Seven months later.......

I like to ride my horse alone. I ride as an escape from "the world."  So... when I want to take pictures, I have to take them myself. I guess you will have to trust that we went riding this day.  Everything is working well on the pretty princess.  Her lip is straight, her ear swivels, her eye blinks, and she walks steadily. You can see, here, that I have been riding her in a hackamore and I don't fight with her head set so if she wants to carry her head a little higher, I let her because after all this, what's the big deal where she carries her head.  I notice a little twitch in the side of her mouth after we work and that may be permanent.  I doesn't seem to bother her very much so we just ignore that.  I give her a little massage to help relax the twitch but I don't know if it really helps. It is the middle of February and she looks a little rough.  She is still a bit furry and not groomed to show quality, but after a 7 month lay off she still looks pretty good.  I can't wait to see how she looks by May.

This site has a good explanation

More people have come across my blog because they have had to encounter this ugly problem with their own precious horses.  I am humbled to be able to help you know what may lie ahead in your journey.  I am adding in a wonderful site that explains the problem and shows some good pictures of the problem.


http://www.roodandriddle.com/2011/09/my-horse-has-what-temporohyoid-osteoarthropathy/

this is why I wrote this blog....

I received this comment today on the blog.  This brought me to tears.  This is the reason that I started this blog in the first place.  


I've never met you or Truffles but I came across this blog when I found out my horse also had temporohyoid osteoarthropathy. Your story gave me so much hope, and helped me decide to go through with the surgery. If I hadn't found your blog, my mare would not be alive right now. Thank you so much, and I wish you and Truffles all the best. 


I ask God, in Jesus' name, to help you through this terrible time.  Please give your mare the time it takes to help her to get better.  Do what you can to make her comfortable.  If you find yourself having to get up every 4 hours to medicate her, do it.  She may be left with some residual symptoms or make a complete and miraculous recovery.  Please contact me any time to ask how I got through this.  Be watchful for that nasty mrsa infection in the wound area, as it is actually common in horses.  It makes the recovery time longer.  God bless you,  stay strong and remember it has been about 6 months so far in this journey for me and I think it will take 6 more but we are getting there.

We've come a long way....

For the past week she has not worn her mask that covers her eye with the plastic cup.  I was nervous about leaving it off but I had to find out if she could do without it.  Her eye has been moist and it looks like she is making enough tears to leave it off.  I just picked up the last of her antibiotics, too.  We are going to stop giving her these after this last batch.  So ten more days and we will see how she does without anything but her normal vitamins.  I hope that her own immune system is now strong enough to keep this infection from coming back.  This has been a long road.  I hope we are at the end of it. We will know in a couple of months if everything is back to normal.  Her lip still gets a little crooked when she runs around in the bullpen but it goes away after an hour or two.  It may be a forever thing but we sure have come a long way.

Christmas time is here

It is really nice so see that she is doing so well now.  I think we've come to the last of the antibiotics.  She is a furry as a bear this December. What a great Christmas present it would be to be off the antibiotics and back to normal.  

I think it s pretty great that she gets to graze in the pasture in December.  I remember growing up in Nebraska and having to ride my horse in about six feet of snow around this time of year.  Believe me, I hate snow and don't miss it one bit. 

The fashionista...well, pretty soon anyway

I have been riding a little bit but I still have to be careful.  If she works too hard her lip gets a little twisted. I goes away in an hour or two. My vet thinks that the bones at the surgery site still have to fuse better.  So if I only ride her at a walk, she does ok.  If this continues, I will have to go back to just hand walking her so that there is no pressure on any nerves.  She still has the mrsa bacteria and is on tons of antibiotics or should I say "antibiotic$$$$$$$$".  If she hadn't developed this bacteria from her surgery, we wouldn't be still fighting.  We would be in recovery.  Oh well,  what do you do.  I am in it this far, so I guess I will get through it eventually.  She still has a little trouble with the moisture level in  her eye so she is going to become quite the fashionista.  She wears the ugly eye cup mask 24/7 but, now, when I ride she will be wearing the fancy/shmancy race horse blinkers that "The Finish Line of Oklahoma" is making for me.  These blinker masks are made for race horses and come in any color, design, material, logo, and blinker color that you could imagine.  Her mask will have smoke colored lenses that will cover her eye completely and act as sunglasses.  I am ordering a lens for each eye so that there is some mental symmetry as well as aesthetic value.  She is going to look so cool.  This will help keep her eye from drying out when we ride and offer her some protection from the dust and junk in the air.  I can't wait to get it. Watch for pictures.  And don't ask me how much the mask is going to set me back.  It is pricey but I think it is worth it.

a long and winding road..........

Another bottle of antibiotics and I am hopeful that we can finally kick this mrsa.  I actually doubt that it is going to be that easy but I can try to think positively.  Her infection is not getting in the way of your 15 minute rides.  The last couple of times I was able to just hop on  with the hackamore and no saddle.  She didn't take a misstep or act silly in any way.  There doesn't seem to be any neurological damage and she  goes along just like she did before.  Her ears work, her eye blinks, and she is making more tears every day. I still have her wearing her mask with the plastic cup over her eye just as a precaution.  We only put ointment in her eye once a day, too.  Now, she stands there without a halter or lead rope and lets me cram my whole finger into her eye.  Before it took an act of congress to get her to let us do that.  Nothing seems to hurt anymore so she is a little less skittish when I handle her.  I think we are at the end of worrying about the temporohyoid osteoarthroapy. We are only working on the infection now and that will take a while to clear up.  I will keep posting to this blog to let you know what may happen in the long run.  So, check back periodically and I will keep writing.  This has been a long and horrible road that I have been traveling.  At this point with her recovery, this far, I am glad that I saw it through because I have my horse back.