Bay is so b-o-r-i-n-g...

Bunny, the blond, here, bringing you a brief note about The Little Bay Horse...

His feet continue to improve: he goes on short walks two or three times a day, and has been turned loose briefly in his grazing muzzle, which he has enjoyed greatly.

That is the good news.

The bad news is that he colicked last night, and today he has decided to stop eating his hay and grain and drinking water. So we have spent the entire day begging, pleading, coaxing, cajoling, wheedling, needling, and even forcing him to eat and drink. On the outside chance that his ulcers are acting up again we have re-upped his Gastrogard to one tube daily, and are waiting with bated breath to see if the fix is successful.

Check back later!

Walking again!

Oh, happy day!

We are walking again!

It's not real pretty. But at least he is putting one foot in front of the other, and covering some ground!

There is no question that his spirits are better now that he is getting out a couple of times a day for short walks. However, the siren song of the ankle-deep, verdant bermuda grass is hard to resist...

One step at a time

July 8, 2010.

Pookey took a normal step today.

One normal step!

Hooray!

On his feet all day...

Yesterday, for the first time since he foundered, 'Mr Wonderful' would not lie down.

On one hand this is a good thing, as it indicates he is no longer in the acutely painful phase of his condition. Additional confirmation of this is the gradual diminishing of those bounding digital pulses, and his increasing ability to move around his stall for food, water, and companionship.

On the other hand, this is a bad thing. By lying down, a foundered horse takes the weight off of his inflamed feet, and consequently reduces the chances of further insult. That insult can result in additional rotation or sinking, should he still be in the acute phase of laminitis. In a case where one limb is more severely affected, it can result in damage to the 'good' limb. (In fact, many equine athletes who suffer a serious injury to one forelimb wind up with 'contralateral' laminitis from bearing too much weight on the healthier limb).

In Pookey's case, we believe the rotation and sinking have stopped, and are hoping to reduce pressure on the laminae so that they can begin to heal and regain their structural integrity.

Last week, at La Mesa Equine, farrier Joe Bear worked his magic on Pookey and began the process of derotation by applying a pair of rocker shoes to his front feet. He and Dr. Donnell then outfitted Pookey with a new pair of 'sneakers.' These were the Soft Rider boots he had been wearing for two weeks, but a smaller size to fit his foot after much of the flare and part of the toe had been pared down.

There is no question about it: the combination of judicious pain meds, farrier 'magic' and the boots definitely seems to be working! In an effort to encourage him to lie back down, we have been keeping the barn quieter (classical music on the radio, no rock) and have closed him back up in his 12x12 stall at night.

Oh, and scratching all of his favorite spots when he is stretched out in nap mode...

Expanded borders...

I have always envied people with those quiet little horses that stand peacefully in their 12 x 12 stalls, munching on hay, delicately sipping from their water buckets, and happily watching the world go by.

Pookey Bear has never been one of those horses.

At best, when stalled, he has sniffed, licked, gnawed, paced, banged and whinnied. At his worst, he has made it necessary for me to pound, screw and glue preventive objects around his stall and its openings, a la Wylie Coyote, futilely attempting to minimize the amount of damage his razor-sharp teeth, quick hooves and big ol' body inflicts upon his stall.

Of course his illness has changed all of that. Early in the course of his founder, he did very little but lie quietly in his stall, occasionally standing up to peek out the door at mealtime. Next, he went through a brief 'feel-good' spell, in which he began loudly protesting his confinement. Finally, for the past week or so, he has been back on his stall floor, sighing a lot and looking somewhat bored and sad.

In an effort to keep him interested in life and to eventually encourage a little movement to enhance circulation, we decided to 'super-size' his stall, removing the divider between him and his neighbor. We bedded the resulting 12 x 24 deeply, then opened up the second exterior dutch door so he could hang his head out over the chain and pine over the grass.

I had hoped that this would give him a little mental boost.

Unfortunately, it gave him a huge mental boost, so much so that he has been on his feet for much of the past 24 hours. Since one of our primary goals is to keep him off his feet as much as possible to help minimize further damage to the laminae, this worries me a bit.

On the other hand, it is great to see him up and around!