Patricks Feet
One of the reasons I havent been on LJ for the majority of the year is the fact that a lot of bad things happened all at once which I won't bore you with, but prolly by far the worse was my horse, Patrick, getting 'Laminitis' for the 1st time in 12 years of owning him.
It was very sudden and severe and it was looking very dodgy at one point as the pedal bones in his back feet had rotated and dropped, and were about 5mm away from coming through the sole of his feet which was horrendous. Any worse than that and I would have been facing the prospect of having him PTS, which of course was unthinkable. The pain he was in was indescribable, he was on a whacking dose of painkillers and sedatives for quite some time.
Well, 7 months on and his feet are pretty much mechanically back to normal, his back right foot looks unpleasant as the hoof wall is open and you can see all the dead tissue exposed, but I have a sound, rideable horse again, something which was looking a few months ago like it was never going to happen.
I am unbelievably relieved about this, my horse is pretty much my life and (apart from my dad) has been the most constant 'man' in my life.
It just goes to show that with the right mindset, extremely hard work, dedication and staying positive, even the most dire animal health problems can be overcome.
It was very sudden and severe and it was looking very dodgy at one point as the pedal bones in his back feet had rotated and dropped, and were about 5mm away from coming through the sole of his feet which was horrendous. Any worse than that and I would have been facing the prospect of having him PTS, which of course was unthinkable. The pain he was in was indescribable, he was on a whacking dose of painkillers and sedatives for quite some time.
Well, 7 months on and his feet are pretty much mechanically back to normal, his back right foot looks unpleasant as the hoof wall is open and you can see all the dead tissue exposed, but I have a sound, rideable horse again, something which was looking a few months ago like it was never going to happen.
I am unbelievably relieved about this, my horse is pretty much my life and (apart from my dad) has been the most constant 'man' in my life.
It just goes to show that with the right mindset, extremely hard work, dedication and staying positive, even the most dire animal health problems can be overcome.