MAMA TESS UPDATE!

MT has been very mobile this week!  The last round of maggots were able to mature very slowly and lasted 8 days!  That means that they had less necrotic tissue to feed them.  Finally!

I’ve been letting her roam the front lawn for a few minutes every other day.  She loves it!  As you can see by the pics, MT  has no issue putting full weight on her bad foot.

 

MT orbits around the lawn between the house and the pony pasture.

THE GOOD NEWS!

For the good news, I’ve attached a photo of her left foot.  You can see that it looks much better.  Her frog is visible and there is no more oozing from the toe area.

She once again grew mountains of sole – thank you Theraplate!  Here is her Xray comparison.  The Xray on the left is from December.  You can see that she again has huge sole growth, her angle is better and she is more attached at the coronet band!

THE BAD NEWS – plus some better news…

Bone infection.

She finally has started a small infection in her coffin bone.

Bone infections are common with bad founder.  Usually, surgery would be performed to cut out the infected bone.  And usually the surgery is successful.

The good news within the bad news is that previously, Tess was not a candidate for surgery because of her age and because there was so much damage to her good foot.  How could she recover if she had two bad front feet?

But… her right foot is now sound.

So, she could have the surgery… which is good news.

THE REASON FOR CELEBRATION!

Cindy Nielsen DVM (The Founder Warrior) and I were devastated when we saw the Xray that showed the bone infection.

We had spoken about this as a possible future scenario.  We both knew this was not ideal…  We knew she needed surgery.

But, we both also knew that I’m tapped out financially.  I could not afford surgery.

What a horrible reason to stop.

If Tess doesn’t have the surgery, her chances of clearing up a bone infection on her own would be about 5%.  This bone infection would eventually be her demise.

So, not willing to give up, Cindy very graciously offered to do the surgery here at my house.   She had never done it in the field with a horse standing, but she would try it for us – to give Tess a chance.

Hmmmmm.  Part of me agreed that we could do it.  Yes, we could do it here…

And another part of me wondered if doing it in the field, alone, just the two of us… was the best I could do for Tess.  I sensed that Cindy was doing this for me and MT, but would prefer a hospital setting…

So I took a chance and emailed Dr. Langdon Fielding at Loomis Basin Equine Medical Center.

I told him about how far Tess had come.  I enclosed all of the positive Xrays… and showed him the infection Xray.

And then, I told him the truth.

I had no money right now… but this was Tess’ only chance and she had come so far.

Could he defer payment until I was back on my feet?

…I waited overnight, knowing Langdon was considering my plea.

The next day, this was his response:

Hi Dawn,
   I talked with Jason (surgeon) a little bit and I guess I just need to clarify whether you are wanting Jason to do the surgery or whether Cindy would be doing the surgery. I think we are happy to help in either way though it seems like if Jason is going to be there that it would be better to just have him do it as he has the experience/training for it? We are pretty flexible but I just wanted to clarify this. Also, was the plan to do the surgery with her anesthetized or with her standing/awake? Doing a payment plan is fine — we have known you for a long time:-)

langdon  

 
Langdon Fielding DVM, DACVECC
Loomis Basin Equine Medical Center

Horsegods, bless that man!  He didn’t make me beg or barter or anything!
He simply extended his hand and played it forward.

Wow.

If any of you feel the appreciation I feel right now, feel free to extend a  thank-you to Dr. Fielding!

TESS IS HAVING SURGERY TODAY!

Like a lightswitch, all of a sudden, MT is  painful again on her left.  It must be the infection.

I asked Dr. Fielding how quickly we could do the surgery – not wanting her to stand on her right for too long and worsen her chances of recovery.

As you read this, I am either preparing to drive her down (thank you, Leslie, for helping me get her into the trailer), or I am driving her, or I am at the hospital with her, or I am waiting for results or she is out of surgery and I know.

HORSEGODS, and every other God, please be with us!

One day at a time… one day at a time.