July

Munchie July 2017 - 7 months into his rehab

Apologies for being behind on the calendar photo for this month...but hopefully you have figured out that this month's star pony is Munchie (Munchkin).  He is the grown up foal of Ebony who is one of our sponsor ponies.  We've been on an educational journey with Munchie and his rehab.  He really helps to challenge the stereotypical views of what is defined as "Cushings".  When we found Munchie struggling at his loan home he was not getting any real turnout at all - no more than an hour a day all year around because of laminitis and the rest of the time just stood in a yard.  He was caught in a vicious cycle because the less he moved about, the worse he became, he had more laminitis... leading to pedal bone rotation...on top of that he wasn't being fed the recommended feed which was causing him more issues...combine all that with his multiple inherited weaknesses, it really was a perfect storm resulting in a health disaster.  His coat was thick, long, and curly with dried in sweat.  His loaners have owned horses for many years and were very upset that they couldn't "fix" him but these cases are never simple and if Catherine Edwards hadn't come to show us iridology at that time, I don't think Munchie would be alive now.  Even though symptom-wise everything about Munchie looked like a Cushings pony the vet tests had always come back negative for Cushings and the iridology agreed with this.

So far Munchie has already had a huge transformation.  Even by last summer (6 or 7 months in) he was back to the same turnout regime as all our other ponies - no laminitis.  In this photo he was 7 months into his rehab and there was still an awful lot to work on.  His iridology consult gave us a plan so we knew which areas needed the most support.  We spent a very long period detoxing his kidneys.  It took about 8 or 9 months or so to really get on top of that.  Then was the tricky part working on his liver and lymphatic system to release toxins but not too much at a time. 

Our special technique for approaching pedal bone rotation without invasive/remedial trimming is working brilliantly.  What Munchie has struggled with health-wise is when he has abscesses - when the old internal hoof tissue has to make way for the new.  Abscesses are a good thing...but for Munchie his lymphatic system was under great strain already, any abscess caused him to have a health "crash".  He'd become sole sensitive after the abscesses due to all the toxins he'd been processing.  As we've got his lymphatic system in better shape over the course of his rehab we've seen a marked improvement in the way his body is able to cope with these and remove the toxins much better.  Red Light therapy has helped this a lot....and after using the red light during his abscess episode (after first purchasing it), Munchie started growing new hoof capsules at a dramatic, even more improved angle and this "new" hoof is now 3/4 of the way down.

When I think of how poor Munchie struggled with his health and laminitis at his loan home, there is nothing better than seeing him like he is now - stomping around the yard and gravel, enjoying his days out in the field with the herd and back to being a super pony again.  We still have aspects to work on but he has his life back which is wonderful!

Without the iridology we wouldn't have had a clear route to follow or know which body systems needed the most support - that's why I'm studying iridology - it enabled us to have all our ponies laminitis free which is wonderful!

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