Alita's Story

Week Two

June 9th-15th

The Struggle

    All this week Alita has been hopping when she moves anywhere in the stall. We can see her head pop up above the walls of the stall as she moves around. The stalls are visible from our family room so I can watch her most of the day.

  Each day she gets her 20 cc’s of Batrol and 3 Bute spread through out the day. She is not enjoying being stalled. She has been stalled before however not for this long a period of time. I can see her lean against the door trying to get out. We decided to give her our 2 yr old mare as a buddy but she seem to be trying to help Alita escape by chewing on the door. We finally roped it off so the mare was next to the door however couldn’t get to the door.

  We also began to give her Flax seed oil and wheat germ in her feed as a supplement. It was fairly inexpensive and was suggested through a friend named Diana as something Alita had requested herself. Diana communicates with animals and has been with us through the entire ordeal so far. Anything for Alita I said and so we began adding it to her feed. She seemed to like it.

  Her second day after being home I went out to feed in the morning and she had begun to chew her bandages off. We were to change them that night but Alita seemed to have other plans. I decided to cover the part being chewed with some vet wrap and wait for my husband to get home to help me with all the supplies needed for her leg. I checked her periodically to ensure she wasn’t chewing anymore of it.

  My husband got home and we changed out her bandage. The wound still looks like ground meat and has a lot of puss coming out of it. I did what the vet told me and cleaned it our very well removing the excess flesh and drainage. She then got a gauge pad covered with Nolvasan, wrapped that in a 3 foot gauge strip, the a ½ inch thick piece of medical cotton about 1 & ½ feet in length and 1 foot wide, then a roll of vet wrap to keep it from sliding and finally medical tape on the top and bottom to keep it in place.

  The following morning she had begun to chew the wrap again. I wrapped another roll of vet wrap over the top and she seemed to leave it alone until the next time it needed to be changed. The new meds are getting easier to administer each time. I am still a bit nervous however this is for Alita and I need to get it done. My husband is being very good with all this considering our finances right now and what we already have in Alita. He would do anything for this mare or any of our animals. Alita is also getting better with the Bute. She now knows that she gets fed after she gets the Bute so she is willing to take it and then she eats.

  Every day she tries so hard to get out of the stall. She stands @ the door and tries to sneak past you when you come in to feed or water. This will be very hard for her and we try to make her as comfortable as possible.

  She still chews at her bandage occasionally however it must really hurt and to be wrapped in all that cotton ECT in the summer doesn’t help at all. We are going through about one roll of vet wrap a day.