My Horse Cee Cee Given A 50% Chance of Survival

One of the many evenings i go over to the farm to spend time with my horse

She knows when you're happy
She knows when you're comfortable
She knows when you're confident
And she always knows when you have carrots.
~Author Unknown

A couple months ago, someone was bringing my horse, Cee Cee, in from pasture and did not see an old drainage pipe a few feet from the barn which had rusted through.  My horse stepped into it with her back foot and the sharp metal almost tore her foot off.  Called the Vet who came and said that the injury was beyond his expertise. He called Guelph Veterinary Hospital for us to take her there to give her the best chance for survival; but he said that he was not hopeful.  She had four Veterinarians working carefully on her for hours...to help get her stabilized and her wounds irrigated and bandaged.   Her little heart was beating so fast from trauma and pain. She would not let me out of her sight.

 Because of her age...20years, and the cost of treatment....and no guarantee of her surviving after the hundreds of dollars spent....the clinic suggested that perhaps i should consider euthanasia. For me that was not an option...looking in to her eyes i knew she was a fighter and still has so many years ahead of her (her mother lived a long life-of 33yrs...well past the expected life span for a thoroughbred) and also she has the physique and energy of a much younger horse.

Cee Cee is a big part of the "Gervais family" ....at the age of thirteen i camped out at the farm until her mother Lenad went in to Labor (that is also when i started to drink coffee- which to this day I am still addicted). After i helped to deliver her, she followed me around like i was her mother. And I use to ride her mother in the field with little CeeCee following us...so in a way, she has always had two mothers:)

I took Cee Cee home from the Guelph Vet hospital a couple days later...with a letter from them stating that she had a 50% chance of survival; because of the high risk of life threatening infection. Changed her bandages carefully twice a day...and infection could set in if the smallest spec of dust was to get on her lacerations. Both legs were completely lacerated with her tendon sheath being severed...and changing the bandages was always a very stressful ordeal. Especially when she kicked out in pain from the slightest touch!

But it has been a couple months now...and we have beaten the 50% odds!  The bandages have finally come off  both legs....and soon she will be grazing in the field like the good old days! 

I'm so thankful to have had the opportunity to save my horse...she is so special to me! And it gratifies me to see her lumunescent eyes happy again.  From all the hopelessness...tears and horror i have experienced in Taiji, i know how fragile and precious life is.