NEW UPDATE 3/2...Cleo's bone chip

[fantasykiger]

Thank You everyone for your well wishes and all, we do appreciate them so. Cleo is now just hanging out in her pink coat awaiting a break in the weather as we are. The swelling in her hock seems to have remained the same and she is still lame. So the sooner we can get this chip removed and her on the way to recovery the better.

This is another old picture of Cleo' you can see her Fournier brand as she is a daughter of Steens Vaquero.

[DianneC]

Hey Tiffany,
I've been thinking about you guys. How's Cleo doing? She must look cute in pink.

[fantasykiger]

We are loading up this morning to drop her off at the college. She will have surgery tomorrow. We hope to hear from the vet then on how she does and pick her back up at the end of the week if all goes well. She has been doing OK here at home but the swelling has not decreased, we hope that removal of the chip will be the start of her real recovery.
My husband took a trip over the pass last weekend the roads were clear so the trip will be a easy one. The Spring preview weather cam along just in time.

[nrly]

good luck and keep us posted on her recovery and surgery .

[fantasykiger]

Cleo was dropped off Monday we got a call back after the vet had a chance to examine her and take Xrays, as it seems our vets here sent us there with the wrong Xrays. Because of the placement of the rather large chip (in front of her hock) and not knowing where it came from.
Also the fact that her breed is not known for 16 hand horses. The vet felt the cause of the chip may not be the fall. So he requested we Xray her other hock as well. I can assure you we did not over feed protein to this horse or growth hormone ..LOL, she has been on grass hay and little grain all her 6 yrs of life. I just think she fell and chipped her hock how that chip ended up in the front of hock only god knows. But we have our fingers crossed and are saying a little prayer anyway that my daughters girl has healthy joints. We have yet to do any serious riding on this horse. She did not even start training until she was 4 yrs old, because of her growth pattern. My daughter will hear more this afternoon after Cleo's surgery. The plan is to pick up Cleo and bring her home Thurs. so far.

[nrly]

wow, keep us posted, and when they did the other x-ray did it tell then what the other x-ray showed. this breed can get up to 16 hands right, but the majority of them are 14 to 14.2. So you will get to bring her home on Thursday (tentatively) keep us posted on her progress.

[fantasykiger]

We got the call back after surgery. What appeared to be a fairly large sized chip that could be simply exorcised with a 20 min. procedure after 2 hours was never found even with Xrays taken during surgery. Although the chip was clearly seen in Xrays taken the day before. Cleo's joint is very inflamed and under lots of stress there was no mention of the Xray on the other hock so I guess it is of no concern. She will need a minnimum of 6 months recovery before going under saddle again, we had anticapated a full year for her. At which point she will never be a competitive horse but would be OK to trail ride with. She will be susceptible to early onset of arthritis in that hock, my daughter will just have to be watchful and aware and put her on supplements to help along the way. We await a call in the morning to see if we will be picking her up tomorrow as she woke up well from surgery or we will have to wait until' Friday to pick her up as my daughter is unable to take off work Thurs.

[angelsdream]

Good to hear the surgery went well, just glad she's ok. Im sure your daughter is also. So did they get the chip out or not??

[stlkigers]

Tiffany:

Keep us posted....I hope Cleo heals well and they can get on the trails!

Angela

[fantasykiger]

Well we went and picked her up on Wed. after speaking with the vet surgeon it seems there was alot more damage done to the joint then a simple chip. The chip was not removed as it was never found. There was alot of bad tissue found once the vet got in there and it had to be removed just to see the joint. He then spent some time cleaning up the joint making some repairs while looking for the chip. His hope is that she will absorb the chip and Xrays in a few months will show it has up and disappeared. The chip he said is not what was causing her lamness the damage to the joint was and this damage is going to take awhile to heal. In 6 mths it is hoped that she will be sound enough to be a trail horse, if not the surgery will need to be repeated to do further work on the joint.
So now we wait some more. For the next 2 weeks she is to be locked up in a 12 x 12 stall after that 6 more weeks in the stall but with two 10 min. walks a day. so the next 8 weeks shall be trying for the girl. I am going to purchase some herbal calming supplement just so she does not loose her good sense of being. She will not be alone soon she will have Fantasy next door to her in the evenings as she will be going in at night to her foaling stall. Cleo' always has her mini horse buddy next door at night.

[DianneC]

Whew! That's a shame about the joint damage, but glad he was able to clean it up. Reminds me of a person with knee damage and torn tendons. My limited understanding is that the inflammation causes changes and sets up the joint for arthritis. If you keep the inflammation down long term the outlook is best. What did he recommend for supplements and how soon can she start them?
Good news is that Chickadee just went through this same routine successfully after her colic surgery and is now able to get turn out. I think it was as trying for her owner as it was for Chick. Maybe the owners need calming supplements too! LOL

[nrly]

am glad she is home, and all went well with the surgery, i know you will make her as comfortable as you can and you will take excellent care of her. Keep us posted on her progress. i think of her and you everyday and wonder, Good luck....

[Michelle Clarke]

Tiffany, wish there was better news, but it sounds like she will still be a nice usable horse. Those things are can happen so quickly, it is scary! Last night while I was haying the young ones, one of the colts started choking and there was a huge lump in his trachea and it was very hot to touch. I put a halter on him and stayed there rubbing him so he relaxed and put his head down (while Eric was on the way to the vet to get a heavy duty shot to help him relax his trachea). He closed his eyes and finally relaxed enough to swallow it - gosh I was relieved! When Eric got back, she still wanted me to give him the shot, IV, but he was feeling so much better there was NO WAY I was getting that in his vein without getting him all upset, which would be worse, so I just let him be. I checked on him through the night and first thing this morning, he just kept looking at me like "Forgot to give me my hay last night!"

You may want to look into these products, especially the top two, more so the powder. The liquid maybe short term for acute swelling after the invasive surgery, then the powder for long term healing. You can call and talk to Gabrielle (or email her), she has a whole staff of equine professionals (including my holistic vet from Chicago) that she will consult with and get all your questions answered, along with a good program to be on. These are the BEST products and well worth the money spent. She used to be a human nutritionalist and is very good at getting issues fixed through nutrition. She has clients like Temple Lippizans, Budwieser Clydesdales....and us!

www.kamanimalservices.com/equine-joint-tendon-ligament.php

[fantasykiger]

Thank You very much Michelle for the website I will look into it and talk to my daughter about because after all Cleo is her horse and belongs to her. I sometimes have to remember that as I often just want step right in and start taking care of everything and my daughter reminds me she is not my horse. It is just I want to be sure Cleo gets the best as my daughter does as well she just does not want to be denied caring for her own horse. Between the two of us (as I do still care for Cleo when my daughter is working) Cleo is clearly pampered.
I took this picture of Cleo this morning, she clearly is of the opinion she is fine and is ready to come out of the stall every time someone goes in to clean. Last night she even was not eating but by morning her hay was all gone, so she gave up standing where the panels open to finally eat sometime. She is such a silly mare.

[nrly]

she is looking longingly at the world, I love the picture. And the sunshine. am glad she is eating.