Casey

[Michelle Clarke]

Thought I'd move the Casey saga over to a more appropriate thread...

We continue our holistic approach to getting Casey better with her unstableness. The therapist is able to do more and more with her and it has been a very educational proccess for me to see the body readjust itself and try to work things out. The whole point of what we are trying to accomplish is to build her own resilience so her body can balance itself from every aspect. There has been some huge improvements for sure.

By chance, I was reading up about strangles and how there are a few different forms. One of which can be neo-natal and they can actually get it in utero. It takes on the form of lessions internally and can affect the stifle, hock or carpus joints (sometimes called "joint ill"). Since it seems that her wobblyness is focused more behind AND my western med vet was out a week ago and felt that her stifle was swollen and may need to be xrayed...I thought that this could be a possibility. The swelling of the joints often times travels and does not stay put in one place too long.

I have some Strangles nosode on hand (a homeopathic) and knowing it would do her no harm if she does not have strangles, I gave her the first dose thursday morning. By 2pm, she had spiked at 103.5 temp - having not had any temp or shown any sypmtoms prior to this. This is a pretty classic response by the body when you present a homeopathic that addresses an issue - it is bringing out instead of allowing the body to hide it.

Began giving her Colliodal Silver for an anti-bacterial and also to bring down the fever. By 6pm, her fever was down to 100.5. Yesterday temp was up again in the morning, gave her the CS and it went back down. The therapist came out and worked on her and was able to get alot done in her sacral area (which also corrasponds to the cranials - which Casey is very touchy about). I am also giving her some enzymes four times a day, as 80% of the immune system surrounds the gut, so if you boost the gut, you essentially boost the immune system...

Late afternoon, I began to notice the right side of Sychas' udder was full and dripping milk. The left was drained. Casey only nurses on the left side lately, but will grab both nitties. Her appetite is down with the fever and she gets extra wobbley after an adjustment because the body is reorganizing; so my guess is she is not steady enough to stay under there to grab that other nitty. The good thing was, she was not dehyrated and her gums had good color and cap-refill was good too.

I milked Sycha to give her some relief and let Casey lap up some out of the bowl. She drank some, but not much. Then I soaked some crimped oats in the warm milk and she really dug into that! I did have to give Sycha a small dose of natural sedative, as she was getting roudy with fire crackers going off nearby.

2am I had to repeat, this time Sychas whole bag was full and Casey had started to get dehydrated. I began to get very worried...

Good news this morning! Casey is bright and chipper, Sychas bag has been nursed down (both sides) and temp is down! Casey is not dehydrated and was a pistol to deal with. Hope she continues to improve throughout the day...I know we'll have more ups and downs but think we'll keep making progress as time goes on.

[fantasykiger]

This is good news and I am glad to hear she made it thru' that ruff spell, bright and cheery.

[sbutter]

That is great news!!!

[lindad]

Glad she has you to take such wonderful care of her. What an ordeal for all of you.

[DianneC]

I can imagine what would have happened to her at some other places Michelle. Cudos and congrats on a step in the right direction.

[Michelle Clarke]

Casey is holding her own, nursing well, eating grain and munching on hay and alfalfa...for all general purposes, she is growing normally. Her unsteadiness had progressed during the down time she had with dealing with the fever, etc. The therapist worked on her Tuesday and she has improved some, but overall it is worse. She began to get a slight head bob up and down about ten days ago and now it seems like the lateral control is also declining, as her head does more of a small, quick circle.

Overall, her attitude is wonderful and she is cheerful. I spoke with the DVM that is the homeopathist and he will be doing some research and getting back with me. He sounded hopeful and all we can do is try. Traditional medicine has nothing to offer at this point - for all due purposes, she should have been put down. I feel as though she deserves this chance, especially because her whole energy is positive - at least for now. It is hard for me to get my hopes up just yet.

If anyone is interested, here is the link of the video I made for the vet so he can see what is going on:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=iE9UQ68ZfgQ

Sycha was in a mood that evening and acting roudy because the flies were bothering her and she was not being patient enough for me to rub stuff on her face...!

[sbutter]

Wow, she reminds me a lot of a mare we have been treating...actually the symptoms almost look identical. We had Naughty out in a movable pipe pen, so she could graze. We noticed her laying down and eating at the same time, which was not unusual, but she had been laying down for quite some time. We asked her to stand up and she wouldn't. We saw no signs of struggle around her, so it looked like she just laid down and never tried getting up. We moved the pen over her so it would be out of the way and she wouldn't accidentally hurt herself inside. Then we gave her some bute and banamine and waited for it to take effect. She struggled to her feet 30 minutes later. It was so hard for her to stay standing and the breeze threatened to blow her over. She had a hard time controlling her legs and reminded me of a foal just starting to walk, except she wouldn't bounce like a foal if she fell. She shifted her weight around and was completely relaxed about the whole thing. We didn't try asking her to walk at first, because she would have fallen. I stood next to her for about three hours and she was able to urinate and poop, so that was a relief. She hadn't tried moving from her spot, but she was getting hungry since she tried nibbling on the pine needles above her. I gave her a flake of alfalfa, but she only lipped at it and then let it fall out of her mouth. I went to grab some grain to see if she would eat that instead, and of course during the ten seconds I am gone she decides to try to walk. She looked worse than a drunk sailor, but she was walking and didn't fall. The vet finally arrived and he specializes in lameness. When he heard about her symptoms, he thought it would be an injury in the neck, but after thoroughly checking her over, he wasn't so sure. She was able to bend her neck on both sides and touch her sides without any problems. She also never flinched when he checked her neck, but she did when he went over her mid back. That didn't explain her problem in the front legs though. He hung fluids and gave her a thingytail of DMSO,anti-inflammatory,etc..basically a non specific treatment. The next day she was improving, but still looked really bad. She would also stretch out her neck and yawn a lot ( like 8 times in a row). About 2 and a half weeks ago she looked exactly how your filly does when she moves around. Now Naughty is almost perfect, but you can still see some lingering instances, but she is getting better and no longer needs banamine. We still think it had to be something in her neck, but it was kind of a mystery.

[DianneC]

Gee, it kind of sounds like West Nile or one of the mosquito-borne encephalitic viruses. Are there a blood tests for that? I've got a couple of youngsters that need their West Nile shot. We haven't had it here in Washington much, but I hear its east of the Cascades already this year.

[lilnagy]

Michelle, I don't know where to post this question, so I thought it could go here :-). My sister wants a horse "just like Sycha" ; so I thought I'd ask what her breeding / pedigree is? She is very lovely, Lil

[Michelle Clarke]

Sycha is by Charro and out of a mare that was supposedly rounded up off the original HMA that the Kigers came from. I have been told that there were five mares with tobiano/dun factor coloring but since they did not want white in the herd, they were not eligable for registry. I was also told that the main people that were involved at the time, adopted these mares and bred them, even though their foals were only registerable as partbreds. Now this is what I was told...the actual facts, I am not sure of! I've been trying to find out for years with no success.

I was never sent the papers on Sycha from her previous owner, even though she is supposed to be registered with the SMKR, so I don't know her real dams name (I've heard the name "Tess", but am not sure).

She's a lovely mare and actually one of the best producers I've ever had. Everyone falls in love with her!

This is her filly from last year:



Not for sale yet! I bred her for the breeding program and I always wait to see how they train when they are three before I make a final decision...MisChivas' sire is a purebred Kiger (Bayo Desierto), so technically she's considered 3/4 Kiger.

Sycha is destined to be bred to a Lusitano next season. If she has a colt it will be for sale, a filly maybe...maybe not!

[Michelle Clarke]

So, it is almost a week ago that Casey got her first homeopathic remedy. She also was worked on by the therapist that afternoon, who was able to do more deeper work in her sacral area (which also affects the cranium). By Sunday, she was in bad shape, very wobbley and obviously concerned about it herself. She improved over the next few days, but not as much as I personally would have liked to see.

By Tuesday, I was very concerned and even called my regular vet to talk about options and procedures for putting her down. I was feeling that it could be any day. By yesterday morning, she had really perked up and was her usual bright and chipper self. The last two days she has really wanted to jump around and play, even though she had a hard time with it.

The therapist was back out yesterday and said she had talked to the homeopathic vet we are using, voicing my concerns about her condition being worse. He told her it was very common for around the fifth day after a remedy for things to get worse as the body is addressing the issues. I am still both skeptical and hopeful...

It is very hard for me to make the decision to put her down when her eyes are so bright and she is cheery and wants to play. She is getting big and growing just perfect, all unsteadiness aside. I just take it day by day and pray for a miracle.

[angelsdream]

I'm so sorry Michelle. How horrible that must be.I know you loved this filly from the start. I will pray for her and hope she gets better. She looks like such a stinker!! This may be silly but you know how when we get water in our ears or when our equilibrium is off, we are way off balance like that - do horses get like that? do you think it could her ears? Just a thought. Please keep us updated on her.

[Michelle Clarke]

Funny you talk about the ears...I was just thinking about that a few days ago and spoke with my vet about doing an ear exam on her. Problem is they have to sedate her and with her unstableness that could be an issue. She shows no indication such as shaking her head or even hanging her ears; plus the therapist actually holds both ears at the same time and turns them to get the fluid around them moving - she's never objected.

I was actually watching Nat Geo Wild last night and they had a show about Zombie Gators...a bunch of alligators in Florida would not be able to swim anymore and then eventually drown. They knew it was nerological but could not find the source of the brain damage that they eventually found on scans. One of the doctors happened to be at a convention where someone had searched for over six years to find the answer to a group of fish that basically had the same issue. Long story short, it was a lack of thiamine (B1) in the diet. They would have nearly comotose fry fish and inject B1 into the water and within an hour, they were swimming around like normal. I quickly looked up what natural foods had B1 and grain, sunflower seeds and kelp were high in B1, so since I feed all of those I doubt that is the issue.

The only other option along those lines I am searching is that the gators were getting sufficient B1, however, thier main diet consisted of fish that were high in a B1 inhibitor...I plan on researching some of that this weekend. I feel as though I am reaching, but it can't hurt to explore every venue.

[DianneC]

Sorry its not going well Michelle. Hope things turn around for you soon.

[fantasykiger]

I will keep praying and Thinking of you and Casey. It sounds as though she still got some fight to make things right, it is the 'not knowing' that drives us horse owners crazy.