Goodbye, T

About four years ago a 26 year old black Arabian racing sire was donated to AERI (American Equine Research Institute) and the little mission church. He had been chewed up badly by fighting pit bull dogs two owners back. It took us about ten months to get some decent weight on him with Equine Sr., Focus for Weight Gain seaweed extract, corn oil, wheat germ oil, and all the supplements we research dietitians can think of to give a stressed horse. With alfalfa and good coastal hay, in ten months T (we didn't pick that name) was filled out with good muscle structure and no longer dragged his left hind leg behind him when he walked. He had been dragging his left hind leg because it had been so badly chewed up by pit bulls two or three years before he was donated to us. His bloodlines were similar to our lead stallion Sable Shadow but even better.

A couple of years ago during a one year period he had three seizures where he was down and could not get up without help. These lasted an hour or less and were relieved by flipping him to his other side with straps and encouraging him to get up, then taking him for a leisurely fifteen to twenty minute walk. These were about five to six months apart. For two years he was seizure-free. Then about a week ago he fell down in his stall and appeared to be paralyzed in his tail. One vet said he was so old, just make him comfortable. We had to tear down one wall of his stall to flip him over this time, but within minutes of being flipped up on his chest he was trying to get up. We tried a second vet we use who gave us bute oral paste which had him up and going all over his paddock within eighteen hours. He regained the use of his tail and was defecating normally. Throughout all this he ate his alfalfa, his Equine Sr. grain and drank plenty of water. However, this past Sunday he went down again and then began having symptoms of labored breathing (indicative of pneumonia onset). I went to a neighbor to get help from him with a tractor and lift, but after flipping him which gave him normal breathing for ten minutes, he resumed labored breathing and then shallow breathing, closed his eyes and that was it. After showing the first symptoms of possible pneumonia, within thirty minutes, T had passed to the other side. Our neighbor with the tractor showed up a half hour later, but I don't think it would have helped. T had been our hope for establishing a small herd of communicating horses. Mares without the help of a stallion to link do not seem able to link up with other animal species and communicate very well. However, the donation of a good bloodline stallion I see as a beginning of restoration of this research. This form of communication only seems to occur effectively in natural family groups.

Other areas of our research were our attempt to establish an equine therapy center for people with back, neck and milder head injuries. We had planned to mostly use Arabian and Morgan type horses to help people regain the use of their bodies. We also had an Appaloosa therapy riding horse mare which the neighbors at the center that was repeatedly vandalized ended up with. Her name was Biscuit. She was a red blanket Appaloosa that gave a very smooth ride.

March 29, 2012 update on research

Hello, looks like it has been a while since we added to this blog. Our research center had to be abandoned six years ago due to hate crimes and vandalism against everyone on the land. Where the remaining horses involved in the original research are living now is not conducive to continuing the research. We are still hoping for a location that is horse-friendly with better security than the last place. Within a year of being poisoned with phenol, arsenic, lead and mercury, three out of six of the research church mission ranch dogs had died of cancer. Phenol, which is now used to embalm bodies instead of formaldehyde, is also a cancer-causer. Our youngest dog, a cute little chihuahua named Sandy, who was poisoned by the neighbors with this at six to eight weeks of age in her drinking water, now has three cancer tumors on her. She is only five and a half years old. We had cancer surgery on our six year old fawn Doberman Thunder, but she died of internal hemorrhaging six weeks after the succesful cancer surgery. We still owe the vet clinic $65 plus interest for cancer tests. We have decided not to put Sandy through cancer surgery since the other dog died within weeks of surgery. Our kitty cats continue to have problems from the poison and have died within weeks of spay-neuter surgeries. It has been six years since these crimes happened and the perpetrators still walk free.