Equine Recline Blog

We got Maverick’s Chinese herbal formulas yesterday and started him on them. The recommended way to administer the herbs is to mix them with warm water and then use a syringe to administer them. Maverick is not impressed. So we’ve had to resort to putting them in a bran mash as that is the only way he will eat them.

We have not done much with his legs the past couple of days, but today we did a little massage on him after taking off the prosthetic. Oddly enough the muscles and tendons, especially in his right leg, are much more pliable.

Above: Maverick with the prosthetic

We aren’t sure if it is the herbs, the prosthetic, giving him the homeopathic graphites, or what. We have also been noticing that he has been doing camel stretches (where they place their legs out in front of them and rock backwards) and doing other things to stretch out his right leg ever since Soleil, Craig, and Debbie visited last Thursday.

Make sure to check out our new Gift Shop! You’ll see on the bottom of the home page of the website a panel flipping through the different products. We hope that you see something you like! Make sure to keep an eye out as we’ll be adding more products.

Thursday April 24, Soleil from AERO, Craig, and Debbie Johnstone came out. We can’t thank all of them enough for their help with Maverick!

Craig makes prosthetics, usually for humans, but has done one for a horse at AERO before. They brought down the prosthetic on the off chance it might fit Maverick and it does! They are still going to build a different one that will probably encase his whole hoof to prevent him from sliding out of the prosthetic, but in the mean time he can wear this one for short periods.

The prosthetic can only be on for about 15 minutes at a time. This is so that he’ll build up a callous on the skin and not be rubbed raw from wearing the prosthetic. This provoked quite the discussion between Maverick and Debbie Johnstone, an animal communicator. Maverick argued that he could wear the prosthetic for at least 2 hours, while Craig kept saying 15 minutes. Maverick finally agreed on 45 minutes. But despite his wanting to have the prosthetic on, he actually only kept it on for 30 minutes before he was exhausted, demanded it be taken off, and then went and took a long nap!

With the prosthetic on, Maverick stands completely different. Where he has gotten used to standing with his legs out in front of him, the prosthetic brought them underneath him, causing him to use muscles and his body very differently!

Maverick also told Debbie that he will work with us as needed for his healing. That was very encouraging!

At Soleil’s recommendation we contacted a Chinese herb company called For Love of the Horse. They have had some amazing success stories with helping horses recover from tendon injuries, laminitis, etc. They have recommended 3 herb mixes that we have ordered. With the dosage recommendations each of these herb mixes will last around 3 weeks. The vet, Dr. Thomas, has been very encouraging about Maverick’s condition.

The herbs will be here Monday and we will be able to start Maverick on them.

Donations to make sure that Maverick can continue with these herbs would be greatly appreciated.

So Maverick got his x-rays today. He did an excellent job standing up for the x-rays. I am so proud of him. Tomorrow we’ll be getting the films and see where we go from there.

On the 16th the Budweiser Clydesdale horses were at Fry’s in Sahuarita. What an incredible sight they are!

Maverick recently has had a complete attitude change/shift. Before he kept telling animal communicators that there was nothing wrong with his legs. With contracted tendons in both front legs, this attitude completely puzzled us. We finally figured out that his mental image of himself was as a cripple. Since he saw himself that way, he saw nothing wrong with his legs.

Once Mom and I figured this out we began using EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) to help change the image. It took about a week once we started the EFT for his attitude to change. We went out on Saturday morning to find him standing up, bracing his left leg against the water tub while trying to straighten his right leg out. He repeatedly picked the leg up and tried to place it back down normally, but could not. You could see his frustration with it. We put the splints on him for all day and he spent at least half the day standing and took himself out to the pasture to graze. He took brief naps of about 5 to 10 minutes, then later finally gave in and took a longer nap.

 Unfortunately we were only able to leave the splints on for half the day on Sunday as they are rubbing him raw again. But despite that he’s been standing up for longer periods, being more active, etc.

Maverick’s x-rays are scheduled for April 22nd.

He has really been enjoying his acupressure treatments lately and has actually moved from not liking them to demanding them! Once breakfast is done he finds a nice comfy place to settle into and then you can just feel him staring at you. Taking him food earns you a very disgruntled look. But once you start doing acupressure on him, he immediately relaxes and demands certain areas be worked on. If you aren’t catching on to where he wants worked, he doesn’t hesitate to present you with a leg or point out an area with his nose.

We have the splints on today for the first time in quite a while. He didn’t fight about having them on, which is a change. We’ll see how he does with them right now and hope and pray they don’t rub him raw so he can continue wearing them.

Sorry an update has taken me so long to post. If it hasn’t been one thing this past week it has been another.

Anyways the farrier, Mark Russell, was out on Sunday. He was hesitant to recommend anything or do anything until current x-rays of Maverick’s legs are done. He does not want to cause more damage or problems from improper shoeing depending on what is going on with the inside of Maverick’s legs.

The call out fee for the vet is $72 and we will need minimum of about 4 x-rays at about $53 each for a total of around $284. Any donations to help with this expense would be greatly appreciated.

We would also like to thank Mario for his donation to help Maverick.