Hospital Fit

About 7 weeks ago, Sultan injured his foot after a silly move - he likes to be frightened by things and out on the paddock heard a noise and did a quick turn banging a rear hoof against something hard. He was then limping around and Angie spent several days and weeks treating him with various potions. It got better but then returned and eventually she called the vet who was here last week and did an X-ray (no problem) and then two days later an ultrasound which revealed the reason - ligament damage. The vet said she could treat it with cortisone, an ever repeating lifetime treatment which was not likely to have good results. She recommended surgery in a clinic. Even though she is part of a large vet practice, they don't do large animal operations (they did Flash's cancer & spleen removal 18 months ago with astonishing success) - she wouldn't even recommend which clinic saying it was personal choice. The fact that she didn't have an "instant" solution and no interest in "making money" out of Sultan's misery, suggested she was right.

Angie had tracked down a clinic who could operate quickly. Munich University's Vet School would have been first choice but they had at least a 10 day waiting time. A friend had recently had a good experience with her horse in a clinic on the other side of Munich and they seemed to be competent on the phone, even saying we must have a good vet who recommended the surgery rather than medication route.

On Angie asking about shoes/irons, they suggested a special shoe be put on before surgery. Luckily our dear friend and farrier Richard phoned yesterday to say he could come by this evening and sort it out but he would recommend something else. And on the Blip is the result, which we refer to as a "egg" shoe even though it looks pretty oval. I would have liked to have caught a Blip of Richard, standing outdoors in the pitch black freezing night, welding two shoes together. The welding sparks lighting up the night sky. Thank you Richard for a great job. As I am posting this late, I can report that on Thursday following the operation, the surgeon phoned and amongst other things, praised the shoes - ideal! Richard had also reckoned Sultan had long had a ligament problem and this was again confirmed by the surgeon.

Often heard and experienced that vets should far more often talk to the farrier when dealing with hoof and leg problems.