Founder Rehab Ranch Blog

Hobbs went up this morning, visited with the vet student first… He simply refused to stand still for her exam…. oh well.

Then the vet resident came out… he was definitely tired of all of it by then. She had very downbeat news… she had very little hope anything could be done, his deformity is VERY severe… and with his age, he has been tearing up the joint for a long time. not good… Any procedure would only be ’salvage’.

Finally, the faculty vet surgeon came out… she was much more upbeat and hopeful, although she was frank and open that this was a salvage procedure, that the best we could hope for was for him to look ‘better’ and be pasture sound out of pain, but that he would not likely be ridable. She did however think he could possibly, if all went well, be drivable. The surgery must be the most severe, as the desmotomy will only give him 2 cm of extra extension, and he needs several INCHES… so they have to transect the Deep digital flexor tendon, which will eventually heal back together, but longer…. the lameness, if he has it, will be from his existing deformity, not from the surgery.
 
His coffin bone is not nearly as rotated as it appears from the outside, and it has NOT remodeled.  The joint is good, little if any arthritis… so he has at least hope of recovery… that is why we proceeded to ‘try’ today before he was found to be sick…

They were able to get him on schedule Tuesday, unfortunately, his labs came back pretty bad, white blood cell count of 22,000, fibrinogen of 600, and he is anemic…. 18 hbg.  He has a temp of 102.2… so we all went home. He looks fine, seems to feel fine, no runny nose, lungs clear, neck and under jaw is clear… so we wait for something to ‘emerge’.  Called our normal vet.

Tonight, he gets some bute… and we moved his pen, so he is munching on ‘new’ grass in our back yard… mowing at it’s finest… equine mower!!!

The surgery at UC Davis will be $1200 to 1400, and I ‘think’ today was already $200. Crossed fingers/jingling for a fast recovery from whatever is ‘bugging’ him…. !!!
Beth

What a cutie pie!  Hobbs arrived on Saturday evening with no problems after all that transport.  He’s a chunk of a yearling, and has an adorable split mane with tight ringlets.

OK, ok,  I know that emotional distance is something to be kept until our visit on Tuesday.  Here’s a link to the pictures of his feet taken upon arrival.

http://founder-rehab.com/HobbsFeet3-06.html

He doesn’t appear TOO uncomfortable, but walking around is obviously hard for him.  The ground in the backyard pen seems to agree with him tho, so he should be fine until the visit to U.C. Davis on Tuesday.

 Next post - after the trip to Davis for consultation.

Peg and Beth

If all goes according to plan, we will be picking Hobbs up in American Canyon late this afternoon. 

As with any new resident that has been with a group of unknown horses, Hobbs will have to go into quarantine upon arrival.  Because we want him to be on flat ground, we’ll be setting up a pipe panel fence this morning in our back yard.  The GREAT news for Hobbs is that it is totally filled with very high grass for his munching pleasure. 

 As soon as he gets here, I’ll post an update and some better pictures of his club foot.

 Peg