Wednesday visit

So, Denali has 5 blankets. She has a rain sheet, a light weight, a medium weight, and a heavy weight blanket, and a cooler. More blankets than she needs, but I went overboard when I bought her.

I saw this today and ALMOST bought one. I have wanted a Pessoa ever since I bought Denali, but they were always more expensive than I can justify spending, and now Denali needs a blanket like I need another student. SO, if your pony needs a present buy one, and let me live through you!

Tonight is visit night! I can't wait!

Never Trust a Horse With Hind Legs

Ponykins Side View

There's Princess!!

Notice her front left? Sigh.... if it's not one thing it's another. Luckily, her medical chart is on her stall, so I was able to NOT drive the Vet crazy and just read it. The file said that she was swollen on Monday, but no lameness at the walk/trot. It said her left hind started out sound, but after 10 minutes of walk/trot she was lame (3/5 on what ever magical scale they use.) That made me sad, but it's only 8 months after her suspensory tear. I'm hoping that it heals.

Then I read the next part, "No neurological signs" I did a little skip and a jump. Yay!! I've been doing a lot more reading on EPM, and got a really interesting e-mail from one of my readers. It also mentioned that horses who were treated for EPM (even if "cured") should never be given a 4 way vaccine. That the body is recovering from EPM and the neurological symptoms can show up again stronger. Something like that, but regardless she's doing so SO much better!!

While I was there the caretaker came out. I introduced myself as Denali's owner and she went on and on about how much she loved Denali and how she was SO, SO sad that we were going to put her down and she didn't understand why.
Really.... Why??

Yes, she's looking great, she's sound doing better. I'm sorry you weren't there when my horse lost control over all four legs and took a nose dive into the arena footing. I'm sorry that you weren't there when we hand walked her and she seemingly had no control over her whole body. I'm sorry that you stayed up at night because you were so upset.

How do you think my husband and I felt?? Do you think that we WANTED to put Denali down? Do you think I wanted to lose sleep (and 12 pounds, thanks Denali) for weeks because I knew something was wrong? No, never. We worried, we cried, we were sick. Then we were sick when she was "fine" and the only reason she was still alive was because it snowed.

She made me feel really bad. My trainer came out with me and made me feel better. She saw Denali fall, she saw her wobble around, but still. I'm a good horse owner and she made me feel that we thought Denali was just a machine that we get rid of when she can't "perform." Oh well. I'm over it.

We groomed Denali up in the arena. I scrubbed the gunk from her face (thanks Uncle Jimmy's) and started to groom her up. I asked my trainer to old the lead rope because I didn't want to get kicked. Then she gave me the best advice ever, "I never trust a horse with hind legs." I don't know why I laughed so hard, but I did.

I brought Denali and her new "friends" a 25 pound bag of carrots. We were totally out of treats (we fed everything to her before Thanksgiving because we thought we were losing her.) I sat the bag outside the arena, fed Denali a carrot, and then walked over to say hi to the horse with the broken neck. Denali tried to lift the entire 25 pound bag of carrots up with her teeth then she noticed that I was petting another horse. SO NOT OKAY!! It was hilarious! My mare threw a FIT! She came flying over to where I was standing and threw her head into my arms. Ha, affectionate? No, but she defiantly had only child syndrome and GOD forbid if I show any other horse attention.

I hope to get out to see her on Saturday again. It took me 2 hours to get to the barn, and an 1.5 hours home. That's fine, I am just glad I still have my girl.

I Love Denali's Vet

I just got off the phone with Denali's vet. Denali was a good girl today for turn out, was super easy to catch, and stood quietly for grooming. Good girl Nawlers. I feel bad that I didn't make it out there, but I'm still recovering from our roller coaster ride.

Then the vet made my year.

She offered to keep Denali at her barn, and do physical therapy with her for a beyond reasonable price. I started to cry. It is unbelievably generous of her, and I am eternally grateful for her offer. In exchange I am going to work with one of her rescue horses. Gulp. I'm a bit nervous, but I'm up for a challenge, especially if it mean that my husband and I can afford to treat Denali. I explained to her my work I do at the Giant Warmblood Barn, and said I would see about saving up hours to get some professional training put on this mare of hers.

We still do not understand why Denali did the sudden turn around, we may never understand horses are amazing creatures. We are just thankful for snow! There are too many coincidences to think that there isn't a higher power at work here, and this coming from a person who doesn't consider herself religious.

We have cancelled the truck and are going to go with it to see how she does. The vet is going to start to evaluate Denali this week to see how her neurological signs look. If all looks good then she is going to incorporate Denali into her herd so Denali can HOPEFULLY learn how to be a horse too. This is done in baby steps, but hell, I'll take baby steps!! We are taking this in a guarded sense of hope, we know we still might lose her, and it might be something totally out of the blue, but at this point I like hope.

What Now?

We are still at a loss as to what is going on. We've cancelled the truck for the time being (yay.)

Our options are as follows.

1- to say no more diagnostics, let’s just see how she does,
2- try Marquis (or one of the other treatment medications) for a few months and see how she does,
3- do a myelogram, EPM titers, ultrasound the left hind leg, specialist referral, etc, as needed to continue working up her case and try to find a diagnosis and pursue treatment once a diagnosis is found.

Options 2 and 3 are going to require $$$ and at this point we're over $7,000 in vet treatments alone. Hell, #3 alone is going to cost at least $5,000.

It's just a matter of balancing what we can afford, with what is best for Denali. After emptying your bank account twice, it gets frustrating, but a happy frustration. To think, I was going to cut her tail off on Thursday night because I wasn't sure that I would be able to do it on Friday. She'd be SO mad at me right now if I would have done that.

I still can't get over the fact that if it hadn't snowed, she'd be gone. Still taking it a day at a time. Maybe I should change the name of this blog to "As Denali's World Turns." She provides enough drama to have her own TV show.

x-ray

Vet took the x-rays. Left me a message and said "nothing glaring!" That makes me feel better!!

Going to people vet today to figure out why I still feel like I'm dying.