As everyone knows Donnie
has had a hard time trusting people since we got him about 10 years
ago. We’ve gone through much research and heartache finding the
right combination on how to give him the confidence he needs. Over
the years he has come to trust us, along with the farrier, vets, dentists,
etc. Also, once his PSSM was diagnosed and his diet changed he’s become
much more comfortable with himself.
We’re trying to give Donnie
jobs that he can handle easily and in turn feel good about himself. He
excels at clicker training and he’s doing very well with longeing with and
without a saddle. We’re hoping that if he continues to advance in
his training one of us will be able to ride him in the Spring. By
one of us, I don’t mean me, I mean my ‘crash test dummy’ daughter.
He’s one very smart horse
and he’s also very sweet. He’s the first one to greet you in the morning
with a cheerful nicker and he gives Donnie-hugs every night. It took
a long time, but he trusts us now and looks to us as his dependable caretakers
and maybe even his family. Who knows?
I wish that more people
would take the time with their horses and give them what they
need. Abused or sick horses deserve the care we can
offer. We’re supposed to be the smarter species although sometimes
I’m doubtful about that. The thing I do know for sure is that we
gave Donnie the care and took the time with him to gain a little confidence in
himself with each passing year and in return he has given us his heart.
There’s no better feeling than having been able to play a part in helping
him be happy and healthy.
Until next time
Quote for Today
Give a horse what he needs and he will give you
his heart.
A little over a week ago it was noticed that Donnie didn’t have a normal wet spot in his stall for a few days. Since he wasn’t acting differently and didn’t have a fever, we assumed maybe he was urinating before he came in but determined to watch him anyway for signs to make sure he was alright. The lessening amount of wet in his stall continued for a few more days and we decided to have the vet come out and take a look to make sure he was okay. In the meantime, we thought maybe it would be a good idea to check his sheath to see if he needed a cleaning or maybe had a bean.
The night before the vet was due to come, my daughter thought she’d go ahead and do a sheath cleaning and perhaps live up to her nickname “The Queen of Beans!” (Just kidding ;-) After donning a glove and upon further examination, she concluded there were no beans and every thing else seemed okay, too. There was a minor exception: Donnie seemed to be swollen just inside and when she was cleaning around that particular area Donnie went into “dog-being-scratched-behind-the-ear” mode. He actually lifted his back leg up practically over his head and was very happy to have an area he couldn’t reach scratched. At least we know he’s very flexible in the future for longe or riding work. This poor guy was so happy someone finally figured out what was bothering him, he started trying to "groom" the wall of his stall.
When the vet came and donned the long glove, Donnie looked slightly worried but was a good boy during the examination. During the exam he was very technical and mentioned things like "more corrugated," "irritation," "swelling," etc. We’re standing there basically thinking in laymen’s terms that I won’t go into here for censorship purposes. He took a culture, which we haven’t gotten the results back from yet.
In the meantime he suggested we treat it as a yeast infection and go to the drug store and pick up jock itch medicine. Now this stuff comes in a spray, though applying that inside a sheath could be tricky, so the cream option seemed best. This medicine doesn’t come in a big tube, so many tubes are needed. My daughter had to try and explain this to a pharmacist: “Um, you see we have a horse with a yeast infection that requires this medication.” Then there's the down his nose look. And you really just want to promise: “No really, it’s for our horse, not the football team.” But instead you pay for it and, glancing around hugging the bag close, slink out of the store in shame.
Donnie is feeling much better with his medication. So much so that whenever my daughter enters the barn he starts nickering and can’t wait for his treatment. Not quite the reaction to the meds she was hoping for, but as long as he's on the mend, I guess.... Amazing the odd things we’ll do for our horses isn’t it?
Until next time
Quote for Today
You never get the pleasure of owning a horse; you only have the pleasure of being its slave.
There is not much going on around the farm right now because of the weather, yet again. The forecast is for rain every day this week. So to pass the time I thought I would do a series on all of our horses beginning with how they came to be with us and ending with what they are doing now. This first story is about Donnie. I posted his story in 2009 and if you would like to check out Donnie’s beginnings and difficulties please click on these links:
Most of the readers to my blog know Donnie’s history but for the few new people visiting the blog I’d like to introduce Donnie and his issues to those who haven’t met him yet. Donnie is a unique individual and his distressing history is worth the read. We feel Donnie is making real progress towards becoming a “real” horse and for now I’ll be reporting on how well he is doing with his training.
We’ve been working sporadically with all the horses this winter and, as usually happens, the horses that aren’t being ridden don’t get the work they deserve or need. Unfortunately, Donnie falls into this category. But all that will be changing this week. He’s going back to work/training.
Before the winter started he was doing very well on the longe even with a saddle and girth. Personally, I think the Le Tixerant girth is helping by not constricting his rib cage but breathing with him.
My daughter was brave enough to try a short ride on him around the indoor, which he did very well with. To our disbelief, we accomplished this feat easily enough. After longeing a short time under saddle, we took him to the mounting block. My daughter tried her weight in the stirrup and across the saddle a few times. Donnie stood like a rock and never moved. We figured it was now or never and she swung her leg over and very gently sat in the saddle. No reaction. That was a good sign. We then literally took it a step further and I walked next to him feeding him treats while we circled the short end of the arena twice. Then walked him into the center, praised him A LOT, and then she dismounted.
That was the last time he was worked before the weather made it almost impossible to get anything done. Do you think he remembers his good experience after these many months? We’ll soon find out because Donnie will be starting his longeing again with and without saddle and, when he’s ready, my daughter will try walking under saddle again. Some ponying with a steady horse might be in his future too, but that’s undecided as of now.
I’m also going to start some clicker training with him. I’ve never done this with any horse but have read on some blogs how well it seems to work. If nothing else, I think it might encourage him to have confidence in himself when he succeeds at easy tasks. Donnie is one of the most interested horses in our herd. He always comes when you call him by name. He’s the first one to nicker when one of us walks in the barn and he loves interacting with us. When we first met Donnie no one could touch his ears and, disgusting as this might sound, you can now put your fingers right in there for a good scratch. I remember when he would give the farrier a hard time with his back feet, but that’s not a problem anymore. Haltering is usually fine over his ears if you stand next to him and go slow. When blanketing, he doesn’t bat an eye anymore. So you can see he’s come far in accepting things that once terrified him.
" Sweet Boy "
We believe every horse can be helped if only given the proper time and encouragement by building small successful links in the chain to their healing. By not rushing or expecting too much of him, I think Donnie will one day be a happy, well-adjusted horse. Donnie is too sweet and loving to give up on. And he’s got loads of talent and some of the most beautiful gaits we’ve ever seen, so he’d be a fun horse to bring along. It would be a failure on our part not to try and help him through his issues. We’ve also decided that if he never becomes a riding horse that’s okay too; he’s a permanent part of the herd and, not only is he fun to play with, but we can always count on him for a nicker and a hug.
Until next time
Quote for Today
The horse through all its trials has preserved the sweetness of paradise in its blood. - Johannes Jensen
Now it was time to start the investigation into the mysterious problems distressing our boy Donnie. It should also be noted at this time that he had problems with the farrier. Donnie would stand quietly for his front feet to be done, but he would barely lift his back legs and the farrier noticed the muscles in his haunches were stiff. He was always nervous when the farrier or vet was working on him, so no one knew if he was stressed or simply unwilling to pick up his back feet due to resistance – or both. This was one more matter that definitely needed to be worked on.
We tried everything we knew to help him but nothing seemed to work. It became apparent during some of our procedures that Donnie had definitely been abused in one way or another and had the scars to show for it. The conclusion we came to was that he was most likely “broke” hard and fast. It always seems to me that “broke” is an apt description for the way some young horses end up after their early training. In addition to his suspected ear twitching, he also has a brand, and though faded now due to his gradual lightening, had white hair from pressure sores on his withers and back, and around his head where the bridle/halter sits, not to mention the evidence of several old wounds over his whole body. We don’t know what Donnie’s early training consisted of, but it’s easy to imagine the “tied to a post” and traumatized or “thrown to the ground” old-fashioned cowboy methods being involved.
We had the vet out repeatedly; sure, we were missing something. Our vet at the time could not find anything wrong with Donnie. He was “healthy as a horse.” His dental examination and floating went fine, and his teeth were in good shape except for a broken front tooth that he had when we got him. There had to be a story behind the broken tooth, and this led us to believe he may have been kicked in the teeth or been in some sort of wreck. By the way, his missing half tooth just makes him look cuter and adds character to an already adorable mug, and helps us identify “Donnie bites” on the other horses in the herd – they do play hard!
We also tried homeopathics, which didn’t seem to help, and Reiki was also administered; while it helped for a day or two it didn’t last. Then of course there was the - and I use this term lightly - horse psychic. She thought he had been pushed over by another horse in the herd and fallen hard on his back and head and maybe had an incident with a tree head on. However, she couldn’t give us anything concrete. So we were back to square one…
I do wish they could talk. Then again, maybe they do - with their actions they are trying to tell us what is wrong, and it is up to us to figure out the solution. We were still unsure if it was a physical problem or a psychological/training issue. Where do you go from there? We kept trying to play with him in the round pen, which was good as long as nothing was around his girth area. We kept our “work” with him focused on gaining his trust. There seemed to be progress with the trust, but an odd thing happened about this time - Donnie would only let me or my daughter approach him or touch his face; if anyone else would try this, he would run backwards, rear, or both. So, it wasn’t all hopeless; we did make some progress, but it still seemed a major backwards step from where he was when we started.
Nevertheless, he did continue to enjoy the time he spent with his herd. Nate, of course is his best friend and the two of them play constantly. It seems Donnie loves everyone and all the horses love Donnie. To the mares, he is “Don Juan” – though they usually have little tolerance for the boys and their antics, the ladies all love Donnie and never squeal or kick at him. He’s quite the sweet talker... and I remember he would follow Erik around and emulate him. Erik took him on as a sort of bothersome younger brother, but watched out for him and taught him how to be calm and fit in with the herd. Donnie is sort of a prankster, some of the funniest times were when Erik went down for a good roll, and Donnie would come up and launch a sneak attack from the rear, biting him on the butt and then gleefully making his escape before Erik knew what had happened. Erik would just groan - ugh, little brothers can be so annoying - and continue rolling.
When Erik was down in the field, colicing and in pain, Donnie was the only one out of the entire herd who went over to him and tried to help by trying to get him up. When he couldn’t, he was the only one who stayed with his big brother until someone came to help. That is Donnie’s thoughtful, caring personality that so endears him to us and his herd.
Things were getting a little better but still he couldn’t be ridden. Our quest for an answer to all-that-is-Donnie continued for years. He was dragged to various vet clinics, had full body x-rays, numerous blood tests, screening for ulcers, was treated for EPM (which was never diagnosed) just in case. We even, as a last resort, briefly tried medications like acepromazine (a sedative) and methocarbamol (a muscle relaxer) without any change. These were just a few of the many procedures we tried to solve the riddle of the girth. During this time, he was also diagnosed with Lyme Disease, which we feel intensified his sensitivity problems. Let me say that, other than this girth sensitivity problem, Donnie is sound, healthy, has never needed shoes and has rarely had anything else wrong medically. Which led us to think it must be a psychological problem and even wondered if horses can have panic attacks or develop PTSD or some similar disorder after traumatic events or negative training experiences.
It is painful to see Donnie suffer so much and, I might interject here that anyone who mistreats any horse needs to have the same thing done to them in kind. Despite all of his problems – or maybe in part because of them - he has won everyone’s heart during these difficult years.
The search for an answer continued. In thinking about his stiffness behind for the farrier, and the twitching of all his muscles when he’s having one of his episodes, my daughter, running out of ideas, wondered if he might have a mild case of “shivers.” She began researching the condition, which is usually found in draft-type horses. Luckily, Donnie didn’t meet most of the criteria for a diagnosis of shivers, which is a horrible condition that has no cure. It seemed like we were at a dead end. Until, during the course of that research, she came across another, somewhat similar condition common to draft types. Two veterinarians, working separately, had recently done extensive research and identified a common but previously unknown neuromuscular disease in quarter horse and draft breeds that they were calling PSSM or EPSM. It sounded similar to Donnie’s condition. And, there was a way to manage it! If this was the source of Donnie’s troubles, there was still hope!
This past summer, we had scheduled Donnie to go to our local vet clinic for a nuclear scintigraphy scan in a final effort to discover some injury or problem lurking where normal exams couldn’t find them. After talking with the vets about the possibility of him having a neuromuscular disease like PSSM/EPSM, we decided to also have the muscle biopsy needed to diagnose PSSM taken from his backside and sent to the University of Minnesota lab while he was there. As with all the other diagnostics, the scan turned up nothing; we were relieved, but still frustrated. There was only one hope left....
Here’s why we think we may have finally found out how to “cure” Donnie of his discomfort and girth/saddling/riding dilemma:
Donnie had come to us as young horse off a ranch out west. He was a bit thin and unused to being stabled. He likely grazed on scrub and didn’t have access to rich pasture designed for dairy cows like what we had at our farm. He most likely didn’t have much access to rich hay and he probably wasn’t being fed grain. So, after a while of being with us, his new lifestyle and his new diet began to cause him problems.
PSSM occurs in horses that have an inability to properly process and store sugars in the muscles.
"Glucose is normally stored as an energy source in the form of polysaccharide (“polysaccharide” means “many molecules of glucose”) called glycogen in the liver and muscles. Horses with PSSM actually have an excessive accumulation of glycogen molecules in muscle cell cytoplasm. Over time, this glycogen combines with certain proteins present in the cytoplasm to form abnormal glycogen-protein complexes. How these abnormal polysaccharides damage the muscle cell is not exactly clear but may involve interfering with intracellular pathways for generating energy and thus result in cell necrosis or death....
With the excessive accumulation of these polysaccharides, the muscle cell can be damaged and die. When this occurs, depending on the number of muscles involved, duration of the process and other stress factors, multiple symptoms can be shown by the affected horse. While symptoms can occur in 6 month or younger foals, most often signs are not apparent until the horse goes into training at 2-4 years of age. Depending on the severity of involvement, symptoms can include any of the following:
generally stiff, difficulty rising, reluctant to “move out,” tires easily, saddle issues (sore back), bucking, resistance to holding up the hind feet for shoeing, subtle lamenesses, abnormal gaits, cranky attitude, muscle tremors or sensitivity, kicks at flies that aren’t there (muscle cramps), swishes tail excessively (muscle pain), looks at belly or flanks as if colicky (muscle pain), having a preference for rubbing or rolling a lot, or the opposite, with resistance to brushing/grooming, especially over the back and rump. Affected horses may show a stiff, tense gait with difficulty getting that nice relaxed rhythmic swing that is so desirable in the dressage horse or any other athletic, sport horse. Symptoms of “shivers” where there is an abnormal hind leg action and muscles quivering have been described in draft breeds . If left unmanaged, over time the muscles can atrophy and the horse can show severe muscle wasting. The horse may eventually be unable to rise from a lying down position. In its most severe manifestation, an affected horse can “tie up”(also known as exertional rhabdomyolysis or Monday morning disease or azoturia). While the horse is exercising, they will stop moving, often quite abruptly, or sometimes just slow down. They may come to a complete standstill, refusing to move. Their muscles tremble all over their body and they break out in profuse sweating due to extreme pain as the muscles, especially their rump muscles, go into severe cramps." (from “PSSM....Could my horse have it?”)
Quarter Horses and draft breeds are most commonly effected, so poor Donnie, being half of each, didn’t have much of a chance…
Our guess is that, with the pain and muscle cramping associated with PSSM, the pressure of the girth, particularly when it tightened as it does when he’s taking a deep breath, or spooking at a dog or a hole in the ground, caused him to panic and react instinctively to rid himself of the thing that’s hurting. Combined with his history of abuse and his fear of certain people and certain training situations, this was a recipe for trouble.
But so far, with the change in his diet, there has been a very positive change in Donnie. For one, his muscle tone is softer. He also seems more relaxed. So far, experiments with putting a polo wrap or stretchy surcingle around him haven’t produced a reaction. So maybe he’s on the road to recovery? We’re cautiously optimistic. However, recuperation from this condition can take many months while the muscles recover and begin to repair themselves, and the horse becomes accustomed to his new diet and exercise program. We’re taking things slow. After so many years of guessing, we’re in no hurry and we want to get this right.
Of course, years of fear and pain, and the muscle damage that goes along with PSSM may have taken their toll, as has his abusive early training. The scars are always going to be there. It is possible Donnie may never be comfortable and confident enough to be ridden again. But if we can give him even just a little relief, and hopefully win back some of his old composure and contentment, we’ll be satisfied. Maybe we’ll sleep a little better knowing we’re doing our best for him. Whatever happens, we’ll keep trying, because Donnie, despite everything he has been through, has never stopped trying. We’re keeping hope alive for him.
Until next time
Quote for Today
In the steady gaze of the horse shines a silent eloquence that speaks of love and loyalty, strength and courage. It is the window that reveals to us how willing is his spirit, how generous his heart.
Quote for Today 
