Ella, the Rodeo Champion Mare

[SandyG]

Before I retire for tonight, I wanted to update all of you that our Ella, the "killer mare" with the right eye that was gouged out by her cowboy, is having surgery in the morning, Friday at 10am.

This winter I noticed the tissue of that gouged out eye looked like it was reacting to the cold. This spring, the tissue began to show a change in color, surface texture, and a became a bit larger in size.

Dr. Rande has examined her and determined this tissue is now cancerous and so tomorrow morning, we will sedate our girl once she is in the shoeing bed and do our best to remove all of the cancerous tissue.

As we learned with Handsome, we must go deep enough to rid her of all of the infected tissue yet stay far enough away from the tissue that surrounds the brain. A touchy procedure but I have faith that Ella's cancer is young yet and will be more surface than deep tissue.

Ella may be left with a hole in her face where that eye was that will not be covered with hide. In that case, I will be re-posting asking for anyone who can create a series of eye patches for Ella to wear. The sunshine is likely the culprit that changed the tissue in the first place and our Ella will NOT wear a fly mask. I have been working with her, though, to get her used to the feel of a patch over the eye and stuck to her with adhesive of some sort.

Your positive thoughts and prayers for Dr. Rande's calm hands and quick brain and for Ella's endurance and calm, as well. This little mare has much to teach us yet and so we must give her the opportunity to grow old with her New Man. The barn just would not be 'the barn' if Ella were not standing in her corner.

I'll keep you posted tomorrow - pray for the best for Ella!

Sandy and Ella

[SandyG]

posted Friday, June 8, 10:14pm

Hello, Everyone -

Our Ella is resting and seems to be coping well with today.

Dr. Rande was in the barn by 10:30am making space for her supplies (should have thought of a table for her!) and getting Ella calm with a dose of injectable sedative. I had Ella in the shoeing bed - as I predicted, that little mare walked right into the bed for me, felt the bar across her chest and did not bolt or react as some do - she simply stood there and waited for me to tell her what to do!

The sedative quieted her nicely and then it was a matter of freezing the area of the face and the eye socket. Interesting and very revealing was the fact that her face numbed but the tumor was not impacted by any of the numberous injections . . . that told us it was a "cauliflower tumor": a tumor with a large head and a thick thread to the root ball. NOT what we were hoping for.

It was uncomfortable for Ella, but Dr. Rande was finally able to get the tumor numb, as well. In a matter of minutes, the tumor was on the table and she was digging for the root ball. She found a fatty cell but that didn't bother her. Then presto! She found the root and dug until it was close enough to the surface to remove.

Done. Time to reconstruct as much as possible given that the hole was much bigger than the available loose flesh. Dr. Rande created a bit more loose flesh and the area of her face without hide covering is now much smaller than it was when Ella arrived.

About this time, Ella started to return to us and she got a bit rammy - but I figured, she had the right to be so! I ran into the house and got one of my ace bandages and some gauze pads and we wrapped the eye up to see how long THAT would last. The initial wrap is still in place on her head, now a full 12 hours later.

I let Ella outside at 8:30pm to see if she wanted to rest her legs. Instead she walked a bit, ate 3 mouthfuls of grass, and then came into the barn and right into her stall again. Much to the dismay of New Man! That tells me Ella is sore and wants to be alone to insure she isn't bumped or disturbed. Smart girl. But a sore girl.

So she has 2 fresh buckets of water, 4 flakes of hay, 2 lbs of hay pellets, and a bed spread out in the southern 10' x 10' stall. I'm guessing she will rest her legs rather soon. Those legs have got to be tired.

I chose not to send the tumor/root into the lab for examination. I know it is cancer and nothing it will tell me will change how I treat her so I don't care about the technical terms. Regardless of the name of it, we will change her gauze/bandage daily for about 3 weeks, then every other day for 3 weeks, and then try to get the concept of a face wrap to be "normal" for Ella. Kind of like a trach is "normal" for Helen.

We've got Ella on antibiotics given that half of her face was opened up today - rather be on the offense than on the defense, for sure!, on that one!

So, I'm heading out for the final bed check of the night and I'll let everyone sleep or graze the night away. If I see something in Ella that is worrisome, I'll go out every 2 hours overnight. But I believe I will find the girl standing or laying down and snoozing. She has earned it.

Once again, Ella is the Champion!!!