Episode 55
If you are new to our channel check out all of Lucky's videos in his playlist before watching this video.
Lucky's Story
On Friday March 17th, while scrolling through Facebook I came across a horse that was scheduled to ship on the next slaughter truck to Mexico. The reason this horse stood out to me was because he had suffered horrible abuse. His right eye was missing and he was never given medical attention as the kill pen photos showed his eye covered in dried blood. There was no way I was going to let this poor animal suffer further by going to a slaughter house! So, we rescued him!
On Tuesday, March 21st, Cory and I drove 6 hours to Kemp, TX to pick him and we drove him straight to the vets office to get the medical attention he needs. Since he was rescued on St. Patricks Day we decided to name him Lucky.
From his first appointment Dr. Amber suspected he might have cancer because of the way his eye felt. She did X-rays and a biopsy of his eye and a spot on the side of his head because it looked abnormal to her. We received the biopsy results and the results confirmed that Lucky had cancer. With the results coming back positive for cancer we reached out to our other veterinarian, Dr. Waggoner to see if she could help with Lucky's diagnosis. She consulted with Dr. Brown from the Texas Tech University of Veterinary Medicine and he agreed to do Lucky's surgery to remove the tumor from where his eye used to be.
We had started to see some of Lucky’s pain a day or two prior to surgery as when I went out to clean his eye he would no longer let me get near it or touch the top of his nose to hold his head steady for cleaning. Lucky was receiving pain medication every day. His eye was weeping constant blood, draining constant puss from the infections we were fighting since day one with heavy antibiotics, and was starting to cause him sinus problems as well. On top of the eye drainage, he was also having blood discharging from the right nostril. The sinus issues were due to the surgery discovery that the cancer had spread aggressively through his lymph system and to the guttural pouch. The spreading to his area meant that the cancer was up to and at the point of spreading to his brain and potentially had spread to other organs. The tumor in the guttural pouch was not in a location that was operable. While completing an ultrasound of the tumor that was farther back on his head, a second tumor below his ear was discovered. Dr. Brown explains everything very well with all the technical details.
Nobody, including us, realized the extent of his suffering due to his immense strength and perseverance in hiding his trauma. When we were finally able to get Lucky in for his surgery this was the first time that he (Lucky) could no longer hide what he was really feeling and the immense pain he was in. Lucky was under extremely heavy sedation and had received multiple nerve blocking injections to completely render that area of his eye numb - with all of these steps in place Dr. Brown was unable to do anything with the area other than a better exam/assess the cancer due to the extreme discomfort and pain it caused Lucky. Since I stayed by Lucky’s side and was in the operating room I saw first-hand what Lucky was going through. As soon as Dr. Brown touched under Lucky’s eyelid, Lucky became aware and almost jumped out of the stock. He was hiding the extreme pain he was really in.
Lucky was suffering horribly, probably for months before we rescued him and that suffering was increasing exponentially every day. The tumor grew behind his eye to a point that it ruptured his eye globe and then was left untreated by his previous owner. The day or two before the surgery Lucky was laying down a lot more.
Cory and I did had a conversation about options and what was the best course of action for Lucky and Lucky only. No extent or amount of pain medication in his condition was reducing the pain in any way, his eye had been hollowed out and destroyed by the cancer leaving an open wound into his cranial cavity that could not be closed. In addition to all these factors fly season has started in our area and with Lucky’s open wounds it would be almost impossible to keep flies away.
Lucky, as with all our animals, was one of the hardest decisions we had to make. We made the decision to say goodbye solely based on what was best for Lucky.
Thank you to our subscribers, followers and fans, we could not have saved Lucky or gotten him the medial attention he needed without your generosity and support! We appreciate you and hope this video helps to bring closure to Lucky's story. We are devastated that his story had to end this way. We wanted forever to show you love and kindness that you deserved all of your life. Every horse we rescue from here forward will be because of Lucky and starting this foundation. WE will never stop fighting for these beautiful gentle giants!
10 апр 2023
