Here we go again

Well back to square 1 again...... yep that's right she did it again scratched her scab off....time for another vet visit, at least this time I can schedule it on Friday when I already have the day off! I have never dealt with a wound that is this stubborn to heal it is getting aggravating!!! Well I will be calling the vet this afternoon and try to get an appt for next Friday (since this is a holiday weekend)

Just a skinny horse

The other day I got an email from my daughters trainer and she was telling me how good Katie looked she told me that finally Katie no longer looked like a rescue horse but just a horse that was on the skinny side. It is amazing that this horse who had so little energy was running around with the babies this evening before dinner, next time Ill make sure to have my camera.

Enjoying the sun

Came home from running all over town and saw Katie basking in the afternoon sun.

She looked up to see if we had treats in hand but we where empty handed so it was not worth the effort of getting up so she flopped back down and continued her beauty nap.

Even better

Took some more pics of the horses this evening and noticed that Katie is looking better and better. Figured that while I had a second I would post the pics here.

Thank you Ericka

Katie has her new fly blanket and she is loving it. She is now able to be out there in the pasture and relax and not have to stomping all the time at all the biting flies that where eating her up before.
Here are some pics of her showing off her new outfit.

FINALLY

Went to go put on Katie's medicine on her cut last night and I am happy to say that we are FINALLY see major improvements!!!!!!!!!!! I FINALLY see some pink skin and the hole is not nearly as deep as it was before...... now if we can just keep her from scratching her scab off everything will be perfect!

Then and Now

Took some new pics of Katie last night and even I was surprised at how good she is looking. Granted she still has a ways to go but at least she is looking more like a horse and less like a walking skeleton!

One small step for a forgotten horse

I went to take car of Katie's cut the other day and when we first started treating this you could take the jar of meds and set them on Katie's table (as my son put it) her rib cage stuck out so far that the jar of meds would balance there. Well the other day I was taking care of her cut like normal but I had the jar of medicine sitting on the fence, my son took it and tried to set it on her "table" and the jar slid right off!!! She had put on enough weight that her belly was round again! Now yes you can still see her ribs and feel them pretty good but that was the a nice surprise. And coming home the other day I noticed that Katie does have some muscle on her butt where before there was nothing left, she is FINALLY starting to look like a horse again.

When she first came to us a nosy neighbor called animal control saying that I had starved the horse. Nothing came of that cause I had proof that she was one that I took in and that she was under vet care, the other day he swung by just to see how she was doing and was amazed at how good she looked from when he stopped out there the first time.

June 15, 2009

Well it was bath day again and Katie did great, even let me tie her up for this bath for the first time. Her cut is looking so much better, of course I wont tell her that she might rub that stupid scab off again! She has also discovered that my yearling Mac LOVES to give scratches to so you see them all the time scratching each others backs it is so cute.

June 12, 2009

I came home from work this afternoon and saw the cutest sight in the pasture. They say that pictures are worth a thousand words. Well here is Katie with Cheyenne our 33 year old mare.

June 11, 2009

Talked to the vet and she said that all we can do is keep treating that cut with the nitrofurozone and just let it heal, she said that apparently Katie is like one of those little kids that just has to pick at the scab and can't leave it well enough alone. Unfortunately where the cut is we cant so anything to prevent her from rubbing it. It is looking better and that is a good thing. At least now she has figured out that when the medicine bucket comes out it is not time to play catch me if you can it means that mommy is going to give me all sorts of bootie scratches and those yummy peppermint treats!

Also A BIG thank you goes out to Erin.... she was gracious enough to give Katie a MUCH needed fly sheet and a few other things that she really needed. God Bless you and your family!

June 10, 2009

Well this morning I got another lovely surprise by our newest member of the family. Katie had decided that she had an itch on her butt that just had to be scratched and the round pen was the perfect place to do that, well for the 3rd time since we found this wound on her she once again ripped it wide open!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We had just gotten it to the point that it was starting to scab over nicely and she goes and pulls a fast one on me.... I am thinking that she likes our new vet and wants her to visit more often! So once again I am putting the call into the vet to see if there is something that we can do to get this stupid stubborn thing to heal and be done with it.

I was sitting there thinking I remember when I was a kid and wanted that free puppy from the neighbor and my dad told me "there is no such thing as a free pet" well I now fully understand that. Katie may have been a free horse but the bills that go along with her are far from free. I have spent more this year on the vet for her alone than my other 6 horses combined!! And just to feed her is like feeding a small army with all the different stuff that goes into her feed. I spend more in one week on her feed and supplements alone than on all 6 of my other horses, but I know that it is worth it when I hear her whinny from across the pasture cause she knows that it is feeding time

May 21, 2009

Been a while but figured that I would update on Katie. She is doing so much better since we brought her home I have seen her change from a lifeless horse that just stood there with her head low looking like she wanted to give up to a horse that is cantering around the pasture at feeding time to get back to where she gets fed!

We have found that we have to have the Farrier out more often to keep up with her feet and of course a few more vet visits for minor cases of colic but thank goodness it has been no Major medical issues!

Here is an updated pic of her so that you can see how good she is doing.

April 7, 2009

Got quite the nasty surprise this afternoon. It was a nice warm day so we decided that it was bath day for all the four legged friends on the farm. Well we finally really got to give Katie her first serious bath. Well as we where washing her tail a rather large clump of dirt washed off and I was like wow where did that come from. Well Katie went to swish a fly and I saw that it was not dirt that came falling off her it was a rather large scab from an old wound that was never treated and when that washed off we where left with a golf ball size hole under her tail! It was the nastiest thing that I have ever seen, I called the vet and she happened to be in the area so she stopped out to take a look.

Well there is nothing that we can do for this other than clean it daily and put Nitrofurozone on it. The wound was too old to stitch it closed so we have to let it heal from the inside out. All I have to say is thank the Good Lord that this mare was blessed on a immense amount of patience, she lets me house it out and put the medicine on it without kicking the living daylights out of me

March 15, 2009

The farrier came out to give everyone their pedicures. As usual the babies where a pain in the BUTT but they are both getting better about it. The older horses where a dream as they always are. Then we get to Katie, her feet where not as bad as they could have been considering where she was before. She did have a horrible crack in one of her front hooves and the beginnings of what looked to be White Line Disease. She is also still pretty weak and looks to have a good case of arthritis and was not able to hold her hooves up for very long. My farrier was great and very patient only lifting her feet just enough to work on them and she has a nice foot rest for the hind feet so that she does not have to hold them up at all. She took care of trying to get that crack to stop and told me what to put on that foot for the white line issue. One of these times when she is out there I will have to have the kids take pics of her working with Katie she is the greatest
Here is another pic of her after she rolled to undo all the work that we did getting her clean with her quick bath!

March 2, 2009

Well today Kaite had her first visit from the vet, and let me tell you the weather could not have been worse rain and sleet and it was COLD! Thank goodness the other horses had all grown a nice full fuzzy winter coat so I was able to pull the old winter blankets that we had from when we lived in Ohio and put one on her (and it fit pretty good to).

The vet gave Katie all her shots and drew some blood work to make sure that her weight loss was not due to an underlying medical condition (after we got the results all her weight loss was due to not being fed) She got her teeth floated foe the first time in God knows how long. She is missing a few of her back teeth and the ones that she has left are worn down to the gum line. The vet was assessing her overall condition and rated her about a 1 on the body scale chart, there was no fat left on her body. Well during the checkup we noticed that Katie has LICE!!!! UGH talk about making your skin crawl! Vet told me what to do ... clip her .... bathe her ... and dust her.

We clipped off what little winter coat she had and gave her a quick bath, since it was still kinda cold. It was horrible she did not just have a few lice on her but she was COVERED in them... when we got her wet the white turned into a flea bitten gray look! We dryed her off and put the powder on her, what a MESS that was!

Here is a pic that we snapped a few days after she had her coat clipped off ..... you can really see just how skinny she really was under the winter fuzzys

Feb 17, 2009

On Feb 17, 2009 I was sitting and surfing the net looking at the pictures of horses that where for sale and stumbled across an add for a Free 20 year old mare that was in need of some TLC. So I decided that I would email and see some pics, later that day I was introduced to Katie. I drove out there that night to see her an 82 mile drive one way in the pouring rain. We did not ever get to the house until well after 9:00 that evening.
The lady that had orginally pulled Katie from where she was living walked me around back and there was Katie in a small paddock with a few other young neglected horses that had also been rescued from a different home. The only blanket that they had to help keep her warm was about 2 sizes to big and she was so skinny that she was able to walk right out of it even with all the buckles done up. This big sweet one eyed mare came up and bumped me with her head untill I started giving her scratches and that was it I knew that she had to come home with me, even my hubby (who at first was less than thrilled about bringing home yet another horse) took one look at her and said tell her that we will pick her up this weekend. So the deal was done and we where brining home the sweet mare.
Went to go pick her up that weekend and thank goodness the weather was better. Her rescuerer told me what little they where able to find out about this horse:
She was picked up by a friend of hers and Katie was living in a tiny mud covered paddock with a paint stallion and her 5 month old baby. Accoring to where they got her from Katie was not that skinny and it was only because she was old. She used to be a beginner show horse somewhere in VA and lost her eye one night coming home from a horse show when the trailer bounced off the ball of the truck and the trailer flipped.
I was worried hearing that she had been in a trailer accident that she would be a bit on the hard side to load up but she hopped right in the trailer without a second thought about it. We finallg got her home and she settled right in...not 10 minutes after we pulled in the rain started up again and she headed right in the run in, we where told that she would not go into a run-in or a stall where she was at. Here are some pics from a few days after we got her home.

This is Katie's Story

I decided to keep a blog of the rescue horses that I take in. I am not a big rescue operation I am just one person that is trying to help one horse at a time find a better home.
I was inspired by the Saving Faith blog to take in my first rescue project and this is her story.
This is a special horse and she will not be rehomed but will spend the rest of her long days happy in the pasture as I feel that she has earned it.
Anyway on to introduce Katie!