To start with some background info, Maple removed her two front teeth as a two-year-old, resulting in her missing two teeth for the rest of her life. She was chewing on a wooden fence when something caught her attention, she went to turn her head but forgot to let go of the fence. She now has a dumb gummy smile when she wants treats and enjoys freaking people out when they see that she is missing teeth. Summer of 2020 she cut her pastern, almost on her cornet, from god knows who. I was off because of an injury (she gave me - insert eye roll) so by the time I found it it was too late for stitches but luckily it healed just fine. Then winter of 2021 she gave herself a nice big gash on her nose from what I can assume was a nail coming out of her shelter. Again healed fine and the only issue was a swollen sore nose for a few days. Finally summer of 2022 she came in from the pasture almost every time with a new bump, scrape, puncture wound, or bite mark. Maple lived in a very treed area for a very long time, but her first time in a flat prairie pasture she managed to find every single sharp thing and pick fights with every horse. Luckily everything healed well and it was all minor bumps and bruises, until 2 weeks ago when she attempted death because life wasn't stressful enough for me.

Monday the 27th of March Maple seemed a little off. My MIL went to check on her for me because she saw she was laying down off b herself. Once Maple saw my MIL she got up and took off running, passed manure twice, and put on a fancy little show of rears and bucks. My MIL mentioned what she saw to me and we agreed to keep an eye on her but not panic yet. Finally Monday night I decided to bring her up to our calving barn so she could be watched on a camera whenever I wanted. This way I could watch her easily through the night and not worry about what she was doing in the pasture, we could also monitor water intake and the amount of manure passed. She passed some manure but not a lot and had no interest in water. Tuesday she started to look a little better, laying down but not as much or rolling, seemed in a little better spirits so I figured it was just a mild case of colic and I would just keep an eye on her. Tuesday she stayed steady up moving around, starting sipping her water, just acting a little more normal. Finally Wednesday morning I went out to check on her and she looked like death. She could hardly stand up, had sores on her hip bones and flank, she was lethargic, just not looking good at all, so I called the vet for an emergency farm call. Now the first thing the vet said to me after a rectal exam was "How is she still alive?" This was the most severe case of impaction colic she has ever seen. The vet left telling me she would be impressed if she lived the night and if it came to having to put her down they would come back. She lived the night but the next morning she was shivery, cold, and lethargic. After a long phone call with my vet, we agreed to put her down. Now we were going to have to sh**t her, the drug used to euthanize is poison so I would need to pay someone to remove her or dig a hole 16 ft deep, unfortunately, it is still winter here so burying her was not an option. So I spent the morning cuddling her, cleaning her up, and just spending time with her while I waited for my boyfriend to get off work so we could put her out of her misery. After she was all prettied up and spoiled I went back inside for a few hours. My boyfriend came home, grabbed his gun, and out we went. Only to my surprise she had passed some manure, drank half of her water pale, and was standing at the gate with her head up and ears forward. Ever since then she has only gotten better and is now 100% past the colic to everyone's disbelief!

Of course that can't be it, she now is covered in infected sores from when she was down rolling from colic. I thought she only had two and that I was doing a good job keeping them clean. I was unfortunately wrong, she had 5 sores and the poor thing looks like I have never loved her. So enjoy these photos of these nasty sores and follow the journey as they get better. Hopefully, we might even be able to swing a small schooling show come fall!

29th, when the first sore appeared. Also the day the vet was called. Sore was immediately treated

This was April 2nd when it first opened up. Again I started to treat it immediately and keep a close eye on it. From April 2nd to 6th she was blanketed due to the cold weather

This was the 6th after I pulled her blanket off. She only missed one treatment and that was the 5th due to my schedule. You can see all the frozen puss in her blanket. I picked up antibiotics that day for her

This was the morning of the 7th after it had been all cleaned up and I scrapped the blanket and she had one dose of antibiotics

This was the night of the 7th. It got really gross

This was yesterday (the 9th). It was finally drying up and she got her last dose of antibiotics

Finally this was the day! Finally starting to dry up and look so much better.

These are the two new sores that opened up today. I did not even know they existed until today so hopefully, they stay clean. I also through a full body shot of the poor girl. Hopefully, in a few weeks, her next full-body shot shows a way healthier horse.

Heres to horses that can't let you have a day off!

Please no rude comments I am just happy the horse is alive and I am using this as a way to laugh about it but also document her healing!