Skin sloughing and hair growth

During her treatment at New Bolton, the dead skin fell away, and eventually we started to see significant hair growth. Early on the only areas that I was able to brush were her legs and belly, but after a few weeks there was new hair to take care of!

Applying ointment to Suki's head remained difficult, but that dedicated staff managed to do it! The eyelids had contracted slightly at this point during healing, but her eyes were still able to close completely. A significant amount of healing was ahead so the potential for surgery lingered in our thoughts. I dreaded the thought of eyelid surgery for Suki. Applying medication would be a nightmare!

I spent most of my visits grooming Suki, feeding her treats, or just talking to her. Some days were difficult for me because I would look at Suki and be reminded of the fear and pain that she must have experienced that night. It honestly did, and still does make my heart hurt. And how amazing that in spite of all of that, and her daily treatments, the opinionated, diva personality was still intact. I am told that many horses would have given up, but Suki had a strong will to survive. Great medical care probably had quite a bit to do with it too! : )

The daily walks increased to four times a day, and everyone said that Suki really looked forward to them Sometimes she would try to drag the person leading her down the hall, but usually she just strolled along.

Every 2 weeks a new vet student would be assigned to Suki. The selection was carefully made, because a bit of extra dedication was required to meet her needs. Among one of the groups there were not many to choose from and the vet student assigned to Suki was terrified of her, and Suki would take complete advantage! They had to reassign someone after only a few days.

Two weeks after the fire I started to take pictures of Suki's progress. I think before that I was afraid of jinxing her survival. But two weeks out I was confident she would survive. That was probably pretty naive of me, considering the number of complications that could occur!

November 17, 2011
Sorry for the short post this evening. I am at a conference in LA, and time is scarce. Suki is being well cared for though, so no need to worry! I am fortunate to have some really great support for her care when I need to travel for work.

During my long flight I read a book titled "Collective Marks" It is a novel that demonstrates the healing power of horses with a focus on dressage training. It's not sappy or corny, but I think really hits the mark.

I will try to continue to post while I am out here, but my brain is a bit fried, so I may just wait until I get home on Monday.