Saving Crownie

I've been busy.  Not riding.  Trying to save my horse.  My husband's horse.  Crownie.

She hasn't looked "right" for about a year now.  But with my own recovery from illness, I haven't had enough energy to do much more than standard care.  This year, in about April I got more serious though.

First, I ensured her diet was sufficient, and full of the right minerals.  But she did not improve.  Her worming program and teeth were up to date.

Then when she got what looked like an abcess in her eye, I called the vet out.  We looked at everything.  We reviewed her diet.  The vet checked her teeth.  We took bloods.  We took poo samples.  The vet left me with an oinment for her eyes.

Everything came back clear.  The bloods were excellent, except for low protein content.  The poo came back clear - that's right, no worms at all!

The eye ointment helped a bit, but the swelling around the eye remained.

I started reading.  Was it a Gutteral Puch infection?  Could it be Crohn's disease?  Or were her tear ducts simply blocked?

Then I started injecting her with vitamins.  25ml of vitamin C, 10ml of B complex, 10ml of vitamin B12 and 10ml of VAM.  I wanted to inject her with 10ml of B15 (DADA) as well, but this was very hard to get hold of.  That's a lot of needle pricks per day.  And on a poorly muscled horse you soon start running out of neck room.

I also washed out her eyes daily.  The whole routine took me about 1 hour.  I couldn't do it every day, but I did it about 4 to 5 days per week.

At night I paddocked her in the only paddock that has a stable.  And during the daytime I allowed her to graze the fresh, clean grass along the driveway.

After four weeks I called the vet out again.  He looked at her eyes, then started feeling further down her body.  Under her jaw, at her chest, in her groin.  In her groin?!  Panic!  He was checking her lymphatic system.  Finally, he called me over, and asked me to have a feel of a lump on her chest.  A lymph node.  It was enlarged.  Very enlarged.  "I think it's Cancer", he said.

I can't say that I panicked, or felt like crying, or felt gutted.  I had suspected as much.  And so, as much as I have tried, I may not be able to save Crownie.  There is only one way out of life for all of us, and Crownie isn't "young" any more.  She will be 20 in November.  Of course, many horses last longer than that, but she always seemed more fragile.  Even her coat was always softer than that of other horses, much to the delight of people who patted her.

For the time being I'll keep my routine of paddocking and feeding, although I will probably reduce the injections to once per week.  As my horses come back into work, I just won't have the time to do daily injections, and Crownie's a bit sick of them too.

When she is grazing the driveway she has direct access to the shed where I make up the horses' feed.  It is beautiful to be in the shed measuring out oaten and lucerne chaff, and to hear the click click of Crownie's shoes on the gravel as she comes to investigate.  It's priceless to hear her sniff the air as she approaches the shed door, and then to see the soft black nostrils poke gently through the doorway.