Walking Scribbles on Sunday Oct 17th Our first video

You can see that Scribbles is doing well walking, but holds her tail to the left, and isnt completely steady on her feet.  We know that all will come with time.  A week and a half ago we werent sure if she would even be able to walk- her back legs were like spagetti, so to walk her Sunday was wonderful.  Thanks Amanda, for letting us stop by in the middle of the day.  Your horse is very cute, by the way-  Two days left, and then life will be getting back to a new normal :)

See how well I'm healing!

Visit to Scribbles home away from home

Sunday, Oct 17th Phil told me he'de drive to Rochester so I could see Scribbles, and not drive alone.  Amy came, too, before heading back to school which was really nice.  Scribbles looks terrific, we gave her a good curry, and brushing.  She is walking really well- we brought her out of the stall to walk up and down the aisle.  Not perfect yet, but a long way from where she started 17 days ago.  I wasnt going to go and see her, but Phil knew it was bothering me not to.  He cleaned all the blood out of the trailer- it's the first day I've gone to Rochester and it hasnt rained.  The trailer was a mess- and now it's tidy and ready for her return

We brought her supplement up today- finally.  I kept thinking she'de be coming home sooner.  She snacked on hay stretcher pellets, Glanzen 3 (her supplement and apples.  Amy and I enjoyed being with her, brushing her etc- what an amazing horse, she's come so far!

So fingers crossed (again) for a homecoming Wednesday.  I will be glad when she's back home, and life is back to normal again! 

A day to organize

Your home is waiting for you...

Today our children, Adam and Amy- and Kelly's 3 children (much younger than mine) helped us to clean and organize the main floor of the barn for the tack sale.  It felt good to get things organized.  My oldest daughter is turning 21, Rachael 19 and Adam 15.  Kelly's kids are younger, and so nice to be with.  She left them with us for the afternoon- it was a treat for us.  Ally, their youngest (8)  has a horse in the barn, Missy.  She helped clean the stalls, with Amy and  set up feed, and we had to brush Missy today.  We got organized for our tack sale the 23rd, and have a nice array of tack, saddles, blankets, even a pony cart and harness!  It should be a good day, and hopefully people will come- so please do! 

We also went out to Joan's in Londonderry, where Scribbles recieved her two months of training.  It was so good to see her, there really is comfort is seeing a friend who welcomes you whether you've seen or talked to each other yesterday or six months ago.  I got to introduce her to Kelly- I am always singing Joan's praises as a horse person, trainer and best of all as a wonderful woman I'm lucky  to know and  call a friend.  Again, we met each other through the horses- which is cool.  A couple at Joan's who had worked with Scribbles, Myles and Marian donated three beautiful saddles, saddle pads, a fly sheet, girths.  It was so generous of them- and meaningful as they really got to know Scribbles well, including helping with her training.  We got to know each other a bit, too, and got chances to ride and train together.  Okay, we got a chance to have Joan tell us what to do in the round-pen to properly train Scribbles ; ). 

The whole day I struggled with whether I should go to see Scribbles or not.  It takes a solid hour and a half one way, so really when all is said and done with it's many hours worth of travel to get there and back to see my horse. There is a horse at the clinic from Conneticut- and one who lives 4 hours away in Maine, so I shouldnt feel so bad- but she's there so long and I feel like she needs MY care.  Realistically, she needs the care of medical staff but I am finding it really difficult not seeing my injured horse.  Today I felt she needed a good brushing, I wanted to wash the blood off of her face from the night, detangle her mane and tail, etc.  The other horses at the clinic, though injured or not well have  appearances which are much better than Scribbles!  I know that will come in time- it takes patience and time, as the great Craig Cameron has said.  I have lots of time to wait, and the circumstances are giving me a lesson in patience!

Maybe tomorrow I'll sneak out early to go to see my girl.  I have a big bag of carrots to leave for her, and I thought I'de make a warm mash with hay stretcher pellets for her.  It all depends on how motivated I feel at 5 tomorrow am!

The horse from Maine, Mercedes, is a cute Arab gelding that the family has only had for a couple of months.  Poor guy had kidney stones, too big to pass. They got him as a rescue, and I could tell they really loved their horse-julst like we do.   I am learning a lot from this experience.  It was really nice to talk with his owners/family about the worries of bringing your horse to the Myhre Clinic, or any Equine hospital like that- so nervewracking.  But true to form, the Dr got the operation done, and the family could leave Friday evening with a sense of relief.  Mercedes, sending get well wishes your way!

Scribbles is not coming home on Sunday, we have to wait until Wednesday!



Phil and Scribbles Jan 2010

Amy and I drove out to Rochester to visit Scribbles tonight.  We made it there by about 4:45, a long drive in the rain and though I'de intended to get out of work pretty early, I ended up there later.  Which is fine, I love my job- why cant I split myself in two on these kinds of days???

The drive was long.  Today was a day just like Oct 1st, two weeks ago.  Kelly came to the barn four times today- me, twice and Amy twice.  We are now afraid of the wind and rain!  Eight visits to check on the horses in my back yard.  Oct 1st just keeps coming back to us. 

It was a windy  and rainy drive, Amy was carsick from not eating today, driving four hours from school, and then a trip out to Rochester.  She was good company though, I've missed her.  Amy baked horse cookies for Scribbles, and the other horses at our barn so Scribbles got a nice home-made treat today. 

Amy thought Scribbles looked better than she imagined she would.  Another family was watching Dr Myhre do surgery to remove bladder stones(- ouch), from their horse.  As we were chatting we told the family Scribbles was our horse.  They thought she looked terrible- put in the nicest way.  I guess it's all perspecive, as we thought she looked tired, but really good!  She has lost muscle tone from the trauma and having to stay quiet in her stall.  She has lots of scabby fur and skin peeling off of her where she had trauma, and on her belly where she had lots of edema.  She's got stitches up the front of her face, with silvadine spray all over it, complimented with the colors of betadine scrub.  A lovely yellow and silver, complimented by the red blood seeping out of her nostril.  All a part of the healing process.

Dr Myhre left a bone fragment the size of my thumb in a sterile jar in the bucket of her stall.  He had removed this, and many bone fragments yesterday in her surgery. I had hesitated about having the surgery done, but after seeing what was floating in her face I am so glad that we had the surgery done.  Dr Myhre was able to make a significant difference in the opening of her sinus cavity on the right side, her eyes are okay and she WILL have a permanent physical reminder of her accident- via a small concavity on the right side of her face.  Dr Vin says this will give her character, stories to tell.  Her appearance is remarkably better.

So the outcome?  Our little patient is doing well, but not ready to come home yet.  Fingers crossed for Wed's !

Surgery went well- really well....

Good evening.  I'm so tired, but in a nutshell surgery went well and Dr Myhre feels he got about a 50% improvement, removing bone fragments, opening up her sinus on the right side, ascertaining that there were no bone shards in the sinuses.  It went very well, I'll see Scribbles tomorrow and find out when we can bring her home-we'de like to  touch base a day after the surgery and find out the type of after care she'll need. 

The upside is all the love and support we've received.

You wont believe this, but the downside, is that someone took over our Craigslist ads, copied them and posted them about our tack sale.  But the responses will go to a total stranger aka donations.  Please be careful.    Please do not send donations anywhere else but to Myhre.  Just when I was beginning to think we lived in a perfect world- people take advantage of our situation.  And if you donate tack, I will indentify myself with a drivers license if I dont know you.  Unbelieveable, that someone would take advantage of others who are helping a horse and family in a tough bind- ugh.  But I believe all the good outweighs the not so good. 

Goodnight and pleasant dreams~

Surgery for Scribbles today

On Wednesday the opthamologist looked at Scribbles eyes and confirmed that they were in good shape, all things considered.  She'll continue to need antibiotics put into her eyes as they heal from the trauma of a massive amount of sand in them, but her vision is good.  She has an ulcer in her left eye from being scraped by dirt and sand for so long, and we think it'll resolve over time.

Dr Myhre can do her surgery today.  With the okay on her eyes, it's a relief.  He's hopeful that pulling up the bone will resolve breathing issues on her right side.  He's pretty amazing, I cant imagine performing a surgery like that.  Of course there are no guarantees, but fingers crossed he'll be able to make a little difference through pulling the bone up a bit.  We have faith that she is in the best place she can be for now, and that they're doing all they can.  She has come so far in their care.

We'll talk this afternoon, following her surgery to discuss when we can bring her home- yay!!