[drivingpairs] Haertleins update on Alex recovery...

I am passing along 2 updates I received from the Haertleins.....


Thank you all for your kind thoughts and well wishes for Alex.  I can only
think all that positive energy is why he is progressing so well and I wanted
to tell you where we are now.

Alex is staying with a lovely woman who just opened a home for retired
horses two doors down from Woodcrest.  He was walked over immediately after
the fire and she and her husband have been kind enough to over to let him
stay as long as he needs.  He had some big issues to face coming out of the
fire, but he seems to be doing amazingly well.

To get an idea of where we started, pretty much all of his coat was burned
off from the elbows up.  The front of his neck, his belly and legs were all
that had his normal coat left.  When we first saw him he was covered in a
layer of burnt hair which we toweled off the next morning with our vet.
Fortunately for us, he had a thick winter coat which seems to have saved his
hide - quite literally.  While it was touch and go for a while, current
prognosis is that there is viable skin just about everywhere and that there
won't be much, if any, sloughing of skin, though with burns you never know
so we're taking it day by day.  He's even started in on the new winter
coat - what was a soft velvet layer now has some bristles.

His left eye had some cloudiness in the cornea from the heat and some burns
around the eye.  That is all healing amazingly well.  The Right eye has some
damage - we are still awaiting how much, but it is also coming along really
well and seems like it is heading toward healing well.  He can see out of
both eyes.  The skin around the eyes and on his nose is also healing well so
far.

Vitals including breathing are still good and lungs sound pretty clear.  We
are doing some sort of test tomorrow to see if there is damage there.

He's had two sponge baths now and some of the fire smells are going away,
but he looks like a demented polo pony with his mane scissored off and
chunks of burnt tail cut away.  But he's feeling feisty and trying to
explain why he no longer needs all these treatments - just a trip to a
field - any field for a good roll in the mud - the last thing he can do
right now.  He is alert, willing to eat any time anyone is willing to feed
him and we are pleased with his progress though we know there is still a
long way to go and things can still go wrong.  We're going to try to get him
out to hand graze tomorrow, weather permitting.

We're finally getting to the point of being able to talk about it - still in
full denial about Ned, but we'll have to deal with that after we get Alex
back on his feet.  So it appears the crisis is winding down and we just have
the aftermath to deal with.  We won't need to hurry to replace equipment to
keep him going so we'll have time to figure out where we are with all that
as we go.

The fire seems to have started in a breaker box in the adjacent equipment
shed.  No ones fault and everything possible was done during the fire.  We
were all just amazingly lucky that Mike looked out and saw the fire, that
some volunteer firefighters passed the place on the way to dinner and
spotted it as well and that everybody in the neighborhood jumped in to try
to help.  Without those miracles, everyone would have been lost.  So we'll
hang on to our big grey miracle and be glad for a small victories with him.
I think watching him progress is helping everyone from the barn heal a bit
too.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers, I'm convinced they are what's
getting us all through this.  We'll probably still be communicating via
e-mail for a bit.  Talking is still hard and everything just takes up so
much time finding time to call is hard.

latest update.... October 25th....

Thank you all and please pass along our thanks to those who we may have
missed for all your support.  It has meant a lot to us and, I'm convinced to
Alex's healing as well.

We continue to make progress day by day, allowing us to celebrate his
successes which helps blunt some of the sorrow of losing Ned and having Alex
injured.  The vet is amazed at how well he's doing.  We still have a long
way to go, but the eyes are looking better and better - the left eye is now
clear with no blister.  If it weren't for the bit of burned skin around the
lid and missing eyelashes, you'd never know there was a problem.  The right
eye is also progressing with the cloudiness growing smaller day by day.  The
road rash down that side of his face is peeling like a giant sunburn with
pretty decent skin underneath which is a good sign.

The lungs have some harshness showing up in the test, but nothing unexpected
considering what he'd been through.  The skin is looking better and better.
Aside from a few small spots, we are no longer treating the neck or body
sides at all.  Still working on withers, croup and haunches, but they aren't
all that bad so far.  There is a bit of peeling, but not much considering
this is a horse who went from a dense 1+ in coat to ultrasuede rather
violently.  We are now moving up from ultrasuede past velvet - almost to
velour on large parts of his body.

He has been doing a tremendous job healing all of us involved in the fire as
we all follow his progress.  For many who helped during the fire he has been
a poster child showing us all that we will survive and go on.  As each
finally comes to see him they leave relieved at how well he looks and
believing that we will get through this.

The outpouring of support both from the horse community and others has been
amazing and enpowering.  Thank you ALL for your help in getting through
this.

PS  When we are all done with his physical problems there will be the
ultimate challenge to face.  Getting Alex to realize that his sense of
entitlement in the treatment is going to have to shift back to reality.
Until then what Alex wants, Alex gets.

PPS We know he's improving cause we've both actually had the nerve to yell
at him to mind his manners - something we wouldn't have worried about a few
days ago.


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