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Missy's Story

On June 8, 2005 I received one of the phone calls all horse people fear.  My horse had cut herself and the vet had been called.  I left work in a panic and arrived at the barn to find my 23 year old Quarter Horse mare gazing at me without concern.  Looking into the stall all my eyes could see was the mangled flesh that should have been her right hind fetlock.  She had fallen through a culvert that ran between two pastures.  I will admit that I cried.

As a child all I wanted was a horse.  I ate, slept and breathed them.  When the neighbors down our country road called my parents to offer riding lessons on their horse I was thrilled.  I spent every moment I could there, learning all I could.  Miss Tardy Del, affectionately known as Missy, was 5 years old and green broke. I was 10 and knew even less, so we learned together.  When my parents were convinced that I was serious my little girl dreams came true.  On a warm summer night I was surprised with the news that Missy was mine.  I didn't believe anyone until they pulled her papers out with my name on them as owner.

Missy and I went through the Trailblazers 4-H Club together,  participated in shows on the Eastern Shore and Delaware and participated in all the fun shows and trail riding.  We had fun and we did well together.  As I grew up I gave up showing, but not my love for her.  I went away to college and Missy stayed home.  When I returned to the Eastern Shore Missy was here waiting and it was like we had never been apart. 

So now I am staring at my beloved horse and wondering what to do next.  When Dr. Liz Bruce arrives the news is not good.  She doesn't think that the joint capsule has been compromised, but Missy's extensor tendons have been severed and the wound is very large.  We have a lot of work ahead of us.  We started with a huge course of antibiotics and lots of bandage changes.  Missy was confined to her stall except for twice weekly vet visits and daily bandage changes.  The veterinarians would come and debride away the excess granulation tissue.  The summer months passed by and before we knew it Labor Day was upon us.  The huge fissures in the wound had filled in and we had a smooth bed of granulation tissue to work with and new skin was starting to form along the edges  We were hopeful

On September 8, 2005 Veterinary Medical Center was scheduled for their regular visit  When I arrived at the barn Missy was happy to see me as usual, but she was different.  When I went in the stall her bandage was soaked through with fluid which wasn't normal.  I waited anxiously for the vet.  Dr. Chris Gordon arrived and we removed the bandage to find a nightmare.  Despite the heavy antibiotics an infection had formed in Missy's fetlock joint.  It had ruptured and we were faced with a ruptured joint capsule with exposed bone.  Dr. Gordon looked at me with tears in her eyes and said "It's time to go to New Bolton.  It's her only chance."  She hugged me hard as we cried and then we made arrangements.  I had not been traveling with my horses for years and my trailer wasn't tagged or road worthy.  Most of the local horse people were involved with Tuckahoe Outlaw Days and were unavailable.  The staff of VMC manned the phones to find a way to get Missy to the hospital.  I called upon the help of the woman who trained us, YeaYea Benjamin, and we were successful.  A saint named Beth Lynch whom I had never met said that she couldn't take us, but she would give us her truck and trailer to take Missy.  I will never be able to repay her kindness.

It was a long and tense ride to New Bolton Center for myself, my husband (he was driving) and my mother.  The doctors were waiting when we arrived and we moved right into the hospital.  When the doctors unwrapped her leg they shook their heads.  They talked to me about her prognosis, but I can't remember what they said, I just held Missy's head close to my chest.  She never moved.  The doctor said she would go get another surgeon and that we should talk about what we wanted to do.  The four of us stood in silence as life went on around us.  When the doctors returned they gave us the option of blood work and radiographs to assess her health which we did.  When we met again they showed us the results.  Missy did not have a systemic infection, but the damage to her fetlock was severe and they could already see changes to the bone.  Her odds of survival with surgery and intense treatment were less than 50%, but they would try if we wanted to.  They left us to decide.  All I could think of was 18 years with Missy and the possibility that they were about to end because of a rusty culvert.  We decided to go for the surgery.

I left my baby in the care of the surgeons and headed home.  Missy would have surgery under general anesthesia where they would clean up the wound and repair what they could.  She would have a cast and daily local injections of antibiotics.  Rob Sigafoos, the head farrier, designed a special boot for Missy's left hind leg to help her distribute her weight evenly and to protect against laminitis.  All I could do was wait.  In two weeks we would change the cast to see if she was healing and make the decision whether to continue.  I was a wreck.  New Bolton was a 2 hour drive from my house.  I would go to work for the day and then drive to New Bolton for a 1 hour visit and then home again.  I didn't want her to think that I had abandoned her.

We ended up not having to wait two weeks to find out our answer.  On September 21^st, two days before the scheduled date, Dr. James Nutt, one of the surgeons, called me at work to tell me they were changing the cast early because Missy was showing signs of discomfort.  I broke down in tears and asked him to save my horse.  He exhibited every amount of compassion that a distraught owner could ask of from their doctor.  Everyone was pleasantly surprised with the way the wound was healing so the cast was replaced and we would wait another two weeks.  I continued my visits and Missy began to thrive under their constant care.  On October 4th they changed the cast again.  One week later on October 10th the second cast was replaced with a semi-permanent cast and we began to talk about sending Missy home.  But where would she go?  We needed a place that provided 24 hour care and that could deal with a critically injured horse.  Once again VMC offered their support and got on the phone.  We found the perfect place...Harris Paint Horses in Federalsburg, Maryland.

On October 16, 2005 I saw Missy's wound for the first time since she arrived at New Bolton, and I couldn't believe my eyes.  Instead of a gaping hole there was a smooth bed of healthy tissue and quite a bit of new smooth skin around the edges.  I learned how to change Missy's special bandage cast and we left the hospital.  This time Beth Lynch was able to drive us personally and take us to what would become both my horses permanent home.

I never stop being amazed at the wonders of modern medicine and technology.  Mr. Sigafoos had made Missy a special extended toe plate for a shoe.  On the extension they had attached a ball-and-socket joint with a long metal plate.  I would medicate the wound, wrap it with several layers of bandage material and secure the metal plate to the front of her leg.  The combination of the plate and the extended toe shoe prevented her from flexing the fetlock.  I changed the bandages every other day and continued to worry while Missy slowly healed.  

During the first few weeks that Missy was at Harris Paints I realized how wonderful the owners Cindy and Tim Harris were and that their only employess Anna Forbes was cut from the same mold.  They were supportive and caring and we quickly became friends.  Despite the fact that they were not a typical boarding facility Cindy offered me another stall for my aged gelding, Cody.  My horse family was together again. 

Now that Missy was home again VMC was once again coming on a regular basis.  Despite the topical steroid application proud flesh was trying to form and that had to be kept under control.  Once again it had to be debrided.  During this time Missy had also developed narcolepsy.  She would fall asleep standing up and just fall over.  A head bumper did little to cushion the falls.  During this period of her recovery Cindy was watching her on the foaling monitor from the house and she was regularly startled by the sound of Missy falling over.  

The time was approaching for a checkup at New Bolton and I was once again faced with the dilemma of transportation.  On November 14th another angel entered my life.  Karen Mack, the equine secretary at VMC volunteered her day off to take us.  So we loaded up and headed off.  At New Bolton Missy was examined and fitted with a new shoe and the splint was replaced.  The doctors were pleased with her progress and we continued with the every other day bandage changes.

Another month of bandage changes and we were back at New Bolton on December 5th.  Missy was continuing to do well.  The wound was closing in neatly and she was still in good spirits despite having been confined to a stall for 6 months.  At this time we were able to put 2 days between bandage changes.  That was a definite relief.  Each bandage change required 2 Telfa pads, a roll of sheet cotton, a roll of VetWrap, duck tape and Elastikon.  Not an economical bandage!  We were still using the extended toe shoe with the splint, but discussions were beginning of removing the splint.  I was excited for her progress, but sick with worry over removing her support.  There was also talk of a skin graft.  Despite her progress they were worried that the wound would not heal completely on its own.  

We set up the skin graft appointment for January 9, 2006.  We would drop Missy off for the procedure.  The day before the appointment during her regular bandage change the ball and socket joint on her splint stripped its threads.  We machined it as best we could, but now I had the additional worry of her fetlock having inadequate support during the trailer ride.  To make matters worse the weather report was calling for heavy snow the next day in Maryland and Pennsylvania.  I was a nervous wreck.  Karen arrived again with her bubbly, optimistic personality.  Cindy and Anna reassured me also and we set off in the direction of a  snow storm and another round of anesthesia for my 23 year old mare.

We arrived and Missy was admitted once again to New Bolton.  I left with Karen with an anxious heart.  Karen and I had agreed to visit the Dover Saddlery in near-by Delaware to pick up some supplies for the farm.  It had not yet started to snow.  The surgeons were going to call after they had evaluated Missy and as the afternoon wore on I began to worry.  Finally at 4pm I called for an update.  When Dr. Jennifer Smith picked up the phone she was ecstatic.  Missy's wound had made considerable progress and they weren't going to do the skin graft.  They had also removed her dorsal splint and fitted her with just an extended toe shoe and a lighter bandage.  The farrier was just finishing and she could go home in the morning.  After explaining our dilemma of return transportation and the impending storm we made a U-Turn and headed back to pick Missy up.  It had started to snow.  When we arrived Missy was ready to go and we backed the trailer down to her barn.  The snow had made the asphalt and trailer ramp slippery and her fiberglass shoe didn't provide much traction.  She started up the ramp and slipped and fell.  The nurse with us was quick and pulled her head up so she couldn't struggle and radioed for help.  I thought my heart was going to explode as I watched my mare lay half on the ramp with the snow falling down.  I pretty much made up my mind to leave her there until Spring.  Her team of doctors arrived and we picked her up and she didn't have a scrape anywhere, but my horse who had never refused to load was not going back up that ramp. We finally found a hill where we could back the trailer up to and have the ramp level.  She walked right on.  By this time it was snowing hard and we had well over a 2 hour drive without weather factors.  I fretted the entire way home and consulted with Cindy about how to find a hill to use on the flat ground of the Eastern Shore of Maryland.  Through all my worry Karen never got upset.  She kept me calm and reassured that we would find a way, and she was the one driving!  Arriving in Federalsburg that night was a relief with a twist.  There was a very shallow dip in the ground that we were able to strategically position the trailer ramp on and after a lot of coaxing Missy backed out safely into the snow.  

Missy had been doing very well and we decided to let her out of her stall for a few minutes.  On January 13th we went across the driveway so she could have a few bites of the meager winter grass.  It was the first grass she had gotten to pick in 6 months.  I'm sure it was delicious to her.  Her wound was still healing well and she was in great spirits.  

Our next visit to New Bolton was scheduled for February 20, 2006.  We had a rare beautiful balmy day for the trip.  When we arrived everyone was once again ecstatic.  The biggest delight for me was when a 4th year student named Jackie passed Missy as we were walking to the farrier.  She had been with me the day we admitted Missy and her hope of survival was dim.  I sort of waved as I passed her but she didn't recognize me.  Next thing I hear is "Oh my gosh is that Missy?  She looks incredible.  What have you done with her?"  My heart was about to burst with happiness.  Missy had thrived under Cindy and Anna's care and was hardly recognizable as the same horse.  She was walking soundly with just a hitch from the extended toe shoe and was bright and alert.  After her evaluation I got the incredible news that she didn't need to make any more return visits!  She had a dime sized amount of open wound and they were confident that it would heal.  They removed her shoe and the bandage.  Missy would trailer home with a regular shipping wrap.  My emotions were on a roller coaster.  I was so excited that we had made it all this way, but petrified to take that final step.  Missy was to be gently hand walked for 5 minutes and gradually built up to turn out time on the flat.  We thanked Dr. Epstein and Dr. Nutt and headed home.  As we turned out of the drive Karen turned to me and said "Go ahead and cry" and I did.  They were tears of relief, anxiety and happiness, as well as fear of the rehabilitation to come.

Despite the balmy day for our trip to New Bolton the weather was still bitter cold and hand walking outside was not going to be a treat.  Once again Harris Paints was the rescue.  The barn is set up with stalls on the exterior walls and a row of stalls down the center.  The aisle ways and breeding area create a mini walking track completely inside the barn.  Missy was given the tour of Harris Paints breeding barn for 5 minutes twice each day.  This was much to the stallion row's delight!  We gradually increased her walking time over the next few weeks until she was ready for turn out in a small pen.  On March 11 she was turned out for the first time since June 8th.  What a happy horse she was!  She showed her common sense again by not acting like a fool.  She had been in a stall for 9 months, a long time for a horse that had been turned out daily for years. 

That calmness didn't last for too long.  On March 23 she felt good enough to run and buck.  And a good roll in the dirt always feels good.

Missy would continue with her daily excursions to the round pen for the next month.  The wound gradually dried up and she developed a thick leathery patch of skin over the wound.

After a month of small turn outs Cindy felt that it was time for Missy to take the big step.  When I arrived at the farm on the afternoon of April 17th, 2006 Missy was not in her stall.  I assumed she was in the pen behind the barn.  Cindy told me to grab my camera and end to the back pasture.  With my heart in my throat I walked through the barn and past the manure shed, when I rounded the corner Missy was in a far side of the pasture.  She saw me she raised her head and whinnied and began to gallop towards me.  What a beautiful sight to see her galloping towards me with her head in the air and sound.  I still can't believe I got the pictures through the tears.

On the one year anniversary of her injury Missy looks great.  She is carrying the right amount of weight for her frame and she is gradually beginning to stand square on her right hind leg.  She is a little stiff when she comes out of her stall in the morning, but that resolves in a few strides.

On July 4, 2006 we decided to have a photo shoot.  She was more interested in eating grass, but we did get a few good shots..

Missy's right hind fetlock January 31, 2007 - 18 months after her injury.

Missy and Cody continue to reside at Harris Paint Horses.  Cindy, Tim and Anna have taken me and family into their family and for that I am very grateful. 

I will never be able to repay the kindness that was shown to me and to Missy during this ordeal.