Long story short, I bought a horse through an Amish/ Morgan connection a few years ago. The man was rehoming him because he’d had tie back surgery and couldn’t do the buggy miles anymore. I talked to the vet that did the tie back surgery (and got the scope pics and surgery notes) and he said the horse would be perfectly fine for a less strenuous job like low level dressage which was my plan with him
Fast forward a couple years and I’d ridden him some but not a lot and a good friend of mine at my barn was really clicking with him and was looking to do more dressage work with him, so she ended up his new owner. She’s started taking a lot of lessons with him, showing etc and he’s been having trouble with his breathing and losing weight
So she took him to a vet clinic who said upon scoping that he looks like he never had the tie- back surgery and they scheduled him for it. Took him in this morning for surgery and it turns out that it’s even worse news- the vet who said he’d done the surgery, not only didn’t actually do the tie back but caused nerve damage in there and partially crushed the trachea and he’s been aspirating food all the years. They can’t fix it. I feel so incredibly awful for the horse and my friend. And so incredibly angry at the previous vet (who I’ve long considered a quack but he’s cheap so a lot of locals, esp the Amish use him).
Anyway, they told her they think his best option would be a permanent tracheostomy and that he should be much more comfortable with one. She’s at the vet clinic now discussing options, care etc but thought I’d see who here might have real world experience with one?
