minnie pearl likes watermelon rinds...yay....it saves me having to get up from my chair and toss them in the garbage.
i contacted Dr. Paton's equine clinic last week regarding pops..i was forming a medical plan in my head for him that possibly included acupuncture AND physiotherapy to try to relieve his contracted tendon and they are the only clinic that offers a whole range of various services including both of those. anyway out they came today...2 vets and a tech....REALLY super nice folks.
they took a bunch of photo's, some video of pops walking and of course a bunch of xrays....pops was so cooperative and good...no sedation needed. Dr. Paton told me he was a bit worried on his way out here...he had seen the pictures i sent of when pops came in..and frankly he was worried that maybe we were over our heads and not able to provide the kind of care that he needed..in other words...(less politically correct ones)..that maybe we were lunatics trying to save a horse that we had no idea how to care for.
he said he was relieved when he got here to see we were doing a pretty good job...whew! don't want to be sucking here in looking after our dear precious pops!
they are taking everything back to the clinic and will include our vets who know pops so well ( and who Dr Paton says have done a great job on getting his feet as good as they are now)...and Dr. Cruz and who is apparently an awesome equine orthopedic surgeon and their other vets who provide physio and less invasive treatments..all of them involved in a team discussion on what if anything is the best to do for pops. maybe they will recommend surgery (which scares the crap out of me) maybe they will opt out for some combination of accupuncture/botox/orthopediac shoeing/ physiotherapy...or maybe they will say...you know what carol..this is as good as it gets and it is downhill from here so maybe we should think about letting him go without messing around with something that can't be fixed and is about to get a lot worse.
i don't know what the end result will be...but i am so grateful for everyone's expertise to help us make the best decision for pops....right from the start we have all been on the very same page here...what is in the very best interests of pops.
up til now i just didn't know...somedays i was ok just going with the flow...some days i was frightened out of my mind..some days i went back and forth. and really i did feel at all times, that i WAS over my head... i just did not know enough to be calling the shots.
i am so glad they came..i am so relieved that all of the experts can bring all of their extensive knowledge and all of their experience and all of their combined gut feelings to the table. i am so glad our vets will be involved and that Dr. Paton and his crew actually met and touched and personally experienced the actual pops..his kindness, his patience, his great heart for enjoying living.
he is not just some poor, broken, disabled horse in a picture...he is real flesh, blood and incredible spirit.
i am so glad they came here today to help us make whatever decisions we need to make.
but....
now we wait for them to have the discussions to see what they think we should do....waiting sort of sucks a bit tho...but.... hope is floating for now so that's good.
Jenn: I would like to sponser Carl's harem:Annie and Elizabeth and Caroline..Plus start the rabbits off with O'Grady and Thumper.. I'll send the monies along with the cheque I'm mailing to Sheila K...Thanks Cathie K