Yesterday morning Spirit was in some sad shape. He wanted to go for a walk but he just couldn’t move his hind legs. He could move the bad leg forward but couldn’t put enough weight on it to be able to move the good leg. He was up to 36 hours without eating.

I called his vet back and scheduled a time for him to come out while I was at work. I was actually pretty resigned to being told that there was nothing else that could be done since he wasn’t responding to medication.

The poor boy got hit with every drug known to equine kind. IV banamine, dexamethasone, and lasix. Multiple homeopathics. Bloodwork drawn (all normal). Green drawing paste applied to his leg. I figured that was enough to irritate him to no end but his farrier also came and his stall cleaner. By the time I came home he was mad at the world. So of course I force fed him his antibiotics and homeopathics. Then I let Prize go outside.

That was the last straw. A cat was playing in his stall and he turned towards the cat. I thought he was going to take out his frustrations on her but he got a bit of momentum and walked out of the stall and to the barn door. Shocked me.

Then he had to stop and rest. There is a step down out of the barn so I told him to think about it before committing himself to that. Eventually he took his front legs off the step and stayed like that a while. He did figure out how to get the back end off the edge. He slowly worked his way towards the pasture. He was very weak but determined. He got to within 6 feet of the fence and stopped. I decided to bring Prize in and then try to get Spirit back to the barn. While I took her back he decided to go more into the pasture. He got himself half in and half out and then was stopped again. Prize is so terribly codependent that she can’t handle not being in the same place as him. She thinks he is getting preferential treatment. She was having a hissy fit in the stall. The SO had never witnessed Prize’s full on, bucking in her stall temper tantrums. I just knew that this was making Spirit feel better knowing that he had made her so mad.

I put a halter on him and the SO led and I gave him a push to get him started. We led him back in through the arena so he didn’t need to step up.

He still isn’t eating but he’s usually on the mend when he gets mad and starts messing with Prize’s head again.