Support Jet's Urgent Medical Needs and Owner's Recovery

First off, let me say - most importantly - Jet is mostly okay after this incident and so is Waffles. Here's what has happened:

Jet has had mystery pain since early July. I had him seen by a vet in July when this all started, but the best they came up with was, "Maybe a bad trim on his hooves? Put shoes on his front feet for a couple of trim cycles, and see if that helps." So I did that for Jet, and there was virtually no change to his pain levels.

The pain has been going on so long that sadly, Jet seems to have also developed ulcers. Jet went from a sweet, cuddly, puppy-dog type of horse to a horse that was reactive, couldn't stand comfortably, eating much slower and sometimes not even finishing his meals (and he usually INHALES his feed - he loves it), and even occasionally lashing out to touch as if even a soft grooming brush over his stomach is too painful.

To properly diagnose ulcers, the vet says that Jet must stay overnight with them so they can monitor him as they have him fasting before they scope for the ulcers.

So of course I want to help Jet as quickly and thoroughly as I can - it breaks my heart to see my sweet boy in so much pain, and I made another appointment at the vet hospital for Wednesday, September 17th, got a friend to agree to bring her trailer and another couple of friends also agreed to come over and help us.

However, Jet was so scared and in so much pain and just fighting us getting him into the trailer so hard that at one point he actually reared up and smacked his eye on the trailer roof, and has a big scrape on his face above one eye now.

Clearly this method wasn't working, so we gave Jet dorm gel (horse sedative) and waited 45 minutes for it to kick in.

Unfortunately Jet got worse/more scared when we tried again once he was sedated. It was like he was in full on “fight” AND “flight” mode

Long story short, I got hurt. It was pretty bad and sent me to the ER for many hours. My injuries were not life threatening injuries but I was in a LOT of pain and having trouble breathing...and of course I was so so worried about Jet through all of this.

What happened was that Jet panicked and smashed my chest/torso against the metal trailer. It really hurt to breathe right away. Then Jet reared up and kicked his full 1,250 pounds directly into my lower tibia (shin) and then scraped his way down to land directly on my right foot. Then Jet spun while still standing on my foot.

I finally managed to push Jet off my foot and then I ran maybe three steps and collapsed. My memories get fuzzy here...

My shin was hugely swollen and bruised within minutes. The top of my foot was bruised and swollen and both my shin and my foot are still getting bigger and more colorful two days post-injury. Luckily I had my steel toed boots on, though some of my skin was still taken off my shin and foot because Jet's foot landed half on the steel toe and half on the top of the arch of my foot.

Luckily my friends were there. And thank God for that, because my friends got my boot off before the swelling was too bad, and then my incredible friends acted so quickly as my body was going into shock. Two of them checked on Jet, got him settled in the round pen and unbridled him, and then they did the same for Waffles (my mini donkey) while the third friend brought the car around and picked me up and put me in the car. I remember very little of this part…just pushing Jet off my foot, running a step or two and collapsing. The rest is a blur. I don’t think I hit my head but I do still have a slight headache two days later.

By the time I got to the hospital, it was really hurting to breathe, but I was moving air and at 92% oxygen.

Jet has a big scrape over his eye that removed all the hair and skin from when he reared up and hit his head on the roof of the trailer. He also has much more pronounced pain in his hips/spine/wherever the mystery pain is. Thankfully, Waffles is fine, although likely stressed by seeing all of this.

To my initial relief and surprise, the ER x-rays showed no fractures in my leg or foot that could clearly be seen, though they did say that there was a lot of swelling that could be hiding an occult fracture(s). My ribs are not broken, just a lot of bruising and the intercostal muscles were damaged (hence the pain breathing and lowered oxygen saturation).

I was put in an air cast and told at least a week in boot but 2-3 would be better, depending on follow up x-rays scheduled for the next day.

Well, that initial relief and surprise I had felt at the ER hearing no fractures seen was short lived...I had that follow up appointment yesterday morning and got repeat x-rays, as there was still a high index of suspicion about my leg and foot due to the mechanism of injury.

Sadly, the new x-rays show my shin had a literal 4mm "dent" in it. Basically, Jet hit my bone so hard, that 4mm of bone were just pulverized. So this injury is considered a broken bone because the bone will have to make new osteocytes to heal it just like a fracture, and it needs to be non weight bearing for weeks because the bone is unstable and severely weakened, and at risk of snapping completely if I try to weight-bare too soon. So crutches have been added to my ensemble, which is quite impractical when it comes to caring for horses and donkeys, but my insurance will not cover a knee scooter. The ortho doctor said the air cast i was given at the ER is a great one, and to start inflating the air pockets as soon as i can tolerate the pain.

Thankfully, there are confirmed to be no more fractures in my foot - the doctor said that the steel toed boots took the brunt of the impact and that I got very lucky. My ribs were also confirmed to have no fractures either, so both my foot and ribs are confirmed to be "just" soft tissue injuries, and the only broken bone is my tibia.

So from here, I am going to have to just buy the meds for both foregut and hindgut ulcers since we can’t get Jet safely to the vet to be scoped. I cannot put Jet through this again. This plan will double the cost of treating the ulcers but Jet clearly has trailering trauma and I just cant do this to him again until we have had the time and a trainer to help us work through this…and he needs his pain and ulcers treated before that will work to help him will be able to happen. Quite the catch-22, and the only solution that I and the vets have come up with is to treat for both fore-and-hindgut ulcers, in addition to his pain, until the vet can come to the ranch. Unfortunately, the vets only come to our tiny town the first Tuesday of every month, but I was fortunate to be able to get on the schedule for October (they are usually booked out 2-3 months for on-site visits, but they squeezed me in because of all that has happened).

Jet and I are both moving pretty slowly and painfully the last couple of days. His hip/spine/rear leg mystery pain is definitely worse - all of the original symptoms are worsening, and he is also head bobbing even just at a walk right now

BUT Jet doesn’t seem emotionally traumatized. I’m hopeful the dorm gel made it all kind of a haze for him, and I'm thankful that he doesn't seem further traumatized emotionally by all of this.

I’ve put Jet back on the full dose of bute (basically horse advil). I didn’t give it to him on the day this all happened because the vet wanted to see him unmedicated for diagnostics upon arrival to the vet hospital, which I'm sure made this all so much worse for poor Jet.

I do want to emphasize that more than anything, I am feeling grateful. This could have been SO MUCH worse.

I'm thankful that Jet comes back down from a heightened state much quicker that you’d expect a baby 5 year old OTTB to be able to. He is definitely learning the art of self regulation well.

I'm thankful that Jet seems to have only lost a chunk of skin over his eye and is feeling worse in his painful areas, but did not break a leg or even his neck.

I'm thankful to be alive - Jet could have easily killed me in this situation. He also could have easily broken his leg. At one point my friend said that Jet reared up so aggressively that he almost “mounted” the trailer - front legs reached the roof and he kicked it. i checked his legs the next morning when I fed him breakfast and there is no heat, swelling, elevated pulses or tenderness. Thankful thankful thankful.

Because Jet needs treatment NOW (meaning we can't wait for a trainer to train me how to support him and to train Jet how to safely trailer), we are having the vet come to the ranch on October 7th. They can do the pain diagnostics (radiographs, ultrasound, etc.) to hopefully find where he is injured, but they cannot scope for ulcers outside of the vet hospital. The vet recommends treating for fore and hindgut ulcers immediately since we cannot safely get Jet to the vet hospital for the scope.

Please kindly send us prayers and positive vibes and healing energy and whatever you believe may help we’re definitely still both going to be in quite a bit of pain for a bit.

If you are able to help at all, I will be forever grateful. The things that I am facing right now are:

• my hospital bills (ER copay and co-insurance, plus I’ve been told that somehow the ER doctor AND radiologist are "out of network", even though the hospital itself is IN network - how does that even happen?? No idea what this will total yet, as the bill is still being processed, but the last time this happened I ended up owing roughly $4,300. I will update the actual number once the finalized bill has processed)

• Jet's pain medications (at least a month of pain meds; 57 grams per day based on his weight, vet thinks 3 months of the meds but this may change based on what they find. 3 months of this medicine at this dose is $279.10)

• More dorm gel for Jet (vet recommends starting his trailer training once we are past all of this and to use dorm for the first 5 sessions to help him stay relaxed and under threshold, then re-evaluate if he needs more sessions while sedated. One dose is one tube, cost per tube is $34.29, so at minimum he will need 5 tubes of it which is $171.45)

• Jet's diagnostics (current vet recommendations include x-rays, ultrasound, bloodwork, urinalysis, fecal test. Cost estimate is currently $1,750, but could go up depending on what they find/if their findings require more in-depth diagnostics)

• Jet's treatments (depends on what the diagnostics find as his definitive source of pain, no idea how to estimate this since we don’t have the diagnosis yet but this will likely also run into the thousands)

• Jet's ulcer meds (depending on how many/how severe the ulcers are, he will need for foregut ulcers one dose every day for 6 weeks, and the vet quoted the meds to me as $46.69 per day (which brings the total cost of treatment to $2,101.05 for 6 weeks). For the hindgut ulcers, he will need 12.47g three times a day, so 37.41 grams daily for 28 days, which is 1,047.48 grams for total treatment. One bottle has 42 grams of sucralfate, which means i will need 25 bottles. Each bottle costs $98.79, so total treatment will be $2,469.75. Total ulcer treatments cost: $4,570.80)

I had already saved up the money to be able to get Waffles his first ever dental float, vaccinations, baseline bloodwork, fecal count, and more allergy meds (last owners did virtually nothing for him – no float, no hoof trims, no vaccines…literally NONE of this), which is expected to be roughly $975. Jet's injury/mystery pain was already stretching me a bit thin earlier this summer, and the vets not finding answers back in July have now compounded the problem because there is potentially more damage to whatever is injured AND he now has ulcers.

I'm so overwhelmed and scared and worried about Jet. Anything donated will help Jet, and all donations will be going DIRECTLY to Jet's costs listed above, and then if anything is left I will put that towards my own hospital bills from this incident. I am more than happy to provide payment receipts to anyone who chooses to donate.