atropa
Well-Known Member
I have been a horse owner for 1 year and 2 months. I waited 24 years to buy my first horse last September, and she was everything I could ever have dreamed of. Beautiful, cuddly, fun, confidence giving. During the first 8 months that I had her, she gave me fun hacks, lessons, a handful of fantastic shows and trips out, and in return I gave her the very best care I could thick EVA matting, regular physio, farrier, dentist, new rugs, ad lib hay as haylage gives her an upset stomach, turnout, friends to be a horse with.
In May this year I brought her in from the field and realised she was beginning to colic, the vet was called and she ended up spending a weekend under observation at the vet school. When she came home, I spent two weeks of my annual leave from work caring for her, building her back up slowly onto grass turnout, making the hour round trip to the yard from my house to muck out and make sure she had a steady slow supply of hay.
From the moment she came home, she looked intermittently lame. I agonised over it for weeks, trying a danilon trial, box rest, turnout, spoke to my farrier. People watched me lunge her and told me she was fine, I was imagining things. Eventually she was taken in to my vets clinic and spent 3 days having a lameness investigation with xrays and nerve blocks. We thought it was hock arthritis, it turned out she had come down with mild laminitis with no rotation, according to the vet it was down to toxins from bacteria in her gut dying during her colic episode.
For 5 months I visited her morning and night during boxrest, mucking out twice a day, getting up at 5.30am to see to her and not getting back home until 8pm every night. I didnt mind, it was just what I had to do to get her right. She was shod with heartbar shoes and resin infills. I switched her feed and forage to lami-friendly stuff, even though my vet had told me not to worry about changing her diet. I stopped straightening my hair, putting on makeup and was getting on average 5 hours sleep a night. But it was fine, it was all to make my beautiful mare better.
In September, she had been sound off Danilon for 2 months, 2 vets declared her sound, and I had a broken finger from her excess of energy during boxrest. With vet consent, I started turning her out in a small paddock with very little grass, building it up very slowly. She would jump out and become stressed at first, so I gave her ACP prescribed by the vet until she learned to settle.
In June, I bought myself a second horse so I had something to ride. She was calm, gentle, extremely placid and bombproof. We had about 3 months together before she suddenly changed, she kicked out at my farrier, became spooky and jumpy, and started trying to bite people when they touched around her girth area and between her front legs. She knocked me over as I was clipping her. I had her ovaries scanned by the vet and found nothing. I had the dentist and saddler check her, nothing unusual noted. I have obtained omeprazole to try her on to see if this helps, and had a chiro/physio look at her. They found a healed pectoral tear which could have been contributing to her behaviour. Since that visit I have been performing massage and stretches suggested to me by the physio. I had stopped riding her when the behaviour started as I worried she was in pain and Id make it worse. But its okay, because I had slowly started bringing my first mare back into work with gentle hacking, under vets instruction.
Over the past week, Ive felt my first mare hasnt been quite right on occasion. People have looked at her and told me Im being overreactive. Last night, I brought her in and she looked hopping lame, in the same way that she did when she was first diagnosed with laminitis. I am utterly, utterly devastated and heartbroken. I have kept her in and asked the vet to come out.
I want to give up. Horses are supposed to be my therapy. Over the past 14 months, my mum has battled leukemia, Ive had an awful relationship breakup, my aunt has suddenly died, my dog has had a tumour and one of my cats has suffered from a mystery neurological problem which caused her to be unable to walk properly. I commute for about 2.5 hours a day, do the vast majority of my horse chores myself, am short staffed at work. I have no holidays left to take as Ive used them all to look after my mare. The only reason Im able to get the vet this week is because I have unpaid leave for my aunts funeral. Im skint all the time from £300 shoeing bills, physio, saddler, vets and I have two beautiful horses that Im getting no pleasure from. I feel absolutely destroyed. They are the biggest thing in my life but I would pay someone to take them off me right now. Is it supposed to be this hard all the time?
Apologies for the insanely long post, I just have nowhere really left to turn to.
In May this year I brought her in from the field and realised she was beginning to colic, the vet was called and she ended up spending a weekend under observation at the vet school. When she came home, I spent two weeks of my annual leave from work caring for her, building her back up slowly onto grass turnout, making the hour round trip to the yard from my house to muck out and make sure she had a steady slow supply of hay.
From the moment she came home, she looked intermittently lame. I agonised over it for weeks, trying a danilon trial, box rest, turnout, spoke to my farrier. People watched me lunge her and told me she was fine, I was imagining things. Eventually she was taken in to my vets clinic and spent 3 days having a lameness investigation with xrays and nerve blocks. We thought it was hock arthritis, it turned out she had come down with mild laminitis with no rotation, according to the vet it was down to toxins from bacteria in her gut dying during her colic episode.
For 5 months I visited her morning and night during boxrest, mucking out twice a day, getting up at 5.30am to see to her and not getting back home until 8pm every night. I didnt mind, it was just what I had to do to get her right. She was shod with heartbar shoes and resin infills. I switched her feed and forage to lami-friendly stuff, even though my vet had told me not to worry about changing her diet. I stopped straightening my hair, putting on makeup and was getting on average 5 hours sleep a night. But it was fine, it was all to make my beautiful mare better.
In September, she had been sound off Danilon for 2 months, 2 vets declared her sound, and I had a broken finger from her excess of energy during boxrest. With vet consent, I started turning her out in a small paddock with very little grass, building it up very slowly. She would jump out and become stressed at first, so I gave her ACP prescribed by the vet until she learned to settle.
In June, I bought myself a second horse so I had something to ride. She was calm, gentle, extremely placid and bombproof. We had about 3 months together before she suddenly changed, she kicked out at my farrier, became spooky and jumpy, and started trying to bite people when they touched around her girth area and between her front legs. She knocked me over as I was clipping her. I had her ovaries scanned by the vet and found nothing. I had the dentist and saddler check her, nothing unusual noted. I have obtained omeprazole to try her on to see if this helps, and had a chiro/physio look at her. They found a healed pectoral tear which could have been contributing to her behaviour. Since that visit I have been performing massage and stretches suggested to me by the physio. I had stopped riding her when the behaviour started as I worried she was in pain and Id make it worse. But its okay, because I had slowly started bringing my first mare back into work with gentle hacking, under vets instruction.
Over the past week, Ive felt my first mare hasnt been quite right on occasion. People have looked at her and told me Im being overreactive. Last night, I brought her in and she looked hopping lame, in the same way that she did when she was first diagnosed with laminitis. I am utterly, utterly devastated and heartbroken. I have kept her in and asked the vet to come out.
I want to give up. Horses are supposed to be my therapy. Over the past 14 months, my mum has battled leukemia, Ive had an awful relationship breakup, my aunt has suddenly died, my dog has had a tumour and one of my cats has suffered from a mystery neurological problem which caused her to be unable to walk properly. I commute for about 2.5 hours a day, do the vast majority of my horse chores myself, am short staffed at work. I have no holidays left to take as Ive used them all to look after my mare. The only reason Im able to get the vet this week is because I have unpaid leave for my aunts funeral. Im skint all the time from £300 shoeing bills, physio, saddler, vets and I have two beautiful horses that Im getting no pleasure from. I feel absolutely destroyed. They are the biggest thing in my life but I would pay someone to take them off me right now. Is it supposed to be this hard all the time?
Apologies for the insanely long post, I just have nowhere really left to turn to.
