Celebration of Life 2015 – April 25th, 2015

Our ‪#‎ASPCA Help a Horse Day / 6th Annual Celebration of Life was AMAZING as well as a huge success! First, I want to give many thanks and much love to my family. They presented me with beautiful flowers and very kind words at the event – totally unexpected, thoughtful, and lovely. They have supported my passion for helping horses and I am so very blessed. Bob and I have two wonderful adult kids that make us very proud. Joshua, Katie, and Bob – I love you all to the moon and back!

Robin and Sylvie did a great job at the registration table!

We got to visit with old friends and make new ones!

The band, food, presenters, volunteers – everyone did a great job! We had a great turnout and I feel confident that many people left with more knowledge about horse care and cancer and that makes me very happy! The presentations by Dr. Porter, Dr. Mangan, and Dr. Simonson were very informative and much appreciated.

Waylon was rescued in honor of ‪#‎ASPCA ‪#‎helpahorse Day!

Volunteers helped make our ‪#‎ASPCA ‪#‎helpahorse Day a success – couldn’t do it without them! ‪

Volunteers are so very much a part of making this rescue a success!

The band was absolutely amazing – I think the horses loved the tunes too! Thank you Jean for bringing the the “West Melbourne Municipal Garage Band”!

The food was great! Many thanks to the chefs and everyone that helped out!

Yummy deserts!

Misty, Dave, Eva, and others did a great job with our silent auction table and tack table. Many thanks to them and everyone that donated and/or bid on/won!

Everyone loved the mini’s!

Peggy Sue got her name from her back leg issue. Humans pulled her baby out some years ago and fractured her pelvis in 3 areas. It healed wrong and now she can’t bend her leg. We must put her in a sling to do her hooficures.

Lucy with Tess and Finn!

Bouie flirts with all the girls.

Lucy made an appearance to show everyone what a tracheotomy looks like on a horse. She needed a permanent trach a couple of years ago because her airway was obstructed – she has “Big Head Disease”. Horses with a trach can’t whinny nor can they go swimming. But they pretty much live a normal life. We just wipe the trach area daily (being careful not to get anything in the hole).

Daisy, JoJo, and Jazzy! The boys were adorable – they were excited about making new friends! ‪

Little Lily hoping for a photo op.

Dr. Michael Porter (PHD Veterinary Services – http://phdveterinaryservices.com/projects/phd/) was the first speaker. He drove his mobile unit to Celebration which has lots of high tech equipment on it! Some of you may remember that Peaches was scoped a few weeks ago and put on medications. She got better and all was good. Then, she started to cough again and her breathing became a bit labored. We were going to schedule her to be scoped again but when Dr. Porter and I were discussing his presentation, he asked if we had a horse that needed scoped – well, yes! Unfortunately, what he found was not good but it could be worse. And, it was a double whammy but he may have solved a years old mystery of why Peaches often trips.

One of the issues is Arytenoid Chondritis – a disease of the upper airway that limits the amount of air Peaches breathes. She likely needs a permanent tracheotomy, like Classy and Lucy have. Follow this link to Dr. Porters’s blog to learn more about this condition and see photos. http://bit.ly/1b7HzTc. The second issue that Dr. Porter discovered is that Peaches has evidence of a condition termed THO (Temporohyoid Osteoarthropathy). If this is the case it would explain some things. Here is a link to information on this. http://bit.ly/1PNORv1

Dr. Porter referred Peaches to the University of Florida. She is only 15 years old and one of the sweetest little mares you could ever meet. Peaches used to be a games pony before she came to us and if she did not perform perfectly she’d get bopped hard between the ears. Please keep her in your prayers. Thank you Dr. Porter!

We have lots more info and many photos to share from our special, so, stay tuned for more posts – we’ll get to Dr. Mangan’s presentation which was also very informative! Dr. Mangan is a board certified ophthalmologist with Affiliated Veterinary Services (http://www.affiliated-pet.com/news/affiliated-veterinary-specialists/) that has been treating Daisy. He is also the vet that did Cookie’s surgery which was a big success! http://on.fb.me/1b7Pj7X. The third speaker was Dr. Julia Simonson (Holistic and Integrative Medicine – http://juliasimonsondvm.com/) and her presentation was also very informative. We’ll be posting more in this too.