Thor's Terrible Vet Appointment

Last Sunday we noticed that there was something wrong with Thor. I couldn’t exactly put my finger on it but there was something “off” about him. I thought maybe he had tangled with Dick when I let him into the herd but I don’t think those two ever met. Two thoughts went through my head. 1. Thor has a neurological issue going on and can’t figure out where his feet are or 2. Thor is blind.

With everything going on, I was emotionally and mentally exhausted last week. It took until Wed for me to fully function well enough to have Mike look at Thor. He confirmed my fear that Thor was blind. I made an appointment Thursday to go to our normal vet. The problem: we couldn’t get in until Wed of the next week. I told Mike and he didn’t like having to wait so he called around and got us in to a different vet for Friday at 11:30am.

We hooked up the trailer, and patiently worked with Thor to load. He is such a doll to load into a trailer even though he couldn’t see. He is such a willing boy. My heart goes out to him. Thor was an Amish horse for the better part of his life. I believe that he is still uncomfortable in a trailer but being the good boy he is, he will do what you ask. Thor does have one requirement; that we only go 55mph. We joke that Thor is our cruise control.

We left at 10:30 to make sure we had enough time going 55mph and made it right as the clock ticked over to 11:30am. We stopped in the office to say we were there and then unloaded Thor as best we could (very unceremoniously with a thud to poor Thor’s head as he came off the trailer faster than I had liked).

We went into a heated building where they took a quick look. Multiple times we were asked how old he was and what we did with him (if he was a driving team, where his mate was). I’m not sure how many times we repeated ourselves but we answered the same every time. He’s 23-24 years old and he doesn’t do anything. He’s a pasture pet. We’ve only had him since June and his “mate” was a QH we put down last Oct.

They examined his now blind eye (right eye) and looked at his currently blind eye (left eye). Again asking us what we did with him and how old he was. Is it not possible to have and keep a retired horse? I get the impression that the vet had already made up their mind before we even arrived. On the phone they had mentioned doing a steroid shot in Thor’s eye. I wasn’t impressed with the idea but if that’s what needed to be done, so be it. I was still torked with being questioned on what we did with him. I realize the prognosis wasn’t good and that my horse would most likely be blind. But I didn’t get the impression that having an old, retired horse was normal.

So the vet looked at Thor’s eye and said they wanted to do a steroid shot thinking that since this was a sudden onset of blindness that they could do something to reverse the effect.

They tranquillized him and all hell broke loose. I honestly didn’t know how much Thor weighed. He looked like a pretty big boy. But Thor was getting mad at having his head handled. We don’t talk loud at Borderlands, nor do we pat a horse. If we pet a horse we pet them softly but never pat them hard. Do YOU like to be patted on the back hard?

So Thor got upset by this type of handling and commotion. I’ve learned that with blind horses, you can talk loud to get their attention but then speak softly so that they can figure out all the different noises. Blindfold yourself once and then have lots of noise. Tell me if you can hear everything going on. Then take away all that noise and make everything soft. Is it easier to figure out what is going on in the room? The vet put some goop in Thor’s eye to numb his eye for the steroid shot.

After the initial tranquilizer, it became very apparent that Thor was having problems. Apparently he’s very susceptible to tranqs. The vet and the vet assistant began beating on Thor to try and keep him awake. They beat on his neck, on his side, and even on his face next to his blind eye. I get that they were trying to keep him awake but the constant beating when they over dosed him. UNACCEPTABLE.

The vet had overdosesd Thor because Thor was tossing his head and the vet was worried about what would happen when he put the steroid shot into Thor’s eye. I understand but if you’re going to tranq a horse, do it right. The vet tried once to do the steroid shot before Thor lost his balance. There are two types of tranqs. One to make them sleepy but still stay awake and one to knock them completely out for such things as gelding.

Imagine a very large, very drugged draft horse in a very small garage with four people standing around watching. Thor lost his balance, took a couple steps in every direction, crashed into the cinderblock concrete wall and the rebar that protected the window, and slid to the ground. Luckily I had left his blanket on so there was a little bit of padding when he hit the concrete wall. FURIOUS does not describe the anger and bile that rose in my throat. The vet then proceeded to administer the steroid shot into Thor’s eye. Mike admitted afterwards it was all he could do not to cry. He was completely pale.

We waited around for about 10 minutes and then the vet became impatient. He administered an antigen to the tranq. But when that didn’t work he administered a different antigen. We waited about a half hour for the tranquilizer to finally wear off. Had the vet administered the tranquilizer properly, we would have been on our way sooner. OR we at the very least wouldn’t have watched our beloved Thor, bewildered and confused, crash into a CONCRETE WALL. Instead we had to watch that terrible display AND listen to the vet complain that it was taking too long for Thor to wake up.

Once Thor was up, the vet decided to weigh him. Instead of the 2,000 pounds that we all figured, he only weighed 1400 pounds. Apparently looks are deceiving. Granted he has lost some weight and I noticed it a while ago but I think the vet wanted to know how much he overdosed the poor horse. Poor Thor had to be practically drugged to the scale to be weighed and he slipped on a patch of ice, with no care in the world by the vet or the vet tech that he was STILL BLIND, doped up with TRANQUILLZER, CONFUSED, and ON ICE.

We loaded Thor as soon as he had his land legs back, wrote the $170 check, and got the HELL out of there. The vet said they would like to see Thor again sometime this week. Until Hell freezes over, thaws, and refreezes will I EVER take a horse there. I am putting that vet on the “Do not use unless there is a major emergency” list. I already have a vet on that list; now there are two. I’m really surprised at this vet as they are bragged about by many. But I apparently have bad juju when it comes to vets and am not impressed by many.

We finally arrived home around 2pm, unloaded Thor, settled him in as best he could even though he was upset beyond words, and then spent the rest of the weekend in a total stupor upset about how Thor was treated and about the realization that Thor is blind. Poor Thor, if I could only tell him that everything will be alright and to apologize for the terrible way he was mishandled.