ( I do this to Chris all the time, he always does. I will so owe him now!)) We decieded to dig "a little deeper" I wanted to find something!!!! We did. Chris started digging way down. There it was..........what I wanted........but not......... We had found the cause but it was not the answer I was looking for. Willie's sole was seperated from his hoof. He had an infection under the whole sole. We cut alot away, but did not want to take everything yet. Poor Willie, he was wondering when we were ever going to save him. I was told to put him down. That there was nothing I could do. He had no hoof. He could hardly stand. I said no!! We could do this, look Chris helped me save my paint,Press who, even New Bolton said was dead. We could do this. So ok, do what. We needed a plan. I was game for anything that took us in the direction of saving him(by the way he gained almost all his weight back and even had a shine) All I had to do was fix his feet- nothing big- Chris had an idea, he had never done it before but I was game. See I like the challenge too. We were going to make this work.Well, really it was all on Chris. He had to save him. Chris made these metal plates out of scrap metal. They screw onto shoes that were put on Willie.Each day I will take the screws out, remove the metal plates, clean his sole and hoof. Then screw him back together. Chris worked on him over 3 hrs to do this. I took many pictures. For all of you who are saying to me through this computer that I should have put him under, He was standing. He was on his front legs standing when we were done. Not sound but standing. Willie is in the recovery barn. This will be his home for a long time. I know this is just the beginning. He will still have alot to go through. Watching his sole come off will be a test. But we will do this.
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AuthorA person who wants to give back to the steeds that carried me through my younger years.A mother of 3 boys.I have owned, shown, trained,bred and raised many breeds. I work off our own funds. We are not a 501(c)(3). Archives
January 2011
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