Update on Frodo’s Indirect Lightening Strike

It’s been awhile since I’ve had a chance to provide an update on Frodo but he’s doing much better after having taken an indirect lightning strike just over a year ago.

Unfortunately, the same thing happened to a very special Arabian mare named Victoria, a few years ago, so we had better knowledge and experience of what to expect with Frodo.  Sadly, we did lose Victoria to founder (due to the strike) after many months of her giving it all she had to overcome.  But in the end, she foundered and was a sinker – we loved her enough to let her go.

The two biggest concerns with Frodo were neurological damage and founder.  After the strike, Frodo was in a fog for the first few days and he didn’t want to move about much.  We observed him constantly and took precautionary measures to help prevent founder, but the damage had already been done – both front feet rotated about 4 degrees.  We continued to ice his feet and he received acupuncture.  He had many abscesses in his front feet for quite a while.  The farrier made a special pair of shoes (clogs) for him that helped Frodo quite a bit.

After a few months, the abscessing cleared up and Frodo finally became more mobile.  However, his backend still doesn’t know where it is (a proprioception issue due to neurological damage) and he walks somewhat robotically.  Mentally, he’s doing fine.  He lives around the barn, has his own stall, and loves to help clean the feed tubs each day. We don’t have a paddock in which to put him where he wouldn’t be chased by others, but he has access to a small paddock behind the barn. He seems to be quite content being the ‘King of the Barn’ and all of the humans simply adore him.