Sue Neff, Principal Broker, Jamestown, TN

When I look back at some of our photos, I wonder what is that??? I have on a pack which says I could be hiking, tights that say I could be mountain biking, and a helmet which says I might be riding my horse.

You decide! I am four words short of 50 so this will fix that, hopefully.

Well it's been a long hard slog with this horse. Now, almost 5 months later (See Blogs on same subject, Parts 1 & 2) his surgery wound has healed up until it's almost gone. The vet is pleased with the way it looks.

With his lump gone and months of recovery, you would think that's the end of it - but NO, we've been through an abscess in his surgery side hoof that erupted in his heel, an infection with a temp of 104.6, blood tests to check organ function, and for Lyme's disease and then three-legged lameness in his other leg that was diagnosed as an abscess, navicular syndrome and finally an injury to his flexor tendon. All that entailed 2 visits with our farrier, 2 nerve blocks, one to diagnose the navicular (which is wasn't) and one to x-ray for fractures and then a trip to an out-of-town vet where he was nerve blocked for an ultrasound. The ultrasound showed a slight inflammation and possible tear in his flexor tendon.

He stayed there a week and came home to stall rest which he did NOT tolerate very well, then out with a buddy in a dry lot and finally out with his buddy in a separate pasture. His feeding is done on a mounting block with his bucket shock-corded to one of the steps to elevate it. He had trouble dropping his head low enough to eat his grain and to graze. Finally he is eating on the ground and grazing with only 2 more pain pills to go.

It will be a few more months before he is turned out with all the horses. He will have to show us he can trot and canter without pain before that happens. Tendons take about 6 months to heal.

One funny thing did happen though...I was reading over one of the vet bills and noticed his name at the top. His registered quarter horse name is Rb's Secos Music. And so we call him RB. That was the name I gave the check-in lady at the vet's office. But when I read the bill later his name had been entered as ARBY. So now we call him Roast Beef !

We love him lots and you have to when they require so much time and effort, let alone bucks. He's now worth double what we paid for him...or more, but that's OK!

Here's a series of photos before, with stitches, and now. Amazing what the body can do to heal!

Some days, no matter what "home chores" you have waiting, you gotta go ride. The breeze was wonderful, the falling leaves fanciful and the horses were extraordinary. We live where all this is just minutes away while some folks trailer hundreds of miles to what's in our backyard. We are so blessed!

All you agents out there might wonder why I'm blogging about this horse and his surgery. Well, in the Big South Fork area, we all have horses and follow the progress of our friends with their horses, be it problems, progress with a horse, trails we've ridden or where to get hay. As with a sick child, your mind is always wondering how long this will take to get over. And your time is certainly impacted by the care it takes to get through an episode like this. Maybe it is good that most of my real estate activity right now is on the phone.

Another aspect to my effort here is my hope that through the web, others with horses may stumble upon this site and see a sort of step by step progression of healing this kind of wound. There was an extra trip to a weekend vet to check on a stitch that surfaced. Turns out it was a subcutaneous stitch and will be absorbed over time - but another trip down the road in the trailer was needed. Now, back on the farm and turned out with the three other horses, we are in the change the bandgae everyday mode. Needless to say, I had to make a trip to purchace copious supplies of vet wrap and telfa pads, etc. And this isn't even my favorite horse. He's a good patient, though. He stands quietly for all the doctoring. Here Jim Little, our vet, sedates RB before removing the stitches.

Before stitches removed.

During stitch removal.

After stitches are out.

Three weeks after surgery. The wound had opened some after treatment for "proud flesh" and his normal walking around, but it is clean and pink and starting to heal at the edges. The rest will be just a matter of time, daily care and...well, more time.

Now RB gets a new style bandage. This is shorter and up off his pastern where he was starting to get some irritation. He likes the new one - "much cooler", he says! End of story for now. As with EVERYTHING that is difficult and seemingly never-ending, patience: the ability to endure waiting, delay, or provocation without becoming annoyed or upset, or to persevere calmly when faced with difficulties - IS THE KEY. And aren't we all in that ballpark right now as Realtors? In fact, as I think about it, PATIENCE and alot of PERSISTENCE are what separates successful Realtors from "part-timers."

Some horses go through life pretty much trouble free and then there are others we think of as "high maintenance." We have 3 steady-eddies and one problem child. Our quarter horse has some thoroughbred in his grandmother and she has passed on speed but also a few irritants such as low heel syndrome, flighty personality, nerves that make him prone to colic a lot and recently a follicular cyst in the ankle area that kept growing until it was obvious it had to come off.

We arranged with the University of Tennessee Large Animal Veterinary Clinic to have it removed surgically. We are fortunate here in the BIG SOUTH FORK and Jamestown TN area to be only 70 to 80 miles from the Vet School. We trailered RB down June 23rd and picked him up July 2^nd. He has a 4 inch incision horizontally across the ankle which makes healing in this joint area quite tricky. He was put in a cast to immobilize the ankle and in a few days changed to a splint, then to just the big bandage. He is a big boy weighing 1305 pounds and is used to running out in the pasture. So the instruction to keep him in "stall rest" for 3 weeks was stiff assignment. We are using one of his buddies to graze with him in the round corral to limit how much time I need to spend hand grazing him. While he is grazing, I clean his stall, change his water and put down new bedding.

Enough of the blow by blow - here are a few photos of the cyst and the day we brought him home. Monday I get to change his bandage - that will be interesting.

ARRIVAL and CHECK-IN

RB's STALL

Quick course on how to change the bandage.

Laura, the surgical tech and RB's care giver saying goodbye and Brad (owner & husband) hugging him hello.

Heading out to the trailer to go home.

More victims... but we are going home!

Back home - Charm, RB's buddy says hello - where have you been? TO BE CONTINUED.........