Mini Mare Update!

The little mini mare arrived today while the podiatrists were here. Watching her try to back off the trailer was horrible. She got her left foot stuck between the floor and the ramp in that little drop down space you can see in the below picture just behind her back left foot. When her left foot got stuck, her right one went straight out to the side and two of us caught and supported her and helped her to move forward back into the trailer. It scared the bejimminies out of me! I asked that the divider be removed so she could turn around and walk out. That worked much better.

She seemed to study the ramp for a few seconds and then she moved forward and managed to make it down ok.

We got a much better look at her once at the barn. It was easy to see that she is a sweetheart. It was also easy to see that her backend has issues. We’re not sure what happened to her, or when it happened, but we were told that she sustained an injury when foaling some years ago. Her left back leg has little muscle, if any, and it is fused straight. She walks on it like a peg leg and it does appear shorter than the right leg. Her back toes were curled up and you can see in the picture below what she was having to walk on. It looked pretty uncomfortable.

We knew it was going to take some time and effort to get her back feet in such a way that it would help her to move around and that she’d have difficulty putting weight on either of her back legs for even a short amount of time for her trim. You can’t bend her back left leg at all – its fused in the straight position.

Sometimes, especially when going up an incline, her back end would get locked and it would take her a few seconds to get moving again. I have to give her a lot of credit – she is a very brave girl and she has learned to manage getting around.

We wanted to give her some relief today – even if just a little – so we put the sling to work.

We didn’t want her in the sling any longer than necessary – Laura and Cindy each took a back foot and did some fantastic teamwork to get it done. Everyone did a great job!

Then the front feet were done. All of her feet have infection in them and we’ll be treating them as best as we can.

While her left leg/foot still turns out – her hooficure has helped her to manage to get around better. It will take some time for her body to adjust and getting her as comfortable as possible make time quite a bit of time. But she has a lot of light in her eyes and I know she’s very grateful for what was done today.

After she was out of the sling she was ready to find the grass! It took a little while for her to get used to the changes in her feet from her hooficure but once she realized she could move those back feet without dragging them nearly as much she seemed very pleased – which made all of us happy! Although, the left one still appears shorter and just sort of hangs in the air when she stands for a period of time – depending on how she is standing. She has little muscle in her backend. She may have locking stifles, some other old injury, or both – we just don’t know.

In this picture you can see that her back left leg still hangs in the air. If you look closely you can see it is about 2” off the ground. It doesn’t do this all of the time – just depends on how she is standing. This afternoon I’ve seen her actually stand on her peg leg and rest her right quite a bit.

Thank all of you for caring about this little girl – her name is Patty. She is said to be about 16 years young. Dr. Bess will be here tomorrow so we’ll see how her teeth are and Dr. Ryan will be by in the next couple of days to examine her and likely do x-rays. I’m not sure that whatever is wrong with her back leg can be fixed but we will figure it all out and make her as comfortable as possible.

And to those that are donating to help make us helping her possible – thank you! I’ll try to post two videos of her on the website later tonight. One was taken before the hooficure and one was taken after. Patty is going to need monthly sponsors for awhile. If you’d like to help with her care expenses please contact us – no amount is too small!