After returning from US Nationals on Oct. 30 from a big win for TA Mozart we tucked all the show horses in and said goodnight. The next day Mozart was led to a turnout and 15 minutes later our worker was yelling and pointing so fast in Spanish I could not understand what was being said until I looked down at Mozart’s leg. His high white stocking was covered with blood and within a very few seconds he was standing in a pool of blood. Our Ferrier, Paul Firmino was there and wrapped the foot tightly and said, “John get him to the vet hospital fast, it’s bad.”
When we arrived at Weems and Stephens Vet Hospital they were there waiting on us and they told me they would not be able to determine the damage until they could get the bleeding stopped since he had cut a main artery.
The next day the attending vet called me and said it was worse than what he thought. 30% of Mozart’s foot had been cut off from above the Coronary band down exposing the coffin bone and sensitive cart ledge. He began preparing us for the worse. Mozart would have to be put in a cast for minimum of 6 weeks to support the foot and keep the main structure from shifting and he would be restricted to a stall to prevent as little movement as possible. The next fear was infection setting in and all the problems that come with that.
We told the Vet we had a very big and important show in February and did he see any hopes of us making it there. The vet said it would be best for us not to count on that because he did not see anyway possible unless there was a miracle since the hoof takes 6 mths to a year to grow and there would be nothing to support that part of the foot.
We are big believers and users of Arenus Steadfast so I contacted Dr. Jay Altman of Arenus and explained what we were dealing with and Dr. Altman assured me he had the perfect program to reduce healing time for Mozart. Dr. Altman had us start Mozart on Assure Guard, Assure Plus and keep him on double dose of Steadfast which we had already been feeding Mozart for over a year now.
6 weeks passed and on December 6th it was time to remove the cast knowing that if things did not look good we would have to put a new cast on. I had also informed our tending Vet that we had been giving Mozart additional supplements to help reduce the healing time and he was pleasantly surprised after removing the cast. He said to keep doing what you are doing and keep it washed and wrapped with sugar dine everyday for the next 3 weeks and Mozart was still on stall rest and to have as little movement as possible.
Finally on January 16th the Vet released Mozart to go back to work. On February 8th Mozart left for Scottsdale where he competed and Won for the 2nd Year in a roll the Scottsdale Arabian Reining Futurity Classic winning $16,000.
After Mozart won I thought to myself, “This is a miracle in more ways than one.” It’s a miracle he is alive, it’s a miracle infection never set in, it’s a miracle Mozart never took a lame step after removing the cast. If it were not for the Arenus Products that Dr. Altman put Mozart on to speed his healing time up I truly believe we would have missed out on a repeat championship.
We are very thankful for the results we received of these products.
John O’Hara & Kimberly Tillman
johnoharaperformancehorses.com 