I went to visit MT today and she physically looked great. She has lost quite a bit of weight (Yay!), her coat is incredibly shiny, she had been groomed vigorously, and her mane and tail were glorious.
When MT heard my voice, she perked up and actually stopped grabbing at her food for a brief moment. As I entered her stall, she rubbed on me and looked right into my eyes, “Where’ve you been?”
I noogied her head and rubbed her poll (her favorite) and she leaned into me. She’s a big girl and she has been without me often when she was showing. But, I could tell that she was glad to have me around.
As I rubbed on her and told her how gorgeous she looked with this wonderful weight loss, she kept moving around (not taking her face off of the food, mind you) to show me which part she wanted rubbed.
On the left was today, and the right was two months ago.
But, the concerning news was that she hadn’t improved much in her feet… We didn’t take Xrays today; I could just tell that she hadn’t improved since I saw her 9 days ago.
We had a conference.
We all felt that it was time to make some slight changes to the protocol. The Director of the hospital was kind enough to call me this evening to discuss it all. Since Dr. Eduardo is out of town right now (Yes, I’m freaking out but I have to be calm and know that she is in good hands…), we also needed to conference him into our discussions.
So, that will happen very soon – probably tomorrow.
The good news is that I heard her soles were hardening. Yay! This is actually great news. It means that she still has blood flow there. And, once we heal her soles, we have more options for therapeutic shoeing.
She was eating ferociously. That small holed hay net really gets her goat… She rips at it and swings it around like she hasn’t eaten in weeks.
She takes a brief rest while she chews.
Get outta my way when I’m nibbling!
She rips and the bag swings violently. That’s my girl…
Also, her Hoof Cinches were off – which wasn’t good but they are putting them back on. I heard that the glue-on shoes (with the hospital plates) kept loosening and coming off. So, on Sunday, the master farrier cast the shoes on her feet and didn’t re-apply the Hoof Cinches. But, that will be corrected.
Anyway, I wish I had more good news, but I don’t right now. However, I will as soon as we all come to a consensus on how to proceed.
I moved to get out of her way and to take a wider shot – and she looked at me as if to say, “Hey… I haven’t seen you in a week and you go over there?!”
In the meantime, here is a brief note I received from Dr. E when I wrote and told him that I was feeling anxious while on vacation because I couldn’t see her:
Tess is in stable condition. She is being monitored 24/7 and her care has been properly attended to. There is no shortage of care or compassion here! We all have learned to love her and take care of her. We all, also, need time to clear our minds and reflect…so that we can proceed with good and solid judgement.
Don’t feel bad… We only live once!
Eduardo De La Cruz, DVM
Loomis Basin Equine Medical Center
2973 Penryn Rd.
Penryn CA 95663
(916) 652-7645
I didn’t get good pics today – but I was very proud of her weight loss and how beautiful she looked when they didn’t even know I was coming. Her stall was perfect and she looked very well maintained.
ON ANOTHER NOTE… THE RIDING WAREHOUSE SENT ANOTHER CHECK!
Not quite as much as last month, but there are no complaints here! It is very nice to receive this check! Thank you all for using the Riding Warehouse Portal! Tess will be very happy!
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Glad she looks so good…that always makes a person feel good when their kids are taken care of so well. I pray she heals for you. She is in good hands and has a wonderful mom!
Thank you so much for the update. I’m so happy that MT’s soles are hardening. That news makes my day!