Post by clearlybluebreeze on Apr 6, 2007 13:33:51 GMT -5
Odie’s Story
Some of you were asking about Odie’s story and wanting to see pictures of him…..
Odie came to us from a woman that was moving and wasn’t taking her horses. She had three, I believe one was sold, one went to a family up north and Odie came to us. The first picture was the night he arrived here. We were all in awe of that leg! Poor guy! Dr. Hannah was here waiting when he arrived and checked him out. He had a severe heart murmur, very underweight, and of course the leg problem. The leg did begin from what we understand, as an untreated case of scratches. Some people refer to it now as cellulitis and some as lymphangitis. The swelling was so bad the skin was splitting open in places and oozing serum and bleeding. It required a lot of daily care, cleaning, medicating, wrapping, poulticing, cold hosing, etc…. He stood for all of it with great patience – I do believe he knew we were trying to help him. Believe it or not – he actually got around on that leg pretty well. To see him trot through the pasture was so much fun to watch!
The next two pictures were after he had been here a month or two and gained some weight and strength and Hannah was working with him in the round pen to better assess his leg. He appeared to be very well trained and did anything she asked. We suspect he was quite the wonderful horse for someone in his younger healthier years. Hard to believe he ended up where he did in life – he certainly deserved better.
I love the pictures of Odie rolling! When he first came to us – he never even laid down because it was so hard for him to get up. So when he finally felt good enough to lie down and roll – it was quite the celebration day here! He always had some difficulty getting up, but it was better for awhile and he loved to roll and roll.
Sadly, the leg never got much better. It was manageable, but got infected easily and his body couldn’t fight the infection very well. He developed unexplainable nose bleeds; he would get random fevers that would spike high and then suddenly drop back to normal. About a week before we laid Odie to rest we found he had some swollen lymph nodes and just was feeling crummy. His first colic we believe was due to a stone in his bladder, his lab work revealed crystals in the bladder and kidneys. The second colic – only a week later was from the same thing. It was so painful for him to urinate – the lab work that time showed even higher levels of crystals and I believe phosphate in the bladder and kidneys.
It was at this point, knowing his body couldn’t handle surgery and recovery that it was time to make a tough decision for Odie. And the rest……you already know.
We did have Dr Hannah perform a necropsy…..it was important for my peace of mind that I knew what was ailing him…..but more importantly, I wanted Hannah to know what ultimately was wrong with Odie – in hopes that through this knowledge maybe another horse could be saved. We all expected to find cancer……but what she found was a heart that was enlarged 3-4 times the normal size. Hannah and Ahmad (Valerie’s husband, also a vet) were amazed to see the size of that heart. This explained a lot…..
The last three pictures were taken the day before Odie was laid to rest. We all spent many hours with him those last few days. Just hanging out in the pasture with him….loving him and promising him – that he would not experience any more pain. He will always be in our hearts!
Some of you were asking about Odie’s story and wanting to see pictures of him…..
Odie came to us from a woman that was moving and wasn’t taking her horses. She had three, I believe one was sold, one went to a family up north and Odie came to us. The first picture was the night he arrived here. We were all in awe of that leg! Poor guy! Dr. Hannah was here waiting when he arrived and checked him out. He had a severe heart murmur, very underweight, and of course the leg problem. The leg did begin from what we understand, as an untreated case of scratches. Some people refer to it now as cellulitis and some as lymphangitis. The swelling was so bad the skin was splitting open in places and oozing serum and bleeding. It required a lot of daily care, cleaning, medicating, wrapping, poulticing, cold hosing, etc…. He stood for all of it with great patience – I do believe he knew we were trying to help him. Believe it or not – he actually got around on that leg pretty well. To see him trot through the pasture was so much fun to watch!
The next two pictures were after he had been here a month or two and gained some weight and strength and Hannah was working with him in the round pen to better assess his leg. He appeared to be very well trained and did anything she asked. We suspect he was quite the wonderful horse for someone in his younger healthier years. Hard to believe he ended up where he did in life – he certainly deserved better.
I love the pictures of Odie rolling! When he first came to us – he never even laid down because it was so hard for him to get up. So when he finally felt good enough to lie down and roll – it was quite the celebration day here! He always had some difficulty getting up, but it was better for awhile and he loved to roll and roll.
Sadly, the leg never got much better. It was manageable, but got infected easily and his body couldn’t fight the infection very well. He developed unexplainable nose bleeds; he would get random fevers that would spike high and then suddenly drop back to normal. About a week before we laid Odie to rest we found he had some swollen lymph nodes and just was feeling crummy. His first colic we believe was due to a stone in his bladder, his lab work revealed crystals in the bladder and kidneys. The second colic – only a week later was from the same thing. It was so painful for him to urinate – the lab work that time showed even higher levels of crystals and I believe phosphate in the bladder and kidneys.
It was at this point, knowing his body couldn’t handle surgery and recovery that it was time to make a tough decision for Odie. And the rest……you already know.
We did have Dr Hannah perform a necropsy…..it was important for my peace of mind that I knew what was ailing him…..but more importantly, I wanted Hannah to know what ultimately was wrong with Odie – in hopes that through this knowledge maybe another horse could be saved. We all expected to find cancer……but what she found was a heart that was enlarged 3-4 times the normal size. Hannah and Ahmad (Valerie’s husband, also a vet) were amazed to see the size of that heart. This explained a lot…..
The last three pictures were taken the day before Odie was laid to rest. We all spent many hours with him those last few days. Just hanging out in the pasture with him….loving him and promising him – that he would not experience any more pain. He will always be in our hearts!