A few months ago we brought Tony home from the Fancy Barn (aka the trainer’s barn) because he kept getting an abscess in his front left hoof. But also, because Cybil was ready to find him a new home where he would be loved and have a partnership that could thrive. We wouldn’t sell him until he was completely sound, so he came home. He did great. Until one day, he got another abscess, started limping and being overall lame and in pain. He had X-rays and treatments and new shoes. We worked closely with both the vet and farrier, but it was soon apparent we needed further testing to figure out the underlying issues with his foot. We sent him up to the Phoenix area to an equine expert, they did an mri and other tests and figured out Tony had an infection in his coffin bone with some bone chips floating around. Short version, he needed surgery. Prognosis, could be great, could be awful or could be anywhere in between. He was doing really well at this point so no immediate action needed to be taken. He was on stall rest, but he’s a show horse, too much time turned out and he would make bad decisions.
So, it has been about 6 weeks since then and it was time for the vet to come back out last week and do an X-ray to check and see what had been happening in his foot since the mri. The foot in question still had the infection, but the surgery would work well and the prognosis for after surgery on that foot seemed good.
But…
After the surgery he would have to keep all of his weight on his front right foot for 6-8 weeks. The X-rays of that foot showed his navicular had degenerated further and he was now into the area of laminitis to the point that this foot would not be able to make up for the difference that would be needed for post-op. Which meant, the prognosis went from good to non existent. We couldn’t do the surgery, but we couldn’t just let him be lame and in pain either.
So a few days later, after many treats, tears, hugs and love, we had to say goodbye to the most handsomest, loving, big bootied and big nostriled boy. It was a good day, he got to do his victory lap in the turn out, with a lot of pretty prances, some gooooood rolls and more and more treats. We sat by his side and said goodbye while he continued his customary snorts for far longer than should have been possible.
On the plus side, the vet and farrier are going to study the offending leg and learn how to help future horses. But it really really sucked to have to put a young, otherwise healthy, handsome horse down because his stupid foot was deformed. We will miss Tony, aka Khryponite. And while we know we made the right choice in the end, it was the worst choice to have to make at all.
Being a responsible animal owner is not for the faint of heart sometimes.