Virginia Range Wild Horse Sanctuary

Do you remember Blue?  He’s been at AAE for some time now, trying to heal after a nearly seven pound mass was removed from his hind fetlock in Fall of 2017.  

Graphic photos of his progress are included below.

 

 

Blue is a 2010 Virginia Range (NV) mustang gelding who came to AAE March of 2017 after a request for assistance from the Virginia Range Wild Horse Sanctuary and Hidden Valley Wild Horse Protection Fund. Blue had been carrying around a large mass of proud flesh (granulation tissue) over his left rear fetlock/pastern area for some time.  Although he had been haltered and handled some previously, he was not halterable when he arrived at AAE, and we knew we had a big job ahead in helping  Blue.

Before we could evaluate the mass, he had to be gentled, haltered, and his legs/hooves had to be handleable.  With a straightforward mustang, not a big deal, but  Blue had some substantial fear/trust issues.  Initial efforts with befriending and haltering him were lukewarm.  Thanks to Dr. Stolba and Team LBEMC (throughout  Blue‘s journey), he had made enough progress that we were able to sedate him, radiograph the bony area beneath the mass, and collect tissue samples for biopsy.  We wanted to make sure there was not an underlying reason for the mass other than old injury before getting too deep into corrective measures if they would be for naught.  It was not an easy feat.  Even with sedation, he kicked quickly and with purpose.

Radiographs and biopsy showed no obvious issues, so the work continued.  Weeks in,  Blue seemed to have had a reaction to something and developed a mysterious condition that turned out to be a form of vasculitis.  He developed sores/ulcers throughout his mouth.  They were horribly painful.  Though his history and symptoms didn’t suggest, we had to quarantine him and test him for vesicular stomatitis.  Thankfully, it was negative.  We scaled back our efforts to reduce his stress and allow him to heal.   But, the mass was growing.

After several weeks, he improved, and we resumed course.  He would take a few steps forward, then a couple  steps back.  Finally, after many weeks with nominal results, we had a marathon day.  We worked until we broke through, six hours.  The next day, our learning curve was much shorter, and the next and the next, until finally, we could halter, touch all over, and pick up his left hind and handle it all over.  We practiced with bandaging materials and wrapped it up, and he was a gem!

We scheduled surgery, and in late August 2017, he lost nearly seven pounds in a matter of minutes.  The mass looked like a big brain, and it weighed in at nearly seven pounds.  Imagine what that must have felt like with every move.  Needless to say, it was done!

 To see more:

 “Graphic Photos”

However, the mouth lesions returned.  There were more, and they were worse this time.  They were on his body, around his anus, and on his sheath.  Poor guy, these things were awful, and they appeared to be an autoimmune issue.  At one point, we questioned his prognosis and quality of life, but before jumping to conclusions, we biopsied the tissue.  We ended up with a vasculitis diagnosis.  The best thing was, we changed up his meds, and the sores began to heal.  The area where the mass was removed was beginning to heal.  In the meantime, the next test came when it was time to change his first bandage.  With a bit of sedation, it went fairly smooth, but cleaning the lesion was a little challenging.  But, wow, it looked amazing!  Such a tremendous improvement.  It was like a victory in and of itself, even though not healed.

Healing was progressing nicely!