Alita's Story

Week Nine

July 28th-August 3rd

A Step in the Right Direction

 Alita bared weight on her leg several times tonight without the brace! She still had 2 racing quilts and 2 polos on however it was the first time I have seen her do that in a long time! I am trying not to get too excited but I jumped up and down and said "Yes! Good Girl Alita. Go girl go!!!" She knew I was happy because she then did it AGAIN. Not a lot of weight but enough to pick up her opposite front foot!

  I am soooo happy however I will wait for the vet to give the free and clear sign. She is still a far cry from being better but every step is a step in the right direction. We have decided to postpone her x-rays for another week as she did well today.

  I am still checking her several times a day. The stall is so much easier to clean now that it has totally died out from the flooding. We are down to about 1 bag of sawdust every 3 days. That is a relief and now that it has dried out it doesn’t have that musty wet odor.

  We have decided since she is doing better that we will just leave her with a soft brace and see how she does. She gets two quilts topped by two polos wrapped tightly for support. If she continues to do well with this we will see how she does with no support in another week. I am still changing out the wraps every 2 days and letting her leg dry off from all the sweat due to the heat. Luckily we haven’t topped 100 degrees yet!

  Her outer knee is almost totally healed. We are not putting anything directly on the wound so it will dry out. She seems to be doing OK and is using it somewhat even when she has no support at all. She is walking on her tippy toes on the bad leg. She supports weight but not much. It is progress however and any progress is a good thing.

  We are concerned however as her leg is not straight at the point of the knee. The cartilage must have grown back as bone and fused her knee so it won’t go totally straight. Alita tries to get it straight however it is still at a pretty good angle. Hopefully if she keeps trying she will stand on it better every week and maybe even get it straightened out.