My poor baby!

Is she permanently lame? I believe so. She has been on and off lame since last June, being lame the longest since Christmas. Several vets have agreed that she is permanently lame. The one I am working with now is unsure but leaning that direction.

Can she be fixed to not be in pain? Hard to say. I have had ultasounds and radiographs of her knee (two vets thought it was there), x-rays of the neck and shoulder (the chiro and first vet) and an EPM test (one vet thought maybe). Current vet (who I really really like!) thinks that for all we know it could be in any one of those places or in none of them or in all of them!! Fun huh? A bone scan would probably pin point where most of the pain is, but the vet feels very strongly that whatever it is, if it was fixable we would have found it by now or her continus paddock rest would have corrected it. So I could spend $2000 to have the bone scan done, then potentally even more x-rays and ultrasounds to ultimatly only find out that whatever is wrong isn't fixable.
Is she better with meds? Well, sort of. Previously she seemed better on anti-inflamitorys, BUT she would get energitic and run around like a chicken withs its head cut off, making it more likely that she could makes her condition worse. About a month ago, when she got so bad she could hardly move, I put her on Bute and she was better but not really even close to being sound. Now she has been on Naproxin for almost three weeks and is still lame when walked out, and she hardly moves around in her paddock at all.

Can she live out her life as a pasture ornament at my house? No. I live in the mountains in the redwoods. She currently she lives in a small paddock, that I don't believe any horse should have to live in, espeshally one that isn't going out reguarly. And my big pasture is very rough terrain and steep. I wouldn't ask a lame horse to naviagate that.

Can she live out her life as a pasture ornament with someone else? Maybe. Unfortunitly Kezi is a morab, and an itch with a b in front of it and has major seperation anxiety (if she is left alone she just gallups around her paddock whinnying the whole time) and has eating issues (we think she was starved by another horse or person at one time). In other words the other horse has to really want the food to get it away from her. Luckly I have a perfect situation where she can live with my mini who never goes anywhere and is really pushy about his food.She could only go and live with just the right kind of person since she isn't that easy to handle. I have learned how to work with her so that she doesn't completly flip out and run off and we still have difficult days (which wouldn't be so much of an issue if she could get out and be worked) which is something her last owner never really learned. Kezi was deffinatly too much for her!

Is she in a lot of pain? Thats hard to say. Seeing as I have only seen in her brief spells sound, and even then she was never 100% better, I have a hard time comaring! But I will say that usually when she is feeling better and not lame she does run around her paddock a little bit until getting lame again, and then she does not run around at all. In the last couple weeks while on the pain meds I have not seen her run around at all. And over the winter, yes she was in pain, but it gets pretty muddy at my house which might have been why.


*** So I deffinatly like the idea of donating her, but when thinking of her emediate (sp?) happieness, I don't think it would be best. Kezi takes a while to trust someone and she needs another horse to live with her all the time. And I feel she is most comforitable with just one person who she trusts taking care of her, she gets nervous easily. But I will deffinatly give it some serious thought****

I have a lot to think about and on Thursday when she ends her anti-inflamitorys I will get to see what she is like off them currently and then I will be confering with the vet again.