Post by ponytales1976 on Jan 26, 2008 16:24:26 GMT -8
Neesy-
9/30/07- We picked up Neesy this afternoon. She has some deep cuts on her left foreleg that we have scrubbed up and cared for, and some superficial cuts on her left hindleg that we also scrubbed up and cared for. It appears that she has an injury to her right ankle that we will have x-rayed tomorrow, but she is not lame on it at the walk. She has had her left eye surgically removed although we don't know at this point what happened to her. She has obviously continued to race with only 1 eye, since the surgery scars are NOT new but she has racing plates on her hooves and is definately race fit. I can't find my height/weight tape but I tried to measure her with a tape measure and she is coming up AT LEAST 16.1
10/1/07-Well we found out who this mare is. She is a daughter of Roanoke (who earned $585,000+ in his career) and Far North (who earned $80,000+ in her career). Her name is Sunshine Denise and she is a PA bred mare with 78 starts and a total of $146,000+ in earnings. www.pedigreequery.com/sunshine+denise
Vet just left. Sunshine Denise had some sort of traumatic injury to her head in her past, because she is not just missing her eye, but also the some of the bone and surrounding tissue of her eye socket. Her heart and lungs sound great, and the vet commented on how well behaved she was. We took lateral and ap shots of her left knee as well as lateral flexed shots of both front ankles. She had some swelling in the tendon sheath of her left foreleg but the vet thinks it is likely just due to the cuts on that leg and will re-evaluate after rest, anti-biotics, and bute. She has some damage to her heel bulb on that same leg as well. Her right front ankle has some tenderness and she does not have full flexion in it, so we will see what that X-Ray turns up. She is also sore on her left hind, but that is the leg she is missing her shoe on and there are no obvious swellings in that leg, so we are assuming it's just banged up a bit. She walks and trots out 98% sound and is a BEAUTIFUL mover.
I will keep everyone posted as to what those films show.
10/2/07 - Ok X-Rays are in. The knee is fine, the left ankle is fine (has a touch of arthritis), the right ankle has a lesion with some arthritis that could be removed with arthroscopic surgery to give her a better prognosis (she has an excellant prognosis without the surgery. But no more racing, or high impact and she will develope arthritis) She also had a chip off her sesmoid on that leg, but vet feels that is not signifigant at all since it is a non weight baring area and she will be fine on that once it heals. So overall she is more clean legged then you average track retiree, let alone a track retire that had 78 starts. We are going to discuss and weigh the options on having the surgery done on her ankle.
10/9/07- We will not be doing surgery on Neesy's ankle. The vet said that the damage is not severe enough to warrant doing the surgery, because surgery can sometimes make the joint worse, so if she is sound on it now, leave it alone!!! I did however notice an area of swelling and stiffness on the inside of her left hind leg extending from the hock upwards, like a muscle or maybe a tendon that she is very tender on. I am going to wait until we get our new Unadilla rescue/s and have the vet take a look at that when she comes out for the new horse/s. Neesy got her shoes off today and feet trimmed more normally with less toe and more heel. Hopefully this aids her in moving more comfortably. My farriers exact words were : "That chestnut horse is really nice. Great disposition on that one, it's really a shame when they throw away ones that are so good like that. And she's not a cripple either, she's gonna make someone a d**n nice horse." I also took Neesy on a ride over to Windfield Farms today (I was supposed to be taking Val, but Val wasn't leaving the farm today...guess she didn't feel like it.) So I loaded up Neesy and took her, she was a good girl. Stands on the trailer nicely, walked around the outdoor arena with all the jumps and flowers and what not and remained walking on all 4 feet the whole time!!!! Have I mentioned yet that I love this mare?
10/16/07-Nothing new with Neesy, she is settling in very nicely and has calmed down quite a bit. The swelling above her hock has gone down dramatically, so maybe she had just pulled something. We will see about riding her soon.
10/23/07-Neesy is fighting a bad cold right now. She is doing very well though. No fever, still eating and drinking albeit a little less then normal, still trotting around in the field. We are just offering supportive care at this point unless she starts to run a fever and then we will put her on antibiotics. Once she is feeling better we are going to start her under saddle. I spoke to her previous trainer who tells me that she is nervous under tack but has no rear or buck in her. She says on the track she will grab the bit and go, but I think she will do just fine over here since she is getting a good 10 hours a day turn-out and has really settled down.
10/25/07-Neesy is starting to recover and feel much better. She is back on full feed and drinking normal amount of water and no more "wheezing" when she breathes. I am noticing that she is more lame on the right front ankle now then she had orginally been. It could just be because it is fusing, and once it is done it will not move the same, but will no longer cause her pain, and it could just be because she has been in her stall more, and not moving around as much outside. I am going to add the White Willow Bark that I had been holding out on and see if it makes a difference.
11/07/07-Neesy is moving much better now although I believe that she is going to need shoes, she seems a little sore since we pulled them and in an effort to get her going under saddle so that we can evaluate her and adopt her out we would like put shoes on her.
11/19/07- Neesy has been dealing with some colic issues since yesterday morning. Her disomfort is relieved with Banamine and Malox but as soon as it wears off she is miserable again. We called the vet who told us to keep giving her the Banamine when she looked uncomfortable and if she wasn't staying better by this morning that he would come out. Well.......we are going to have him out. Her abdomen is very bloated and gassy and we are praying that we can pull her through this..please everyone keep Neesy in your thoughts.
11/19/07 PM- Ok the vet was out and tubed Neesy. Her stomach smelled normal (which is a good sign). She got 1 gallon of oil, and 1 gallon of warm water. She also got some torbugesic to relax her and help with discomfort. He thinks she should recover and is not seeing any BRIGHT RED FLAGS as of right now. She is on bran mash with warm water and oil and being watched closely. She has been feeling pretty good since 12:30 this afternoon so we will continue to watch closely throughout the night. Her stall looks like something out of a horror movie because it is so cold out her nose bled from getting tubed. Keep her in your thoughts please.
11/20/07-I have never been so happy to see that Neesy chewed the heck out of her stall last night!!!! She remained up and alert all night long so keep your fingers crossed that she is feeling better.
11/20/07- I have some interesting news to share with everyone................................I received a phone call this morning from Bev Dee of Bright Futures Farm in PA. She had received a phone call from a gentleman looking for information on our very own Sunshine Denise. She remembered seeing myself and the horse on this site and tracked down my info and gave me a call. Fast forward a bit............she gave me the gentleman's phone number. I just got off the phone with him. He is a wonderful man who was very upset about where his horse ended up. He and his wife had always dreamed of owning a TB racehorse and now that they are both semi-retired they saved up their money and fell in love with our very own Sunshine Denise from seeing her race at Penn National. They claimed her (their first racehorse) and immediately fell in love. His wife would spend hours playing with her, hugging her, kissing her nose and feeding her carrots and he would stop in every day on his way to his part-time job and feed her carrots as well. They hired a trainer who they thought would do right by the horse but realized that she didn't have the horses best interest at heart. He had written a check to have the horses feet done because they were long overdue and his check was cashed, but her feet had not been done. When he called the trainer on it, she hung up on him. Sunshine Denise's last race she took a mistep coming out of the gate and sustained a hairline fracture of her right ankle. At this point her owner's daughter in-law reccomended a different trainer and they switched trainers. She was given 3 months off and slowly started back in training and they thought she was doing well. He watched her breeze one morning in the beginning of September and said she ran magnificantly then did her Neesy Jig all the way back to her barn. When he came by the next morning to give her her carrots she was dead lame and holding her right ankle in the air. They called the vet in again and the vet said that the horse ran from her heart, but apparently was never going to be physically able to race again, so while she would train on it as hard as she would if it didn't hurt her, it DID hurt her and she shouldn't ever race again. So he asked the trainer what his options were for the horse and she told him that the New Jersey Rescue Commision would take the horse and find a home for it. The following day he was told that they found the horse a home a woman who needed a companion for her rescued filly and she would be leaving the 18th of September to go to New Jersey. He asked for the person's phone number but never received it. Sept 24th is the Monday that Neesy was sold at New Holland, these creeps never even tried to get her a home. I picked her up from the kill pen on Sept 30th.Now this man managed to get some information that the horse actually went to a group called the Black Cowboys Association (or something like that) in Syracuse NY, who realized that she was lame and gave her to a dealer named Chuck (hmmmm me thinks me know who that is) from there they lost track of what happened to her.So this man HAS Neesy's papers and is going to give them to me, he also is going to be sending small donations as a thank you to cover the cost of her carrots and will be coming to visit her when the weather breaks in the spring. I am so happy to hear that her last owner didn't just "dump her" and thought he was doing the right thing, and I also took the time to educate him on how to not let this happen again. They spent all of their money on Sunshine Denise and are working very hard to get back together financially but he thanked everyone from the bottom of his heart for getting this mare safe!!!!I have to go cry now....................................
11/20/07-Ok so the story keeps getting more and more wierd. I get a phone call tonight from the trainer that Sunshine Denise was with last (the one the daughter-in-law had suggested). She was very upset at first and telling me that she did NOT send Neesy to New Holland. We spoke on the phone for a long time and she was able to fill in some more gaps, but we still kind of have a blank spot. Neesy left her barn on Sept 20th to go to a barn in NJ with a man named Al who was supposed to find her a good home. Al has cancer and was admitted to the hospital and the horses all had to go. He said that a woman claiming to be married to someone in the Federation of Black Cowboys picked up Neesy and a TB gelding promising to give them good homes. Thats where we lose Neesy's trail, but we know she went through New Holland on the 24th so they obviously didn't have her for very long before taking her to New Holland where she was bought by the killbuyer and we took her off his lot on the 30th. So as far as I can gather whoever took Neesy and the other TB from this Al guy is most likely who sent her to New Holland. Frankly I don't care, because I have her and I love her to pieces!!!! SO THERE!!!!!!
11/30/07- Neesy is doing great, no more problems after her colic. She continue to be a joy to have around the barn.
12/6/07- Farrier came out and evaluated her. He says that it is the frozen ground bothering her, but it is not bothering her feet. He said that walking on the uneven frozen ground is hurting her joints and her body from compensating. So I will continue to put her out in the flat paddock when there isn't any snow and the ground is frozen. Right now she is doing really well with all the snow, because it smooths everything out and it's soft and cushy. So he trimmed her up and said that her feet are coming along beautifully she had a nice cup and a hard sole. He did however trim off some bruised tissue at each one of her toes. He suspects that it was bruised in her last racing days when she tried to breeze that last time 3 legged lame. He thinks that she was tip toing and short stepping to avoid the pain and bruised her toes really bad. They don't bother her now and the bruised tissue was removed. So all in all Miss Neesy will continue being barefoot and is doing well. I brought my mare Val into the barn to keep Neesy company when she got her feet done. Val was supposed to keep Neesy from getting nervous...............If any of you know Val it was a bad choice. She reared and weaved and screamed the whole time and kept calling to Neesy if Neesy was more then a foot away....gotta love my neurotic Vally Poo.
1/1/08- Well the New Year as here and everyone is well. I love Neesy more and more each day. She is a pleasure to have around. No real update on her except that she is great!!!!
1/24/08- Neesy continues to do well, she is funny with the new mare Barbara. She follows her around like a puppy in love, being an absolute nudge...Neesy does not have very good horsey skills. She is funny when she gets excited about something she squeals like a mouse and then hops up and down, it is the funniest thing to watch. If you look at the 2 videos on Barbara's page, you will find Neesy in them.
