A David and Goliath Story (Not so Much!)
Ouch!
This story is action packed and we certainly feel for the owner of this feisty little mini! It’s amazing how just a few quick moments can change everything so much…
Big Kudos out to Wendy at Cavallo for her help with Kimchi! Be careful, this one’s a tearjerker…
So, I acquired KimChi from a lovely couple in Alberta (I’m in Saskatchewan). He’s about 5 years old and WAS a stallion (gelded 3 days before “the incident”). He was living with a mini donkey and had minimal manners. He was very funny, cheeky, and expressed typical stallion behaviours. He was gelded ASAP, as I figured he needed to come down a notch, LOL! He is a very lovely guy otherwise.
I had let the big horses out to a fenced area to eat grass, and after I cold-hosed his castration site I let him out to the dry pasture so he could run around for a bit and do guy stuff, smell poo, scream over the fence, LOL! (I do have other minis in with this herd too – I have never had complications like this introducing new members to my herd)
When you’re Mini, Best Pick on Someone your Own Size…
After a couple hours the big horses wanted to come back to the dry pasture for a drink of water. Well, I go to catch KimChi to move him back to his pen….and NOPE…he’s running like a little turd …will not let me catch him! After several minutes, I thought “fine then – if you want to run, I’ll let you run with everyone for a bit”, and thought I’d catch him after and put him away.
Well that was a big mistake!!!
Everyone came in and some went to have a drink. Suddenly KimChi took off like a shot at my big Fjord-cross, Winston, attacking him! This little creature was on his tippy-toes trying to take a chunk out of my quiet old man. KimChi kicked and bit him several times with all his might! Well, Winston tried to bite him to get him to take off, but KimChi kicked him again a couple of more times, so Winston turned around and gave him a pretty good boot. But that still wasn’t enough! Little KimChi kicked back, so Winston just piled him and it was over.
Right away, I knew that Kim Chi’s leg was broken, I probably heard it but I definitely saw it. The whole thing happened so fast, I didn’t even have time to go break it up and move them around to stop the kicking. I was just sick.
A Grim Prognosis
I contacted the vet here in Prince Albert and was told to put him down, so I called the vet college in Saskatoon and told them I was on my way. When I got there, I was told to put him down. I just couldn’t! A third vet was contacted after the x-rays were taken and he also said put him down… Well, I’m not sure what the heck I was thinking but I said if there’s any chance at all I wanna try. They both told me there was ALMOST no chance, but I pushed it and said “if anyone’s gonna make it, HE will!!!”.
After hearing all the risks involved and possible complications, he went into surgery. He had two screws put into the bone to stabilize some of the mess, three rods to the upper part of the tibia and one to the lower cannon bone, surrounded by a cast to try and take the weight off the fracture.
Laminitis in the opposing foot is one of the complications that comes from this kind of injury, due to overloading/ overcompensating. So I knew I needed something for support and Cavallo came to mind. That’s when I contacted you, Wendy! You were exceptional in meeting our needs and I appreciate all the time you and your Cavallo Team put into making sure we got the right CLB boots, ASAP.
The Little Man Makes Progress
KimChi is now at six-weeks post injury/surgery. He has had five cast changes so far. There have been some hiccups along the way, but he’s hanging in there and the boots have helped immensely. He had to have one of the upper rods removed last week as it came loose and infection began to set in (loosening of the rods is normal – that’s why they put three in to start and they remove them as they start to fail).
The infection is not ideal but he’s receiving treatment for that, and he’s started to develop bone around the fracture. He still has a long way to go but we are further ahead then what his first prognoses was!
I’ll look forward to keeping in touch and updating you with our progress!
– Jen Leier & KimChi
Have a Cavallo story you’d like to share? Please send it in, we’d LOVE to hear it!
Wishing your horse many happy and healthy trails,
