Stories
Hi Jerry -
It was so wonderful to talk to you today. I'm sorry that it's taken me so long to update you on how my horse, Irish, is doing. Here are some pictures of what happened to him & a little synopsis of the events leading up to using the Anderson Sling.
He fractured his right hind cannon bone in a spiral from the fetlock up to the hock joint at the end of May 2007. I had him at the vet clinic for a month & then brought him back to the boarding stable for a month & then he foundered in the opposite foot due to overweight bearing on it at the end of July. He had a full 15 degree rotation of the coffin bone and it was causing the sole to bulge and almost went completely through the sole. My vet said that his only chance of survival was to put him in a sling to take the weight off of both hind legs.
This picture was from July 29, 2007.
A wonderful organization called Rocky Mountain Horse Rescue is in Denver & they offered the use of their Anderson Sling as long as we needed it. So my vet put together an overhead support with the help of a friend of his in the clinic to support the frame of the sling. Irish was in the sling for 130 days for about 10-12 hours a day. We iced his foundered leg 16 hours a day for the first 2 months. My vet put a cast on the foundered hoof for the first few months. Irish went through multiple bouts of abscesses in his foot until that finally cleared up in November and that month he also had his cast removed on the broken leg.
On February 8th I finally brought him home, I built a barn at my house so I could bring him there & take care of him. My vet took this next x-ray on March 6th. He couldn't believe that the coffin bone has almost completely de-rotated. He said it was highly unlikely, but everyone is so excited that he is really looking like he will recover.
My farrier & vet put plastic clogs on the hind feet and they screw through the hoof into the top of the clog. His foundered hoof is starting to grow out & some of it is coming off in the dead area of the hoof. Dr. Unruh will re-section it this week. Irish gets two 30 minute hand walks a day & is able to have a small 10x12 run outside of his stall so that he can finally get some sunshine.
A lot of people helped me through all of this, especially all the staff at Colorado Equine. Irish is as much their horse as he is mine now, throughout the whole time he kept up his positive attitude & will to live. He even got to the point that he would step under the overhead support once we had the body parts of the sling so that we could snap him into place.
I guess we'll never know exactly what combination of things made the treatment successful, he was on antibiotics that showed some promise with other foundered horses, several different homeopathic herbs for circulation & the immune system, the sling, acupuncture. But I know without the Anderson Sling there would have been no hope for my horse. So many people helped us with their knowledge and willingness to help. I understand now how difficult laminitis is to treat and each horse responds differently to treatment.
This is a link to the article that the local paper ran on Irish, on St. Patrick's Day. It give a good overview on the timeline of his recovery. http://www.gazette.com/articles/irish_34303___article.html/luck_.html
I can't express to you enough the wonderful sense of hope that you gave me, by sharing the Anderson Sling. It is an amazing piece of equipment and I know that it does work. When all of the right treatment happens at the right time, it can save a horse's life. Just like it saved my horse. It truly is a miracle. I would be so happy to help anyone that has any questions about what we did with Irish and I would be honored if you included his story on your website.
Best Wishes-
Sarah Keeker
Up Date- As of October 2008 Sarah has been riding Irish 3 times a week and Irish spends about 10 hours a day out in the pasture.
Jerry Floyd
