Meet Lady's Ivory Rain, aka "Rain"
Rain is a
beautiful 6 year old
Palomino Tennessee Walking Horse
She is bright,
inquisitive, slightly mischievous and very loving. Unfortunately memorial weekend 2012 she
badly injured her foot in a trailer accident, severely cutting the pastern just
above her left rear hoof. She spent four days at a local vet before he sent her
home with instructions to put her down.
In his boarding facility she was
dejected, kept her head down and her eyes were filled with pain. One look at her
and we concurred. We took her back to her stable and began making arrangements
to have her
euthanized and buried.
However, within a few hours of being home in her own stall, and with her loving
companion Silk in the next stall, Rain made a remarkable transition. She
straightened up and kept her head high with her ears perked forward. Her eyes
cleared and her entire demeanor changed. We saw hope where there was once only
despair.
After talking with several other horse owners who had
experienced similar injuries, a homeopathic horse healer, and another vet, we
found out that putting her down was not the only option. She could be
saved.
Unfortunately the road to her salvation was going to be long and
expensive. For the next 6 months she to required an aggressive
antibiotic regimen, twice daily pain killers and daily treatments. Once the
initial threat of infection had passed her leg had to be put into a cast,
which was changed weekly.
The basic medical breakdown was this:
Antibiotics- $80 per week
Pain medication- $20 per week
Wound wrapping- $10 per day ( this is just for the materials, we do the wrapping ourselves)
Weekly vet visits- $150+
Weekly xrays- $125.00
Stall shavings-refreshed daily, changed weekly to lower risk of infection-$80
'That totals
$525 dollars per week.
Her vet bills in the first week were in excess of
$2,000
Her initial injuries and expenses had depleted my savings. I was paying day to day but summer being our slow season I knew that I wouldn't be able to keep that up as long as she needed it. It would have been a sin to allow this beautiful animal to die due to lack of funds when she could be saved.
So, for her sake we started taking donations. Thanks to so those who donated cash and others who gave us advice on reducing the costs we were able to save this beautiful creature.
Thank you all!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The original wound
We will update her progress weekly
Recovering Rain
To
properly position her foot so that it healed in place prior to casting her new
bandages had to go the the knee.
Rain in Happier Days
Rain in the New Orleans Christmas Parade
Rain showing off her new braids
( I feel pretty, oh so PRETTY!!")
Riding in the Zulu Parade
Rain and her companion Silk in the French Quarter at Mardi Gras.
Who, ME? You talkin' to ME??
Scott and Rain after the Westwego MLK Parade
Rain enjoying the summer sun in the pasture
Rain showing off her Mardi Gras beads.
(Don't ask what she had to do to get them!!)