Meet Mihi (Meehee). We got a call from a young family who had three horses they asked if they we could help. The worst of the three is this sweet 8 year old pony mare with a large swelling on her face. It has been there for 3 months and they treated it with penicillin, but weren't able to afford vet care and she was continuing to loose weight.
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We were in CA for my dad's memorial which was on the 17th, we left early enough on the 18th to come home, hook up the horse trailer and go get Mihi and her daughter Peanut. With a big winter storm heading in we got them tucked safely in the barn out of the elements. We started Mihi on antibiotics and some herbal anti-inflammatory.
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You can see from the intake pictures Mihi doesn't have a lot of meat on her bones so we kept her blanketed and fed her separate so she could eat all the food given. Her symptoms indicated an abscessed tooth and xrays would be needed to determine for sure. But first we needed to get her stabilized for travel to a clinic that could do the xrays and tooth extraction the same day. Being underweight makes sedating for surgery more stressful to their systems.
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Thursday and Friday she had a bout of diarrhea as her stomach adjusted to the antibiotics (she was given pain meds and probiotics) and by Saturday that had cleared up and she was feeling much better. Yesterday her appetite was good, her mood was much better and I could tell she has put on a little bit of weight. At 13.5 hand tall (54 inches) she only weighs 650 pounds.
We were able to use my dental equipment to see inside her mouth and we noticed an open pocket between her upper tooth and inside cheek that had food debris packed in it (I was unable to get a picture).
Is the opening from an abscessed tooth or a foreign object she ate, perhaps a stick, it is hard to say without xrays, but symptoms are similar to the many abscesses I have seen over the years and she needs veterinary care.
Many calls were made to find a hospital/clinic that had an opening. We have an appointment tomorrow at 10am in Flagstaff, a two plus hour drive from here where they can do the needed diagnostics and can surgically remove the abscessed tooth. We have another storm heading in tomorrow night and if all goes well we will be back home with her tucked safely in the barn before it hits. There is lots of after care needed to keep the surgery site free of food debris so it can heal and healing takes several weeks.
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We are asking for donations to cover the costs to get her to the vet for diagnostics, surgery, after treatment, medicines, normal health care (vaccine, deworming, dentistry & hoof trim) and feeds she will need to get healthy. Our goal is to raise $1200 and we have received $375 already, part of which I used to order a blanket that will fit her correctly and it should arrive today.
If you can help with a tax-deductible donation just click the button below (this time I promise it will work the first time).
This very sweet young horse will thrive once she is healthy so please help if you can by sharing our email, donations and prayers for Mihi.
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Many, many thanks for all you do to help the rescue! Christine |
