More about Lilly
Update 06/27/2021
This month it's 2 years that Lilly is with us.
It's been quite a long road with her but her training is finally starting to sink in. Now she stands for the farrier without sedation and she is starting to think about the choices she has instead of just going crazy on me trying to follow her natural instincts to flee. If she is uncertain how to react she looks at me looking for guidance and approval.
Today is definitely a milestone, I put a saddle on her for the first time in almost 1.5 years. She handled it like a champ! No dancing around trying to get away.
Her patience has improved enormously. Now, Lilly can actually stand in one place for a long period of time without going crazy, even a few steps away from me.
Personally I believe nobody ever took the time to do groundwork with her and building up her own confidence by doing so, so she can learn to think about the situation she is in and process it to make good choices. Over the years this kind of stress probably made her blow up at one point and she figured out by doing so, she can get out of whatever situation she was in.
We want to encourage everybody that has a horse with "issues" not to give up. Sometimes you have to put in a lot of time. Not everything can be fixed in 30 days. The reward with every step of progress is amazing!
Update 04/24/2021
Lilly, pretty, pretty Lilly.
On our last update from April 2020 we wrote that we put Lilly back on shoes with a pad on her right front to elevate her right shoulder. It didn't last long and she lost both shoes, messing up her hooves again. So we gave up on that idea. We decided to just let her be a horse for most part and let her grow out her hooves again. Now they look pretty good and healthy.
Lilly doesn't show any signs of lameness anymore. Part of that is probably because she had all that time to rest. In addition she is on NRF2 daily, which probably helps with any kind of soreness. So we decided to put her back into training which can be very difficult. She just still has to work through so much from her past. It's going to take some time but she will come around. On the end of the day, it's not her fault, that she is the way she is. On the other hand however, she can be the sweetest, loving horse.
Lilly's best friends are Red and Digger. The three red ones are never up to any good. Lol.
Lilly also finished her spring vaccines and got her teeth floated. Her total cost was: $ 336,50.
( Her dental float was more expensive because she needed a higher dose of sedation.) Please consider a small donation towards her vet bill. Thank you!
Update 01/13/2021
Lilly decided to keep us on our toes on new year's day. She started to show signs of a server colic so we called our vet to come on an emergency.
He did a physical exam, rectal exam and did a Nasogastric tube placement to get some fluids into her. The suspicion was that she has stomach ulcers which started to flair up because of the bad weather we had.
To get clarification on that we set up an appointment to do a Gastroscopy Exam which was done January 11, 2021. The vet found 2 little ulcers which could cause some discomfort and pain. However it wasn´t as bad as suspected. There is a possibility that she might have ulcers in her hind gut but unfortunately there is no way to check it. So we are hoping this was just a one time thing.
Her vet bill for both visits together was $ 579.25
We also kept Lilly on full tube of UlcerGard for 10 days which is $35/day.
Please consider donating towards Lilly's vet bill.
Thank You!
Otherwise Lilly is doing great. She is still a handful but with little baby steps she is starting to come around.
Update 04/15/2020
In our last update we told you about Lilly's hooves and that we would have to wait for the crack on the front right to grow out, to be able to put her back on shoes with a pad in between in order to elevate her right shoulder again.
On April 10th, the vet was finally able to do that. She now has corrective horse shoes in the front.
On the right side she has a 3 degree wedge pad (with Hawthorne-Oakum Sole Packing) between the shoe and hoof which elevated her shoulder up about 1/2 inch.
Since her hoof wall on that foot was still kind of soft, the vet put another casting tape around it to insure she won't loose the shoe.
The whole bill for that was $ 415.
Lilly also got her EWT/West Nile/Influenza/Rhino Vaccine done on 03/11/2020.
On 03/24/2020 she got Vaccines for Potomac Horse fever+rabies and Strangles.
Her total vet bill for the vaccines was $150. So all together the cost for her on those 3 visits was a total of $565.
Now that Lilly's shoulders are pretty much even again we can slowly start to physically work her again, which hopefully will help her to focus a little better. This girl really has the hardest time to just accomplish the smallest tasks like standing tied up for a longer period of time.
Lilly simply has anxieties.
Our place is a stress free environment, so the only conclusion that makes since lies in her past.
Other physical problems are ruled out. We also put her on NRF2 just in case there is an inflammation going on in her body.
We are in good hopes that with exercise combined with groundwork, we can put her head in a better place. Hopefully, we will soon be able to take her on rides again, which she really enjoyed when she was on her wooden clog.
Lilly is definitely a project but we are not giving up on her. It´s just going to take time to work through her issues and hopefully make a steady, good level headed horse out of her, so she can move on to her forever home.
Please consider donating towards Lilly's vet bill.
Thank you!
Update 01/02/2020
It's been a while since our last update on Lilly. While she was still on her customized wooden clog her lameness was completely gone. We started walking her through our woods and it was very exciting for her. After a while we started taking her on rides. It is a bit tricky to ride her because she gets so excited, but ride after ride she got better.
Unfortunately, the rainy season startedwhen fall arrived and she was slipping a lot, so we decided to take her off the clog.
When Lilly came to us she had extremely bad hooves with many cracks and week hoof walls. By fall her hooves had gotten so much better, so we decided to take her of the shoes and just let all the old cracks, nail holes etc. grow out. However, her front right hoof still has a bad crack. To stabilize the hoof while the crack is growing out she has a cast around it, which needs to be changed about every 6 weeks. This is not cheap.
In addition she hurt her front right leg and had a pretty bad swelling. She wasn´t lame but we had it checked out the first time on November 17, 2019 by ultrasound. ($90)
Since the swelling didn't go down with pressure wraps, another checkup was done on December 3, 2019. Also by ultrasound and a hematoma drainage ($230)
Since the vet was here on December 30, 2019 we had it checked again because the hematoma is still not gone. This time with x-rays. Luckily, nothing found. So we just have to keep putting pressure wraps on her at night until it´s gone. The vet also changed the cast so our farrier doesn´t have to make an extra trip. (All together x-rays and cast: $320)
Please consider donating to us to help us pay for these costs.
The plan for Lilly in the future is to wait until the right hoof is strong enough to hold a shoe.
Pads will be placed between the hoof and shoe to elevate her shoulder again so we can continue her training.
Until then, Lilly does ground work and we are working on her behavior problems like standing still, teaching her patience and her trust issues.
Lilly is not a bad horse at all, it just seems like a lot has gone wrong in her past.
Update 07/22/2019
Lilly has settled in very nicly and become good friends with our Tinkerbell.
We had the vet out a week ago for a full lameness examination. This is what we have found out and the treatment we started:
Lameness Examination - Presenting Concern:
Forelimb lameness
Hoof testers: No pain elicited in the left or right front feet
Lunging to the left: 1/5 Left Hind Limb
Lunging to the right: 3/5 Right Front Limb
Flexions:
RH hock/stifle: 1/5
LH hock/stifle/: 2/5
RF Knee: 0/5 RF
Fetlock: 0/5
Diagnostic Analgesia:
PD Block of the RF - No significant improvement
Abaxial Block of the RF - No significant improvement
Assessment:
The significant right forelimb lameness is originating from the proximal limb. No lameness is originating from the carpus or below. The front limbs are the same length from the carpus to the ground indicating that the proximal region of the RF is shorter than that of the left. Given the findings of the exam it is suspected that the lameness is likely mechanical in origin and may not be pain based.
Examination:
Confirmation: Right shoulder is dropped about 2 inches lower than left shoulder with notable muscle atrophy.
Treatment:
Customized flat wooden clog applied onto the right front foot. Clog has a 1.5 inch thickness
Lilly has been walking really well on her customized wooden clog.
We do believe we are on to her behavior problem of rearing up when it comes to riding her.
The fact that her shoulders are so uneven and unevenly developed makes a good saddle fit pretty much impossible, which can also cause severe soreness.
So the goal right now is to even out the muscle build on her shoulders, which is going to take time. At this point we don´t know if it will be possible at all.
However, we are determined to find a way for Lilly to have a job that she loves, pain free and thriving at it.
07/06/2019 More pictures of Lilly:
