While I was struggling with trying to get Penny over Laminitis over the past several weeks, I ordered a set of Easyboot originals from easycareinc.com for Penny’s front hooves, based on the recommendations of Pete Ramey on his website, hoofrehab.com, with regard to treatment for Laminitic horses. I also bought a set of medium density pad inserts to give her a little extra padding.
Easyboots and medium density pad inserts
Last week, when Penny unexpectedly took a turn for the worse, I ordered a second set of boots and pads for her rear hooves. However, as things turned out, Penny had to be put down before the second set of boots arrived.
The second pair arrived yesterday. I called easycareinc.com to ask for an authorization to return the second pair of boots and pads, unopened and unused. When the customer service representative asked the reason for the return, I told her I had to put the horse down before the boots arrived. She was very kind and expressed her condolences.
Easyboot originals and medium density pad inserts
Then she did an unexpected thing. She looked up the sale of the boots and noticed the previous order, from three weeks ago. She asked whether I was returning both sets or just the second set. I told her I had been using the first set for Penny’s front hooves since I received them and was quite happy with them. She then told me they were still within the 30-day unconditional money-back guarantee period, and that if I didn’t need them I was welcome to return them. How refreshing that was in this day and age when customer service has nearly died and the almighty dollar is the highest aspiration of all.
I plan to return both sets of boots, since Penny has passed on and I currently have no other horses, however, that one act by that customer service representative, at a time when any kindness softened a troubled time for me, has won a loyal customer.
I will continue outfitting for my Mexico to Canada trip for 2015. You can bet Easyboot originals will be on the required equipment list for all of us.
I woke up about 4am this morning and couldn’t go back to sleep. Got a little maintenance work done on the website. My thoughts were on Penny. Putting her down yesterday was a hard thing.
After the vet verified death, we stood and talked a minute. I was grateful for a listening ear in those difficult moments right after her passing. I told her about the day I first saw Penny.
I had decided to buy a horse for my teenage daughter, to see whether she would take to horses like I did as a child. I started looking on Craigslist for candidates and came up with a list of horses, ranging in price from $800 to $1,500. Most of them indicated “greenbroke” in the ad, or “needs an experienced rider”, or something along those lines, which is why they were selling cheap. I wasn’t concerned about that, because I prefer to train my own horses anyway. Neither was I concerned about buying a registered horse, since my enjoyment comes from trail riding and packing. Having a horse with papers serves no purpose for me. I simply look for a horse with a good character, good conformation, and good hooves.
6 YO QH $800
The first horse I looked at was Penny. She was located in Spotsylvania County, VA on a small acreage with no pasture, just a large fenced corral where trees had been cleared away, in which no grass grew. She had a small pony as a companion. The owner advertised her as a 6 year-old unregistered, greenbroke Quarter Horse for $800. She said they had owned her several years and used to rider her often, but hadn’t ridden her in about two years. They had decided to sell her, since they weren’t using her any more.
Penny and Gina
When we approached the corral gate, the owner called to her and Penny approached willingly. She wore an old halter that looked like it hadn’t been removed since they had owned her. It had worn the hair away and left a mark on her nose from the nose band. She appeared to be in good shape, weight-wise, and looked healthy. Right away, I could see she had a unique personality. She was very personable and gentle and seemed to genuinely like people.
I looked her over and found she had a scar on the coronet band of her right rear hoof, but it was healed and did not seem to affect the growth or soundness of the hoof. All her heels seemed to be a little “pinched”, but I guessed this was from a lack of regular hoof care. She seemed sound and showed no tenderness on any hoof or joint. I liked what I saw.
I put my heavy-duty lead rope on her halter, walked her out of the corral, and tied her to a tree. I brushed her down and tossed my saddle pad and saddle on her back while the owner stood back and watched. Penny fidgeted a little, which was my warning. As I began to cinch her up, all hell broke loose! She buck-jumped, pulled back, then lunged forward, hitting the tree. She pulled again and bucked and jumped until she finally came to rest on her back, legs in the air, neck outstretched against the lead rope still snubbed to the tree. I just stepped back and watched the rodeo until she stopped struggling.
Once Penny came to rest, I reached up and pulled loose the safety knot on the lead rope with a jerk. She immediately rolled upright and stood up. I looked her over to make sure she wasn’t hurt, then brushed her off a little. The saddle had stayed in place, so I finished cinching it up, which she permitted this time, although she hunched a little at it. I then walked her around for a few minutes to see how she moved and to make sure she would actually move with a saddle in place. She calmed down quickly and all went well.
I took Penny back to the tree and tied her again, then walked over to the owner, who was still watching. I smiled at the lady and said, “I like her. She seems like a horse that might work for me, however, there are several more horses I plan to look at. I may come back to this one, but if I do, I’ll be talking $300, not $800.”
The lady looked over at Penny for a long second, then back to me and said, “I can do that.”
Once that was settled, I spent a few more minutes talking to the owner and got the full story. They had owned Penny about 3 years, having bought her from a person they know. They started out riding her, but found she was lazy and slow. She seemed to be reluctant to do anything. The owner’s husband chimed in then and said, “We like horses that GO! So, I decided to get on her and make her GO!” Penny had promptly bucked him off and they never rode her again. It was pretty obvious to me that neither of them were experienced with horses, other than simply getting on and riding a dead-broke animal.
As it turned out, Penny was the best of a bunch of horses I looked at. Not the best conformation, not the best conditioned, not the best bred, but I could not get over her personality. I was taken with her the first time I saw her.
I went back for her. This time, just to make sure, I saddled her up (this time with no issues) and rode her around the place or a few minutes. I determined that she was simply untrained. She just didn’t know anything, yet she was willing. The last test was whether she would load in the trailer. I told the owner I would not give her the check (for $300) until I had her loaded in the trailer.
Though frightened of the trailer, after a little bit of coaxing, Penny hopped in, showing again her willing temperament.
Penny
I handed over the check and became the new owner of a $300, six year-old, unregistered, greenbroke, peach of a mare. Penny.
Last night I made the decision to euthanize Penny, who has been my faithful friend for the past three years. Tomorrow I will make all the arrangements.
This will probably be a surprise to those of you who have been following my entries on Penny’s Laminitis. Her prospects, initially, for recovery were very good. The vet, after taking X-rays three weeks ago, indicated that with proper care and hoof trimming she should be back to normal within six months. That same night, Penny escaped her stall and spent an unknown amount of time grazing in the lush, green pastures of the small farm where she is kept. By the following morning, when I found her in the pasture, the damage was done. She relapsed almost immediately.
Once she began recovering well from that relapse, I tried to slowly transition her back to pasture, believing that it might be possible, since the initial trigger for her Laminitis was not the grass, but an overload of sweet feed. Not to be. After two efforts at transitioning her to the pasture, I found that any quantity of grass in her diet immediately brought back the symptoms of Laminitis. I resigned myself to keeping her in a stall and hand-feeding her until she was well enough to begin to ride again, at which time I would find her a new home.
This past week I was encouraged at her progress. Although she was still tender, she was able to walk with me around the pasture, and would do so willingly. I had noticed she was dropping weight rather quickly, so I did some research to find a supplemental feed that might be tolerable for her in her current state. I came upon Timothy hay pellets, which, according to my reading, as well as the labels on the bag, contains no more than 8% sugars, which is well below other kinds of feed. As I have been mixing Penny’s Bute dosages with about 1 pound of alfalfa pellets, I thought it would be safe to replace the alfalfa pellets with the Timothy pellets, further reducing her sugars intake.
I started with one pound of Timothy pellets, moistened, and mixed with the Bute, morning and evening. After two days she seemed to be ok, although I noticed that she may have been slightly more sore on her rear hooves the second night. On the third night I increased the Timothy pellets to two pounds. That was last Thursday evening. On Friday morning her her rear fetlocks were very swollen and she was obviously hurting. By Friday evening, once again, she was in full-blown Laminitis and her fetlocks were swollen tight as balloons. I soaked her rear hooves in cool water to try to ease the swelling and the pain.
I immediately discontinued the Timothy pellets and tried to administer Penny’s Bute dosage orally. She was in such pain that I suppose it really didn’t matter much to her any more, and she took the Bute orally without resistance. I thought I would let her go until Monday and decide then whether to call the vet again, for an evaluation and to decide then whether to start treatments again or look at “other alternatives”.
Yesterday morning, I found that Penny’s swelling had reduced substantially. I saw that she had lain down during the night, which must have helped. I was greatly encouraged, until I saw that she had not finished her hay from the night before, had not drunk any water during the night, and was having a difficult time standing. I went back out to check her at noon and found her down in her stall.
I called the vet.
The vet arrived about 5:30 pm or so. After examining Penny, the vet spoke with me and very carefully gave me her prognosis: Penny has very little chance of ever recovering to the point of leading a pain-free and productive life. There is the slight chance of recovery to the point of soundness…as in, “it has happened before”…but it would take at least a full year of very strict and very expensive veterinary and farrier care, all based on the slight hope of more than a partial recovery.
Penny and I have lost the battle against Laminitis.
With her prognosis now being very poor, with little chance she could ever recover to the point of being sound, euthanasia is my only choice. Within nine months I will be moving two thousand miles across the country. She could never stand the trip. Not being sound, I would never be able to find a home for her. Her sensitivity to pasture grass is such that she could not even become a “pasture buddy” for another horse. Even if I got her to the point that she was comfortable, and were able to find new owners who were willing to take her on, the care required to keep her so would be a heavy work and financial burden, and it would only be a matter of time before her end would be the same: more pain, more suffering, and euthanasia…or a slaughter house. The only humane decision I can make is to put her down. I can do her this one last kindness.
As a young boy, I remember once becoming disoriented and lost while riding my horse on remote trails near the stables where we kept our horses. After trying to find my way for a while and getting nowhere that I recognized, I remembered what my father had taught me, that if I would “give the horse her head,” she would lead me home.
Thought I’d go over the vet charges I’ve incurred so far, so others who may find themselves in a similar situation, with a Laminitic horse, might be able to get an idea of what they can expect, as far as a vet bill.
The vet I use, and have been very happy with, is
Haymarket Veterinary Service
Haymarket, VA 20168
(703) 754-3309
They specialize in equine services and cover a fairly large area. They have several full-time equine vets working for them. At least four have helped me with Penny and I have nothing but praise for all of them.
A farm visit from HVS runs $58. Since I called after-hours on a Thursday evening the first time, and since it was an emergency, I had a $100 “After-hours Fee” tacked on. Since they traveled about 45 miles to get out to me on a Thursday evening, I have no problem with that at all. They also came out that Saturday to check on her and give her another dose of DMSO, but did not charge me the After-hours Fee. I ended up with five farm visits, for a total of $390, including the After-Hour Fees (there is another After-hours Fee on the invoice that is in error).
The vets provided me with a tub of Phenylbutazone at a cost of $50 and 50 mls of Acepromazine at $34, along with several syringes for oral application for a couple bucks, so I could administer the Bute and Ace myself.
They administered three litres of DMSO fluid (don’t ask what it is, because I don’t know) by IV on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, for a total of nine litres. It is some sort of fluid that is supposed to help flush the toxins from the body and promote quicker healing. At $165 per treatment, that totaled $495 (they mistakenly charged me for a fourth treatment).
I was charged $82 for a “Lameness Examination” and $55 thereafter for “Repeat Exams”, for a total of $357
I was charged $410 for the x-rays.
While they were at it, I had them get Penny current on her Coggins test and vaccinations.
Those are the major expenses. All told, with all the smaller incidentals, the grand total came to $2727.00…and we may not be done yet.
I have several charges to dispute, but I’m sure they will not be a problem. Always make sure you go over your bills. People make mistakes, but you will pay for them if you don’t pay attention. Additionally, you might ask for a bill for each visit, so you know how much you are spending as the charges accumulate. I didn’t and was quite surprised at the total when I received the bill at the end of the month. I also think you might be able to get your vet to tell you what each item of treatment will cost before hand. While that is not usual, and they might get testy about it, you may not be in a financial position to handle the cost of treatments that may be good, but not essential.
Some charges from vet services seem to me to be simply frivolous. They are simply a means of getting a little more for their service, while seeming to charge less for other services (sort of like “shipping and Handling” for online services). I tend to look at the “Setup” charge for the X-rays in that way. They pulled a box about the size of a boot box out of their truck, plugged the cord into the wall, and plugged the actual X-ray camera and a laptop computer into that. That cost me $50. Then they charged me $360 for actually taking the pictures. The pictures uploaded real-time to a computer, so there was no development expense for them. They simply emailed me the pictures. Then there is the $58 for the farm visit on top of the $82 for the “Lameness Exam”, in which she walked around the horse and lifted each hoof. These kind of charges only occur in the health services businesses. Vets are learning well from their human health counterparts. You may be able to negotiate reductions in some of those charges if you are aware.
So that’s what I spent for vet care for Laminitis treatment on my $300 mare.
And that doesn’t include the $160 for the hoof boots and pad inserts, the new feed buckets, extra feed, and the extra time I’ve spent trying to get her through this illness. Take it from me, it’s better not to have to go through this. Pay attention and watch your horse’s feed. Penny’s Laminitis was caused by an overload of sweet feed, which occurred by sheer accident. Somebody (maybe even me) left a gate open. It could happen to anyone, but could have been avoided altogether.
If you keep horses long enough, eventually you will run into something that requires extensive vet care. Be prepared for the expenses. Keep an emergency fund for your horse, or be prepared to make tough decisions as to how far you can go to help your horse recover.
I have included scanned copies of my invoices for your perusal. Again, I have no complaints against Haymarket Veterinary Service. They did good work for me. I would recommend them. I’m simply posting this so other people in my position may benefit by having some idea of what they may expect.
It’s been a month since I first discovered Penny, standing head-down in the run-out shed with her fetlocks all swollen.
I documented in previous posts the treatments by the vet and by myself in our efforts to get her over the Laminitis and back “on her feet”, so to speak.
My last post was about a setback Penny suffered, after I tried to transition her back to the pasture grass.
This post is the latest in the series.
During the last week of July, I tried to transition Penny onto the pasture grass. I started allowing her to graze just a few minutes in the morning one day, then a little longer the next, then a little in the afternoon as well. By the third day she was again showing soreness and getting worse, rather than better. I immediately stopped allowing her to graze and started her back on the Bute, but I ran out of Acepromazine. I had to go out of town the first week of August, so I left her care and feeding in the hands of a very responsible young lady. By the time I left town, Penny was again on the mend.
I left instructions with the young lady to go ahead and feed her dry hay (grass hay – fescue and orchard grass), and to walk her for about 15 minutes every morning, if Penny felt like walking. I told her it was ok to allow Penny to grab the occasionaly mouthful of grass, but not to allow her to graze. I gave her instructions to wet 1lb of alfalfa pellets and mix 1gm of Bute with it and feed it to Penny each evening, along with about 10 lbs (2-3 flakes) of dry hay. When I checked on her mid week, it turned out she was still sore and didn’t seem to be progressing. I told the caretaker to stop walking her, not allow her to eat any grass at all, and to soak her hay before feeding. She did exactly as I instructed.
Upon my return last Wednesday, Penny appeared to be doing much better, although she was still a bit tender on her front feet. No swelling at all was apparent and she appeared to be in good spirits. She would willingly walk around the pasture with me and looked to be in good shape. She was certainly better than when I left. I decided to discontinue the Bute and see how she did.
Easyboots and medium density pad inserts
Also, I received the Easyboot hoof boots and pad inserts I ordered the previous week. They arrived while I was gone. On Wednesday morning I fitted the boots on Penny’s front hooves. She didn’t fuss at all and they seemed to relieve a little bit of tenderness on her fronts.
I decided that after the previous week of being completely off the grass, I might try again to transition her back to the pasture, but much slower this time. I allowed her to graze in the pasture for 15 minutes during the morning, while I cleaned her stall. Then back into the stall to be fed dry hay. On Thursday she seemed no worse than the day before, so I allowed her to graze for 30 minutes in the morning, then back to the stall for dry hay.
On Thursday evening Penny appeared to be getting sore again, so I decided to wait and see how she was in the morning, and determine a course forward from there.
On Friday morning, Penny was noticeably more sore than the day before, and I could see some swelling coming back into her rear fetlocks. No more green grass for Penny. I put her back on the Bute Friday evening and started soaking her hay again for 30 minutes before feeding it.
On Saturday, it was apparent that Penny will not be back on the pasture any time soon. She was almost as swollen and sore as when I first found her with Laminitis three weeks earlier. I could feel she was warm, probably had a fever. She seemed to want me to rub her head. I wonder that maybe she had a headache. She seemed to be feeling pretty poorly, and I felt bad for her. I started her back on 1gm of Bute morning and evening, but I’m out of Ace, like I said earlier. I decided to see how she did with just the Bute.
On Sunday she was about the same. On Sunday evening I decided to see if she would allow me to soak her rear hooves in cold water while she ate her hay. I placed her left rear hoof (the worst one) in a bucket of cold water. After her pulling her foot out of the water several times and me putting it back in, she finally let it rest in the water. I guess it just took a minute to get used to it. After that, it appeared the cold water must have been soothing, because she stood there for a full 30 minutes without moving her rear hooves at all. Never spilled, never moved.
This morning (Monday), Penny was noticeably better, and was moving around tenderly, but easily. She did not feel feverish and was in good spirits again. I noticed she had gotten her hoof boots off (I bought them a size large in the width for her, to accommodate the length of her front hooves and I need to shorten the cables a bit). Since she’s in a stall with a sawdust floor, I decided to just leave them off for now. I decided to see whether she would let me soak both her rear hooves. I placed each rear hoof into a separate bucket. I had a cold pack from our freezer that I placed in the bucket with the left rear hoof. She allowed that and again, once I got her used to the water, she never moved her rear hooves while she fed. I let her soak a full hour before leaving her standing there with her hooves in the buckets finishing her hay. I suppose she probably stood there in the water for at least another 15-20 minutes after I left. This afternoon I bought a large feed bucket, so I could try soaking both rear hooves in the same container and drop a large bag of ice in the water.
This evening I found her much improved again, and in good spirits, but could still see substantial swelling in both rear fetlocks. She seems to be doing very well with her front hooves, and I could detect no swelling. I decided to go ahead and just leave her barefoot again. This time she willingly allowed me to place both her rear hooves in the water in one large bucket.
Soaking Penny’s rear hooves in ice water
I dumped in a large bag of ice and she never budged. It must have felt good, because I stood there for a full hour and only had to put one hoof back in the water once. She simply stood in place, soaking her rear hooves in ice water while she fed on the soaked hay. I watched her for a full hour, then left her standing there. There were still pieces of ice in the water when I left.
I’m hoping to find her doing better and see the swelling greatly reduced tomorrow morning.
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