Post by Terry on Jan 13, 2018 16:46:28 GMT
This winter has been a rough one for us and our little Pocket Pony. Here's what's been going on...
Due to the droughts around here this past summer, our regular hay guy didn't get hardly any hay from his fields so we had to find somewhere else to buy our hay from. We found some, but it was a much higher alfalfa content than what we normally buy. I was concerned, but we had to make do with what we could get. I weaned the girls onto the new hay very gradually and made sure not to give Pocket very much of the new hay. Problem is that the weather turned very cold so I had to start giving the girls more hay to keep them warm. I still only gave Pocket a little, but she could get to Sis and Zena's hay, so she ate more of it than I wanted her to eat.
On December 10th I noticed that Pocket wasn't walking right. She was moving very slowly. When I checked on her later that day she was standing in a pile of poop (the softest place she could find) in the typical "founder stance". I called the vet, and she had me bring Pocket into her stall, with it bedded down really thick to make it soft in hopes that Pocket would lie down and get off her feet. When the vet got out to check her she told me that it appeared that Pocket did have a mild case of laminitis, but that we were lucky because we caught it very early. I was told to take her off the new hay and immediately put her on grass hay only and keep her in her stall until she could walk without limping. Our vet had just picked up some grass hay for her horse, so she dropped off 5 bales for us (our vet is an absolute angel!). We had a few bales left of our old hay from our regular supplier, but it was buried at the bottom of all the new hay, so we had to rearrange our hay to get to it, so we did. Since then we've been scrambling to find more grass hay.
Pocket stayed in her stall until December 29, 2017, when we were finally able to let her go back outside. It happened to be snowing that day, so she was able to stand in nice soft cold
, which the vet said would be good for her feet, too. She was thrilled to finally be outside again! Here she is finally back outside with Sis & Zena on December 29th.
The weather here turned bitterly cold soon after and all three girls had to be in their stalls for about a week because of the cold. When we were able to turn them back out again on January 5, 2018, you can see that Pocket was feeling really good, with absolutely no sign of any soreness. Yay!
Life was good again for a while after that, until January 10, 2018. When I got home from work that day, my hubby greeted me at the door with bad news. He said he found Pocket standing in a pile of manure behind the barn (again, softest place she could find), and he said she was putting absolutely no weight on her left front foot. He immediately brought her in (very slowly) and put her in her stall. I went out to see her and started bawling. She was so much worse than she had been on December 10th, and I thought the laminitis was back and far worse than before. I thought I was going to have to call the vet to have her put down because she was clearly in so much pain. I was too distraught to make any decisions at that point, though, so I decided to wait and see how she was the next day.
The following morning (January 11, 2018) Pocket was looking a little better, but only a little. When I got home from work that night she was laying down in her stall and didn't want to get up, so I decided to just clean her stall around her. She eventually got up, so I took another look at her left leg, but this time I looked a little closer. That's when I found the nail sticking out of her foot! I immediately came in and called the vet. Turned out Pocket had a 3 inch nail in her left front foot - it wasn't laminitis this time at all!
The vet did x-rays and we were able to see that the nail missed all the bones and all the joints, so that was a huge relief. In addition, the vet said that it appears that there is no rotation from the laminitis!!! The vet removed the nail, put Pocket in a make-shift soaking boot, we gave her a dose of Banamine, and she got a Tetanus shot. Pocket started putting some weight on the foot almost immediately once the boot was on. The vet said Pocket should make a full recovery. Pocket will need to stay in her stall again for a while, but since our weather has turned bitterly cold again, we would have brought all 3 horses into their stalls again now anyway.
Due to the droughts around here this past summer, our regular hay guy didn't get hardly any hay from his fields so we had to find somewhere else to buy our hay from. We found some, but it was a much higher alfalfa content than what we normally buy. I was concerned, but we had to make do with what we could get. I weaned the girls onto the new hay very gradually and made sure not to give Pocket very much of the new hay. Problem is that the weather turned very cold so I had to start giving the girls more hay to keep them warm. I still only gave Pocket a little, but she could get to Sis and Zena's hay, so she ate more of it than I wanted her to eat.
On December 10th I noticed that Pocket wasn't walking right. She was moving very slowly. When I checked on her later that day she was standing in a pile of poop (the softest place she could find) in the typical "founder stance". I called the vet, and she had me bring Pocket into her stall, with it bedded down really thick to make it soft in hopes that Pocket would lie down and get off her feet. When the vet got out to check her she told me that it appeared that Pocket did have a mild case of laminitis, but that we were lucky because we caught it very early. I was told to take her off the new hay and immediately put her on grass hay only and keep her in her stall until she could walk without limping. Our vet had just picked up some grass hay for her horse, so she dropped off 5 bales for us (our vet is an absolute angel!). We had a few bales left of our old hay from our regular supplier, but it was buried at the bottom of all the new hay, so we had to rearrange our hay to get to it, so we did. Since then we've been scrambling to find more grass hay.
Pocket stayed in her stall until December 29, 2017, when we were finally able to let her go back outside. It happened to be snowing that day, so she was able to stand in nice soft cold
, which the vet said would be good for her feet, too. She was thrilled to finally be outside again! Here she is finally back outside with Sis & Zena on December 29th.
The weather here turned bitterly cold soon after and all three girls had to be in their stalls for about a week because of the cold. When we were able to turn them back out again on January 5, 2018, you can see that Pocket was feeling really good, with absolutely no sign of any soreness. Yay!
Life was good again for a while after that, until January 10, 2018. When I got home from work that day, my hubby greeted me at the door with bad news. He said he found Pocket standing in a pile of manure behind the barn (again, softest place she could find), and he said she was putting absolutely no weight on her left front foot. He immediately brought her in (very slowly) and put her in her stall. I went out to see her and started bawling. She was so much worse than she had been on December 10th, and I thought the laminitis was back and far worse than before. I thought I was going to have to call the vet to have her put down because she was clearly in so much pain. I was too distraught to make any decisions at that point, though, so I decided to wait and see how she was the next day.
The following morning (January 11, 2018) Pocket was looking a little better, but only a little. When I got home from work that night she was laying down in her stall and didn't want to get up, so I decided to just clean her stall around her. She eventually got up, so I took another look at her left leg, but this time I looked a little closer. That's when I found the nail sticking out of her foot! I immediately came in and called the vet. Turned out Pocket had a 3 inch nail in her left front foot - it wasn't laminitis this time at all!
The vet did x-rays and we were able to see that the nail missed all the bones and all the joints, so that was a huge relief. In addition, the vet said that it appears that there is no rotation from the laminitis!!! The vet removed the nail, put Pocket in a make-shift soaking boot, we gave her a dose of Banamine, and she got a Tetanus shot. Pocket started putting some weight on the foot almost immediately once the boot was on. The vet said Pocket should make a full recovery. Pocket will need to stay in her stall again for a while, but since our weather has turned bitterly cold again, we would have brought all 3 horses into their stalls again now anyway.
