Hi, my name is Minnie and I am a 17 year old American Quarter Horse. I am sorrel in color and I have been shining like a copper penny for the past 14 years. I say this because my first 3 years of my life were not so good. I was moved from Darby, MT to Clyman, WI when I was around 2 years old. Once I moved to Clyman, WI, I was not treated all too well as I ate manure and wood from the barn for 6 months.

When my present owner saw me, I was pretty skinny and I am not sure what she saw in me, hence my nickname, Skinny Minnie, a.k.a. Minnie. My present owner bought me in May of 1994 and that was after 3 months of good nutrition was provided to me. My feet were trimmed which they might have been done once in my 3 years of life, as they were starting to curl up. I was also vaccinated and de-wormed as I probably was never vaccinated or de wormed in my 3 years of life.

I am delighted to tell you that there has been a marked improvement in Treasure (my llama). She is now walking and standing along with the other llamas, her pastures have come up slightly and although she is not 100%, I am so pleased with her amazing progress. We have been giving her the gallium nitrate daily for 6 weeks now and there is probably about 2 more weeks of solution left. I am hoping to see even more improvement by the time the solution is all used up. I can’t thank you enough for your miracle medicine. I took pictures of Treasure’s feet before we started and will take some in a couple weeks for comparison and I will send them to you.

All the best
Bonnie
bbllama “at” telus.net

I was not halter broke and did not like humans, however, my new owner was very patient. My first set of shoes were pony shoes because my feet were so tiny and I really looked like a yearling. You would have never known that I was a 3 year old.

Everyone told my new owner that she bought nothing but a bag of bones and trouble, however, she vowed to me that she would do everything that she could to bring me back to the horse she knew was underneath that so called bag of bones.

My owner and I have had a lot of good times together riding on the trail, in the show ring, or even down the busy highway cantering along to see if we could out run the semi’s that were passing us.

I have made her proud with the two foals that I have produced and was even a good enough mom to accept and nurse an orphan Arabian filly for 3 months. I have also made her proud by allowing some stranger, who was an elected official, ride me on an organized trail ride that benefited the Make-A-Wish Foundation. I was even well behaved when the turkeys flew up and scared the daylights out of me. However, I knew that this elected official’s guardian angels could not fly as fast as I could run so I thought it best to just spook in place.

Over the years, I have acquired the name, the “Dainty Little Princess.” I have seemed to “break”, I guess you would call it. Although I have increased my shoe size to a double “0”. I have been diagnosed with being heel sore and had to have my angles changed to a 55 degree. I even almost bowed a tendon in my right front foot. I wore a gel cast for 10 days. Needless to say, my owner and I have had a lot of bonding together as we have either walked in the indoor arena. Or walked down the road in the wind, rain, sleet, and snow; you name it, we were walking twice a day for 30 minutes and she never missed a day.

This brings me to my current situation. For five years I have been barefoot and sound. In March of 2008 I came up lame. My owner called the vet clinic and scheduled a time for them to come out to do a lameness exam and x-rays. My owner jokes around about the number of x-rays that I have had done on my right leg, over the years, that it should be glowing. When the vet ran the x-rays, my owner stated to the vet that she thought it might be my navicular or coffin bones that were creating the issue. I guess you would call it a gut feeling.

She was given instructions on how to care for my present lameness. It was strongly suggested that she have the farrier at the vet clinic work on my dainty little feet. So, she did and by the time she left she felt that she did wrong by me as he dropped my angles from 55 to at 48 on my right foot (my really bad foot) and from a 55 to a 50 on my left foot. There was no adjustment that was made in the angle changes. I had a longer toe on my right front foot and very little heel. My owner was told to ride me however and by June, I was really really bad. So bad that I was at the point she could barely get me out of my stall some days. She was ever so patient with me while crying and I know wishing she could carry me out of the stall.

So she called the vet clinic to tell them that I was really bad and could barely walk at times. She stated that she was getting a 2nd opinion. The vet clinic begged her to have them come back out. So, she agreed. They told her that I should have 30 days of stall rest and ran more x-rays.

By the time my 30 days was up, I was doing a little better. So, my farrier told my owner to start riding me at a walk down the road. So, she did. I did pretty good for awhile and then could not walk without limping. My owner decided to do what she thought was best and that was just turn me out as the farrier was due back.

At that time the farrier, the good farrier not the one that butchered my feet, took my shoes off and stated, “I have done everything that I could at this point in time. There is a CEVA study going on at this other clinic maybe, you should see if, you can get her in there.”

On October 5th, I was loaded up and was taken in to see if I was eligible for the CEVA study that was being conducted on navicular horses. I was longed, flexed, the whole nine yards. It was very difficult for my owner to watch me during my flexion/lames exam. I even made it to the MRI stage, however, I was not accepted into the study because of all of my underlining issues that were going on.

The MRI indicated that I had fluid around the coffin bone of the right front foot, bone degeneration of the navicular bone, inflammation of the navicular bursa and I had bowed my deep digital flexor tendons on both front feet. I was a 3 out of 4 lame on my right front foot and a 2 out of 4 on my left front foot.

She was given 4 options by the vet clinic.

Option one: was to give me the Tildren injection which was going to cost her $1,000.00. She does everything that she possibly can to her financial ability, but just could not do this option.

Option two: Was to put me on Gallium Nitrate and have the farrier at the vet clinic work on me. She was told by a dear old friend that if she had me worked on by this farrier that he would do everything he could to make me feel better and fix me.

Option three: Was to nerve me where I could not feel anything. This could be potentially dangerous because of the bowed tendons because I would not feel if I were in pain and could blow my tendons completely and then would have to be put down.

Option four: Was to just put me down. Well, this was not an option for my owner as she would like to do everything for me so I am not in pain.

My owner settled w/Option two. I was started on the Gallium Nitrate on the 16th of October, 2008. It is poured on my grain AM & PM and even though I am a very picky eater I don’t even know it is there. Plus, I get my 20 minute walks.

The farrier came out to the barn where I am kept on the 7th of November to work on my daughter. My owner and he discussed me so she took me out of my stall to walk me up and down the aisle-way. The farrier stated that he thought I looked much happier. He did not work on my feet because I was being taken back to the vet clinic to have that farrier work on me again.

On the 12th of November, I had a re-evaluation done after being on the Gallium Nitrate for almost a month. The vet looked at me work on a hard surface and I was still off, however, not as bad as when I went to the clinic on the 10th of October. The vet ran me through a series of flexion tests in the arena and worked me. He could not believe how much I had improved in 30 days.

The farrier was there and watched me go through my series of flexion tests. The vet was telling the farrier how messed up I really had been before, and how pleased he was with my progress thus far. The comment that the vet stated was, “She looks so much happier than when she originally came in.”

My owner shared stories about my past and the good things that I have done in my life and the fun that my owner and I have together. This is when the vet and farrier both stated that I was worth my weight in gold, thus, the shiny gold (sorrel) coat that I have. I had my feet done again by the farrier and was told to keep on my controlled exercise program, however, I got my hand walks down the road increased to 30 minutes a day. I am not sure that my owner is terribly excited about walking me 30 minutes, a day as once again it is winter but, I always know that I can count on her. She was told by the veterinarian to keep me on the Gallium Nitrate and bring me back after I have been on it for 3 months to see my progress.

I am writing this testimonial on Monday, December 8th, 2008, as my owner saw something yesterday that made her cry. Yesterday, Sunday, December 7th, 2008, I was turned out in my small paddock w/my 6 year old daughter and I started to run and play. I was leaping in the air with all four feet off the ground and landing and taking off and running. I was snorting, flagging my tail and bucking in place. My owner thinks that the best part was that she never saw me take an off step the whole time. Granted, she was thinking, “please don’t hurt yourself.” This is the 1st time that she has actually seen me play like I was a filly since I came up lame in March.

My owner, myself, my farrier, the vet clinic farrier and the vet all have contributed my progress to the Gallium Nitrate and the continued care. No matter how cold or terrible the weather is she is there. We are all hoping that my 3 month re-evaluation is even better news.

Oh, and by the way, my owner broke her wrist in 4 places last year while helping a friend out with her horse. She applys the 42% solution of gallium nitrate to the wrist that she broke and she says she notices a huge difference as her wrist does not hurt. She also stated that after loading and putting up 100 bales of hay and mixing my medicine that her wrist and fingers were not stiff the next day as they have been in the past to the point that she could not make a fist.

Thanks, for reading my story, Minnie the American Quarter Horse.

Thanks,