Strider

Since our move to SAFE Harbor Stables back in July of 2012, life hasn’t been entirely easy for our friend Strider. For several months after the move, the burned area on his back still needed to be protected from sun and rain, so he lived in a covered enclosure next to the indoor arena, which was good for his healing process but hard because he had no nearby neighbors to socialize with up close. When we were able to move him into the main barn, he immediately became much happier with friends on either side of him and lots of activity around him, but living in a stall with an attached gravel run proved to be a little small for a horse his size. Strider developed recurring leg & hoof problems, including pressure sores, proud flesh, abscesses, stocking up, and even a small bout of cellulitis. His daily routine at one point included unwrapping, debriding, cold hosing, scrubbing, rinsing, treating with ointment, and wrapping all four legs. And through we’ve done our best to get him exercise and turnout, it just wasn’t enough to keep his legs working properly.

SAFE Harbor Stables is a wonderful facility for us, and we love being in the heart of Woodinville, surrounded by our super supportive neighbors. We love the barns and the arenas. But what SAFE Harbor lacks is pasture space — there is some, but the horses each only get a few hours per day to be out on grass in the summer time. And for a horse the size of Strider, it’s difficult on his body to be on limited turnout. So we’ve been hoping and praying for a foster home or adopter to come along and offer this big guy a better living situation that what we’re currently able to provide. And we are so happy to announce that our prayers were answered.

Our good friend and long-time supporter, Sheridan Jones (recently seen on this KOMO news story about her SAFE horse Corona) has a nice horse property in Monroe where she keeps her two horses, Corona and Austin. But Corona is headed off on the Hunter/Jumper show circuit this summer, meaning that Austin was going to be occupying his big grass pasture all alone. So when Sheridan heard about Strider’s needs, she immediately offered to let us keep him at her place for at least the rest of the summer. Sheridan picked Strider up on Monday and he’s spent the week side by side with Austin, enjoying the grass and sunshine. The two big geldings get along great. “They are ADORABLE with each other,” Sheridan reports, “and Austin is so happy to have a friend. He and Strider seem perfectly suited for each other. They were happily sharing a slow feeder last night, and Austin NEVER shares food. I think they respect each others’ size, and are probably sharing scary fire stories too.”

Sheridan’s comment about “fire stories” refers to the fact that she and Austin and Corona also had a brush with danger when their barn caught fire and burned to the ground last year. Fortunately for Sheridan, she was able to get the horses out safely just as the fire was started, but it was still a traumatic experience for everyone, as you might expect. Sheridan says she has felt a connection with Strider ever since the fire, and has followed his story closely. It’s something that she and the big horse have in common, and who knows, maybe they can help each other continue to heal and grow from their shared experiences.

Strider will be able to stay with Sheridan and Austin at least until the end of the summer. Once wet weather arrives, Sheridan’s pastures may not be able to sustain the two horses, and at this point she doesn’t know if her barn will be rebuilt in time for winter or not. But at the very least, Strider is living the life that we’ve dreamed of for him, grass to eat and lie down in, sunshine, and a good friend. The happiest update we could share would be that Strider was adopted into the perfect home, and we know that someday that will happen. This is the second happiest update, and it’s a pretty incredibly happy one! Thank you to Sheridan and Austin for opening your hearts and home for the magnificent Strider!

Strider has been puzzling us for months with an on-again-off-again urinary tract issue. His only symptom was random bouts of leaking urine. Sometimes he would “dribble” significant amounts of urine, splashing himself and making a mess of his stall. Other times, he would go outside, stretch out and relieve himself with a completely normal urine stream. Each time the unusual urine dribbling was observed, Strider would have no fever, be in good spirits and eating normally. 

Our veterinarian recommended a urinalysis to check for the possibility of infection or stones. This proved VERY challenging as Mr. Strider is a gentleman with a healthy dose of modesty. He refused to cooperate when anyone was near him with a collection container.

After some time of trying to catch a urine sample randomly, we found a generous volunteer who was willing to sit in his stall for however many hours it took to convince him to pee in the cup! Patience won out, and a sample was sent to the lab. We had high hopes that the results would provide the answer to this mystery.

Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending how you look at it) the urinalysis came back completely normal, with no indications of either a stone or an infection. While we were relieved, we still did not have an answer.

After multiple volunteers reported they were seeing the dribbling, we began to notice a pattern. It almost always occurred as the volunteers were feeding. Up to this point, Strider’s stall was a fairly constant wet mess. An experiment was conducted to determine if Strider was continually “leaking” urine, or only at feeding time. We moved his slow feeder outside, so eating did not occur in the stall. It quickly became clear that all urine dribbling was now happening outside…and that the bouts of dribbling were directly related to feeding time.

Strider’s stall now remains clean and dry nearly all of the time, which seems to indicate he is not experiencing an incontinence issue. Due to the complete absence of other symptoms along with the negative lab results, we have come to the conclusion that this is a behavioral condition. After sharing the story with a few people, we started hearing about other horses who have a conditioned response and dribble urine at feeding time. So for now, we’re considering this mystery solved and chalking this up to just another unique aspect of Strider’s very special personality.

Here are some photos of Strider taken last week. He’s not a happy camper because his front foot hurts. We’re still treating it as an abscess with soaking and wrapping. At least he is a good boy for that!

These photos of Strider were taken by SAFE volunteer Kyrany, who we thank most sincerely for letting us use them!

Strider’s legs are looking better these days, thanks to Brittney’s hard work of daily wrapping and scrubbing and rinsing. Strider stands patiently for her while she works on him, even when it hurts. Afterwards he gets his turn in the pasture, but he’ll always stop eating to come over to say hello.

Where would we be without Nolvasan?

Lovely horse, lovely day!

Why hello!

Strider always enjoys himself on SAFE Open House days, and this past weekend was no exception. He likes meeting new people and listening to them rave about how big he is and how handsome. We’re happy to report that his cellulitus has gone away, but he’s still battling proud flesh and pressure sores. He’s also having another flare up of a problem that we’ve seen on and off for almost a year now that we’ve come to think of as incontinence…he urinates small amounts and does not seem to have control over it. It’s usually accompanied by a slight swelling of his sheath, and we have been unsuccessful trying to figure out what is wrong with him. His back is looking pretty good, and he enjoyed the periods of sunny weather that we saw on Sunday. 

Strider wants a forever home…

Strider has apparently had issues with pressure sores on his fetlocks long before coming to SAFE, and no matter how deeply bedded his stall, the small sores persisted. Recently he’s developed some proud flesh at the site of one of the sores on his hind leg, and so Brittney has been making a valiant effort to treat the problem. This involves a daily routine of unwrapping his bandages from the day before and removing the scabby bits (something Strider apparently enjoys doing himself…ew!) then taking him outside for a session of lunging and cold hosing to reduce swelling, and then a good scrub to all four fetlocks with Betadine. Then his legs have to be given time to dry completely before Brittney can treat the pressure sores with neosporin and the proudflesh with ProudsOff and rebandage all four legs with standing wraps. Strider is a great patient, but you have to admit, that’s a lot of work!

But despite all this effort, the proudflesh hasn’t been healing as well as Brittney would like it to. And this past weekend, Strider’s leg ballooned to twice its normal size, which meant an emergency vet call to Dr Hannah. She diagnosed him with cellulitis, which is a bacterial infection of the soft connective tissues under the skin. (You can read more about cellulitis here.) Although the leg was quite warm, Strider was not running a fever, but he was immediately put on bute and a course of antibiotics. By the following day, the swelling had gone down quite a bit, so we are guardedly relieved that the worst has passed. But we are quite concerned about the big guy, and we continue to ponder what the future looks like for him.

His back continues to improve, but we still don’t know if he’s really ever going to be able to be ridden again. So what he needs at least for the present is a home that can accomodate a horse of his size — in other words, an experienced horseperson who won’t be intimidated by him, who can safely work with him on the ground, and who can deal with his ongoing medical issues if and when they arise. He’s a very friendly horse who gets along great with other geldings, but a full pasture turnout with other horses might cause recurring injury to the skin on his back so he’d have to be monitored closely and treated as needed. The truth is we don’t know exactly what the perfect home for Strider would look like, but we need to make a concerted effort to figure that out. It’s our wish that the perfect “retirement” type home will come along for Strider so he can move on from the rescue environment and into a setting where he can be more comfortable. Maybe if we all wish together, someone perfect will come along for Strider. He’s a great horse with a heroic heart who has been through so much, and he deserves a place of his own.

So please think good thoughts for our boy to get through this bout of cellulitis and to find his future beyond SAFE.

Strider and Bucky B Lucky have been close friends since Lucky arrived at SAFE Harbor last month. Lucky is a big boy, but Strider makes him look like a pony!

Best friends

Strider’s story will be featured in an upcoming issue of Pet Connection magazine, in an article written by Dr Hannah Mueller. Our Assistant Herd Health Coordinator Chelsey Braswell took these photos of Mr Strider a few days ago. Look at his back! It’s almost completely healed!! Way to go, Strider!!

Let’s take a moment to thank someone else who is very special to Strider: SAFE volunteer Sharman! Sharman is not only Strider’s sponsor, contributing $50 per month to his care, but she is usually the one you’ll see caring for the skin along his back. She’s played a big role in his amazing story, and we are very grateful for everything she does for this handsome horse. We are also very excited to announce that Sharman has agreed to become the Assistant Volunteer Coordinator for SAFE.

As Strider’s back gets better, we’re starting to think about what the future might hold for this horse. One thing that a lot of people say after spending time with Strider is that he has an uncanny ability to “connect” with them on a personal level. He has a lot of special friends, and many of them feel that this horse has had a very positive influence on them. When Strider was being cared for at NWESC, he had some opportunity to participate in Equine Facilitated Therapy and Learning, and Dr Eric Mueller PhD remarked that Strider has many qualities that he looks for in a good therapy horse. Strider may have an opportunity to try his hoof at Equine Facilitated Learning next month.…we’ll be sure to keep you posted on how that turns out.

Strider

Today, Strider had his first official turnout in SUNLIGHT! His healing has progressed to the point that Dr. Hannah cleared him to begin very brief periods of turnout. We are starting with 30 minutes of exposure for the next few days. We will be closely monitoring the healed area to be sure that there is no negative reaction. Strider seemed quite happy to be out enjoying the glorious sunshine after nearly a year under constant cover. I hope you will join us in celebrating his amazing recovery. Thank you to our supporters who donated to Strider’s medical care and made this moment possible.

Strider is settling in at SAFE, making new friends. In the photos you see below, the holes on his back are skin grafts. They started out as tiny spots and after two months are the size of dimes. They will continue to expand out and hopefully fill out the unhealed area.

After 7 months at NWESC, Strider has finally been released to SAFE. He still requires daily treatment of his wound area, we are going to be able to handle it ourselves. We’re thrilled to have the big guy at the SAFE farm.

Seven days after after Strider’s skin graft procedure, Hannah removed the bandages to take a look. Strider has been a good boy, even though his banadages are itchy. It will be a bit more time before we know if it worked, but so far so good. Keep Strider in your thoughts.

Strider is resting comfortably tonight after a three-hour skin graft procedure.

Last August, Strider survived a fire that destroyed the barn at Dutch Mill Farm and killed 6 other horses. He was badly burned all across his back. Since the fire, he’s been treated with daily debriding and lotions, and while he made good progress initially, over the last few months, his healing has slowed. To jumpstart Strider’s healing process, Dr Hannah Evergreen recommended we try a skin graft, a fairly unusual process for equines but one that is used quite often in humans to treat nonhealing wounds and burns.

Yesterday Strider underwent a procedure to remove the unhealed skin from his burns in preparation for today’s skin graft. Strider began his day today with a healing energy work session, followed by the three hour skin graft procedure. Skin grafts were taken from donor sites on Strider’s belly and chest and implanted into the burned areas. Now we wait to see if the grafts are accepted and hope that this procedure accelerates the healing process.

Strider is a brave and beautiful horse who has lived through a horrible tragedy. We hope that this procedure puts him back on the road to good health. Our sincere thanks to Dr Evergreen and her staff at Evergreen Holistic Vet Care for treating Strider, and to the kind people who donated to SAFE to help with Strider’s medical expenses.

Hello Beth!

Strider displayed his exceptionally personable and playful nature for the volunteers, attempting to steal a sip of SAFE President Jaime Taft’s mocha! The volunteers were there to learn about Strider’s daily care in preparation for the possibility of eventually moving him out of the hospital setting and transferring him to the SAFE farm. We will continue to keep you updated on his progress.

SAFE has taken ownership of Dutch Mills Farm barn fire survivor Strider. Strider’s owner had been facing financial difficulties before the fire took place, and had been trying to rehome this horse. Since the fire, Strider’s owner has faced enormous vet bills for his care, and unfortunately he was not insured. He is looking at several more months of care, and she can no longer afford it. SAFE was asked by Dr Hannah Evergreen to take on responsibility for her client so that his care and rehabilitation could continue. It is still uncertain if Strider will ever be able to be ridden, but it is our hope that if he cannot, that we can help him find a new career once he’s ready.

Strider had been competing in Jumpers on the local show circuit prior to the fire. Here’s a photo from his days as a show jumper.