You may recall that last summer our young Quarter Horse named Copper Kid, a wobbler with a neurological condition called cervical vertebral instability, went down in the pasture late one Friday afternoon. We managed to get him up on his feet and into the horse trailer, and rushed him to Blue Mountain Veterinary Hospital in Missoula. Dr. Erin Taylor was waiting for us when I finally pulled up to the clinic at 6:30 p.m. Erin took great care of Copper over the next few days and has been our equine vet ever since.
After consulting with other specialists in equine neurology, Erin referred us to Washington State University’s veterinary teaching hospital for a myelogram and then surgery on his spine. As it turned out, the myelogram did not reveal the lesions on his spine — this happens in a small percentage of these cases — and thus the equine neurosurgeon was not able to operate. After three weeks at WSU (the myelogram temporarily made his condition even worse, which we expected) we brought him back to the ranch.
After reviewing the images of Copper’s vertebrae, the equine neurosurgeon had concluded that Copper would not get better without surgery, and that was certainly our view, too. Yet we had no choice but to simply put him on stall rest, administer plenty of steroids to reduce spinal inflammation, and see if time would help.
Did it ever!
Copper has confounded us and the experts, too. His recovery has been dramatic. This morning we shot some video of Copper when we turned him out to pasture, and you’ll see what we mean. The only thing we are doing differently for him now is keeping him in a paddock by himself, since we think he injured himself last year by goofing around with the other sighted horses. He hasn’t had steroids in many months, and only gets a vitamin E supplement with his grain.
Before you watch the video from this morning, take a look at this clip from when he left the hospital last August:
Now, here’s how he is today:
What a difference, huh?
Rolling Dog Farm Blog 
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