Update on Babee - Almost put down 4/17/14

The last six weeks we have seen such remarkable changes in Babee.   For those of you who don't know her story, we took her in on April 17, 2014, because her founder (pain and rotation of the bones in her feet) was so bad her owner had resigned himself to putting her down.  When Dr. Kari Christianson of North Country Veterinary Clinic and I visited them, Babee was simply unable to walk and barely able to stand.

After doing xrays and consultation with our farrier we asked the owner if we could take her rather than her being put down and try to rehabilitate her.  He agreed and we drove the 140 mile round trip to get our horse trailer, the vet waited for our return because we needed to give her nerve blocks in her feet just to load her on the trailer. This seven year old mare was in such pain and so dejected she couldn't even hold her head up.

We added six loads of sand to her stall outside, bags of shavings and bales of straw to the inside to give her a soft place to move and lay down, immediately changed her diet and stopped the alfalfa and molasses based feed that was causing her to founder, changed her pain medication and started treating her ulcers twice a day with meds, released the abscess on her foot and put special shoes with pad and then put sugardyne on twice a day, I researched and applied essential oils to her hooves and pasterns and also did therapeutic massage to help all the muscles stressed from having to stand unnaturally to get her weight off her feet.

4-19-14 taking a load off her sore feet

The first few days she almost refused to eat the grass hay and low starch feed, but eventually decided it was better than the straw in her stall and her appetite kicked in. Within two weeks she had already started to drop weight and move around more comfortably in her stall. On April 30th, I snapped this picture of her in a moment of glee realizing her pain was going away.

4-30-14 Babee's got moves!

The following week she got her first chance to go out in the pasture for a limited time to socialize with the other horses and start to get a little exercise.  We didn't want to leave her out too long at first because the ground is hard and rocky in many spots and made her feet tender again, but she loved getting the opportunity to move around more.

5-5-14 first day out for a short time in pasture.

Over this past month we increased the amount of time she stayed out in pasture and watched as she continued to lose the unneeded fat that exasperates her condition.  She was 300 pounds overweight when she we rescued her and has now lost about 200 pounds.

On 5-22-14, we did the blood tests needed to determine if there has been any long term damage to her system and to see if her metabolism is such that she cannot process sugars and will forever need a restrictive diet or risk further founder.  We were looking for insulin resistance or Equine Metabolic Syndrome similar to diabetes in humans. On the 28th we got the results back and her glucose insulin ratio is high or compensated, she is a 9.5 and compensated falls between 4.5 to 10 and that means her pancreas is compensating for this issues of her prior diet.  She still needs to lose more fat and will need to avoid alfalfa, molasses and any feeds but those with a starch content under 11 for the rest of her life, but we can still get the chronic laminitis under control and she is in otherwise good health.

5-30-14 Babee meets Leroy in the big pasture

With that good news we have been able to stop the ulcer meds and decided to put her out in the large pasture with the other younger horses where she can get more exercise and movement.   Her and Leroy immediately hit if off and we were overjoyed to watch them run together through out the entire pasture kicking up their heels, bucking, snorting and running with gay abandon.  I wish I had gotten a picture of that, but didn't have the camera with me then.   But here is a picture of her yesterday.

6-3-14 running in the pasture

This Friday our farrier is coming to remove her pads and shoes and we will be replacing them with a product called Hoof Cinch   http://www.hoofcinch.com/ , which are designed to encourage the coffin bone to return to its normal angle and help with the rehabilitation of her founder.  Her feet will no doubt be a little sensitive for the first few days and her hooves will toughen up and we are all praying that with continued rehabilitation she may be able to be ridden once again.

I really can't express how deeply happy I am that she has made such great strides in her recovery.  I truly thought we may have had to have put her down.  She is a remarkable horse. I have my moments where I am very angry that the prior owner wouldn't take the steps that we have and instead let her suffer in such pain and then resigned himself to put her down, but I let those pass quickly and am thankful that Dr. Christianson asked us to intercede on Babee's behalf.

I am so glad that with your support we have been able to save and change the life of this horse.   In the last week, I have been asked to by four different people with tough situations if we could take in 23 horses needing homes, 15 of them in San Diego. Through our Facebook page and a lot of behind the scenes networking we are trying to help them all find homes.

If you would like to help Babee, our other horses or help us help more horses, please consider making a donation.  This time of year funds get low as kids get out of school, people head out of vacations, funds are spent for summer activities and we understand that, but if you can find a little extra you can spare, please think about sending some to us so we can continue to provide for these beautiful animals and help others in need.

To make a donation you can click the donate button or if you would rather send a check you can mail it to our address at 8369 Buckskin Trail, Snowflake, AZ 85937.   We are a 501c3 Public Charity so donations can be deducted from your taxes.

You have helped make Babee's recovery possible with your support.   Thank you so very much for giving her a change at life!   Autumn, Babee, Danny, Fancy, Gwen, Liam, Max and Ruby all thank you for your support!

Christine
Founder & President
Equine WellBeing Rescue Inc.
760-703-4860