[QUOTE=PeteyPie;8013257]
They look great. What a nice ending for those guys!
Scottk, you and your wife are wonderful.[/QUOTE]
Thank you. Just trying to help some critters that have no shot at helping themselves.
So where were we at? This retelling mentally wears me out but here we go…
I knew I had a month to 5 weeks before the next go round with Ashton. I had a little breathing room to read, research and try to make some decisions. A lot of what I learned was right here on this forum. Thank goodness for that. I was actually so disgusted that I started to look at farrier schools for myself LOL. I did a lot of Google searches using the term founder and laminitis.
I came across the name of Esco Buff. He has a very nice website with lots of useful information. When I searched this site with his name I came across some positive and negative posts. The negative ones were generally cracks about him being more of a business coach than a farrier. Well let me set the record straight. Although I didn’t use his services, this kind man spent large amounts of time on the phone with me consulting about my case. I emailed him radio graphs. He marked them up and sent them back with his suggestions on what to do. He said if I hired him great. If not he was glad to help by phone any way he could. He actually gave me the first glimmer of hope that maybe Ashton could be saved. I never did hire him as his fee to show up at the farm and shoes would have been over a thousand dollars a visit plus the vet. I am by no means wealthy and that would have been hard to do on a month to 5 week basis. But I would have sold whatever I needed to if it came down to it for Ashton. Esco, if you read this hear is your plug, " THANK YOU FOR LISTENING AND YOUR GUIDANCE".
So, I need a Vet and I like to use people that friends use and I go back to my only friend that has horses and ask him who he uses. He told me Lynsee McCreel from Foundation Equine in Cream Ridge NJ. Foundation Equine is the former Keenan-McAllister Equine for those in NJ that might know them.
I tell my friend that I have been talking with Esco Buff and just may have him come in and get Ashton started in the right direction. He calls me a couple of days later to tell me he had talked to his friend the farrier, you know the one that screwed me earlier in the summer. He was asking about Ashton and how it was going. So one evening my friend and the farrier stop by our farm. He apologizes for the missed appointments earlier in the year and says he was working an extra job at the time and that had his schedule all messed up. He tells me that he specializes in founder cases. He hits enough of the key points that I have been reading that I think maybe we got off to a bad start but I should give him a second chance. You know me and second chances. Reread how it worked out with the Vet above LOL.
I tell him that I would like to try a heart bar shoe. He tells me that is an option but he is a fan of the rocker style shoe. I ask him if he carries heart bar shoes on his truck. He replies yes he always has them with him. We both agree to maybe let Lynsee decide. Now I know what your thinking “Screw me once, shame on you. screw me twice, shame on me” I told my wife the great news that we rehired the farrier. She tells me I am crazy. Something will go wrong. She wouldn’t do it. How can I trust this guy with our Ashton. Do what you want but i don’t like it. Woman’s intuition I guess. I tell her but he is our friend’s friend. He would never do it again and look bad to everyone. You know what?, I need to listen to my wife more often.
So anyway back to the story…
We all agree to meet. I had never met Lynsee before. She shows up and gets out of her van, all 95 pounds soaking wet. But out of the other side gets this big , tall cowboy looking kid name Kevin. He even has a cowboy hat. He is going to vet school. Then the farrier shows up. The first thing we do is take radio graphs of both feet. Just a side note. Lynsee handles a horse like a person twice her size. And Kevin, the big cowboy kid. He is one of the most pleasant people you could meet. When he graduates vet school he will be one fine Vet. I can’t express enough how pleased I am with the both of them. Finally the Vet problem is solved.
Now I had prepped Lynsee on the phone about Ashton. How he kicks shoes off and such. Now this is where we have a defining moment. She looks at the radio graphs and looks Ashton over and tells me the reason he kicks the shoes of is because his ankle is probably so bad it can’t hold the weight while the other foot is being worked on. The farrier said there was enough hoof to nail to so we didn’t even need a glue on shoe. Lynsee suggests nerve blocking both ankles and sedation and thinks things will go fine. well you know what? They did go fine. She identified the real problem and had a solution. And by the way the problem was not that Ashton had severe behavioral issues like Dr Arrogance diagnosed before.
Then what type of shoe came up. The farrier suggested the rocker shoe but Lynsee didn’t like that choice as she did not feel his bad ankle would tolerate it. She actually felt that at this point the ankle was causing him more pain than the bad foot. So the farrier goes to his truck and here we go. He doesn’t have a heart bar shoe, you know the one he always carries. But of course, the horse is sedated, everyone is here so of course again I have to settle for something less and he puts on a regular bar shoe with a leather pad underneath for extra support. At this point everyone leaves and I am left to ponder did I make a mistake getting involved with this farrier again? At least I was happy with the new Vet. And I had another 5 weeks to mull thing over…
love the story… can’t wait for the next chapter.
I remember reading about Esco Buff, the pros and cons, but I do remember a mare whose life he saved. She developed laminitis due to a retained placenta… a big draft mare. I remember following the foaling on Mare Stare and all the treatments, etc. She made it… thanks to him.
So 
Lynsee suggests that we can probably get Ashton shod by just blocking his ankles with no sedation. We give it a try and Ashton just stands like a good boy. For the first time this is going on and I don’t have a knot in my stomach. Time for the farrier to grab the shoe and he returns with some half assed aluminum racing shoe with a bar across it and a little triangular tab sticking out. It was definitely something he made. The tab was so thin I figured it would bend. But at least it was so short that it wouldn’t hit his frog. I couldn’t believe it but again we’re all here and the the horses ankles are blocked and we need to move forward. He installs the shoe, pours the pad in and we are done. At least Ashton finally was able to stand for the work. What progress. Everybody left and Ashton looked fine.
The next day I looked out and saw Ashton laying flat out on his side. I was like oh crap. I went over to him and looked at his foot. You know what? The piece of crap home made shoe that the farrier/con man made broke. The bar broke free from the shoe and was pushing it’s way into Ashton’s heal.
You can see pictures here
[IMG]http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c265/skilliam/20141204_133549_zpswjb2dk2w.jpg)
and here
[IMG]http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c265/skilliam/20141204_133541_zpsswrwvozw.jpg)
I texted the pics to the farrier and called him. He said he couldn’t believe it as he had never seen anything like that before. I told him Ashton was in pain but he said that he couldn’t make it out that day(by the way he only lives 8 miles from my house) and to keep Ashton in his stall until he could get there tomorrow. So I was finally able to get him up and he limped to his stall.
During dinner I told my wife we needed to do something as Ashton was in pain so I cooked up this idea. I told her when we feed him she could keep him occupied by petting him and I would lift his foot up and cut the rest of the bar off with my electric skil saw. So out to the barn we went. I readied my saw, hung the bucket of food and went for it. Ashton behaved like the brave little man that he is and I cut the rest of the bar off without a hitch.
You can see the bar removed here.
[IMG]http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c265/skilliam/20141209_090151_zpsvcfd53g3.jpg)
You can see the poor quality of the portion that was supposed to support the frog here
[IMG]http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c265/skilliam/20141210_184514_zpswdpn0y1h.jpg)
and here
[IMG]http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c265/skilliam/20141204_205052_zpsxwcc3fvl.jpg)
The piece was so short that it could have never supported the frog.
So he says he will be out the next day, Saturday. I said ok. I still don’t hear from him by 4pm so I send a text asking when he will arrive. He said it was raining all day, which it was and he was soaked and would like to just go home. I understood and said that would be fine as I was able to remove the bar and give Ashton some relief. He promised to be over the next day right after lunch.
So the next day I don’t hear from him by 1 pm. I text him as to when he will arrive. I never hear back. Now I am fuming. And of course I know my wife was right.
Monday I hear nothing but I am done texting and calling him.
Tuesday morning I call Lynsee and explain that I have a problem. I ask her for the name of a farrier and she says Challen Ingraham. She said that he is very good at handling founder cases and believed I would be pleased. I will go into detail in the next installment but let me say how very pleased I am.
Meanwhile my friend is making excuses for the farrier and calls him. He told my friend that he has been sick. Not too sick to talk to my friend but too sick to call the guy whose horse he screwed up. I was so done with this guy. Challen got Ashton straightened out on Thursday. I still hadn’t heard from the farrier.
I go in the house and text that he needn’t worry about Ashton anymore as he has been taken care of . I asked him to please refund my money for the defective shoe and to leave it with my friend when he sees him. He said that he would refund half of my money but only if he could place it in my hand personally. Great, now the guy wants to throw around veiled threats. Oh well, at this point I would have paid him to get out of my life. I was done but my wife was mad so she called him. He actually picked up the phone. He told her that HE was upset due to a lack of loyalty for him on our part. This is now six days since Ashton started having problems with the faulty shoe. He told her he wanted to come to the house to give us the refund but my wife told him since he doesn’t even show up to fix the problem with Ashton why would we sit around thinking that he will stop at certain time to drop money off. He did leave the money with our friend though. Leave a horse and his owners to deal with the pain that he caused and not even have the decency to fix the problem.
After all was said and done we talked to our friend a few days later. He said that the farrier was confused over all of the fuss and didn’t think it was an emergency since I was able to get bar cut off.
Oh well, on a much brighter note I will tell you about my visit with Challen and Lynsee next…
[QUOTE=scottk;8013752]
Now I had prepped Lynsee on the phone about Ashton. How he kicks shoes off and such. Now this is where we have a defining moment. She looks at the radio graphs and looks Ashton over and tells me the reason he kicks the shoes of is because his ankle is probably so bad it can’t hold the weight while the other foot is being worked on.
And by the way the problem was not that Ashton had severe behavioral issues like Dr Arrogance diagnosed before…[/QUOTE]
Well Duh. :lol:
scottk come back and give us the next installment please. I am really enjoying reading about this.
So any how…
Dece
And here…
[IMG]http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c265/skilliam/th_20150216_090723_zpsq66pgagy.mp4)
So luckily, we seem to finally getting into a routine. My wife and I feel so blessed to even be allowed to share the company of these magnificent creatures. Wow, what a life changer.
On another note…
Did anyone see the story of the neglect case here in NJ? Terrible story. 2 horses in really bad shape were taken in by the Burlington County SPCA…Bravo for them to move in and take control of a bad situation. One of them is a Thoroughbred named Toby. He has severe frostbite. He will need a $3,000.00 surgery. They are collecting donations for him. Donations for Toby can be sent to the NJ Equine Clinic, 279 Millstone Road, Millstone 08535 or the Burlington County SPCA at www.burlcospca.org.
My wife and I are going to try to make it up to the clinic this weekend and give a small donation. I would love to at least be able to see him. They are looking for a foster home for him and we want to put our name in as possible people to home and rehabilitate him. At least this time when we are asked we can reply that YES, we do have thoroughbred experience, albeit a limited amount and YES we do have a vet and YES we do now have a farrier. Maybe we can get him here and on the road to recovery. Still sitting on 3 empty stalls so why not?
You can read the story here…
And here…
And here…
http://www.nj.com/mercer/index.ssf/2015/02/emaciated_horses_removed_from_mansfield_farm_owner.html
Why don’t people just ask for help before things get this bad?
Scott, I almost hesitate to tell you this because you are doing such a good job and am only doing so because this is the first winter you have had horses as I understand. Be very careful allowing horses to run in from snow onto concrete or packed stone aisles. It looked to me like they could go into the barn (where there is a gator parked). Snow balls up on even unshod feet and they could slip and do themselves a bad injury.
Also, with the latest rescue case, it looks as though they are slinging his penis in the picture, if it was frozen they may be looking at amputation, horses can certainly live with an amputation, I am sure they will fill you in on all of the details but post surgery, (suspensory or penile), he would have to be kept up in the barn and your routine of turnout would be altered. That is a big consideration for you, leaving one or the other of the three amigo horses inside, possibly at all times for a companion. So happy for you that you finally have professional help with their health and foot needs, such a relief, I know the feeling.
[QUOTE=Calamber;8033236]
Scott, I almost hesitate to tell you this because you are doing such a good job and am only doing so because this is the first winter you have had horses as I understand. Be very careful allowing horses to run in from snow onto concrete or packed stone aisles. It looked to me like they could go into the barn (where there is a gator parked). Snow balls up on even unshod feet and they could slip and do themselves a bad injury.
Also, with the latest rescue case, it looks as though they are slinging his penis in the picture, if it was frozen they may be looking at amputation, horses can certainly live with an amputation, I am sure they will fill you in on all of the details but post surgery, (suspensory or penile), he would have to be kept up in the barn and your routine of turnout would be altered. That is a big consideration for you, leaving one or the other of the three amigo horses inside, possibly at all times for a companion. So happy for you that you finally have professional help with their health and foot needs, such a relief, I know the feeling.[/QUOTE]
Please don’t hesitate to offer me advice. It is greatly appreciated. I am very
humbly aware of the fact that it is but by the grace of god, a little luck and good advice from people like you and others that I haven’t managed to get myself killed or a horse injured yet. As of now, we have only had horses for 9 months so yes, this is our first winter together. Maybe I should start closing the isle door when they go out so I can look at there feet when I bring them in.
As far as the rescue horse goes, I’m sure it would be a lot of work. The way my place is set up, he could have a 4000 square foot paddock to himself and be able to bond with the horses over a gate and through the dutch doors leading into Ashton’s and Jim’s stalls. He would have a stall next to Ashton at night so they could see each other through the grill. As far as holding one of my guys back though, I know that won’t work LOL. They are are tight herd.
I just would love to help as the story really broke my heart and made me wonder how close my guys may have been to the same predicament last winter.
No doubt though he will find a good home because of all of the publicity. Just wanted to offer our barn as a possibility. But we are not actively seeking another horse, that is for sure. Pretty busy with these 3 LOL.
Yes, it would be best to shut the aisle way door, and if you can, to lead them in when there is snow on the ground, (I would do it even in good weather for safety sake), even caked dirt with shod horses can freeze and ball up. If you want to save time you can just put the lead rope around the neck up close to the head and be careful leading them into the stall to line them up so they don’t bang hips and don’t let them rush. I had a horse who slipped coming into the barn (turning too quickly into his stall), and fell against the doorjamb which had an “eye” for snapping a stall guard to and cut a big flap fairly deep below his rib cage. Keep up the good work because they look super.
It is with a heavy heart that I report to you that Toby, the Thoroughbred that I mentioned above was put down last night Apparently sometime after his frostbite surgery yesterday morning he coliced. They operated on him to relieve the colic but when it appeared that there was no hope for recovery they had to let him go.
Burns me up what people will do to these animals. Hopefully his former owner will get her just due.
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I am sorry for Toby… what a lousy conclusion… hug your horses tonight Scott… they are the lucky ones.
[QUOTE=FalseImpression;8038926]
I am sorry for Toby… what a lousy conclusion… hug your horses tonight Scott… they are the lucky ones.[/QUOTE]
Thanks for the kind words. We had contacted the SPCA and asked them to please consider us for Toby’s rehabilitation when he was ready to be released. I also sent them a link to this thread. Of course Toby arriving here would have turned into a home for life for him. His appearance so reminded me of Ashton’s and Jim’s it made me ill. Just wanted to try and do the same for Toby as our horses. My wife and I are heartbroken. 
[QUOTE=Calamber;8034568]
Yes, it would be best to shut the aisle way door, and if you can, to lead them in when there is snow on the ground, (I would do it even in good weather for safety sake), even caked dirt with shod horses can freeze and ball up. If you want to save time you can just put the lead rope around the neck up close to the head and be careful leading them into the stall to line them up so they don’t bang hips and don’t let them rush. I had a horse who slipped coming into the barn (turning too quickly into his stall), and fell against the doorjamb which had an “eye” for snapping a stall guard to and cut a big flap fairly deep below his rib cage. Keep up the good work because they look super.[/QUOTE]
I tried the rope around the neck trick yesterday. It worked well. Thanks for the tip.
Good to hear it worked, so sorry about Toby.
Scott, I am smiling a huge smile reading your story and will be eagerly awaiting each new segment.
I started riding when I was 2. I am 65. And I have rarely met a person who is so proactive in their horse’s health and well being as you are. The Internet is a wonderful place, but some people take things as gospel and do not listen to professional advice. Kudos to you for doing both; your horses are benefitting from your dedication.
I lost my boy, Bear, 10 days ago, and I am heartbroken — but I have come to strongly believe (yes, a split infinitive. 
) that our horses and dogs are very lucky that compassionate caretakers have the ability to relieve their pain and suffering, when any other decision would be to make ourselves feel better, but at the expense of the horse’s quality of life.
RIP dear Toby. How sad that his last owners let him get into such poor condition. But at least he was euthanized by a vet without being scared and mistreated right at the end.
May you have many more happy years with your boys. I am glad you found COTH – it is a great resource for everyone, no matter how long they have been around horses.
PS: The Horse Care Forum makes for great late night reading. 
PPS: Here is the link to Bear’s story. I wish it had a different outcome, but sometimes we do not get what we wish for. www.chronofhorse.com/forum/showthread.php?458156-Bye-bye-Baby-Bear-You-were-a-very-good-boy-(
[QUOTE=Lord Helpus;8049093]
Scott, I am smiling a huge smile reading your story and will be eagerly awaiting each new segment.
I started riding when I was 2. I am 65. And I have rarely met a person who is so proactive in their horse’s health and well being as you are. The Internet is a wonderful place, but some people take things as gospel and do not listen to professional advice. Kudos to you for doing both; your horses are benefitting from your dedication.
I lost my boy, Bear, 10 days ago, and I am heartbroken — but I have come to strongly believe (yes, a split infinitive. ) that our horses and dogs are very lucky that compassionate caretakers have the ability to relieve their pain and suffering, when any other decision would be to make ourselves feel better, but at the expense of the horse’s quality of life.
RIP dear Toby. How sad that his last owners let him get into such poor condition. But at least he was euthanized by a vet without being scared and mistreated right at the end.
May you have many more happy years with your boys. I am glad you found COTH – it is a great resource for everyone, no matter how long they have been around horses.
PS: The Horse Care Forum makes for great late night reading.
PPS: Here is the link to Bear’s story. I wish it had a different outcome, but sometimes we do not get what we wish for. www.chronofhorse.com/forum/showthread.php?458156-Bye-bye-Baby-Bear-You-were-a-very-good-boy-([/QUOTE]
Thank you for the kind words and sorry to hear about your bear…
Loved your story, and am totally impressed on how you educated yourself on a complex business such as lamintis and founder. Good for you! Sent you a Private Message as well.
Today is Tempe’s birthday. He shares birthdays with his great great grandfather Secretariat. Good for him. 9 years young.
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