Friday, February 18, 2011

Vet Day at the Rescue...

As always, a busy and long vet day...

First we had special needs horse, Sunny, evaluated. We had x-rays taken again of her crippled foot. Very sadly, we had to make the decision to have her put down as her leg was now causing her pain and had diminished her quality of life. Sunny had come to Shiloh last fall from the Fallon feedlot and she could hardly walk on her feet when she first came in. With care and pain medication, we were able to give her time to live a good horse life and be loved and cared for by all of us at Shiloh. But, we could not let her suffer and so we had to let her go. She passed quietly and is buried at Shiloh...

The line up of horses waiting to be seen...
The barn aisle was full as we all tried to stay out of the wind...
Dr. Schur evaluated Wasabi on the lunge line- look at him go! We had his contracted tendon re-evaluated and discussed some things we could do to possibly get him to where he can move on to a home of his own...

Icey, Litla, had her teeth floated by Dr. Christianson...

Icey Lyfting also had her teeth checked. Notice Jimmy Dean snoozing away not even aware of the activity going on...

Lyfting's teeth did not need to be floated she just has very few teeth left at her age...

The line up waiting for their checks- Gomez and Willie Nelson. Gomez was checked for allergies and Willie's eyes were checked...

Trucker had his foot and Magic Shoe re-checked. His foot was twisting and his toe turning up in spite of the shoe...
So a bungee was added to act as a tendon to keep everything working properly! The bungee resists the toe tipping and acts as a pulley when he walks (just like a normal tendon would do). Hopefully, this will allow his tendon to contract and stay into a normal position...

We will see how he does over time but it sure helped alot! Good job, Dr. Schur!

Very interesting! A great example of our vet thinking "outside of the box"!

Dr. Schur then checked Icey Litla's locked stifle. It has been locked ever since she arrived. Dr. Schur tried to cut the ligament, which usually fixes this type of problem, but Litla's stifle area was so scarred up that she still couldn't get it to unlock...

Then it was OTTB Intrepid's turn. First his soundness was evaluated on the lunge line. He has been moving a bit short on his one hind leg from his racing injury (a fracture)...

While the fracture has healed, the joint surface has become mottled with bone growth which is where his lameness is coming from. See the small step in the left side of the joint surface? That should be smooth...
He is sound for a pleasure riding home, no jumping, etc. We did have his fetlock joint injected with a corticosteroid which should help. We will continue working with him now and help him move on to a new life and home...

Willie Nelson's Appy eyes were checked- he has good vision and doesn't seem to have any problems.
Even ranch dogs, Curry and Spur, were given their Rabies shot...

Next up OTTB Manhattan who had screws and plates put into his leg last year after he fractured his forearm playing in the pasture...

Unfortunately, the surgery was only partially successful, one fracture area did not fuse as we had hoped. See the dark curved area by the 4th and 5th screws from the top? That should have fused together but didn't. This means he will only be pleasure horse sound. We will begin working with him now to see how well he will do and hopefully help him find his new home...

Jedermann watched all of the action from his stall...

We had Daisy's arthritic neck x-rayed...

Most of her neck vertebrae have fused. But, she does very well and we are just watching her closely. She was given a Legend shot to help her out and off she headed back into her Barn stall with Jimmy Dean...

3 comments:

Michelle said...

I love the Vet Day updates. The Bungee Treatment for Trucker is shear genius!

Beanie Mouse said...

Wow!! Talk about creative thinking!! One question though, from a non-horsey person. What does it mean to have your teeth floated??

Anonymous said...

To Float a horses teeth means they are getting the sharp edges and uneven grinding surfaces of their teeth filed down so they can chew their food better thus being able to digest it more efficently.