Sweety

This writing is from September 18th 2014

Gentlemen and Ladies, I have a story to tell. While everything is still fresh, still painful.

This is Sweety's story.

About two years ago my Husband began to hear from one of the Consultants he works with that this man had two Throughbred mares. That this man was growing older, and he and his wife decided to send them to a new home together. The Older mare was Mama to the younger, and they wanted the mares to go together.

I wish we had gotten them then. Maybe we could have saved Sweety.

Now this couple came from old money, racing big time horses on the racetrack. In doing so they never KNEW horses, they had people for that. Well they had a star racer, and paid an astronomical amount of stud free (About three times the stud fee mentioned below), to have their mare artificially inseminated by an American racer, a household name. Unfortunately for them, that expensive baby came out a slight cripple, with a twisted leg. One in which corrective work could only go so far, and they could never race her. The wife decided she wanted this baby anyways. They left the racing world, and took this baby, and she became a pasture pet.

When that little filly turned two years old they thought they might have another chance. Her leg was twisting, but she could handle one breeding. They paid $450,000 to artificially inseminate her to another American racing stud.

The product of that was Sweety. Apparently named by a niece of the couple.

Now you need a little background for all you non-horsey people. "Farrier" is a loose term. It's basically applied to anyone who can trim the hooves of a horse, but SHOULD only be applied to anyone certified who can also shoe a horse. My Husband is certified and properly taught to do barefoot and barefoot corrective. Certified. But he does not use the term farrier as he does not shoe. We needed my Husband's certification and my Certification in Equine Injury Care for this one.

The person this couple hired as their "Farrier" after leaving the track knew nothing. He was neglectful and abusive. They didn't even know enough of horses to know what to look for.

Oh they had this "Farrier" come out every eight weeks! Just as those on track do. That's proper of course, right? Well not if your "Farrier" hasn't done their job to begin with.

So firstly, Mama. Her leg was twisting more and more. Anyone certified for barefoot could work with that, help to keep it from getting worse. It requires special trimming each and every time, and consistently. This "Farrier" Did not stop her leg from getting worse.

Sweety didn't have a normal horses life. Her mama being crippled didn't move much, and thus Sweety didn't move much. But she did become an amazing, sweet, gentle horse. The kind who would call when she saw you coming, make her way to the fence to say hello, no matter how much pain she was in. This Farrier not once in her life did her feet properly. Not Once. Because of her lack of movement and the owning couples lack of knowledge they never noticed what was happening to her, what this "Farrier's" neglect had done to her.

Until finally, two months ago. We got the call to go and get her. It had come to the point that Mama's leg had gotten so bad it was arthritic, she was now suffering badly. At the age of 11 years old Mama needed to be put down, and they couldn't bring themselves to do it. So they called the vet and my Husband, who assisted the vet. Then my Husband loaded up Sweety, and brought her home. A horse who had never left that pasture, never seen another horse beyond her Mama, never seen the inside of a trailer...

... and Obviously needed serious care.

When she stepped out of the horse trailer into our pen I was all smiles, for about five minutes. She was the most beautiful thoroughbred I had ever seen. She stood tall, a little fat for her breed, a beautiful chocolate sheen to her. She was nervous, any horse would be, but even nervous she stood so still, so friendly. Lowering her head to my chest for a 'hug'.

And then we saw her feet.

Her back feet weren't near as bad, within two treatments they where perfect again. But her front feet... the hooves where grown out, deformed, misshaped and misaligned. Turning her feet the wrong way. They where causing her so much pain that she couldn't hold them beneath her, she had to hold them out front, and put her weight on the back of her heel and not the sole.

And then my Husband picked up her front right foot. The entire sole was blood, puss. Abscesses. Now if you know horses you know that one abscess is a serious thing, a bugger, but it can be dealt with. This wasn't one, this was her whole foot, riddled in them, one on top of another and speckled all around.

That "Farrier" had never picked up her feet! She held her feet up amazingly well, but if it had been from actually having her feet done he was not then neglectful but abusive. Her soles where abscess, grown out far to large, never cut down and looked as though they had grown out and folded over on itself! Her laminae (What holds the hoof wall to the sole and is usually a very thin line between the two) was ground out and visible for an inch and a half under the hoof! Both feet where like this.

But the right foot was even worse. The laminitis (A disease when the laminae is affected, weakening it so it can't hold properly) had already progressed to such a level she was beginning to founder. (Not flounder which is food related, founder). This means the bone that goes from her ankle into her hoof (I'm over simplifying I know) was turning. That can be a death sentence to a horse. Thankfully that hadn't gotten there yet. But one abscess had already gotten up to her corronett band (Where the hoof meets flesh) and blown out in the transport. She was bleeding out of it pretty bad, so we had to wash, ointment and wrap that foot while we decided what to do with her.

Now normally, all of this could have been the time to make a call, and say is "Is this battle going to be worth it?"

After talking with our vet, and the Dean of the Farrier course at the Old's College (My Husband's go to reference), we decided we where going to fight for Sweety. That she could make a full recovery. Not only a full recovery, she could go on to become a solid member of our herd, with no lasting side effects!

Her first treatment worked miracles alone, you could see the relief in her when my Husband removed her 'toes', cutting back the hoof and laminai to the sole, and shaving down the sole and some of the absceses. Now a normal horse hates an abscess cut out, they'll jerk their foot away. Not Sweety. Taking out multiple she stood here, on three other painful feet, and held each foot for him to work with. The back two only needed two hard treatments, then just normal maintenance.  With a bit of Bute (Pain killer) She was already moving better.

Two days later we went out again, and she couldn't get up.

Her front feet where hurting her so badly my Husband spent two hours working on them so that she got enough relief to put weight on them and stand up.

But even in her pain and treatments, she'd call to us. Snuggle us. And stole our hearts.

So the treatments went on regularly, often having to stop not because we wanted to but because her sole would cut down to a point where it got soft! Because it had been covered by so much else it hadn't hardened the way that it should. She got Bute every few days to once a week depending on how she was doing. (It can cause ulcers so you don't want to do to much) But through it all, between her pain to move and her depression at the new home and loss of her Mama she was loosing weight.

Two weeks ago we saw the light at the end of the tunnel. My Husband cut out the last of the abscesses! Her feet where properly shaped! She was standing with them under her straight! She was healing! We where optimistic and thrilled, telling everyone it was all up hill from here. My Husband could then start on correcting her right foot to turn the cannon bone back into proper place.

Four days ago disaster struck Sweety again. Infection.

Her right leg was swelling up to the knee. Badly. So we started her on Bute again and Penicillin injections. Except what really scared us was we saw something start in the hoof wall. At the coronett band, it was opening. And there was some brown liquid. We refused to see it for what it was, wanting to keep fighting. We said we'd see what the penicillin did, and I cleaned the open part. What was happening was the swelling was pushing the hoof away on the outside, because the cannon bone was twisted the swelling away from it was shoving against the hoof which had no flex.

The penicillin did nothing.

Last night we had no choice, that opening had widened and spread. It had taken over a solid one third of her hoof now, and opening it you could see the bone. We even did some double checking if it fully separated what where our odds, and it couldn't be done. We had to accept that this infection had destroyed her. She couldn't heal from this. She would always suffer even if she did manage to close it and walk again after it finished.

And so, last night we had to put down our dear Sweety. Sometimes on the ranch it feels matter of fact when something happens, it sucks always but it doesn't always break our hearts the way Sweety did.

I hope to hell her story can help another horse. People, please, check your horses. Know that they are healthy, and well, and uninjured. Run your hands over them regularly, check their feet, their motion, and even their pulse! (Two fingers under the jaw you'll find a pretty thick vein, a beat a second is about normal). And if you don't know enough about horses, please don't own one. Or leave it with people who do know and can ensure that what you are doing for it is right. What happened to Sweety never should have happened at all. It could have easily been prevented. She didn't have to die.

Sweety, we will always remember you. The little Heart shaped star on your forehead, the chocolate color in your coat, and how you'd stick your tongue out when you where feeling 'lazy'. Your knicker when you saw someone, and your way of hugging. Good-bye.