Ziggy

Well... thanks for the prayers everyone! It has been a success!!

Monday we found out that Ziggy qualified for surgery. The vet had to do surgery on both feet, but believed that if everything went smoothly, he would be able to be a normal horse. The left foot, which is the one he went down there for, was obviously the worst. She needed to cut his tendon. She also hoped that the bone hadn't fused and that she would be able to manipulate his coffin joint so that it would heal in the correct position. The right foot needed its ligaments trimmed so that it would not get to the point of the left foot by contracture.

Tuesday went by slowly as we were waiting to hear from the vet to find out how everything went. Around 3 pm she called to report great news! The right foot was now normal. And the left foot now looked like the right foot did before the surgery. And the bone wasn't fused. All of this was great news!!! He was very nervous though. Probably because this was the first time since birth that he had ever been alone. The plan was for us to go pick him up on thursday because he was being so nervous. He was so bad that he wouldn't even let them touch him without trying to kick.

Today, Thursday, we went to go get our man. We pulled in and went inside to pay and get instructions. We got bandages and bute (its kinda like tylenol for horses). We also received discharge instructions that included walking him once a day for 5 min while he was walking. As he gets better it will increase in time. He will also be seeing the ferrier at least once a week to trim him foam boot. It is on there now to decrease his pain as we slowly release the foot down to where it normally should be.

We are just so happy for him to be home!!!! And he is happy to be home. He is such a good boy. Oh.. we found out today that he weighs 563 pounds! He is getting so big. His head is practically taller than dad now (as you will see in a picture).

Thank you everyone!

Walking out of the barn. Look how tall he is compared to dad!

His bandages. It's pretty much just layers and layers of different gauze and mesh. He has a boot on his left foot (the white thing at the bottom of his foot) to gradually lower it. The vet said that if you would take that off, his heel will touch the ground, but that would just be too painful for him!

The vet Melissa Milligan and Ziggy. Great picture!!

At home waiting for dad to get him out

"Hurry up, Dad!"

"Yummy!! Hay! I am so glad I am home! And where are my friends?!?!"

Bolt and Camie were less than excited to see him...they just wanted to be fed, haha! But he was sure glad to be back in his barn and to be able to see his friends! Now lets just hope that the goats don't eat his bandaging!!!!! :-)

Prayers for Ziggy

Well, Sunday we left our house at about 1:30 to take Ziggy to the Equine Specialty Hospital to get his leg checked out and for potential surgery. We got there about 2:30 and got him all signed in and then took him to the his stall. He was not really a fan of walking onto the concrete floor of the barn. The vet tech there gave him a quick physical and then that was that and we left.

After we got home, mom called the vet and left a message telling her we decided to take him there. A few hours later we got a heartbreaking voicemail from her saying that taking him to this hospital would not be a fix all and there was a big possibility that the surgery wouldn't work and we would be forced to put Ziggy to sleep. This broke all of our hearts and left us all feeling very sick. We asked for lots of prayers over the last 24 hours and we appreciate any and all that you did for Ziggy and us. Last night was absolutely dreadful and was a very sucky waiting game. I was completely dreading the phone call from the vet. I know its probably bad to say, but i was preparing myself for the worst even though i wanted the best...just so the blow wouldn't be as bad once the vet called.

Today at about 1 pm, I got a call from my mom. She asked how i was and i said i don't know..how am i? She said good. The vet then told her that Ziggy was going to get surgery not only on his left foot but also on his right foot. Both had been problematic in the past, but we thought that the right foot was getting better. Which it was, but she said that she was going to go in and clip the ligaments just to be certain that it gets better and doesn't start to club like the left. The left foot, which is the one he went down for was the worst, but i guess not as bad as the vet had thought it was going to be. She said however, that it is bad enough that she will have to cut his tendons. She also said that everything also depends on his bones. Hopefully they are not fused and they are able to physically manipulate his hock to move it in a better position. But she said that at this point, with some very extensive rehab of stretching and shoeing that hopefully we will be able to control it enough that he will be able to somewhat normal but that we may never be able to ride him. I don't care what he is as long as he is alive!

She also asked mom if he was a nervous horse. Of all the horses and definitely of the babies, he would not be considered the nervous one. The poor guy. This is the first time that he has been alone and he is not dealing with it well. With that being said, his surgery is tomorrow. We will not expect a phone call until after 1 pm. And with him being nervous, we could possibly be bringing him home on thursday. I will keep everyone posted.

But for tonight, please keep praying for Ziggy. Pray that the Dr. will be able to do everything that is necessary for him to heal correctly. Pray that his bones have not fused yet. And pray for a speedy recovery.

Thanks everyone for all the prayers so far. It really means a lot.

And please, if you are interested or willing in donating to the Ziggy Fund, let me know and I will get you the information needed.

Brushing him before we are on our way

You can see here his bad foot. He is kinda on his toe.

This may be a better picture than the last one of his bad foot.

Walking to the trailer.

He wasn't too sure about this. 

Come on Zig!!

In at last. Only took a couple pulls. He was very nervous to be in there alone though

Pulling into the hospital

The facility

Admissions/hospital

Storage

The barn where Ziggy is staying.

Lets Save Ziggy!!

Hi all!   Just wanted to update the blog on Ziggy's condition.   Last we left it, the vet and farrier didn't think the stretching was working well on getting Ziggy's tendons to stretch out so we decided to just take the boot off and let it go until the next trim.   Well, Doug, the farrier was here yesterday and told us the foot has taken a severe turn for the worse and we need to do something NOW to save Ziggy.   I called the Equine Speciality Hospital in Burton, Ohio to see what we need to do to get things started for him because, at this point, if we do nothing, the foot will turn under and then he will have to be put to sleep because he wont be able to function on the leg at all.   We decided to take him up on this coming Sunday to stay over night and be evaluated on Monday.  After speaking to the vet, she said if the leg is as bad as I have described it, then surgery will be done the following day.   He will have to stay in the hospital for probably a week for stretching, bandaging and splinting, and medication.  This is going to cost approximately $3500 and we are asking our friends and followers to help if anyone can.   Any small amount will be appreciated.   Please leave a comment in our blog section and we will let you know where to send it.    Thanks to everyone out there who follows our blog and have enjoyed watching the babies grow up as much as we have enjoyed posting these for  you.   Lets save Ziggy!!   

Long time, No post.

I'm so sorry that it has been not days, not weeks, but months since my last post! I've been a crazy person though going to school full time and coaching volleyball i don't think there was a day when i was home before at least 7:30. So i apologize!!!!!!! Imagine, the big article in the magazine comes out and then i don't have ANY time to do any updating or to take any pictures (b\c i was barely home when all the fun happened). But this is all the pictures and updates i can think of that has gone on in the last two months...

Hank and Charlie are getting HUGE!! NOT to mention how protective that they are getting!!! But they are still the silly geese that we love. 

I don't have a picture of this.. but funny story. One of our  "baby" chickens that we got this past summer went missing. We are talking went missing for like over a month... Well she turned up one day and had TWO babies!! They were adorable! Mom was uber protective for about the first month until she thought they were big enough to be by themselves. Well unfortunately that only last for a few days and then they disappeared at some point. No clue where they have gone, but they either wandered away (unlikely) or something got them. So that was sad. Our very first real baby peepers with a momma and all got eaten! (or something like that.)

These are the kids checking out the trailer. They love to get in it now and whenever it would rain or storm when they were out, this is where they would be. 

This is Flash and we also have Gizmo..but i don't have a picture of her. He is a baby kitten that "brother" had.. Whoops, I guess she was a sister instead of a brother. They are now a few months old and are very cute. they tear around the barn have lots of fun. 

Yawn!

Ziggy after a rain storm

Camie after the same rain storm

Ziggy, Camie, Bolt

Bolt, Ziggy, Camie

Ziggy

Ok, so i know that in the last post i said something about how Ziggy's feet were getting all messed up. Well it turns out that it was because Ziggy was growing SO much! He was growing almost an inch a week and his poor tendons in his legs just couldn't keep up. There are more pictures below of what we have been doing to help but unfortunately it isn't working so well. He still has the issue with his feet, but luckily he has stopped his growth spurt so hopefully we can get him straightened out before his next growth spurt. If we couldn't do anything then he would get a club foot and we dont want that!!!!! So get better Ziggy!!!!

A rose between two thorns

You can kinds see in this picture how his foot (the white leg) is almost rotated upward. He doesn't have the right amount of stretch in this leg.

You can see it much much better in this picture.

This was the beautiful rainbow that we got after the rain storm. and it was absolutely HUGE! it was a full one. and then at one point we actually got a full double rainbow. I tried to put a few pictures on here that were best so you  could see it, but i literally couldn't get the whole rainbow in my camera shot. 

I like this one with Camie in it!

This is the shot of the double one. its kinda hard to see but it you look right above the bright rainbow you can see the doubled one faintly. 

Bolt looking cute!

This is Holly our vet. She is great and has been working hard to help us with Ziggy. 

His boot.

His boot up close so that you can see the show at the end of it. Our farrier Doug was also there to help. Unfortunately for now, Holly said that our best bet was to call the specialty place and take Zig for a consult. Hopefully we will be able to get good news. 

This is Teddy and he was in quite the pickle when i found him. he was over this board and wasn't quite sure how to get out. He was really funny figuring out how to get off of this. I have a video, but it is too long to put on here. Sorry!!

Teddy up close. Can you see why I call him Fabio?? :)

Dan being nosey outside of the barn. He is goofy. 

Well that is all the updates i have for now. hopefully i will be able to tell you about Ziggy's progress soon. I really hope he gets better. He is so sweet I don't want anything bad to happen to him!

The babies are famous! Well.. almost!

Hello!! Well yesterday was the day and our article was finally published!!! YAY!! It was really good and so exciting to have our babies in the paper's magazine!!

Thank you to all of you that donated your magazines to us!!

This is just kind of a teaser post. I started school last week and have been kinda crazy so i haven't been able to post lately because i've pretty much been running 8-8 days for 2 weeks straight now.. but since this is a holiday weekend don't you worry!! I will give you guys a nice long updated post (with lots of pictures!!!!) about what has been happening lately (mainly with Ziggy and his peg leg!!)

Welcome all who were interested in our blog about our babies!! Please come driving and find our house with the orange snow fence to see the babies! they would love to see you too!!!! If you are new to the post, be sure to check back to march when the blog started and read the whole baby story and see them grow before your eyes! there is even video of them from when they were crazy babies!!!

Thanks for all of the support everyone!

we have growing children!

Hello all. I will start this with some apologizing. I'm sorry this post will not have pictures. I am also sorry that I haven't updated in a little while.

Ok: First update!

Mom bought a tape measure that tells you about how much a horse weighs because they are due to be wormed again. And our growing babies weigh...drum roll please...around 400 pounds! The little oinkers! :) 390 for Camie and then Ziggy weighed in around 440. Bolt was somewhere in the middle.

Second Update!

Using the same tape measure for the weigh you can get their height! Starting with the littlest: Camie! She is 11.3 hands. Next was Bolt! He is 12.1 hands. Then the tallest of them all Ziggy stands at 12.3 hands. Bolt is sure giving the draft horse in Ziggy a run for its money!

If you aren't horse people and are not sure what a hand is, it is 4 inches.

Third Update!

The babies had their hooves trimmed last week and me being a dummie didn't even think about taking pictures! But, we will get pictures again because all was well until Doug our farrier saw Ziggy's front right (i think) foot. It was shorter than the other like his legs were opposite lengths and it was trying to make up for it. Well... We had to have the vet come out because we had to make sure nothing was serious. It turns out that just due to the speed of him growing it has thrown his body out of whack a little bit and we have trim that shorter foot so that his tendons stretch out and make his legs and his hooves the same length again. They will be here next Wednesday so I'll have some pictures of the process then!

Forth Update!

With the vet being here mom had her look at Camie's and Bolt's hernia's. It turns out that Bolt's is worse than Camie's because she could fit 2 fingers in his and only one in Camie's. Then she told us that everyday we should work on them by trying to push them back in. Mom said when they were younger that she was going to push them in and then duct tape them. Guess maybe we should have?!?! haha Hopefully they will get better without needing any surgery.

Fifth Update!

Also the vet said that the boys were becoming boys. Ziggy's "man parts" have dropped. But Bolt being a middle man like he has been this whole post wants to stay as a middle man and only has one "man part" that has dropped. Hopefully the vet doesn't have to go digging for it!

Ok. That's all I know for now.

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

Well the first piece of exciting news is that it finally rained ALL day today! This is so good because we've been so dry for far too long. And I guess the babies had fun today in the rain as well. My cousin Lisa who lives across the street said that they gave quiet the show today running and playing in the rain.

The second piece of exciting news is that at the end of August we will have a story published in the local newspaper about the babies story! They have a magazine that they run every month and the Aug issue is called Horse Tales. Mom and I just finished and finalized the story and the selection of pictures. We could only pick 2-3 pictures. How can you only pick 2-3 when you have hundreds of them in your folder? It was a hard choice. We ended up going with the cute one of dad and ziggy sleeping on each other the 1st day we brought them way home. Then one of the 3 of them when they were about a month old. and then a new picture of mom and dad holding them so you can see how big they are.

I hope that we get some attention through the blog and I hope victoria gets a lot of attention too! Our main goal is to try to get more people educated about the ridiculousness called nurse mare foals and to hopefully get more adopted next year.

Here are some of the new pictures from this last week of the babies and the happenings of the farm.

I was in the trailer. They were in the shade.

The back view. Camie and Bolt actually spend regular time in there. One day they will be in there long enough for me to get the camera.

All of them grazing

Bolt and Camie being cute!

Dad, Ziggy, Camie, Mom, and Bolt. This picture will be one of 3 in the magazine.

busy working weekend!

Well, with it being so hot and the babies not using the trailer as we had hoped, we decided to extend the baby pen for them so that it goes under the apple and pear trees in our front yard. they seem to be enjoying it! They are now 4 months old!!

View from the house

View from the driveway

Updated pictures of the kids and how big they are getting!

Camie.. Not wanting her picture taken

The Boltster--See how much he has shedded out?

Bolt from the front.. good picture of him, but bad of mom because the other one was blurry! Sorry mom! :)

Ziggy has a scratch!

Zigg-man

Everybody

Camie being a loner

Camie-girl being pretty in the sunset