The End of an Era

It's been over 36 years since I've been without a horse in my life. But as of this morning, I am once again horse-less. Flash, my daughter's pony and our last remaining equine, was put down this morning.

This was taken the summer after Tara got Flash. We went camping and riding at Sand Ridge State Park. Flash was exactly what this kid wanted -- a blonde girl pony. Flash was kind but stubborn -- typical pony attitude. But she was a good ride for Tara, teaching her to read her horse.

We nursed her thru horribly chronic laminitis several years ago. Xrays showed that she had significant rotation of the coffin bone which usually is 'corrected' by trimming the foot at a more straight-up angle and corrective shoes -- expensive!. I researched and found another option for the rotation and if it worked it would be a permanent cure, not just a fix. It was labor intensive and I had to convince my farrier to trim her feet the way I wanted them, not the way he had been taught to trim foundered horses. After signing a release waiver, he did it the way I wanted. A year later, you couldn't tell that she had ever been foundered, and that continued the rest of her life. The farrier always commented on how beautiful her feet were each time he came to trim them.

My farrier was the one who tipped me on what was causing the chronic laminitis. Flash had thyroid problems. After starting her on medication, she had no recurrences. At the same time we found out that she had Cushings disease but the medication for that was cost prohibitive. So we decided to treat it with benign neglect -- doing nothing and letting her live as long as she was comfortable.

Tara & Flash in the summer of 1989

She was so pretty with that dark palomino coat.

Flash also was best friends with my gelding, Shettan, and when he died several years ago, she just wasn't the same. It wasn't just that she was an only horse, altho that played into it. The spark that made Flash Flash slowly eroded away. This past winter, she seemed a bit happier with the company of the ducks and chickens in her yard. She seemed to enjoy herding the ducks around the pen.

But when spring arrived and she lost what little bit of coat she was going to lose (due to the Cushings disease), I could see how much condition she'd lost over the winter. Then, about a month ago, she went completely off her feed. All she would eat was grass. And spring grass is not good for a horse to graze 24/7, and a couple hours of grass was not enough to keep her alive.

So I had the vet out. Teeth were rough but obviously not what was keeping her from eating since she'd eat grass all day given the chance. She wouldn't even come up at feeding time. I'd have to go chase her down to bring her in. That is NOT normal for Flash. The vet drew blood for lab tests, but nothing came back conclusive. I tried different foods to tempt her but the only thing she'd eat regularly was her bran (no nutritional value) and grass. The rest she'd eat when it was 'new' but after a couple days, she'd just quit eating it.

So the decision had to be made. Did we spend more money trying to keep an elderly (28yr) pony with health issues alive or put her down?

It's not an easy decision to take a life, even when it is the humane thing to do. I could have put this off as she had started eating some rolled oats mixed with her bran fairly regularly, but it still would have had to be done before winter. And she was still losing weight. Her backbone stuck up off her ribs about 4 inches and there was nothing but skin over those ribs. You could hang a hat on her hip bones.

And her attitude was just flat. No spark, no life, no will to live. So after discussing it with Tara and Mike, we decided to put her down now. There was no sense spending more money hunting down a cause for this.

So this morning, Flash was eased out of this life and into the next where she can eat all the grass she wants, where her coat is once again a dark gold instead of flat, dull cream, and where she can once again play with her best pal, Shettan.

Kitchen Remodel for the Kids

Well the kids got their kitchen remodel done in fairly short order. It really turned out nicely as you can see from the pictures below. I don't have any before pictures, but believe me, this is a vast improvement!

The sink side

A different angle

The stove area

The completed kitchen

The satisfied couple

They also redid the dining room at the same time and this is the reaon why. . .

And here is the finished dining room

Nice job!

Another Surgery

Back in October, while at the Border Collie National Specialty, I over-did my volunteerism to the point that I re-aggrvated my Achilles tendon. I waited a couple of months, hoping that reduced activity and over-the-counter ibuprofen would take out the irritation. I truly was hoping I hadn't re-ruptured the tendon. But by the time Christmas was arriving, I was in pretty decent pain constantly and I figured it was time to get it looked at.

I didn't want to go back to the same doctor (an orthopedic surgeon) as he had had two chances to fix the ankle permanently and here it was re-inflamed. So I sought out another doctor. By chance, I heard an ad on the local radio station of a new podiatrist in town. I've been to two podiatrists and had bad experiences with both so was kinda leary when I went in to meet Dr. Lockwood.

Well, as it turns out, I LOVE her. She is compassionate and well-informed, and she talks to me, not at me or down to me. We started out with physical therapy to see if it was just inflamation and a tightening of the tendon. Found that the tendon wasn't all that tight compared to the other one (range of flexation was within 9 degrees) so the therapists started me on routine stretching exercises and anti-inflamatory therapy three times a week.

After two sessions, the ankle was screaming even through the prescription-strength ibuprofen which had been controlling the pain wonderfully. After six sessions, I went back to the doctor and told her that the pain was worse with the exercises and that this is what had happened the first time after I'd had surgery and found that the tendon wasn't totally repaired. In other words, deja vu!

So Dr. Lockwood told the therapists to 'back off' the weight-bearing stretches and just do the anti-inflamation therapy. I also continued with the non-weight-bearing stretches. Well after a month of doing this, the ankle felt much better but not 100%. There was still pain but it was bearable.

So she decided to do an MRI and, guess what?!?!? Turns out the tendon is partially ruptured again! No wonder I couldn't do the weight-bearing stretches. So we discussed surgery. I couldn't do it right away because of the livestock. Mike leaves for work in the winter at 5:30 to allow for bad road conditions. The ducks need thawed water in the mornings when they are let out for the day and we don't want to run a heater all night just to keep the water thawed for morning. Just a waste of money. And doing duck chores in the morning before work just would not work for Mike. So we had to wait until warmer weather.

Well, warmer weather brings dog show season and Beckett is trying to finish a title. She has arthritis in her toes and right now is comfortable without pain meds, but at 8 yrears of age, that isn't going to remain the status quo forever. So I am up against the clock, so to speak, to finish this title. So I didn't want to waste the entire spring show season by having surgery (good thing too, since we've picked up three more legs on the way to the title).

So that makes it summer for surgery. It is scheduled on June 15th. I saw the doctor yesterday and our next time to meet will be to fill out consent forms and to get orders for EKG, labs, and chest Xrays. So I am now looking to call my GP and get those scheduled now so I get them in when I want to do them (when my work schedule allows).

I am going to be non-weight-bearing (on crutches) for eight weeks after the surgery because we are not only repairing the tendon, but we are addressing the reason why it keeps rupturing with little provocation. And that turns out to be several congenital defects in the formation of the bones in my foot. So she will be breaking and reshaping many bones to prevent (hopefully) any other recurrance of this problem.

It is supposed to be a pretty painful recovery for the first few weeks so I am lining up help for Mike since he'll have to work and do animal chores and mow and cook and do laundry and . .  . for the first few weeks. Once the pain subsides I'll be able to do a lot more even tho I 'm restricted to crutches. I get around pretty good on those things for a fat, old woman!

So while I'm not looking forward to another surgery, I AM hoping that this will be the last one for this foot!