The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

After a long wait, Fed Ex finally delivered the Laminil at about 2pm and our vet arrived at about 3pm. Winston could not have any pain medication before the procedure, but he was looking good.

What's up Mom?

So the good news: Our vet believes with time Winston will make a full recovery. She is really pleased with the progress he has made in three days. He still has the careful, flat footed walk characteristic of laminitis, but it is not as obvious. She quickly set up for the procedure.

Give the pony a sleepy cocktail

Clean and sterilize the area for IV

Load the syringes with laminil

Apply tourniquet and IV

Then she began pushing in the Laminil. It pushed in easily and only took a minute. Then the IV tube was tucked up as she did the other foot. Winston had to keep the tourniquet on for 30 minutes, so we had time to kill. Our vet said he would remain on strict stall rest until he is sound even while turning. Then he can begin with an hour of turn out in dry lot with a muzzle, since our dry lot has some grass. He will never eat in the pasture again, but he may eventually return to work. Very good news. Winston celebrated his 17th birthday today, and now we can hope for more to come. This Laminil could prevent so many painful days for ponies, once vets have it readily available. Our vet has already ordered more for another patient. Winston was the first for her practice, but hopefully many more will benefit.

The Bad: The same day Winston was diagnosed, Jenna came up really lame. Three days later she was even worse. She barely puts weight on her right front and throws her head and neck upwards to get moving. It has to be the most horrible thing to watch her move. Mom and I were really worried, but her owner was confident she could get her through it. We mentioned how bad she looked to the vet and as we walked out to show Rosemary's eye to her, she saw for herself. Since she had to wait for Winston anyway, she said she would look at Jenna's foot. Hoof testing quickly showed the abscess point was on the inside bar. She that was a weird spot. I said Jenna is normally weird. She dug it out and pus began draining. A little more digging, more pus. I have to say I have never seen such a bad abscess. What's more, our vet said she had not seen one recently. A little Ace, finally helped settle her while her foot soaked. We finished with Winston, and said good bye to the vet before finishing Jenna.

The Ugly: We decided to call her owner, to let her know what happened. She was not happy and questioned our judgement letting someone work on her horse. As if we would let just anyone handle her horse. My jaw dropped as she asked how much it would cost her. She continued to complain about the fact the vet recommended stall rest. She completely brushed off the severity of the abscess. Okay, now I was ticked off and Mom was too when I explained. Our vet was charging her nothing. As she put it, she had time to kill and she could not leave her when she was in so much pain. By the time she came to the barn she had changed her tune a bit, but the words had already been said. She told us she had a bad week...really. Geez, we would not know anything about how that is.

We checked on Winston that evening, and gave him some pain medication. He could not have any until 6 hours after the procedure. I was glad to see she did leave Jenna in for the night. The poor girl was exhausted just from moving around with the girls. So hopefully, both the lame ponies are feeling better tomorrow.

Rosemary making me feel less mentally exhausted.