Alita's Story

Week Seven

July 14th-20th

Progress With The Splint

  The full splint now makes her put weight on her leg however when it is off she won't use it at all. We have to remove it every other day and let her leg dry our as her skin is getting VERY soft and raw. It is off for about one hour at a time. She is still very alert just VERY bored!!!! Due to the rain she has had to stay in her stall and it is driving her nuts. We can’t even get her to the yard and the soft grass due to all the mud!

  She has chewed through more wood in the last several days than a Texas sized wood chuck on steroids!!! She also has lost ALL sense of taste from the stuff I have been putting on the wood including Habanero peppers soaked in oil!!!! I have tried almost every product known to man to get her to stop chewing. Nothing is working so far.

  She still calls for dinner, is eating and drinking fine. Just for a few hours a day she stands in the corner of her stall looking depressed. She won’t leave on the fly mask we got her either and the flies are bad after all that rain. We are spraying her with fly spray every day and it seems to be helping.

  I have told her that I WILL someday tell her again, "Run Alita Run!" so she better just keep herself healing and not let me down. Until I see that look in her eyes or she gives me some sign I am not and WILL not let her go. She is such a strong mare and I have faith she will pull through this.

  People have been telling me that we should let her go. I can’t do that because she IS a fighter and Diana told me when this is all over we will need to call her Zena Warrior Princess for what she is going through. As a horse owner I feel we have gotten very close over the past several weeks and I think I will know when it is time.

  We decided to put her back on SMZ tabs as her knee feels a bit hot around mid week. She is taking 10 pills twice daily. We also put her back to 3 Bute a day. She seems to be tolerating the Bute well and the Dr. said she seems to be doing Ok with it so keep giving it to her. The ,lower dosage wasn’t doing it anymore so we had to go back up again.

  We have gotten several well wishes on the message board and I take each and every one of them out to Alita. We also talk about what we will be doing for the next several days as Diana said she wants to know what is going on and when and where we are going. She seems to understand every word and listens contently.

  We now have Alita on shredded Beet Pulp for the Calcium and minerals for her joint and also a separate joint supplement with the highest concentration of Glucosamine HCL & Chondroitin Sulfate available. These are the two ingredients the vet said she needed to help heal properly. We have her on a double dose for the first week and then will drop to one. One ounce scoop in the pm.

  Hopefully in the next several weeks we will be able to have her off of the splint. I know she doesn't like it however it forces her to use the leg and that is the only way she will be over this. Her other legs won't and can't last forever so this has to be done as it is for her own good. Keep fighting Alita!