[newtrailriders]

Double posting some of what I posted in the other thread - so I'll have this in my journal.

This morning I managed to get a drop inside Ona's eye totally for the first time (instead of just on the conjunctiva) and it must have burned. She panicked and we had a wreck. She pulled back hard and bent the metal fence panel I had her tied to. After that I knew she'd never let me put drops in again so I called the vet and asked her to refer us to the opthalmologist for the tubes. On the way to the opthalmologist, the brakes went out on our truck. Fortunately it's a stick shift and we have brakes on the trailer so we made it there and back, but we're going to have to have the truck fixed before we bring her for her recheck. I'd just got our credit card almost paid off dangit.

The tubes are in and we're out about $2,300 so far for the tubes and meds and the special mask with metal baskets to protect her eyes. Even with all this the vet says most horses only have a 50% or less chance of recovering completely. She says we really did get her in early so she's hopeful our chances should be a lot better. Ona does have infected ulcers in both eyes but they're mild. They cultured her eyes and also looked under the microscope. So far only bacteria, no fungus. When they get the culture results back we might need to change her antibiotics.

It's going to be hard to get to work on time in the mornings. We have to instill medications 5 times per day. 2 different antibiotic drops, the serum drops, a dilating drop, banamine (orally) for the pain, and a medication to prevent ulcers from the banamine. My husband is going to give the 10 am and 2 pm meds while I'm at work.

We're going to keep her in her stall during the day since her eyes will be dilated, and that will be easier for Lance. I'm letting her graze at night. It's cleaner outside in the pastures than in a stall, and she's less likely to rub against things.

I wanted to protect those tubes! She has the special mask on with the metal baskets and I put her regular fly mask on over that and then one of those neck sleezy things that also goes over the face with openings for the eyes and ears and fastens around her check and between her legs. If she tried she could still break or dislodge the tubes but this seems to be a pretty secure, comfortable setup for her.

I asked if the eye drops would be painful and they said they didn't think they would be.....I guess we'll find out. She didn't act like she was in pain tonight when i did it but she still might have been feeling a little sedated.

I'd taken today and tomorrow off because I'm supposed to be at the girls ride with my friends and neighbors, for 4 days. Not going to make it to that.

 

[newtrailriders]

We did the treatments as ordered all week and brought Ona back to the vet on Thursday - the two ulcers were healed very well but somehow she developed a new ulcer on her right eye, and this one is a melting ulcer. It's larger and more serious than the previous two were but it was caught early - she'd really started looking a lot better. Then, on Wednesday, she was holding that right eye shut again. It may have started on Tuesday and we started treatment Thursday so hopefully it will heal OK? But now, between Lance and I, we're literally spending over 6 hours per day treating her eyes and setting up meds. We have to wait 15 minutes between each med so most of that time is spent in the barn, waiting. Today she's opening her right eye again. I could see the ulcer for the first time.

Some of the meds are 5 times a day, some six, some 4, one every other day in 1 eye and every day in the other. Some have to be given at least 1/2 hour apart from one another - and they're all cycling through the tube, which stays loaded at all time. So when we're pushing one med into the tube, a med that was pushed in earlier is going into the eye.

We've developed a system that works for us. We have a spreadsheet showing what time each med is due for each eye (she's still getting a couple drops in her left eye just to completely finish up the healing). I ordered enough extra syringes from Amazon so I can set 24 hours worth of meds up at once. We have a baggie for each eye, for each time of the day. So there's a baggie for the right eye and one for the left eye to be given at 6-8 am, 10 am, 2pm, 4pm, 6 pm and 8 pm. The syringes for the meds that have to be given 1/2 hour apart are tagged with tape and we make sure we always start with a flagged med, use a med in between the flagged meds, and end with a non-flagged med. Sometimes we have to use a dose of normal saline in between so we never end up giving the two meds one right after another. Then we give all medications 15 minutes apart. This guarantees the ones that need to be 1/2 hour apart are never given too close together. After all the meds are given for the day, I rinse each syringe out with saline and set them up for the next day. This takes me about an hour.

I have friends who've done this and heard a lot of stories about their horses rubbing their tubes and breaking them so I decided to prevent that right off the bat. Ona wears the mask from the vet with the metal baskets over the eyes to prevent rubbing. A piece of hay got through that one day (it might have poked her eye and caused the new ulcer) so I put a fly mask over that mask. The tubes are woven through her mane so, over the two masks, she's wearing a sleazy to cover her mane. I have 2 sleazies and extra fly masks so when they get wet from drainage from her eye I can wash them and this helps me keep an eye on how much she's draining. One sleazy has a part that goes between the front legs and I like that one a lot better than the one that doesn't. This morning I found her in the pasture with the sleazy (without the thing between the legs) somehow pulled up over her head and hanging down to the ground covering her face and eyes. Of course she couldn't see anything. I put it on tighter today and will switch it out for the other one when the other one is dry. Maybe I can rig something up for between her legs on the one that doesn't have it.

PJ was spending all day standing outside her stall keeping an eye on her, not eating. He even learned to open the door to let her out, so now we're keeping all 3 horses stalled during the day and letting them out at night. We tried leaving Joe out but the other two horses resented him being free in the barn aisle and pasture while they were in their stalls so now he's locked up too.

 

[weeedlady]

It sounds like you are doing a good job taking care of her. poor girl.

 

[newtrailriders]

Ona's keeping her eye open more, which I think means it's not hurting so badly. I got a really good look at both ulcers today for the first time. The one the vet said was 100% healed looks red. I think that's the vascularization though and not the ulcer? IDK. The melting ulcer - I can't tell if it's better or worse but it must be better if she's opening her eye.

She's resenting the drops more every time we go in there. I'm trying to alleviate her anxiety by letting her know exactly when the medicine is going to go in, so she won't be surprised. I wait for her to take the carrot so she's kind of saying "OK I'm ready."

 

[newtrailriders]

She’s getting kicky and Lance doesn’t have the confidence to handle that while i’m at work so we rigged up a safer system.

 

[newtrailriders]

Boy it's a good thing we had that in place - she would have cow kicked me very hard a few minutes ago otherwise. If I'd had my crop with me I would have whacked her back but I didn't....I'm kind of scared to go out there for her last treatment in 40 minutes.

 

[newtrailriders]

She was calmer this morning - maybe because we've started instilling the medications very slowly, and she knows when it's going to happen, and she can't get away from us. She seemed tired though, and not holding her eye open as well as yesterday. She bumped into a gate so I think she was walking with it shut. She did open it a bit when I had her masks off to wash around it, but I couldn't see much. I think she's tired of being sick.

 

[newtrailriders]

She only kicked out for Lance once today and he said it wasn't hard at all, or aimed at him or anywhere near him. She was an angel for me and she seemed to be feeling better this evening. I didn't look at her eyes - I'll look again tomorrow morning.

She doesn't try to keep us from getting the needle into the port anymore, because she knows we won't push the medication in until she takes the carrot. We put the needle in and then hold the carrot out and wait for her to take it before slowly pushing the meds in. Sometimes it does burn and she rubs her mask on the wall after. I pressure washed the walls of the stall and sprayed them down with bleach yesterday! Don't want dirt and germs falling into her eyes when she rubs against the walls.

 

[newtrailriders]

I took Joe out of the pasture for a ride today! It had been about a year since I'd ridden him, and last year I only rode him a handful of times. He's become a pasture puff! It took at least half an hour to get him loaded - he wasn't giving up retirement without a fight! He was super great on the trail, though. He is such a sweet heart. I've neglected Joe and PJ because I spend so much time with Ona - I've really been missing out! Joe isn't half as opinionated as Ona. He sure is wide, though - I really feel it in my hips. On the bright side, he makes my butt look smaller.

We rode with a new friend I met on Facebook and her new mustang, Tonka. Susan has done such an amazing job with Tonka. She got him from the prison program. He was taken from the wild and a prisoner put 60 days on him, then Susan brought him home and continued his training. She's only had him a little over a year and he was really great on the trail.

I didn't realize it until today, but Susan is a very accomplished artist! She and an area musician created a collaborative celebration of the Flint Hills which is just beautiful:

Here's a llink to the rest of her paintings: Susan Rose - Portfolio of Works.

 

[knightrider]

So glad you had a chance to have some fun and everything went well!

 

[newtrailriders]

Time for an Ona eye update. She's been a lot more comfortable and keeping her eyes open. Yesterday was the first time I've been home when the lighting was good and she was able to keep her eyes open for photos. We're doing two meds four times a day now plus atropine to dilate her right eye every other day. Gradually titrating down on everything! We're thinking it will probably be 3 more weeks before we're done? Maybe? If we're lucky? IDK it's hard to tell.

Her left eye is doing much better than the right.

Tomorrow I'm going out for another group ride on Joe.

 

[newtrailriders]

Super fun group ride today. About 5-6 miles on Joe (foxtrotter) with Althea on her walker, Jason. We were the only gaited riders so we were out front the whole time, but a great big paint actually kept up with us and was even in the lead part of the time! Boy - Joe is an entirely different horse than Ona. So much easier, no stress, no worries - and he's a lot faster and just generally seems to enjoy the ride. The only problem we have is getting him loaded but we'll worok on that. I think he may do better than Ona at CTR even though he's 23 or 24.

 

[newtrailriders]

More photos of today's ride.

 

[carshon]

What fun! I have a friend that rides a horse that looks exactly like your friends TWH and Copper is a walker too. I'm glad you had fun, Joe looks fabulous.

 

[newtrailriders]

What fun! I have a friend that rides a horse that looks exactly like your friends TWH and Copper is a walker too. I'm glad you had fun, Joe looks fabulous.

Thank you! You'd never guess he was 24!

 

[newtrailriders]

Bad day today. I brought Ona back to the opthalmologist and her eyes still aren't healing right. The Dr. says, while the initial injury was caused by the wipes, if that was the only problem they should have been healed by now. She thinks Ona may have some sort of ocular immune disease. She prescribed a topical and an oral antiinflammatory and we see her again in 2 weeks.

As we were driving away, something happened with the truck again. Maybe transmission? I had to call a friend to go all the way there to tow Ona home with her truck and Lance came with his truck, to tow my truck home. It was running a little better without being hooked to the horse trailer so we decided it would be safer for Lance to drive it home rather than towing through interstate traffic. It made it home - barely.

 

[weeedlady]

Wow You did have a bad day! So sorry to hear Ona is still having troubles. Hoping she heals soon.

 

[knightrider]

Will it never end? I am so sorry

 

[newtrailriders]

We're still doing treatments 3 times a day and Ona's next appointment is on Tuesday. The vet is thinking she'll have to remove the tubes then. I guess they can't stay in too long, so the vet made it clear to me I need to work on getting Ona to let me put the drops in. Ona's healing has pretty much stalled. Every night I've been working with her using syringes of saline and trying to get some in her eye. I guess she's making some progress. It takes forever - just a lot of patience and head tossing before she finally decides to hold her head still and let me put the syringe on her closed eye and put a drop on the closed lids. Yesterday and today I did manage to get one drop in, and when that happened I stopped messing with her and let her eat some grain. I really hope I'll be able to do what I need to do for her when we have to take the tubes out. I'm not sure I will.

My truck's not back from the repair shop yet. It sounds like it's not the transmission. The guy thinks maybe it's a wiring problem. I'm borrowing our neighbor's bumper pull trailer and using my husband's truck to take her to the vet Tuesday. I really hope my truck can be fixed. It's got 305,000 miles on it. It's a 20-year-old Doge Ram 3500, paid off, and I love it. I don't want to buy a new truck. My husband's truck is almost paid off so we could afford it but it seems a a bit ridiculous to buy a new truck just for my horse hobby. I've suggested my husband give me his truck to use and get himself a new one but he's not sold on that idea. He has other things he'd rather buy. Ugh. First world problems I guess I can just get a cheap bumper pull.

 

[knightrider]

I've been thinking a whole lot about Ona and hoping for an update. Unfortunately, your update is not an encouraging one. I feel so sad that you are going through this.