Post by tierra madre on Jul 23, 2008 12:04:51 GMT -8
Levi Gets Trimmed
Levi came to us with a bad, bad hip.
Seems that one time he was a ranch horse down south, near Tucson somewhere. Then he became the riding horse of the woman who owned the ranch. Then she "retired" him & took him to the auction. Some nice people probably saved his life by buying him from the woman before the auction. They had him for a few years until circumstances dictated that they couldn't keep him anymore. They composed an email that was sent around to a number of sanctuaries & rescues. I told them he had a home here if they wanted. They did.
Somewhere along the line, Levi terribly injured his right rear hip. We don't know if it was broken or not because when Doc x-rayed it, there was so much arthritis in there, he couldn't see the bones. Whether it was broken or not is irrelevant - it's a horrible hip. I had Dr. Bill Wood - the vet/chiropractor - work on him, too. I've given him a couple of series of shots of generic adequan (sp?) - a deep-acting anti-inflammatory & he gets a gram of bute nearly every day. He's in a stall between little Akira & Ali & seems happier than I've ever known him to be. He's a pretty reserved guy, though, there's no doubt about that. I don't think there was much love for most of his life - ranch horses don't get too much love. They're there to work. Period. BTW - Levi's not really old - he's 21. But, man, those must've been 21 tough years.
We walk him nearly every day - not far, though - he just can't go very far. A hundred yards, total, maybe. That's mainly because he really can't put much weight on that bad hip. Though he is showing some signs of improvement. He can swing through maybe 12-15 inches on the bad leg. When he got here, he could only bring his bad foot up even to his good one.
Trimming him is kind of an adventure. On the day Jackie's due to be here, I'll give Levi a couple of grams of bute first thing in the morning as some protection against the pain. Take yesterday. Jackie trimmed up his front feet with no problem. Trimmed up his right rear - his bad leg - with no problem. But when it comes to asking him to put weight on the bad leg to trim his good rear hoof, it's pretty impossible - Levi can't do it.
What to do?
I get a piece of two-by-four & place it on the ground adjacent to his good hoof. We ask him to stand on the bad leg for just a second or two & I slide the two-by-four under his good hoof so he stands on it when he puts his foot down. I try to position the wood so his toe is hanging over the front of the piece of wood. Jackie then proceeds to cut the long part. We keep moving him around - or try to - on the piece of wood until Jackie's gotten it trimmed & filed the best he can. It ain't perfect, but Levi isn't really going anywhere & it's a helluva lot better than it was before the trimming. It took us quite a while yesterday & all of us - Levi included - were bathed in sweat by the time we were done.
A little while later, I gave Levi a tube of Equiiox - quite a bit of pain reliever, but I knew he must be hurting after his late-morning ordeal. By the time I came around with the afternoon feeding (about 3:30), there was ol' Levi, whinnying away for me to hurry up - just like he does every day.
We keep a lot of wood grindings in his stall because he really has a hard time getting back up after he's lain down to sleep. The hard dirt gives him a lot of nasty sores, which we're always treating. So we give him the best bed we can. I call it Levi's Craftmatic Adjustable Bed.
There's no doubt that Levi would've been put down long ago if he hadn't found a few two-leggeds that've really tried to make his life happy. I'll admit it - if & when I ever see his quality of life going downhill much farther than it is right now, I'll do him the favor of releasing him from his ravaged body. If the pneumonia he contracted a few months ago hadn't cleared up as quickly as it did, I would've had to make the decision. He ralllied right away, though, & here we are today.
Right now, Levi seems happy & as healthy as he can be, standing in his stall & relishing his food & the company of Ms. Akira & Ms. Ali. My hope is that he can go on like this for years. He'll tell me if that changes, though.
And I'll have to listen.
Jim
Levi came to us with a bad, bad hip.
Seems that one time he was a ranch horse down south, near Tucson somewhere. Then he became the riding horse of the woman who owned the ranch. Then she "retired" him & took him to the auction. Some nice people probably saved his life by buying him from the woman before the auction. They had him for a few years until circumstances dictated that they couldn't keep him anymore. They composed an email that was sent around to a number of sanctuaries & rescues. I told them he had a home here if they wanted. They did.
Somewhere along the line, Levi terribly injured his right rear hip. We don't know if it was broken or not because when Doc x-rayed it, there was so much arthritis in there, he couldn't see the bones. Whether it was broken or not is irrelevant - it's a horrible hip. I had Dr. Bill Wood - the vet/chiropractor - work on him, too. I've given him a couple of series of shots of generic adequan (sp?) - a deep-acting anti-inflammatory & he gets a gram of bute nearly every day. He's in a stall between little Akira & Ali & seems happier than I've ever known him to be. He's a pretty reserved guy, though, there's no doubt about that. I don't think there was much love for most of his life - ranch horses don't get too much love. They're there to work. Period. BTW - Levi's not really old - he's 21. But, man, those must've been 21 tough years.
We walk him nearly every day - not far, though - he just can't go very far. A hundred yards, total, maybe. That's mainly because he really can't put much weight on that bad hip. Though he is showing some signs of improvement. He can swing through maybe 12-15 inches on the bad leg. When he got here, he could only bring his bad foot up even to his good one.
Trimming him is kind of an adventure. On the day Jackie's due to be here, I'll give Levi a couple of grams of bute first thing in the morning as some protection against the pain. Take yesterday. Jackie trimmed up his front feet with no problem. Trimmed up his right rear - his bad leg - with no problem. But when it comes to asking him to put weight on the bad leg to trim his good rear hoof, it's pretty impossible - Levi can't do it.
What to do?
I get a piece of two-by-four & place it on the ground adjacent to his good hoof. We ask him to stand on the bad leg for just a second or two & I slide the two-by-four under his good hoof so he stands on it when he puts his foot down. I try to position the wood so his toe is hanging over the front of the piece of wood. Jackie then proceeds to cut the long part. We keep moving him around - or try to - on the piece of wood until Jackie's gotten it trimmed & filed the best he can. It ain't perfect, but Levi isn't really going anywhere & it's a helluva lot better than it was before the trimming. It took us quite a while yesterday & all of us - Levi included - were bathed in sweat by the time we were done.
A little while later, I gave Levi a tube of Equiiox - quite a bit of pain reliever, but I knew he must be hurting after his late-morning ordeal. By the time I came around with the afternoon feeding (about 3:30), there was ol' Levi, whinnying away for me to hurry up - just like he does every day.
We keep a lot of wood grindings in his stall because he really has a hard time getting back up after he's lain down to sleep. The hard dirt gives him a lot of nasty sores, which we're always treating. So we give him the best bed we can. I call it Levi's Craftmatic Adjustable Bed.
There's no doubt that Levi would've been put down long ago if he hadn't found a few two-leggeds that've really tried to make his life happy. I'll admit it - if & when I ever see his quality of life going downhill much farther than it is right now, I'll do him the favor of releasing him from his ravaged body. If the pneumonia he contracted a few months ago hadn't cleared up as quickly as it did, I would've had to make the decision. He ralllied right away, though, & here we are today.
Right now, Levi seems happy & as healthy as he can be, standing in his stall & relishing his food & the company of Ms. Akira & Ms. Ali. My hope is that he can go on like this for years. He'll tell me if that changes, though.
And I'll have to listen.
Jim