I had to make one of the hardest decisions ever. It was hard but it was the right one. My mare June Bug has been living on 3 legs for 6 years roughly. She had an injury, a cut to be exact on her ankle and the original owners instead of treating it just let it be which cause an infection in the joint, and eventually caused the hoof and ankle to curve under. When my friend got her there wasn't much left to do except to see what happened. For years June Bug was doing okay, but this year she really took a downward slide. I took her to the vet and asked him if there was anything extra I could do for her that I wasn't already doing. He said I was doing everything and the truth was that if she didn't start picking her weight back up in the next couple months we would have to make the decision. June Bug to mine and the vets surprise started to get better for a bit and then I noticed that she was hunkering down on her back leg and then would stand back up, her hip was hurting her. June Bug was also in foal and only 8 weeks from carrying to term. We had already made the decision, that if she carried to term after the baby was weaned she would be humanly euthanized. Last week we lost the foal, born 8 weeks to early, a buckskin colt. It was at that point that we decided to go a head and give her peace. I tried everything in my power to make her comfortable while she was here. My vet told me she lived longer on 3 legs than most horses normally do. She will be miss by all that knew her, she was such a sweet mare.
This is her last picture taken the day we said goodbye. You can see her bad foot. She loved to lay in the sand, or in the dirt. I think it was because of the heat that come from them spots.
You can see she was still drawn up from having the baby. You can also see the swelling in between her front legs. She had one on the back of the other leg. They where from her laying down a lot.
RIP girl, your are missed.
No comments:
Post a Comment