Fancy’s Fall
The following is an exchange of emails between Laura Adams in California, who had just completed the Intro and Advanced Courses and Nancy Camp in Idaho, who has completed all of Patricia’s courses.
Laura: Fancy is my 27+ year old Quarter Horse I purchased 9 years ago. I was only able to ride her for two years before having to retire her. She has re-current airway obstruction (heaves), arthritis in her neck, back, and carpi (knees) where she can barely bend her front legs. Her hind legs are weak (most likely due to fusing or narrowing of L6-S1 – there is no movement in this part of her spine). She has not been able to lie down for over 8 months because she cannot get up easily. It appears to me from the condition of Fancy’s body and the muscle atrophy that she probably suffered from poor saddle fit and did not receive adequate medical care most of her life.
With all of this being said, Fancy seems to be enjoying herself. She is very friendly, always looking for carrots, and will stand very still for hours if you brush her and scratch her belly.
Fancy had just recovered from a five-week hoof abscess when she fell. She had to be helped up and within an hour, she could barely walk. She had to think before moving each foot. She refused to leave her stall for the first 24 hours. The day after the fall, she would have to pull her front legs up by the shoulders and throw them forward in order to walk. By Saturday afternoon, she was moving a little more, but still hesitant when it came to moving her front legs. Within two hours after her osteopathy treatment, she was moving like she had been before the fall.
After the fall, she would shake her head frequently and would not allow me to do energy work on her head or neck, even with my hand a few inches off of her skin. Yesterday, I tried the Sympathetic Overdrive (Shock) Protocol, but did not really get a response. For one thing, my hand was too far forward and not over the adrenals, and I was trying to do one side at a time. Also, I was very attached to the outcome (difficult not to be when the animal is one of your own), so thanks Nancy for the reminder not to do that.
There was a reaction at almost every organ I connected with, lowered head, eyes closing, licking/chewing, intestinal noises. I skipped the pituitary because Fancy has Cushings, and I didn’t want to increase the energy in the tumor.
When doing the pineal gland, she first turned her head away and then turned it back to the direction of my hand. I had especially strong reactions at the heart, kidneys, front of thighs, sacrum (she released her jaw while I was drawn into the sacrum), kidney to ureters, and kidney to heart.
I did not follow with vascular. I was going to give her a break. When I went out a couple of hours later, the sparkle was back in her eyes, and she was moving so much better and with confidence. The other wonderful thing was that she stopped shaking her head. This stuff is amazing, and I am very grateful that I was able to help her. I will do vascular on her in a few days.
Nancy: Keep working on the Sympathetic Overdrive Protocol. Are you giving her Rescue Remedy and/or some homeopathic calming remedies? I would do that. I would also give her Substitute (a Devil’s Claw and Yucca blend) for some kind of pain relief.
And, it is reasonable to suspect that the stress would cause ulcers, so one or two months on Silver Lining Equine Herbal supplement called LCR is always good for a horse that is stressed. Keep me posted. She’s lucky to have you.
Laura: Thanks for all of your suggestions. She is receiving Equioxx for pain and Robaxin (at an extremely low dose). She won’t eat anything extra that is put in her food, so I have to syringe meds to her. I have her on LubriSyn (she will eat this in the food) which I have found to be extremely helpful for animals with arthritic joints. It made an incredible difference in Fancy when I started giving it to her over a year ago. She was on Platinum Performance Complete Joint, but stopped eating it when she got her hoof abscess.
Laura: Hi Nancy. Just wanted to let you know that Fancy is doing great! She is moving well and seems to be pain free. I tried doing a vascular treatment on her on Tuesday, but either she didn’t want it or I wasn’t doing it correctly (probably the latter). She stood for the heart roll and A/V twist, but walked away when I tried the pulmonary arteries and veins. The edema around her flexor tendons in the front legs was gone by the next morning. I am not sure if I had an effect on that or if it was just a progression of the healing.
If you are interested, I shot a one-minute video on the Saturday afternoon before the treatment. She had already started to improve before I treated her, but if you watch the video, you will see that she is very reluctant to start moving and that she thinks before placing each foot. Also, she could only handle wide turns. The second video was shot on Monday afternoon, the day following the treatment. It is short and the quality is not so good, but it shows how much she improved.
I gave her laser therapy just prior to the treatment, but without much benefit. In fact, she empathically let me know that she did not want her carpi lasered on Sunday. I was able to laser her flexor tendons on her front legs, rib cage, and the acupuncture points Bai Hui and Bladder 60. Those points, in the past, have not made such a spectacular change. I really feel that the osteopathy treatment was the turning point.
Nancy: Laura, I wouldn’t worry if the horse walked off. Sometimes they integrate the work through movement. I let them move around quite a bit while I work on them; as a matter of fact, not walking away is the only place I draw the line. There could be 1,000 reasons why she walked off. The only thing I can think of is that your uncertainty and doubt and concern about whether or not you’re doing it right is creating a “fussy atmosphere”. She may have had enough, but I’d go straight to the lungs and diaphragm, then kidneys, ureters and bladder and get to the liver so you can release the back and sacrum.
With all she’s been through, she has undoubtedly been pulling up through her back to balance and change the way she bears weight on her legs. This action (pulling up through the back) jams the base of the neck at the C-7/T-1 junction and stresses the lumbars so the pelvis often rotates and/or tips. Relieving that situation will help her the most.Most of the stresses you will find in a horse’s body are due to functional compensations. You have the luxury of being able to do multiple sessions. When I see a horse that I’m not sure I will ever see again, I view his problems as High Peaks with Deep Valleys in between. My goal is to activate a relatively flat horizon line. I look to knock the tops off the peaks and fill in the lowest spots of the valley to get every- thing as near even as possible. The horses are improved dramatically even though I, personally, feel they need much more help. I hope this explanation is clear — it’s what I see every day, but rarely verbalize.
Laura: On Sunday afternoon, April 8, 2012, I did a vascular treatment on Fancy. It took me about 75 minutes because I had to stop and read what I needed to do next and to check my anatomy. I did the protocol and got as far as doing Functional Indirect Techniques to T18/L1 and then was so tired, I had to stop. I finished about 3:15 in the afternoon and checked on Fancy at 8 pm. She was more quiet than usual, but didn’t seem to be in pain. She seemed a little distant even though she readily ate her cookies. I was concerned because I couldn’t quite figure out what was going on. The next morning, she was back to her perky self.
On Tuesday (4/10) I released the restrictions I found at L2/L3, L6/S1, the sacrum, sacrum to Cd1, and the hips. I got noticeable reactions when I did the sacral release and on her hips. I have known for years that she has hip problems. When I wrapped my hand around her tail to do the release, she clamped her tail down tightly. Something she has not been able to do for a couple of years. Her tail has been fairly limp, until yesterday.
Thanks all of you for your help and support. Fancy is doing great!
Laura Adams, DVM, California