Freedom aka Buck

#253 Sorrell QH type gelding. Appx. 17+ yrs. Appx. 15.1 - 15.2 hands. This horse has recently been used hard! His front legs look as if they sustained a scraping injury not too long ago. He is very rideable by and advanced intermediate rider as he does have some juice.

New photo 6/1/01 - He is a love, the flies are driving him nuts (allergies) and he has patches of hair missing from his face, front legs, chest.....flies or fungus or what??? Poor old man.

Update 7/5/01 - Thanks to some wonderful people who cared deeply about this boy, he will be coming to TIER within the next few days. We will have the vet come out to evaluate the problem with his skin/coat and once that has been addressed and he is deemed okie dokie, he will be up for adoption. We are looking forward to having him in our family until he finds a forever person of his very own. Name pending.

Update 7/11/01 - #253 is now being called Freedom by the wonderful folks that paid his ransom. We have been calling him Buck as a barn name. Once he arrived and I saw how badly the fly allergy had progressed since my last personal visit to him, I hightailed it to the vet's office to get an allergy shot for him. By the time I got back it was dark and I wasn't about to go up to a strange horse in a strange place with strangers and give him a jab in the neck. So, we waited until the next morning. A couple hours later you could see the shot had taken effect. The swelling under his neck, on his face, chest, shoulders, legs went down. We put Panalog on the horrible places on his legs and Preparation H on all the other areas that had been bitten by flies and was swollen and missing hair. He has a flymask on and I have put ocular ointment in his eyes.

He's some strong/stout horse! Big too! A tad bit spooky...but that could be due to his new surroundings. But, he is a sweetheart and very, very personable. We have put in a call to the farrier to get his horribly long feet trimmed and take his shoes off. With the shoes on, there has been no wear to the hoof so they just grow and grow and grow. He looks like he is walking on tin cans!!

He is calm while being medicated and snuffles your shirt, hair, etc. when you are working around him. A sweetie. But, we will wait until his sores from the flies, the injuries to his legs and he has his feet trimmed before trying him under saddle. Right now, all he needs to do is have some relief from that terribly uncomfortable allergy and get better......and he is.....thanks to the wonderful people who went out of their way to help him!!!!

Update 7/20/01 - Freedom, aka: Buck, is doing very well. When Buck first arrived, his fly allergy had almost gotten out of hand from being in the feedlot. His legs were raw, bleeding sores from rubbing them with his face. There was blood on his face and his legs looked almost as if he had been cast. We immediately put Coronoa Cream on his legs and arranged to get a shot of Vetalog for his allergies.

The next morning we gave him the shot of Vetalog and within a few hours the swelling went down. We then started putting Underwood Horse medicine on his legs to dry them up. As you will see from the pictures, the deep abrasions on his legs are healing and beginning to grow hair. Buck's eyes are cleared up, but they were really puffy/swollen when he arrived. He wears a flymask most of the time and we use an ocular ointment in to help soothe them.

Buck is an easy going horse with other horses. But with people and unfamiliar objects/sounds he is a bit spooky. As he is a rather big boy (about the size of Jake if not a little bigger), this can get dicey when he decides it's time to flee! HA! As soon as his legs get a little better, we will start some despooking with gunny sacks, plastic bags, gunny sacks filled with tin cans, tarps, etc. Buck is quite intelligent, and we expect there to be no major problems. But.......you never know! HA!

Update 8/7/01 - This is some nice horse! His allergies are healing really well. He got another allergy shot yesterday, and so did The Rainman & Baxter. The places on his legs are getting smaller, but I don't know if hair will grow back or not. When turned out, he dashes around, runs, etc. A really high energy horse. He always makes sure he visits with Panache....his buddy from the feedlot. Seems that he goes over to check on him to make sure he is okay and then Buck runs to the other side of the arena like he wants Panache to play with him. Sometimes Panache will head out after him, but not full blast and only about halfway down the arena. He's still sore I'm sure.

Update 7/1/009 - Two days ago when I went out to feed I threw a flake of hay out to two horses that were turned out in the arena.  Buck went over to the flake and began eating while I grabbed another flake to throw in.  The other horse in the arena charged up to Buck to take possession of the first flake.  Since Buck had his back turned, the charge kind of startled him and he swallowed a mouthful of hay real quick.  Choke!

Once I noticed that Buck seemed to have a blockage I quickly haltered him and began to massage his neck/throat to see if the blockage would move.  No luck.  I adminstered 10 cc’s of Banamine and placed him in the roundpen with only water.  I asked him to keep his head down and mucous began to run out of his nose/mouth.  A very small amount of hay came out when he coughed.  That only happened once.  He stands at the water trough mouthing the water, but not drinking.  It looks like he is trying to rinse out his mouth or something.

Vet was out, ran a tube down his throat but there didn’t seem to be any blockage.  Tube went all the way to his stomach without resistance.  I checked on Buck when I came home from work at midnight last night.  He is all sucked up (dehydrated) and continues to mouth the water in the trough.

Vet think there might have been neurological damage, but isn’t sure.  He is on his way out to see if we can pump some water into him.  Has anyone had an experience like this?

Buck was originally named Freedom by the folks who contributed to his rescue from the feedlot.  We began calling him Buck because he would buck his way across the arena when he was turned out.  He has been a good companion to many of the TIER residents and was Jake’s best friend.  We lost Jake earlier this year.  He was named Freedom because he came to us on July 4, 2001.

Vet bills are going through the roof and donations are very low.  We are down to a week’s worth of feed left and need to order more ASAP, but again, funds are in short supply.  

We are hoping that once Buck gets hydrated that perhaps it will help him to turn the corner and get better.  Any help would be very much appreciated.

Update 7/2/09 - Times are difficult for everyone and even though we had some funds set aside for emergencies, those have already been depleted.  The Hay fund is seriously hurting also and we cannot take funds for feed and use it to pay the vet.  This year has been extremely hard, but we continue to help horses in jeopardy as best we can and work hard to care for the current TIER residents.

Vet spent 1 1/2 hrs. out here yesterday trying to help Buck.  He doesn't appear to be suffering from Choke.  Vet tried two different sized tubes to try to move the blockage or break it up without much success.  The blockage appears to be far down and close to his stomach.  Buck is able to drink, but it can't go anywhere due to the blockage. 

The vet bumped the blockage quite a few times trying to break it up or move it to no avail.  There was no "backwash" in the tube of feed or any kind of material.  We managed to get him somewhat hydrated to the point where he is not keeping his head in the water barrell trying to get something to drink.  Vet got called on an emergency while he was out here and needed to leave.  He wanted to wait overnight to see if perhaps all the bumping and pushing on the blockage might have begun to dislodge something.  He tranquilized Buck, got him somewhat hydrated and we will see how it goes.  Vet will be out this morning. 

There are several options available, none of which are really good.  We can take Buck up to the vet's to have him scoped, We can opt for surgery, or we can opt for euthanasia if there is no change this morning.  The first two aren't really viable as costs are already high.  Euthanasia and removal of his body would bring the total (including current treatment costs)  close to $1000.00.

On July 4, 2009 Buck will have been with us for 8 years.  He is a strong willed horse that is sooooo responsive to leg cues and a nice mover.  The only reason he never found an adopter is that he has horrible allergies and is therefore high maintenance in that regard.  He is worth every supplement, every grain of feed, every bite of hay, every bottle of fly spray, fly sheet, leg wraps, etc. etc. over those years.  He has taught many a volunteer about strong minded horses and helped many a rescued horse learn about their position in the herd. 

Update 7/3/09 - 3 weeks ago when the vet was out on another call (my own 35 yr. old mare was not acting quite right..... she’s fine now...just a gas colic) I had the vet check Buck out because he was getting so fat!  I figured that Buck (and some of the others) were getting heavier due to the fact that we had switched from feeding Orchard hay to feeding Alfalfa simply because of the price of hay and funds being tight.   Buck came to TIER when he was appx. 17+ yrs. old and has been with us for almost 8 years.  So, at his age, the vet felt that his “fatness” wasn’t really a big concern.  I was concerned about his elderly ‘fat sheath’ appearance, but the vet said just to give him more turnout time, which I did.  He was turned out for days at a time in the arena and all the moving around/interacting with the other horses helped his ‘fat sheath’ to not be so prominent.

In a matter of 4 days this fat boy went from looking very shiney/healthy to being “sucked up” due to dehydration and his hipbones were visible.

As I said, the vet returned and the prognosis for Buck really wasn’t good.  Vet didn’t have a scope long enough to do an exam and to do so would have necessitated taking Buck to one of the clinics that had a longer scope.  This would entail more costs.  Surgery was never really an option due to finances and Buck’s age/rapid deterioration.

I walked Buck out to the arena, hugged his neck, stroked his face, and cried.  The vet tranquilized him and then administered the shot to euthanize him.  Vet handed me the empty syringes, took the lead rope and told me to stand back.  Buck tried to walk over to me and it broke my heart.  Very quickly Buck went down and I knelt down to cradle his head.  It took a long time for his heart to stop, but he lay there quietly.  No thrashing, heavy breathing, or anything.  He just lay there until the beating of his heart ceased while my tears dropped onto his beautiful face.

Shortly after the vet left and I was waiting for the truck to pick up his body, the TIER residents began to whinney and neigh.  The final salute.  I always get goose bumps when the horses do this.  It’s like they know and I am sure they do!!  The echoes of those calls reverberate for a few seconds and it is a powerful send off for a wonderful horse.

I closed the arena gate and let some of Buck’s friends out to say their goodbyes.  Moses snuffled all over him, Garret stood over him for some time, others sniffed and walked away.  I try to give the horses the opportunity to say their goodbyes any time we have to let one go.  It seems to help them in a way and it certainly helps me.

Buck has crossed the Rainbow Bridge and there is a hole in my heart.  He will be terribly missed.

Update 7/3/09 - The vet had indicated that he wanted to do a necropsy on Buck because he could not figure out what the obstruction could be with such a quick onset.  Buck had previously had no problems with choke or difficulty eating feed/hay.  I called him this afternoon and he indicated that what he found was an esophageal stricture right at the opening of the esophagus to the stomach.  The stricture had torn (possibly because of a large amount of hay being swallowed).  Even if we had had Buck scoped, surgical repair would not have been an option.

7/5/09 - I really miss Buck. Each year on the 4th of July & New Year’s Eve when the fireworks would be lighting up the sky, I would go out and just hang with Buck. Fireworks seemed to be the only thing that really rattled him. I would turn him out in the arena and pull up a chair. After he had run around a bit, he would come stand by me and we would have conversations about everything! Each time the sky exploded he would get frightened, show the whites of his eyes, stiffen up, snort, pace, etc. If I stayed with him he would be less agitated/frightened. If I were to leave him alone he would have run himself into the ground and start banging himself against the fence in fear. For 8 years I sat with Buck and watched the sky twice a year.

Friday night there was a fireworks display a couple miles down the road from us. As soon as they started, I jumped up and headed out to the horses making a beeline for Buck’s pen so I could let him out where he wouldn’t hurt himself. Just as I got the to first gate, I realized Buck didn’t need my support this time. It took my breath away. The feelings just overwhelmed me for a minute. I pulled myself together and continued on to check the TIER residents. Everyone was fine, a little hyped up, but none of them were freaking out. I talked to everyone, offered some encouragement, a pat here, a rub there, a few hugs to those that came up to the fence line. But it was way different than years gone by when the sky would light up, the air would crackle and boom and a big red horse would stand beside me blowing and snorting is discomfort with the goings on.

I got a chair, sat in the middle of the arena watching the sky and allowed myself to feel the feeling of missing that big red horse. Race on Buck! Light a sparkler in the sky for me and the TIER residents. We loved you and miss you. Thanks for touching our lives!