Alita's Story

Weeks 15 & 16

September 8^th - 21st

No Real Change

  Alita has gone through the week with no real changes worth mentioning. She is still using the leg however not as much as I would hope for this stage of her recovery. I want her to be well so she can go out and enjoy a big pasture with the other mares.

  She is once again beginning to bring her hind legs up under her before she attempts to put weight on her leg. When she does actually put the weight on the leg it is only for a very quick second and then she is off it again. Standing she will still bear a little weight but the knee is still bend so she doesn’t support too much of it.

  Her time out with Echo seems to be the best for her. I know she is working her leg more than when she is in her stall and the run however she needs the contact of other horses. She was queen of the herd before the accident and she was always in the middle of everything. Having her all of a sudden be in solitude I just could not take anymore.

  We are still putting support wraps on her to help her out. The wraps consist of racing quilts wrapped around her lower leg from the lower hock down past the pastern. This is covered by a polo wrap which I start above the quilt and then finish also below the pastern. I try to wrap it nice and tight to help her support her weight. On the front she wears SMB boots for added support. One day when I left her without the boots over night she swelled up in her pasterns really bad. Once the boots were put back on the swelling went back down.

  It is just so hot and humid right now that when the wraps are removed every other day for a few hours her legs are covered in sweat. Alita and I can’t wait for the cool weather to blow in. I think it will really help her as well. I have to be thankful because our summer this year was nothing like last year. I hear it is going to be a nasty winter here in Texas but I think she will handle that better than the heat and dampness.

  Melissa came out and we tried to get Alita to let us work on her feet. She was good with the hurt leg however she can’t bear weight on the bad leg to do the opposite leg. We even tried putting a 2 x 4 under her good foot just so it would raise her hoof high enough to work on. After several attempts we got it on there however it was short lived and Melissa did not have a chance to finish.

  She left her supplies and when I would clean Alita’s feet when she was laying down I would also try and work on filing her hooves. Also with the hoof knife I would try to hollow out a little of the inside of her hoof leaving the support on the outside walls. Also her back hooves had developed what looked like spikes between her frog and the hoof wall. It seems that when she dragged her back feet up under herself she slowly peeled back some of her hoof. These in turn created what looked to be spikes that had dried and I am sure were quite painful to walk on. We made a little improvement on her feet to help her be more comfortable.

  We were unable to take Alita off of the Bute as she is still uncomfortable. She is now receiving 1 in the AM and 1 PM.

  We have bumped her up to 7 pounds of 14% grain 2 x a day as she should be in her last trimester if she is still in foal. She also still receives the Beet pulp and we also add about 1 cup oil to her food at night. We also need to keep her weight up a bit as she is not getting any exercise and is losing muscle. When she is up she doesn’t look it however she has a long mid drift. When she lays down she looks like she has a belly. A friend named LaNet is going to try and get over with her slant load trailer that has a ramp so we an take her to the vet. The vet says that it isn’t urgent to get her in unless she gets worse and right now she is just the same.

  Her joint supplement is almost out and at this time we can’t get any more. I still after several e-mails to the non-profit organization with the horse Codi, have not heard back from them. This breaks my heart because Animal Planet said only they can help me right now and they will not respond. Hopefully in about one more month we can get some more. She has enough for about 3 more weeks.