Mika

11.05.1999 - 10.11.2005

On the 10th of November 2005, I had to make the difficult decision to let my dearest little friend go, so that she wouldn't have any more pain. This was one of the hardest things I had ever done, but now that it is all done, it's ok and I know I did the best for her......

At the 17th December 2004, I found Mika standing outside her stall on a strange way, she was sweating, scraping with her front legs, shaking her head, she was breathing much too fast and seemed to be in a lot of pain. At that point I thought she was having a colic, so I took a halter and tried to walk her round, but no way I could move her, she couldn't walk anymore and when she tried I saw her pain was getting worse. I called the vet immediately and when he arrived the only thing we could find was that her stifle was locked, though this was strange, because the pain she was having was very bad and this is not known with a locked stifle. We got her into her stall and gave her painkillers, this way we hoped she would get a bit more relaxed so that her stifle would unlock. This didn't work and in the next 2 weeks we tried everything we could think of to get her stifle unlocked, not knowing there was much more going on in her leg..... In the meanwhile Mika seemed to be doing fine, she was on painkillers and managed well, but of course this wasn't our goal, her leg needed to get better with an unlocked stifle, at the end we even cut her knee links, and even this didn't work, which is theoretical not possible. At that point we got pretty desperate and got in touch with the university of Utrecht, with Mrs. Rijkenhuizen, a well known orthopedic surgeon here in The Netherlands. She told us by phone that there was only one other possibility about what was going on, and that was that Mika's hip was dislocated. But Mrs.Rijkenhuizen needed to see Mika to be sure of this.

So we went to Utrecht to see Mrs.Rijkenhuizen, and when she saw Mika she said immediately that we had to deal with a dislocated hip, so this was very bad news.... There were 2 options, one was putting Mika down, the other was performing surgery on her hip. After a very long and good talk with the surgeon, where she also showed me by using a skeleton what she was going to do during surgery, I decided to go for surgery. This was Mika's only chance, as well as for the unborn foal she was carrying, to have a good life in which she could run and play again without pain. She would stay lame because of the difference of length between her hind legs, but without pain this was no problem.

She had her surgery right after that day, it was a long operation, which I was able to see on a balcony right above the operating table. On one hand it was very hard to see her laying there with all the machines and the people that were cutting in her, on the other hand this was a great experience. During this operation the surgeon removed the head of the hip bone so that this would not bump on her hip bowl every step she would take, her body would create a new bowl out of scarf tissue and other things that are created by the body, and this way there wouldn't be a problem anymore which could cause her a lot of pain. Surgery went very well, and though she needed special pain medication by back puncture the first days after surgery, she was already walking the hall second day after surgery. The back punctures weren't nice to see, but they helped a lot and this sounds strange, but they made me laugh because of the reaction of her unborn. Every day, 20 minutes after Mika had her back puncture I saw the little one kicking around in her belly. I even made jokes about it with the doctors, though they couldn't imagine the foal was reacting on the medication. In my mind I called the little one "Rock 'n Roll Junky" because of this. Mika was also treated with regumate, a medicine to prevent abortion because this would be too risky in this stage right after surgery, it could have caused serious complications on her hip to have an early birth. Mika recovered very well, though she seemed to be homesick because she didn't eat when I wasn't around, so I went to see her every day, some days I was just petting her and talking to her, other days I was only sitting in her stall reading a book. And all the time I was with her she ate a bit, so this way she didn't need to get her food through a tube straight into her flatulence.

After being in the clinic for almost a month she returned home, I found a physical therapist that could go on with therapy at my place, so Mika could come home. I never ever saw a horse that was so happy as she was at the moment she got home, she was glowing out of pure happiness though she was very tired from the trip home.

We continued therapy and she got a little better every day, step by step she got stronger. At the point she was almost due we even already let her walk over little beams to teach her how to pick up her leg, and it all seemed very promising for her future. She got less painkillers, walking, trotting and even canter went pretty well, so she was on the right way for recovery.

At the 16th of May 2005 Mika gave birth to a very beautiful sorrel pintaloosa colt, which I named WMM Ain't I Lucky. He got his name because of the luck that he was born with everything his mother went through during her pregnancy.

Unfortunately Mika made a bad fall the night after she delivered her baby.... At that time she still needed help to get up again when she lied down, and her young foal was lying next to her, so I had to pick him up and bring him to another corner of the stall, because I didn't want to take the risk she wouldn't get up at once and hurt her baby. The moment I picked him up Mika was in panic because she thought I took her baby away from her, and she tried to stand up by herself, this almost worked, but at the point she was almost on her feet she fell on her operated leg.... This was really horrible to see, and I still remember this moment very clearly....

From that moment on she was in pain, standing in her stall with her leg held high, she wasn't able to walk unless she was doing it on 3 legs instead of 4.. This was really hard to see.... The vet and the physical therapist checked on her several times, they tried to bent and stretch the leg, and Mika didn't give a sound.... So we thought she had injured her leg pretty bad, but there was no sign of any broken bones. Normally this would take 6 weeks to recover when it was only contused, so we gave her extra painkillers and waited if she was going to recover from this.

After a bit more then a week she went to the pasture again, still didn't use her injured leg, but she seemed pretty happy with her foal and she enjoyed every day. And after a longer while she started to use her leg also again, so we thought there was hope she would get to the level of recovery from before the fall..... But she never got that well again, tough she was doing well her walking never got that good again, but she had a very good summer. You could see she was enjoying every minute of it, she even started to play with the other horses again, and she was real well adjusted to her handicap. She was running on 3 legs, and she was just as fast as the other ones, this was great to see, she had so much spirit, and she loved live so much, this was great....

Till 2 weeks ago, I noticed there was something wrong when I saw her standing, but because there were more bad days I didn't make a big point of it. But she kept on struggling, she only used 3 legs again instead of 4, the normal walk was too hard for her so she cantered a lot instead of the normal walking, because this was easier on 3 legs.... And this was the moment I started thinking this could be the end.. I started to give more painkillers in the hope we could pull her trough this period, but it got worse, and she was in real pain. Even her physical therapy was painful while she always enjoyed it very much, because it was relaxing her a lot and it took away a lot of tension on her muscles. And when I even say her laying down in the pasture, in the middle of the day, on the cold and wet ground this was the sign that it has been enough for her. She was such a great horse, and I loved her so much that I didn't want to wait till the moment she really couldn't do anything anymore, she deserved so much more then that....

So the next morning I called the vet and talked to him about it, and he agreed to put her down.... This was the hardest decision I ever had to make, but I knew I had to do this for her, because it was enough..... That same afternoon Mika was put down, in the pasture, in the middle of the herd, with her best friend Cowgirl on her side. This was so wonderful to see, they were standing there together, head to head, their bellies touching eachother, and Cowgirl refused to go away. At the moment the narcosis was starting to work and we had to lay her down, Cowgirl turned and went right behind the vet. He was sitting on his knees and Cowgirl was standing behind him with her head on his shoulder, this is such a precious memory for me, because it was so special to see how she was watching what he was doing.... When Mika got the final injection everything went very fast and she passed away very quiet and peaceful. We left her in the pasture for a few hours to give the other horses time to say goodbye, and after that we brought her into the truck so that I could bring her to the university again. In January I made this trip every day for her, and now we were going to make the same trip together, for the last time.... Just the two of us, and I brought her to the doctors that operated her, to let them have a look at her again in hope we could find any answers and maybe even could help other horses in the future with the knowledge what went wrong in Mika's recovery.

Mrs. Rijkenhuizen performed the autopsie herself, and it showed the hip had recovered very well, there was a new bowl, and this was working just as it was supposed to do. But the autopsy also showed that Mika had broken her upperleg with the fall she made in May, and this was injured again, so this is why she was in pain again, and not able to use her leg.... We think she must have re-injured it again during playing or something like that, we will never find out what exactly happened......

Probably I will never know another horse like her again, a horse with so much strength, a horse so brave and with so much character. She was really special, and I have so much respect for this little girl because she was so hard on herself and she enjoyed life so much...

Her last summer was great, she has had so many wonderful moments together with her little Lucky, who she really adored, but there was too much pain at the end, it was enough for her.... Mika was my first miniature, because of her I got infected with the "miniature horse virus", we had so many great times together, I'll never forget her....

The reason I'm telling my story is because I hope it can be a help for other people who's horse gets this injury, don't give up on your horse too easily, Mika would have had a wonderful life when she hadn't make that fall, a life in which even was space for a foal in the future..... Too bad this just wasn't there for her....

This way I would also like to thank all the people that stood by me, and supported me trough all of this, it was a hard time, but I did it with all the love I felt for this little girl, hoping she would get much older then the 6 years she was...

My dearest Mika, I will miss you.......

Sonja