Below is Part II of Maggie’s recovery story (Part I here) from Lissa at Flying Change. You’ll also want to read HopeFoal: A Prayer Answered by Julia.

Dear Friends,

Here is Part II. I apologize for the length - so much has happened that it is difficult to decide what is most important to say. If you want to catch-up from where we left off when she was at UGA then read the whole newsletter. If you just want the highlights of where we are now, skip to, you guessed it, “Where we are now”.

Maggie Comes Home
Maggie was discharged from UGA on April 5th. She took this photo with some of her treatment team and left the hospital with great enthusiasm. She walked out the door as if to say, “Let’s roll party people - I’m history here.” I was terrified. “Oh no!” I sobbed “I’m not ready!” Dr. Mueller kindly reassured me that it wasn’t like I was going off to college and couldn’t come home. I can’t say enough about UGA’s large animal hospital. The caliber of their expertise is matched by their caring. We are blessed to have them here in Georgia and I recommend them highly for any horse owner.

Her time at UGA had been a roller coaster. She initially responded well to the surgery but then faced a series of small setbacks. She had one complication that would become a significant issue: One of her antibiotics, Baytril, has a rare side effect of causing tendon’s to contract - something like if a woman were to wear only high heels her tendons would shorten and it would hurt to wear flats. The tendons in Maggie’s front legs had contracted and she had bowed a tendon in her right front. This meant that now her weight was distributed even more treacherously.

Maggie handled her recovery at UGA with her characteristic grace. I, in contrast, discovered I do not respond well to prolonged feelings of powerlessness. Maggie had broken her leg in January and by her third month at UGA I had begun to, as they say in the vet world, “decompensate.” I developed a tick in my eye that caused men to wonder if I was twitching or flirting. I bought books with titles like Living with Uncertainty and The Places That Scare You, developed a compulsive appetite for Indian food and became superstitious about underclothes. (Okay, so that last part warrants some explanation.) It happened innocently enough. One day as I was sorting clean laundry I spotted a pair of undies and remembered that I’d been wearing them a few days before when I’d gotten some particularly great news about Maggie. The next day as I dressed to go to UGA for x-ray results, I thought “Why not?” and put them on. When the test results came back positively my craziness was reinforced and from then on I was overly aware of what underwear I was wearing. It was crazy, I knew it. But I just couldn’t help it. I at least had the presence of mind to know that it was nutty. Of course my underwear have nothing to do with Maggie’s health. I know that. But on days that I’m worried about her I still take extra care to put on a lucky pair. I can’t help it. With all the stress, my cheese slipped off my cracker.

Maggie came home to recover at our new farm in Fairburn. We were still treating her front legs and the bowed tendon but the surgical leg appeared to be healing nicely. The incision had closed and while she was not completely sound she had adapted and was putting some weight on it. She got around pretty well and taught herself how to get through the people walk-thrus so that she had free run of the farm. Once, I found her on the front porch of the house looking at me as if to say that she was so good she should really be an inside horse. She returned to providing therapy and even filmed a nationally syndicated TV show for Fox - Judge Hatchett. (We’re waiting for an air-date and will keep you posted!)

Through the spring, Maggie was doing well overall but we still struggled with her front tendons. Even with traditional treatment, they seemed to be getting more and more contracted. Her front legs were so upright that she became unsteady. We were considering new strategies when something unexpected happened: in late August her incision reopened and began to drain. This was a sign of infection and after a broad-spectrum antibiotic failed to clear it up, we cultured the drainage and found that she didn’t have just any infection, she had MRSA. MRSA is a particularly virulent, antibiotic resistant strain of Staph. We needed to know whether this infection was superficial or traced down into the plate itself. When the trailer arrived to take Maggie back to UGA, she took one look at it, cantered up the hill, squeezed through the walk-thru gate and hid behind the house muttering “Nope. No thank you!’” At UGA, it was determined that the plate itself was infected and would need to be surgically removed in order to treat the infection. The good news was that the break had healed, so Maggie no longer needed the plate and might actually be more comfortable without it. (Given that the plate and had been the most expensive part of her original surgery, I asked if we could return it for store credit but they wouldn’t take it back! ;)

Where We Are Now…
The plate came out on Sept. 29th and we started her on antibiotics for the MRSA at the same time. She’s home and recovering. She goes out during the day and grazes or lies in the sun. She comes in for dinner at six and likes to lay down for the night between 7:00 and 8:00. She puts her head in my lap and we talk about how things are going. I get up in the night to give her medicine and a little sweet feed to wash it down. We have a rhythm.

The good news is that the break in the stifle is healed. The challenge we are still dealing with is helping her to distribute her weight more normally. Like Barbaro, if she doesn’t distribute her weight she runs the risk of foundering. So our strategy is to help the front tendons stretch and be able to hold more weight and encourage her surgical leg to begin to bear some weight again. We are seeing progress but it will be a slow healing process. She’s had dramatic results with massage, walking much better even after just one, so we are giving her as much massage as we can.

There’s no denying that since the original surgery last winter she’s had her share of complications. (And a couple other ponies’ shares too!) In spite of it all, she’s still Maggie. She takes things in stride and adapts to whatever she’s facing. If most of us responded with half her grace to the setbacks in our lives, the field of counseling would dry up. She is still young and playful. She enjoys knocking over the wheelbarrow as I’m cleaning stalls. She likes playing with doors - using her nose to nudge them open and pull them closed, open, close, open, close. She lost her first baby tooth last week and took great pleasure in yawning hugely to show me the hole and then sticking her tongue through it as if to say “SEE! NO TOOTH!” (The tooth fairy did not come, given the value of the dollar a quarter doesn’t do anything worthwhile these days, so we just gave her a carrot instead!) She listens faithfully to “Prairie Home Companion” on Saturday nights, which we’ve taken to calling Pony Home Companion. She’s grown 6 inches. She’s soft as a puppy and her little hooves are the size of my palms. She likes forehead kisses and prefers biting off the real carrots to the baby carrots. She’s facing these veterinary issues, but she is still herself. Most of all, she’s still fighting. Still living. Still wanting to play and excited to eat and be loved on. She’s still fighting to live, so we’re fighting with her.

What You Can Do
We are covering as many bases as we can. She is on antibiotic for the MRSA and we believe it is working. She sees her vet a few times a week for sonic therapy to heal the soft tissue in her stifle and her front leg tendons. She is taking anti-inflammatories, Adequan, and herbal remedies that treat inflammation naturally and support her joints. We suspect that much of what she’s dealing with relates to the soft tissue - muscles and tendons that need to relax and regain elasticity for her to move better. The massage seems to dramatically improve her comfort and we are hopeful that with enough of it she will regain more of her range of motion. She is receiving physical therapy and massage about four times a week to relax and stretch the muscles and tendons. (And, of course, I am wearing lucky underwear as often as possible. ;)

Please support us in continuing her care. Her antibiotics run $260 for 20 days and we have one more cycle to buy. The remainder of her therapy is $630 a month when we are being very aggressive with her treatment. If you are, or know, a massage therapist who can donate time to massage Maggie that is a great gift. (No special equine training necessary.) As you make your end of year charitable gifts, please consider giving to Maggie. Any amount helps. Most of all, believe in her healing.

I believe in Maggie. I believe that believing in Maggie is as real a force in her recovery as any medicine or procedure. I can’t put it under a microscope and prove it, but somewhere in my gut I know that when Maggie was in the hospital she could feel everyone out here routing for her. Please continue to believe in her and send her your support. It may not be a medicine we can dose out and administer, but some of the most powerful forces in the world can’t be measured - faith, love, compassion. Most of all, as often as you can, send her love and imagine her well.

You are all such a gift to us. Over and over the veterinarians have told us that Maggie is unprecedented, because no other horse would have been given the option to live and attempt to heal. You have made that possible for Maggie. She will never be “normal” but she is already extraordinary.

Thank you for everything you’ve done for her and by extension all those who love her. Please know in this season what a blessing you are to us.

Sincerely,
Lissa & Maggie
Lissa Corcoran
Executive Director
Flying Change Equine Therapy
(404) 512-0834
www.flyingchange.org