Bye bye Baby Bear. You were a very good boy. :(

[Lord_Helpus]

Bear has perked up now, after a big slug of nartcotics. He is nibbling chopped alfalfa, but not eating with gusto – but nibbling is better than nothing.

They have realized that he turns into another horse when he is outside, so they will try to turn him out for a bit tomorrow. He mostly lives out at home. He is just in for bad weather, but never for longer than 18 hours at a time.

They are certainly trying to do whatever they can to keep him happy. I guess that is all we can do for right now. With a little luck I can bring him home on Friday.

I had them test him for Cushings – nothing, nada, zero. YEA!

[vxf111]

Poor Bear, at least he’s nibbling now!

How did Bear injure himself?!

I have my retirees at home… I’m feeling paranoid!

[Lord_Helpus]

vxf, I wish I knew. He was in a post and rail fenced 5 acre field with his BFF, CT, who is also 25. I walked the fence line and nothig was amiss… Could CT have kicked him in the jaw? I don’t know and CT isn’t talking.

He was fine when fed in the AM, but not fine at 4:30 PM when I went out to feed.

[Texarkana]

Continued jingles!

I knew a mare who fractured part of her jaw (her hyoid to be exact) when she reared up and whacked the underside of her head on the fence post coming down. If the owner hadn’t seen it, it’s unlikely they would have ever figured out what happened!

[trubandloki]

Jingles for Bear!

[Fred]

Sending lots of jingles and best healing wishes for Da Bear.

[TBROCKS]

[QUOTE=Foxtrot’s;7975301]
Glad he has come through it. good for Bear.

I’ve known two such cases = jaws wired and it looked horrible, but they recovered very well, too.

Might as well mention a PSA here. Both cases were from a horse leaning over his half door, fiddling around, and hooking onto those horseshoe latches one often sees on stable doors - usually done by a local welder… The horseshoe slips over the bottom teeth, horse rears up in panic. Cannot imagine trying to extricate a horse from that.

The answer is to have the middle part of the horseshoe welded with no possibility of it getting over the bottom teeth.

Both ended up ok.[/QUOTE]

Wow I never thought about that! I don’t have them in my barn but that’s the exact kind of latch they used when I boarded.

[findeight]

The one I knew with the broken jaw also did it in the pasture and there was a human witness. Horse was turned out in a one acre paddock with one other known to get along with it. Four board fencing, good repair, lovely weather. Horses in their usual pairs in adjacent paddocks.

Apparently, horse had its head and neck stuck through the fence between the boards and sort of wrapped around a fence post trying to get that one perfect sprig of grass in the next paddock. Need I say grass was identical in all aspects and amount in all paddocks.

Anyway, it’s turn out buddy came over to see if there was something it was missing out on, got too close, horse pulled its head up suddenly forgetting about the boards, cracked it’s head and then panicked and spun into the fencepost smacking the side of the head on it breaking the jaw and 3 boards plus knocking the fencepost half out of the ground. If the groom hadn’t seen it, never would have known why it picked a fight with the fence.

My own mare, for some inexplicable reason, chose to roll in a bare spot right next to the fence on ground sloping into the fence. She got cast up against the fence post believe it or not, took 4 stitches on her shoulder just above the forearm. Fence was unharmed and we spent quite awhile trying to figure out how she cut herself so bad, never found a thing.

Poor Bear, I bet he hurts pretty bad since he did perk up a bit with the heavier drugs. They are bagging him aren’t they?

[JustJump]

“bagging him?” Do you mean giving him IV fluids?

I’d wonder that they are feeding him chopped anything at this point. Wouldn’t a soaked senior feed that could be sipped rather than munched be more appropriate?

[Lord_Helpus]

Buh, buh, buh Bear is still not eating; he nibbles the chopped hay, but only swallows occasionally. They weighed him again yesterday and said he had lost a “considerable” amount of weight, but evaded my query as to exactly how much.

Bear is the horse who was skin and bones last summer when he was at a barn which was supposed to be feeding him… He was on a long term free lease and it had all gone well until last year when the lady got too busy to ride, so she boarded him at a barn with a BO who thought that all old horses turned into a rack of bones. He needed a month of good care in Va. before he was strong enough to make the 5 hour van ride home. It has taken 5 months to get the weight back on him — and now he is in pain and has dropped weight like mad. Poor Bear. He has gone through a lot in the last year…

His bill is approaching $6000 and he is still in pain with an infected jaw… In another week we are talking about $8000 and then money will have to become a consideration in my decisions.

I HATE what is happening right now.

[wcporter]

UGH. I am so sorry LH Still jingling hard for the old guy. I know you’ll make the right decision, but I really hope he turns the corner soon.

[Laurierace]

So sorry you are both going through this. Continued jingles!

[vxf111]

Oh no, TONS of jingles for Bear!

[twelvegates]

Jingling for Bear from Colorado!
Does he like warm mashes?

[Zu_Zu]

BR-INGLES & {{Bear Hugs}} for Bear and his family ! Come on Bear !!! EAT !!! Drink !

[B]
BR-INGLES and huge {{ Bear Hugs}} for Bear !!!

Come on Bear !!!

Eat !!

Drink !!!

and GET HOME !!! your buddy is waiting for you !

Jingle Jingle Jingle & AO ~ AO ~ AO ~ Always Optimistic ~!~!

Hang in there “Bear” family ~ ((hugs)) ~[/B]

[ASB_Stars]

I am so sorry you and Bear are dealing with this! I had my old UL gelding get kicked in the face when I had mine boarded off the farm for a couple of months. His lower mandible was split at the fissure, and was hanging out of his mouth when I pulled in the driveway to visit…I had a bad feeling that morning, Thank God!!

In any event, my guy had surgery, and pulled through. If you can go and visit and cheer him up, it would be great- believe me. I shipped mine home the afternoon after the surgery, because I knew we could do what we needed better, from there. LOVE does help to heal…best wishes to you and hugs to you and Bear!!

[Lord_Helpus]

ASB Stars, I have been thinking and coming to the same conclusion.

I think that Bear’s last day at NC State will be Friday. By tomorrow the culture will be ready to read, so they can get him on a specific antibiotic to treat the infection. If he is showing signs of improving, I will bring him home and turn him out with his BFF. I will feed him 4 times a day and give him antibiotics and pain meds, but other than that, he will be treated as he has been: outside unless the windchill is below 25* or it is raining.

Bear will tell me which way he wants to go. If it is his time, at least he will have spent his last days with his buddy, in his field.

[ASB_Stars]

[QUOTE=Lord Helpus;7979809]
ASB Stars, I have been thinking and coming to the same conclusion.

I think that Bear’s last day at NC State will be Friday. By tomorrow the culture will be ready to read, so they can get him on a specific antibiotic to treat the infection. If he is showing signs of improving, I will bring him home and turn him out with his BFF. I will feed him 4 times a day and give him antibiotics and pain meds, but other than that, he will be treated as he has been: outside unless the windchill is below 25* or it is raining.

Bear will tell me which way he wants to go. If it is his time, at least he will have spent his last days with his buddy, in his field.[/QUOTE]

Good for you! We are their advocates, their voices, and their families. We need to know what is out of our reach, in care, and what we can handle, and be there for them. A hospital is an awful place to be, and home is where his heart- and yours- are.

[Laurierace]

I think that is a perfect plan. Hopefully a little home cooking will get him back on track.

[Lord_Helpus]

Bear ate his breakfast today!! Go Bear!! And then they turned him out in a paddock with grass. As soon as he was let free he trotted away and then refused to be caught. Although tonight he was lying down and not eating, the day was certainly better than the last several ones.
He is still on a full regimen of narcotics though. And the Drs can tell when it is time for another dose – he withdraws to the back of the stall and does not communicate. So he is still in pretty bad pain.
They are going to turn him out again tomorrow for most of the day, so I won’t go up. Instead, I am going up Friday, and planning to bring him home.

Fingers crossed that he gets a little better every day.